Between 2012 and 2016, the University of Florida’s Smathers Library, under the leadership of Dean Russell, specialists of Cuba in our doctoral program in History, and the Center for Latin American Studies created unprecedented academic and intellectual exchanges with the Biblioteca Nacional de Cuba under director Dr. Eduardo Torres Cuevas and the Fundación Antonio Núñez Jiménez, with the special support of its vice director Angel Graña. While the libraries’ exchanged materials and digitized thousands of items for public use (see Ex-Libris on this site for more information), perhaps the greatest benefits accrued to researchers in both countries. Cuban historians Oilda Hevia, Ricardo Guiza and Reinaldo Funes, seen here enjoying lunch with me on 15 October 2012 in Havana, all visited and presented their work at the University of Florida over the course of these exchanges.
