Welcome to a treasure box of digitized documents, objects and imagery from UF’s Cuban archives at Smathers Libraries’ Special Collections! Here we present archival materials that span different periods of Cuban history and are also unknown to most historians and the public alike. We hope to inspire their use in classrooms around the world and to further knowledge of the rich political culture of Cuba. Gems of the Archive will itself become an archive as new examples are uploaded monthly.
All items curated by Lillian Guerra with the assistance of Miguel Torres Yunda.
- UF-IFAS and University of Havana faculty in the field
Read moreUniversity 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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- UF-IFAS researcher Dr. Fred Royce conducting field research in Cuba
Read moreUF/IFAS Dr. Frederick Royce (right) when he was conducting graduate field research in Cuba in 1996. Also in the photo is Dr. Brian Pollitt (Univ of Glasgow, left) and cooperative vice-president Victor Franco (center) at sugarcane production cooperative (CPA) “Revolución de Etiopía,” Ciego de Avila Province, Cuba. Dr. Royce’s thesis “Cooperative agricultural operations management on a Cuban sugarcane farm: ‘…and everything gets done anyway’ ” was based on truly unique, extensive field research conducted on Cuban sugarcane cooperatives, and he has been a key and essential member of the University of Florida/IFAS-University of Havana collaborative research project on agriculture and natural resource issues. Photograph by Fred Royce. Guest curators Fred Royce and William Messina.
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- Cuba citrus juice processing plant
Read moreUniversity of Florida/IFAS and University of Havana faculty prepare to tour the Cuban citrus processing facility in Jagüey Grande, Matanzas Province, Cuba, along with facility staff and administrators (2000). Photograph by Fred Royce. Guest curators Fred Royce and William Messina.
- UF-IFAS faculty meeting members of Cuban agricultural production cooperative
Read moreUniversity 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.
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- Florida citrus industry representatives tour Cuban citrus grove
Read moreFlorida citrus industry representatives and UF/IFAS faculty members visit citrus groves of Citricos Ceiba farm near Caimito, Artemisa Province, Cuba, 2003. By the early 1990s, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the loss of Cuba’s preferential trade arrangements, the citrus groves of the Citricos Ceiba state farm had fallen into neglect. Agricultural inputs were largely unavailable, vines covered the trees, tall weeds surrounded them and citrus production was very low. In February of 1994, the “9 de Abril” UBPC cooperative was established, becoming one of 6 such cooperatives on what were formerly state-managed lands of the Citricos Ceiba state farm. With more control over the land, the budget, and especially the management of work, the cooperative instituted a new management system in their citrus groves. By early 2003, the cooperative had 496 members, up from the initial 150 in 1994. The productivity of the principal crop, grapefruit, increased from 13 mt/ha during the 1993-94 harvest to 39.6 mt/ha in 2003-04, which was close to Florida’s average grapefruit yield that season. Photograph by Fred Royce. Guest curators Fred Royce and William Messina.
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- New incentive-based management system in Cuban citrus
Read moreThe 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 and William Messina.
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- UF-IFAS faculty tour Cuban citrus grove
Read moreUF/IFAS Extension citrus scientist Dr. Steve Futch and UF/IFAS agricultural economist Dr. Tom Spreen (left) were part of a UF delegation that visited the Cuban citrus cooperatives 9 de Abril and 30 de Noviembre in April 2003. Notice the apparent health of these citrus trees before the arrival in Cuba of citrus Huanglongbing (HLB, or citrus greening) disease. An interesting finding from this visit was the comparatively low herbicide use in the Cuban groves: apparently, the presence of a cooperative member in each finca enabled the spot-removal of weeds rather than full-row spraying. Photograph by Fred Royce. Guest curators Fred Royce and William Messina.
- UF-IFAS faculty and students meet with citrus farm workers
Read moreUniversity 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 States and Israel. Since that time, Huanglongbing (HLB, or citrus greening) disease has all but wiped out the Cuban citrus industry. HLB also had a very destructive impact on the Florida citrus industry but researchers in Florida and Cuba, and throughout the world, have much to learn from each other on how to try to eliminate or at least control this devastating disease. The individual in the center of the phot in the white shirt is Dr. Jonathan Crane from the UF/IFAS Tropical Research and Education Center in Homestead, Florida. Photograph by Fred Royce. Guest curators Fred Royce and William Messina.
