Conversatorio Cubano offers a unique depository of interviews and oral histories conducted with Cuba scholars as well as intellectuals, political activists, government officials, historians or simply average citizens in the last six decades of Communist Party rule in Cuba. Launched by Dr. Carmelo Mesa-Lago, one of the world’s leading economists and a key founder of Cuban studies as a field, this collection of interviews will help viewers to understand everyday life in Cuba, personal identities, choices, expressions of power and the constant stream of refugees that continues to define Cuba’s past, present and future.
- Conversation Cubano with Dr. Michael Bustamante, Dr. Jennifer Lambe, & Dr. Daniel Fernández Guevara
Watch the videoIn this special edition of Conversatorio Cubano, Dr. Lillian Guerra interviews the Series Editorial board of the Journal of Cuban Studies
- Conversatorio Cubano with Jeffrey DeLaurentis
In this Conversatorio Cubano, Dr. Lillian Guerra interviews Jeffrey DeLaurentis, the U.S. Ambassador to Cuba from 2015 to 2017, about the diplomatic shift and warming of relations between the United States and Cuba at the tail-end of the Obama administration.
- Conversatorio Cubano with Tania Bruguera: ¿El arte no tumba gobierno? [Art doesn’t topple government?]
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In this Conversatorio Cubano, Dr. Lillian Guerra interviews Cuban artist and Senior Lecturer of Art, Film & Visual Studies at Harvard University, Tania Bruguera, to discuss Bruguera’s career through art, activism, political commentary, and depictions of Cuban history.
- Conversatorio Cubano with Elena Sheppard
Watch the videoIn this Conversatorio Cubano, Dr. Lillian Guerra interviews author Elena Sheppard, discussing Sheppard’s new memoir, The Eternal Forest: A Memoir of the Cuban Diaspora.
- Conversatorio Cubano with Aracelis González Asendorf
Watch the videoIn this Conversatorio Cubano, Dr. Lillian Guerra interviews Aracelis González Asendorf, discussing Asendorf’s latest book and 2024 Florida Book Award Gold Medal Winner, Dressing the Saints, exploring Cuban identity and culture.
- Conversatorio Cubano with Adriana Bosch
Watch the videoIn this Conversatorio Cubano, Dr. Lillian Guerra interviews award-winning documentary filmmaker Adriana Bosch, discussing her extensive career and films such as Fidel (2005) and American Comandante (2017), from PBS’s American Experience Series, and Letters from Eloísa (2021), ...
- Conversatorio Cubano with Dr. Renata Keller
Watch the videoIn this Conversatorio Cubano, Dr. Lillian Guerra interviews Dr. Renata Keller, associate professor of history at the University of Nevada, Reno, discussing the larger geographic impact of the Cuban Revolution and the Cuban Missile Crisis at the center of Dr. ...
- Conversatorio Cubano with Sebastián Arcos
Watch the videoSebastián Arcos, Interim Director of the Cuban Research Institute (CRI) at Florida International University (FIU), discusses the role of the CRI in the past, current, and future of Cuban and Cuban American Studies.
- Conversatorio Cubano with Dr. Raquel Otheguy
Dr. Raquel Otheguy, Associate Professor of History at Bronx Community College, CUNY, discusses the importance of education as a contested site of oppression and liberation in colonial Cuba in her new book, Black Freedom and Education in Nineteenth-Century Cuba.
- Conversatario Cubano with Dr. Frances Peace Sullivan
Watch the videoDr. 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 ...
- Conversatorio Interview with Dr. Michael Bustamante
Watch the videoProfessor Michael Bustamante, Bacardí Chair of Cuban Studies at the University of Miami, discusses a decade of changes in geopolitical relationships between Cuba and the United States with Dr. Lillian Guerra.
- Interview with William (Bill) Messina
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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- Interview with Dr. Anasa Hicks
Dr. Anasa Hicks, Timothy Gannon Associate Professor of Caribbean History at Florida State University, discusses her book Hierarchies at Home: Domestic Service in Cuba from Abolition to Revolution, exploring racial harmony and the experience of Afro-Cubans working in domestic service.
- Interview with Dr. Jennifer Lambe
Watch the videoDr. Jennifer Lambe, Associate Professor of History at Brown University, discusses her latest book, The Subject of Revolution: Between Political and Popular Culture in Cuba.
- Interview with Dr. Alejandro de la Fuente
Watch the videoDr. Alejandro de la Fuente, the Robert Woods Bliss Professor of Latin-American History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, discusses his time as the director and editor-in-chief of the Cuban Studies Journal and the state of ...
- Interview with Elizabeth Mirabal (Spanish)
Watch the videoProlific author Elizabeth Mirabal discusses her career and work in this first-ever Spanish edition of Conversatorio Cubano.
- Interview with Richard Denis, Ph.D. Candidate in History, FIU
Watch the videoIn this two-part interview, Atlantic historian Richard Denis, Ph.D. Candidate in History at Florida International University discusses the importance of journalism to Cuban history.
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- Dr. Jorge Duany Interview
Watch the videoDr. Jorge Duany, Director of the Cuban Research Institute and Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Global & Sociocultural Studies at Florida International University, discusses his latest co-edited book, Cuba and Puerto Rico : Transdisciplinary Approaches to History, Literature, and ...
- Interview with Dr. Roberto González Echevarría
Watch the videoSterling Professor of Hispanic & Comparative Literature at Yale University, Roberto González Echevarría, discusses his new memoir, life’s work as a literary critic, and deep ties to Cuba.
- Interview with Dr. Michael Bustamante
Watch the videoProfessor Michael Bustamante, Bacardí Chair of Cuban Studies at the University of Miami, discusses his pathbreaking book on the politics, violence, and culture wars that marked the emergence of Cuba’s exile and island identities, Cuban Memory Wars: Retrospective Politics in ...
- Interview with David E. Hoffman
Legendary editor of the Washington Post and Pulitzer Prize-winning author David E. Hoffman discusses his latest book, Give Me Liberty: The True Story of Oswaldo Payá and his Daring Quest for a Free Cuba, published in 2022.
- Interview with Dr. María de los Angeles Torres
Watch the videoLegendary political scientist Dr. María de los Angeles Torres discusses her most current work on Cuba’s long military intervention in the Angolan War (1976-1989) and reflects on her decades of experience and research in Cuba.
- Interview with Dr. Devyn Spence Benson
Watch the videoDr. Devyn Spence Benson, a historian of twentieth-century antiracist movements across the Americas and the Caribbean, focuses on the history of Black Cuba as well as the political polemics of her scholarship.
- Interview with Ashley Mayor
Watch the videoA graduate of the University of Florida (Class of 2014), Ashley Mayor is an associate curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
- Interview with Dr. Lisandro Pérez
Watch the videoA University of Florida graduate and pioneer of Cuban Studies, Dr. Lisandro Pérez founded the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University in 1991.
- Interview with Dr. Jorge Duany
Watch the videoIn his interview with the University of Florida’s Dr. Lillian Guerra, Dr. Jorge Duany, Director of Florida International University’s Cuban Research Institute, discusses the current Cuban refugee crisis.
- Interview with Dr. Carmelo Mesa-Lago
Watch the videoDr. Carmelo Mesa-Lago is one of the world’s leading economists and a key founder of Cuban studies as a field.
- Conversatorio Cubano with Tania Bruguera: ¿El arte no tumba gobierno? [Art doesn’t topple government?]