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.
- College Students-Turned-Guerrillas
Read moreThese 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
Read moreA 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 and Barbara Hutton. No doubt justified by his diplomatic role, Rubirosa’s decision to drop by a celebratory cocktail reception at the Presidential Palace in early 1959 surely caught revolutionaries by surprise, including an awkwardly framed Fidel Castro. Havana, January 1959. Andrew St. George Collection, Smathers Library, University of Florida.
- Restoring El Morro, Santiago de Cuba
Read moreLike previous “populist” governments of the Cuban Republic before the Revolution of January 1959, the new regime under the leadership of the 26th of July Movement quickly expanded employment opportunities through public works. Here, the Spanish colonial fortress in Santiago, known as the Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca, gets a much-needed facelift. Santiago de Cuba, 1960. Andrew St. George Collection, University of Florida.
- Cuba’s Labor Movement Loses Autonomy
Read moreIn 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 committed to a “no-strike” policy in order to help stabilize the economy and promote industrial growth for the benefit of all Cubans. However, over the course of 1960, leaders of the revolutionary government, especially Fidel Castro, increasingly began to insist that any criticism of its leadership or contestation of policies constituted an invitation for the United States to invade, intervene, or subvert the state. As a result, the CTC began to further violate its own rules out of solidarity with Cuban sovereignty: here, elected leaders appeared not in the working-class attire of civilians but as militiamen, armed and at the service of Fidel Castro’s state-directed vision of change. Havana, March 1960. Andrew St. George Collection, Smathers Library, University of Florida.
- Nationalization of Cuba’s Oil Refineries
Read moreIn late June 1960, journalist Andrew St. George snapped this picture of Cuban militiamen preventing the managers of US-owned oil refineries from entering the gates of the plant. Far from chaotic, the scene exemplified the orderly plan by which Prime Minister Fidel Castro achieved a major standoff with the United States and then precipitously imposed a radicalization of economic policy in defense of Cuban national sovereignty. Fidel Castro’s orderly plan began when the Soviet Union offered to sell Cuba crude oil at a much cheaper price than US producers. After foreign-owned oil refineries on the island refused to process Soviet crude, Fidel Castro moved quickly to decree a government takeover of these properties. The move was strategic, perfectly designed to enrage US officials and thereby trigger the United States to unilaterally cancel the purchase of Cuba’s upcoming sugar harvest and suspend trade in a tidal wave of retribution. Both moves would have devastated Cuba economically. Yet, US hostility served a purpose central to further empowering Fidel Castro and supporters of an authoritarian state: it allowed the Soviet Union to save Cuba from the brink of destruction. Immediately after the US cancelled its sugar deal, the Soviets promised to purchase not ...
- The Desk of José Martí
Read moreThis mammoth mahogany desk stands in the childhood home of Cuba’s premier nationalist leader of the 1880s and 1890s, José Martí, as a witness to his enduring literary brilliance and indefatigable activism on behalf of Cuban Independence from Spain.
- National Monument to José Martí
Read moreOne decade ago, in 2015, UF Dean of Libraries, Judith Russell, achieved an unprecedented and transformational agreement with Cuba’s Biblioteca Nacional de Cuba “José Martí” for the mutual exchange, cataloguing and digital conservation of rare, unique and previously inaccessible documents, newspapers, books and other materials for researchers at the University of Florida and the international community at large. On the heels of a successful consultation with local librarians, we visited the massive national monument honoring José Martí, which was built to commemorate the centennial anniversary of his birth in 1953.
- Landing of José Martí in Cuba for 1895 War
Read moreOn February 24, 1895, José Martí and General Máximo Gómez, the commander-in-chief of revolutionary armed forces,
issued the Grito de Baire from Baire, a village near Santiago, proclaiming a call to arms for Cuba’s last independence war. Martí and Gómez traveled together from exile to join the troops a few weeks later, landing on the still isolated and unassuming “little beach of Cajobabo” in far-eastern Cuba. On the beach itself, a giant stone monument, erected during the Republic (1902-1958) commemorates their lifelong sacrifices and those of other patriots of the war.
- 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.