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- UF-IFAS faculty at vegetable farm in central Cuba
Read moreDistinguished Professor Daniel Cantliffe (left foreground, UF/IFAS Department of Horticultural Science) and other UF/IFAS and University of Havana faculty in the field with administrators and workers at a vegetable farm in central Cuba (2008). Photograph by Fred Royce. Guest curators Fred Royce and William Messina.
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- Joint UF-University of Havana ‘Our Shared Environment’ workshop in Havana
Read moreDr. Jorge Angulo, Director of the University of Havana’s Center for Marine Research (Centro de Investigaciones Marinas, CIM-UH) presents a seminar in Havana to University of Florida/IFAS faculty during the UF-UH joint workshop “Our Shared Natural Environment” (2012). Photograph by Fred Royce. Guest curators Fred Royce and William Messina.
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- Cuban research scientists tour citrus packing house in Florida
Read moreDirector of Cuba’s Plant Health Research Institute (Instituto de Investigaciones de Sanidad Vegetal, INISAV) Dr. Berta Lina Muiño, and fellow INISAV scientists tour the IMG citrus packing house in Vero Beach, Florida in 2015. The collaborative research project between INISAV and the UF/IFAS School of Forest Resources and Conservation (now the UF/IFAS School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences) was the first USDA-funded project supporting field research in Cuba, and Cuban field research in Florida in nearly 50 years. Photograph by Fred Royce. Guest curators Fred Royce and William Messina
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- Cuban research scientists at Seald Sweet International
Read moreUniversity of Florida/IFAS faculty and scientists from Cuba’s Plant Health Research Institute (Instituto de Investigaciones de Sanidad Vegetal, INISAV) meet with representatives from Seald Sweet International to discuss issues and challenges related to safe harvesting, transportation, and distribution of fresh fruits and vegetables (2015). Photograph by Fred Royce. Guest curators Fred Royce and William Messina.
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- Cuban sugarcane scientists talk with growers at sugarcane farm
Read moreDirector of Cuba’s National Sugar Cane Research Institute (Instituto de Investigaciones de la caña de azúcar, INICA) Dr. Ignacio Santana, and distinguished Cuban sugarcane breeder Dr. Guillermo Galvez (right) and UF/IFAS faculty meet with Florida sugarcane farmers on a sugarcane farm in Palm Beach County, Florida (2015). Photograph by Fred Royce. Guest curators Fred Royce and William Messina.
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- Florida agricultural industry delegation at Vivero Alamar outside of Havana
Read moreIsis Salcines, one of the leaders of the Organopónico Vivero Alamar, discusses their farming operation with representatives from Florida agricultural and natural resource industries and UF/IFAS faculty during the 2015 University of Florida/IFAS Wedgworth Leadership Alumni delegation trip to tour Cuban agriculture. Organopónico Vivero Alamar outside of Havana is one of Cuba’s largest and most successful urban agriculture sites. “Organopónicos” or urban (quasi-organic) farms were introduced in the early 1990s following the loss of critically important Soviet subsidies after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union. They have been important contributors to Cuba’s domestic food supplies. Photograph by Fred Royce. Guest curators Fred Royce and William Messina.
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- University of Havana faculty tour Publix dairy processing plant Lakeland, Florida
Read moreUniversity of Havana faculty collaborators and UF/IFAS agricultural economist Bill Messina visiting Publix dairy processing plant, Lakeland, Florida (2016). Photograph by Fred Royce. Guest curators Fred Royce and William Messina.
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- UF-IFAS faculty and Florida agricultural industry meet with members of Cuban farm cooperative
Read moreFlorida agricultural industry representatives, Florida Farm Bureau staff, and University of Florida/IFAS faculty meet with members of the Cuban farm cooperative 9 de Abril, Caimito, Artemisa Province, Cuba (2016). Photograph by Fred Royce. Guest curators Fred Royce and William Messina.
- UF-IFAS Professor Pedro Sanchez examines soil profile in Cuba
Read moreUF/IFAS Research Professor of Tropical Soils Dr. Pedro Sanchez examines a soil profile at a private farm, “Finca El Mulato,” near San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque Province, Cuba, 2016. Photograph by Fred Royce. Guest curators Fred Royce and William Messina.
