Al morir en 1989 en La Habana, a la edad de 87 años, Nicolás Guillén ya era considerado como el poeta nacional.1 A este hombre se le conocía como el “poeta del son”, que es el tradicional ritmo y baile de Cuba.
The suitability of the word, “rapprochement,” remains to be seen. U.S. foreign policy towards Cuba took a major swing in December with the proposed resumption of diplomatic relations for the first time in 54 years. In January, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Roberta Jacobson, became the highest-ranking U.S. government official to visit the island in 35 years. But despite this improvement and those forthcoming, the events of the past month mean seemingly little—the embargo remains in place, as does one-party rule in Cuba.
Carmelo Mesa-Lago, Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Economics and Latin American Studies, former director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Latin American Studies and author of over 90 books on economic and social policy in Latin America, approached his new book on Cuba’s non-state economic sector differently than he has done for past books.
“Neither mockery nor tears but understanding” Benedict de Spinoza
Introduction: Lost and Found in Translation
If you walk down the Calle 1 in Havana, Cuba, you will come across a wrought-iron gate fixed with the Star of David in the center. Beyond the gates is a geometric 1950s-era building whose front doors are marked with gold menorahs. Since 1953, the Synagogue Bet Shalom (also known as El Patronato) has been a reminder of the Jewish population throughout Cuba.
The small Cuban city of Viñales is a colorful town situated at the foot of the Cordillera de Guaniguanico, a sharply pitched, palm-and-vine-draped mountain range with awe-inspiring internal caves and strikingly stark facades. The rolling fields that surround Viñales are saturated with color: the rich red-brown soil is almost as vivid as the bright green tobacco leaves growing out of it. The tobacco fincas, or plantations, extend around Viñales and into the mountains where coffee is grown as well.
When most North Americans hear the word “Cuba” they most likely think of communism, Fidel Castro, and baseball. These three things have truly become intertwined subjects that define Cuban baseball today.
The partnership between revolutionary Cuba and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) offered a route for migration that had not been possible before. While academic exchange was aimed to construct a socialist society in Cuba and serving the economic and political interests of both states, the creation of a transnational academic elite and of intellectual collectives across borders occurred as a by-product of the exchange.
On August 15, 2015, Secretary of State John Kerry, was the first US secretary of state to visit Cuba in 70 years. His visit marks the historic end of sour relations between the US and Cuba and the re-opening of the US embassy in Havana. As he addressed the crowd, in both English and Spanish, he talked about the possibility of lifting the 54-year-old trade embargo, as well as the restoration of a true democratic system on the island.
The year is 1959. Imagine you are an American tourist. During your stay, you withdraw money from an American-owned bank, use American-owned electricity, smoke American-grown tobacco, use American-owned phone lines, buy beachwear at an American-owned store, and sleep at an American-owned hotel. Where would you guess you are vacationing?
If your guess is somewhere in the United States––Florida, perhaps––you’re within 200 miles of being correct.
