Scholars, advocates, and activists seeking to make the U.S. a more responsible global partner.
Cuba
Review: Cuba Since the Revolution of 1959

Review: Cuba Since the Revolution of 1959

by | Mar 2, 2012

Widely hailed as the most consequential revolution in 20th century Latin America, the Cuban revolution has permeated all aspects of Cuban life. Though countless analyses evaluate just how thoroughly the revolution has transformed Cuba over the past 50 years, few rival Samuel Farber’s work Cuba Since the Revolution of 1959: A Critical Assessment. Simultaneously informative and critical, Farber’s book offers a comprehensive, if self-admittedly biased, evaluation of the changes in Cuba’s society, economy, and government. Farber assesses the past and current Cuban political and economic systems while also proposing possible improvements.

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Cuba’s Culture of Dissent

Cuba’s Culture of Dissent

by | Oct 21, 2011

When the Cuban government released a number of dissidents earlier this year, human rights groups applauded the decision. But critics also took the occasion to paint Cuba once again as a society where a single word of criticism gets you shipped off to a dungeon, from which you will never return, reduced to being a statistic in an Amnesty International report. This belief may contain a kernel of truth. But in many ways it provides a cartoon version of Cuba, one that misses altogether the texture and reality of Cuban life, particularly its politics and its culture of dissent. And there is a culture of dissent.

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DC Film Premiere Will Depict Terrorism No One Speaks Of

by | Mar 11, 2011

A controversial film by award-winning filmmaker Saul Landau will premiere in Washington, DC on April 6 at the West End Cinema. Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up addresses a terrorism campaign against Cuba orchestrated from U.S. soil, with complicity from the U.S. government. A discussion with Landau will follow. His documentary juxtaposes the history of violence by CIA-trained Cuban exiles and five Cubans, serving long sentences in U.S. prisons, for attempting to thwart their efforts.

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Interview with Wendy Navarro

Interview with Wendy Navarro

by | Feb 21, 2011

Wendy Navarro is an independent art critic and curator currently based in Barcelona, Spain. Since the mid-1990s, Navarro has been an active curator at the Visual Art Development Center in Havana, Cuba, while working as an editor of the magazine ArteCubano, and lecturing about Cuban contemporary art at the Higher Institute of Art and Havana University. She talks here with Blair Murphy, of the Washington Project for the Arts, about art and its relationship  to U.S.-Cuban relations, globalization, and political utopias prior to her talk this week in Washington, DC.

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60-Second Expert: Guantanamo

by | Dec 3, 2010

As one of his first acts in office, President Obama issued an executive order committing to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay within one year. Almost two years later, unnamed administration officials are predicting that the prison will remain open “for the foreseeable future.” This means that men like Djamel Ameziane will remain trapped there for the foreseeable future as well.

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Trapped by Guantanamo

Trapped by Guantanamo

by | Nov 19, 2010

Remember way back when President Barack Obama promised to close Guantanamo, restore the United States’ moral standing and end the practice of torture? It wasn’t that long ago — January 2009. As one of his first acts as president, Obama signed the executive order committing to closing the prison within a year and ending the practice of torture.

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Postcard from…Havana

Postcard from…Havana

by | Nov 12, 2010

Just about everything you hear about Cuba in the U.S. media is a lie.
I learned that from the moment my TACA Airlines charter jet landed in
Havana last Sunday. It was filled with Cuban-Americans returning to
their homeland carrying clothing, DVDs, microwave ovens, electronic
games, and other consumer goods missing from the Cuban market. I’d
always read that the “Miami Cubans” hated the very thought of
socialist Cuba. So I was surprised and even a little shocked when the
entire plane burst out in loud applause when we touched down.

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Cuba: New Corporate Utopia?

Cuba: New Corporate Utopia?

by | Sep 29, 2010

On the list of America’s most-hated leaders, Fidel Castro gets the award for longevity.  Outlasting ten U.S. presidents, from Eisenhower through George W. Bush, Castro has managed to maintain his high ranking for over five decades. Though the 84-year-old ex-president of Cuba is unlikely to drop off the list during his lifetime, the persistent image of Cuba as communist dystopia may be on the verge of changing–that is, if the dreams of American big business come true. 

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