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- Professors Haman and Palm at Organopónico outside Havana
Read moreUF/IFAS faculty members Dr. Dorota Haman and Dr. Cheryl Palm meet with the administrator of the urban farm “Organopónico 25 y 146”, Havana, Cuba (2016). Photograph by Fred Royce. Guest curators Fred Royce and William Messina.
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- Cuba Phytosanitary Institutions report
Read more“Cuba’s Phytosanitary Institutions” report prepared in 2018 by UF/IFAS faculty as part of a multi-year, joint research project with Cuba’s Plant Health Research Institute (Instituto de Investigaciones de Sanidad Vegetal, INISAV). This project was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the first funding provided by USDA for field research in Cuba in nearly 50 years. The report emphasized that “Because of its proximity and ecological similarities, the Cuba-Florida pathway is probably the most important pest pathway to the United States from the Caribbean. Our understanding of Cuban phytosanitary policy and regulatory institutions is critical to proactively managing biosecurity risks in the region.” Photograph by Fred Royce. Guest curators Fred Royce and William Messina.
- Cuca’s Cuban Christmas
Read moreIn December 1949, my great-grandmother “Cuca” threw a Christmas Eve party that featured one of the ultimate symbols of fashion and modernity at the time: a dazzling aluminum Christmas tree imported from the United States. Known as a generous and joyful host, Cuca (who rarely consented to any photographic documentation of her “aging process” after the age of 15), displayed that Christmas tree on an “advent altar”, flanked by a handmade image of the Holy Family in the manger on one side and of the Magi still en route to Bethlehem on the other.
- Chichi’s Christmas
Read moreLike the photograph that my maternal grandpa “Chichi” took of his three kids and his in-laws on Christmas Eve in December 1949, this image documents more than he probably intended about the social, economic, and cultural history of Cuba. At the center stands his ninety-plus-year-old mother, Teresa Rosado Rodríguez, known as “Mama Teresa,” holding the youngest member of the family, and his own mother, Carmen (in striped dress), the oldest of Mama Teresa’s 22 children.
- Cuba’s Slave-Driven Economy & Map as Propaganda
Read moreProbably made in the late 1840s, this detailed map of Cuba features evidence of its “modern picturesque” advancement through historically sanitized scenes of commercial sugar and tobacco production that was— despite appearances to the contrary—made possible by hundreds of thousands of enslaved African and Cuban-born slaves.
- 400-Year-Old Map of Matanzas Bay
Read morePrinted in Holland in 1628, this map shows a “birds-eye-view” of the port of the Bay of Matanzas made by cartographers who likely never visited either Cuba or the province of Matanzas themselves. Hence, they erroneously depicted the Bay of Matanzas (whose name commemorates the Spanish massacre of native people on the site) as a volcanic mountainous landscape.
- Ñica and My Family’s Story
Read moreWhen my dad fled Cuba for Spain in 1964, he left behind parents whom he never saw again: Agustín Guerra, an orphaned peasant who beat the odds to become a small tobacco farmer, and Aurora Almirall, a graduate of one of Cuba’s rigorous escuelas normalistas and a rural teacher who founded a one-room school in 1926.
- Ñica and the Reality of Race in Cuba
Read moreIn 1959, the most illiterate province in Cuba was not the most associated with foreign investors’ economic control or massive sugar plantations: it was Pinar del Rio, tobacco production’s legendary ground zero, where the belief that slavery and anti-Black racism has played little or no role in the region’s economic and social development continues to predominate. My own first reactions when I first visited its small rural towns and countryside reflected the resilience of such myths in my own family. Despite my father’s emotional and admiring stories about his family’s domestic servant, Ñica, he called her—every time she came up—not Ñica, but La Negra Ñica. As a very small child in my all-white world of Kansas, I once asked my mother if her first name was “Negra”. Her reaction—to silence me—was not unlike that of my Uncle Tiki, who recoiled in horror on my first visit to his house in the fall of 1996 and asked if she was still alive. No se dice eso aquí, nunca de Ñica o de nadie, he said. Deeply ashamed at the sudden realization of what I said and why it mattered, I remember trying to justify the epithet by explaining that my father ...
