Welcome to Cuban Studies

College Students-Turned-Guerrillas

These two young University of Havana students were most likely quemados, “burnt out” survivors of multiple confrontations with Batista’s police and security services, whose escape from Havana’s daily dangers in the late 1950s leaders of the revolutionary opposition authorized in order to save their lives and to reward them for their brave service.

Original “Latin Lover” Meets Fidel

A three-decade veteran diplomat of the Dominican Republic’s dictator Rafael Trujillo, Porfirio Rubirosa was famous for his lavish lifestyle and five marriages. His wives included Trujillo’s daughter Flor de Oro (“Flower of Gold”), two actresses, and two American heiresses who also happened to be the richest women in the world at the time, Doris Duke […]

Cuba’s Labor Movement Loses Autonomy

In building an authoritarian state, control over a country’s labor movement is as important, if not more so, as control over the press and the willingness of citizens to criticize. This was especially true in Cuba after 1959 when the Confederación de Trabajadores de Cuba [CTC] committed to a “no-strike” policy in order to help […]

Welcome to Cuban Studies at the University of Florida! Together, the History Department, Smathers Library and the Center for Latin American Studies at UF are committed to uncovering and sharing knowledge of Cuba with the world. Visit this site to learn about and experience Cuba through visual galleries of unique historical photographs and photo essays, filmed oral interviews, and links to specially selected treasures from UF’s vast library collections and private archives on Cuba.
— Professor Lillian Guerra and Miguel Torres Yunda

Ex-Libris

Dr. Lillian Guerra reads from Dr. Frances Peace Sullivan, associate Professor of History at Berklee College of Music, latest book- Cuba’s Cosmopolitan Enclaves: Imperialism and Internationalism in Eastern Sugar Towns.

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Conversatorio Cubano

Dr. Frances Peace Sullivan, Associate Professor of History at Berklee College of Music, discusses the construction of international solidarity in a diverse company-built landscape populated by Afro-Caribbean migrant workers in her recently published book, Cuba’s Cosmopolitan Enclaves: Imperialism and Internationalism in Eastern Sugar Towns.

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Gems of the Archive

These two young University of Havana students were most likely quemados, “burnt out” survivors of multiple confrontations with Batista’s police and security services, whose escape from Havana’s daily dangers in the late 1950s leaders of the revolutionary opposition authorized in order to save their lives and to reward them for their brave service.

Read more "College Students-Turned-Guerrillas"
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