CFI

Identity, Autonomy, and Assimilation:
Cuba, the United States, and the Future
March 16, 17, 18, 2003

The CFI Winter 2003 symposium, "Identity, Autonomy, and Assimilation: Cuba, the United States and the Future," explores the forces dividing and uniting Cuba and the United States, past, present and future. Cuba and the United States have a long, intimate, and tangled history. The relationship has been unequal, though not entirely one-sided; the United States long dominated the political and economic life of Cuba, but Cuban culture also had a marked impact on its powerful neighbor. For over forty years, Cuba and the United States have been separated by Cold War tensions and official antipathy between Havana and Washington. Despite this, a flow of people, art, and ideas have kept these two nations closely connected. Instead of addressing the broad topic of Cuban-United States relations from the usual diplomatic and economic perspective, this symposium will concentrate on the human ties between these nations, focusing on the interplay of art and culture.

Participants:

Ambrosio Fornet: Columnist, literary critic, and screenwriter. Currently, he presides over the Editorial Council of the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists. His anthology credits include: Antologia del cuento cubano contemporaneo (1967), Cuentos de la Revolucion cubana (1971), and Alea: una retrospectiva critica (1987). His most recent books include: El Libro en Cuba (1994) and Las mascaras del tiempo (1995).

Ana Menendez: Writer. She is the author of a collection of linked tales: In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd (2002), the title story of which was awarded the Pushcart Prize. Menendez is a recent graduate of the creative writing program at NYU where she was "New York Times Fellow." Before entering the graduate program, she spent 6 years as a journalist first at The Miami Herald in Florida and then at The Orange County Register in California. Born in the US, Menendez grew up in an expatriate family that expected to return to Cuba at any moment and spoke Spanish exclusively until she went to school.

Louis A. Perez Jr.: J. Carlyle Sitterson Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His books include: On Becoming Cuban: Identity, Nationality, and Culture (1999), Winds of Change: Hurricanes and the Transformation of Nineteenth-Century Cuba (2001), Cuban: Between Reform and Revolution (1995), Cuba: An Annotated Bibliography (1988), the introductory essay to Cuba: Picturing Change (2002), and many more.

Gustavo F. Perez-Firmat: David Feinson Professor in the Humanities, Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Columbia University in New York City. His books include: Life on the Hyphen: The Cuban-American Way (1994), Next Year in Cuba: A Cubano's Coming-of-Age in America (2000), Anything but Love (2000), Bilingual Blues (1997), El Ano Que Viene Estamos En Cuba (1997), and many more.

Schedule of Events:

Sunday March 16
4:00 p.m. Louis A. Perez Jr. - Horner 102
The Cultural Context of the Cuban Revolution
7:30 p.m. Ambrosio Fornet - Horner 102
Exploring the Terrain of Cuban Diaspora
9:00 p.m. Refreshments

Monday March 17
9:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m. Informal Gatherings, Classroom visits, etc.
1:30 - 3:00 p.m. Roundtable Discussion - Faculty Dining Room
4:00 p.m. Ana Menendez - Horner 102
In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd
7:30 p.m. Gustavo Perez Firmat - Horner 102
I'm Cuban--What's Your Excuse?
9:00 p.m. Refreshments

Tuesday March 18
10:00 a.m. Roundtable Discussion - Faculty Dining Room

Symposium ends.

There is no charge for this event. Meals can be purchased through the campus dining services and paid for at the time. All lectures and round table discussions are open to the public.