- Bodega Dreams
Read moreOnly the second son of eleven children to survive to adulthood (of twenty-two) born to María Teresa Rosado, my maternal grandfather Heriberto Rodríguez Rosado—better known in the family as “Chichi”—started selling mangoes on the streets of Cienfuegos with a goat named Alicia at the age of nine. That’s when Candido González, the Spanish-born owner of this small butcher shop and dry goods store on El Prado, the city’s main street, spotted his talent. Although Chichi had only the fourth-grade education that his older sisters and life on a small farm near Cumanayagua could offer, he was disciplined, ambitious and desperate to support his mom, younger brother and nine sisters. Chichi’s dad, a veteran officer in Cuba’s Liberating Army in the War of 1895-1898 against Spain, had just died of tuberculosis. Grateful to the Cuban Republic and not Spain for his business success, Candido presented Chichi with a deal: if he slept in the bodega overnight to serve as an alarm system in case of theft or fire, he could work and learn accounting from him during the day. He could also bring home a small salary, canned goods a month away from the date they would expire, and luxuries like ...
- A Cuban Family Celebrates the End of War
Read moreMarking the start of the Christmas holiday season of 1945, shortly after the end of World War II, this family photo speaks to a time in Cuba when electoral democracy had just ended the first of General Fulgencio Batista’s two regimes (1934-1944). Anything, for many Cubans, must have seemed possible. Those gathered include my ringleted, eight-year-old mother (second row from the front, eyes cast down) with her spectacled older brother Julián and mischievous younger brother Bertón as well as my grandma Yaya (flowered dress, third row) and grandpa Chichi (far right, same row). His joyful expression and toothy grin are hard to ignore. Yet this family had struggled among themselves for mutual acceptance. Marriages that crossed intense, political and historic class divides had haltingly united them, with some (like Chichi) representing impoverished peasantries and others, like abuela Yaya hailing from ancient, slave-owning colonial clans like the Sotolongo and Suárez del Villar families. From the 1860s-1890s, the latter’s wealth had steadily eroded as abolition took effect. The three wars that Cubans, such as Chichi’s dad, fought to liberate Cuba from Spain had also created demands for a just, capitalist economy, an end to racial discrimination, and a sovereign state. Still, amidst ...
- Escuelas Básicas de Instrucción Revolucionaria
Read moreLaunched for a three-year run in 1962, “Basic Schools of Revolutionary Instruction” were designed to teach the principles of Marxist-Leninism to legions of Cuban workers who were enthusiastic supporters of Fidel Castro’s Revolution but knew next to nothing about Communism—including how or even why the government was supposed to own and plan the national economy. Hoping to boost productivity among all workers, officials relied on the EIBRs to develop cuadros (awkwardly translated from the Soviet word “cadre”).
- Cantando a Camilo [Singing to Camilo]
![Cantando a Camilo [Singing to Camilo]](https://cubanstudies.history.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/173/2-Cantando-EBIR-Resized-239x300.jpg)
Read moreFlanked by fellow instructors at an Escuela Básica de Instrucción Revolucionaria, Roberto García Añel, a young twenty-something who worked in the accounting division of his factory, led worker-students in revolutionary songs at this class session, held sometime in 1964. On the wall hangs a mass-produced portrait of the popular revolutionary Comandante Camilo Cienfuegos, whose plane had mysteriously disappeared over the sea in late October 1959, to the horror of millions of Cubans and the suspicion of many. The use of songs (such as Canto a Camilo) as a method of indoctrination and instruction abounded in these schools, as did reliance on slogans to explain Marxism or government policies. Songs and slogans served as substitutes for rigorous reading assignments, tests, and discussions of Marxism because the majority of worker-pupils attending EBIRs had not even completed the sixth grade. Party critics of these methods—considered mostly a vehicle for encouraging loyalism among the already loyal–called the approach manualismo and a waste of time. One wonders what the participants at the time thought. Havana, 1964. Personal Collection of Rolando García Milián, used with permission.
- Revolutionaries first, Marxists last?
Read moreIt is impossible to know whether young loyalists like EBIR teacher Roberto García Añel would have chosen a Marxist path for Cuba if Fidel Castro had given them a choice. What is clear is that García Añel made a commitment to what he understood was “the Revolution” as a very young man, and he worked hard to promote the ideology that Fidel promised would be Cuba’s salvation. Posed once again with their training manuals, the faces of these young “revolutionaries” and the fact that García Añel saved these photographs for so long help humanize Cuba’s experience—especially in the early 1960s when nobody, especially the very young, could have predicted what would happen in the decades to come. A three-pack-a-day cigarette smoker, García Añel died at the age of 42 in 1981. Havana, 1964. Personal Collection of Rolando García Milián, used with permission.