HAVANA: New Historical Perspectives

November 17, 2006 - 7:00 PM

Rafael Hernández 
Editor, Temas

Dick Cluster
University of Massachusetts at Boston

MODERATOR:
Mauricio A. Font
Professor of Sociology, The Graduate Center and Queens College

In this Cuba seminar the authors will discuss their new book, The History of Havana. Beginning with the founding of Havana in 1519, Cluster and Hernández explore the making of the city and its people through revolutions, art, economic development and the interplay of diverse societies. The authors bring together conflicting images of a city that melds cultures and influences to create an identity that is distinctly Cuban

Rafael Hernández is the editor of Temas, a Cuban quarterly in the field of history, culture, economics, and politics. Graduated from the University of Havana with a degree in French literature, and from the Colegio de Mexico in political science, since the 1970s he has researched and written about Cuban culture, society, history, and politics, Cuba-U.S. relations, and images of Cuba in the U.S. He has been visiting professor and researcher at Columbia, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, the Woodrow Wilson Center, Tulane, and the University of Puerto Rico, and lectured at numerous other schools and academic conferences. His publications include three books of poetry and ten books of essays (his own and edited collections) published in Cuba, Mexico and the US. His essay collection Looking at Cuba won the Cuban Critics Award in 2000, and was published by the University Press of Florida in 2003.

Dick Cluster is the author of the novels Return to Sender, Repulse Monkey, and Obligations of the Bone. He is a translator of Cuban literature and teaches courses on Cuban history, culture, and politics at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, as well as interdisciplinary courses in other fields. Previous nonfiction books include They Should Have That Cup of Coffee, about U.S. radical movements of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and Shrinking Dollars, Vanishing Jobs, about the U.S. economy