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UF-IFAS faculty meeting members of Cuban agricultural production cooperative

University of Florida/IFAS faculty attend a meeting of members of the Cuban citrus agricultural production cooperative “30 de Noviembre”, Artemisa Province (2002). Photograph by Fred Royce. Guest curators Fred Royce and William Messina.

New incentive-based management system in Cuban citrus

The new incentive-based management system used throughout Cuba’s Citricos Ceiba agricultural production cooperatives is based on a “finca” of around 15 hectares of citrus. The maintenance of the trees in each finca is overseen by a particular cooperative member, whose income is tied to the finca’s production. Photograph by Fred Royce. Guest curators Fred Royce […]

UF-IFAS faculty and students meet with citrus farm workers

University of Florida/IFAS faculty and UF students, along with the University of Havana researchers, are hosted at a Cuban citrus farm and meet with farm administrators and workers (2006). This was at the high point of production for Cuba’s citrus industry, when Cuba was the third largest grapefruit producer in the world, behind the United […]

The Revolution…in cars

Parked in front of Cuba’s historic (and still not entirely renovated) Presidential Palace, these cars reflect the grindingly slow pace of change that has characterized Cuba’s one-party state since Fidel Castro’s movement took power in 1959. Unable to import new models nor build any on its own, Cuba’s communist government finally refreshed its supply of […]

Symbol of Splendor and Squalor

Cuba’s Presidential Palace was built during the presidency of Mario García Menocal (1913-1921) and enabled by a massive surge in sugar prices caused by the collapse of beet sugar production in Europe and armies’ reliance on sugar for soldier rations during World War I. As the globe’s largest sugar producer, Cuba entered a near decade-long […]

Batista’s Office

Going to Cuba’s Presidential Palace since it re-opened after partial restoration and the curatorial revision of many of its exhibits offered the chance to view the office of Cuba’s former presidents. For Cuban history buffs, this was particularly exciting because the office was said to look “exactly as it did” the day General Fulgencio Batista’s […]

Ex-Libris

José (Pepin) Álvarez was born in Antilla, Cuba, and left his native Cuba in 1969. He obtained a Ph.D. in food and resource economics from the University of Florida and immediately went to work at the University of Florida/IFAS Everglades Research and Education Center in Belle Glade, Florida, where he finished a productive academic career in 2004, receiving the title of Emeritus Professor.

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Conversatorio Cubano

William (Bill) Messina, Research & Development Coordinator, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida, discusses his experience as an Agricultural Economist and co-founder of the Cuban Studies Program at the University of Florida.

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Gems of the Archive

University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Science (UF/IFAS) faculty and University of Havana collaborators visit a potato farm in Havana Province (1995). The gentleman in sunglasses in the center of the photo is UF/IFAS Professor Dr. Jose Alvarez, who envisioned the possibility of active, nonpolitical, collaboration between U.S. and Cuban scientists and who was instrumental in bringing the University of Florida/University of Havana collaboration on agricultural issues to fruition.

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