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• 2008 Grant Recipients • 2007 Grant Recipients |
Testimonials Dear UC-Cuba faculty and Steering Committee, I would like to express my gratitude to UC-Cuba for partially sponsoring my resent 30-day research trip to the island. This trip to Cuba has been very productive for the dissertation research I am currently working on - with the mentoring help of Prof. Ivette Hernández Torres (Dept of Spanish at UCI)- which touches on the uses of history and memory in Cuban contemporary narrative. Going to the island was essential for my future studies in Cuban culture and literature. In addition to interviewing one of the authors I’m working with in my dissertation, novelist Leonardo Padura Fuentes, I was also able to meet and talk to well-recognized literary and art critics, musicologists, and film makers such as Adelaida de Juan, Nara Araujo, Margarita Mateo, Norberto Codina, Radames Giro, Pavel Giroud and the 2006 Premio Nacional de Literatura Leonardo Acosta. All these interviews allowed me to have a better idea of where and how the Cuban literary and cultural production stands in the present. This trip to Cuba made it possible to have a closer and more up-to-date look at socio-economical, political and cultural aspects I am analyzing in my dissertation. While in Havana, I was also able to meet and talk with other UC graduate students doing research in Cuba: Tom Macenaney (English and Comp Lit at UC Berkeley) who is studying the impact of media in Cuban cultural identity, Paul Bancroft (Latin American Studies at UC Santa Barbara) who is doing research in the educational program “Yo si puedo”, and another UC-Cuba mini-grant recipient, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro (Geography UC Berkeley) who is studying the impact of rap music in Cuban youth. The interdisciplinary exchange that resulted from these encounters was a living proof of how academically and intellectually beneficial is an organization such as UC-Cuba. Thanks again for making all these experiences possible!  Ivette M. Gómez A.B.D/PhD Candidate Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese University of California, Irvine Dear members of the UC-Cuba Initiative, I too would like to join Tom and Ivette in sharing me recent experience in Cuba with you all. I am a grad student UCSB in the Latin American and Iberian Studies Department. As Tom and Ivette mentioned in their emails, I am focusing on the Cuba literacy method "Yo Si Puedo". There is not a lot of substantial information available about the method so the UC-Cuba Initiative allowed to me to go to the source and find out first hand what the program is all about. As I look back on the month I spent in Cuba I realize now that I am very lucky in terms of the amount of information I was able to procure while there. I arrived in Cuba without any contacts or conocidos and yet after nearly 3 weeks of running around La Habana meeting with numerous government agencies (and with the help of a phone call from one feisty Brigadista) I was able to interview Dr. Jaime Canfux. Dr. Canfux heads the adult literacy department at the Instituto Pedagogico Latinoamerica y Caribeno. It is within these confines that Yo Si Puedo came about. I was also given permission to have total access to the Museo de la Campana de Alfabetizacion in la Ciudad de Libertad. Here I found a lot of information on YSP and its achievements in Venezuela, New Zealand etc. In my thesis I am focusing on YSP and looking at the original campaign of 1961 and its manifestation of a literacy consciousness; one that has propelled Cuba into the forefront of adult literacy information. If there is anyone out there who would like to share information on YSP and/or Mision Robinson in Venezuela I would be much obliged. Thank again UC-Cuba for making it all possible, Paul Bancroft Latin American and Iberian Studies UCSB Dear members of the UC-Cuba Initiative, Recently, I was able to travel to Cuba with a grant from the UC-Cuba Academic Initiative. I am deeply grateful for the experience, and hope that other graduate students will be able to benefit from this unique opportunity provided by the UC Cuba Graduate Student Mini-Grants. I planned a two-week trip to take place in early September, with the hopes of visiting a number of institutions and foundations, as well as conducting personal and professional interviews, in both La Havana and Santiago de Cuba. Unfortunately, my arrival coincided with that of Hurricane Ike. Hurricane Gustav had torn through the island just a week earlier, devastating the western part of the island at a category 4, and also made the unprecedented move of entering the southern Isla de la Juventud, utterly destroying the small island. The possibility of being hit with yet another hurricane gave Havana a heavy air when I arrived. The city seemed deserted; not only were there no tourists, but residents were scarce as well. Lines to stock up on cash, water, bread, and fruit were long, and were everywhere. Restaurants and cafes sold rationed supplies. The institutions and foundations that I had hoped to visit were closed, and traveling across the island was out of the question. A few days after I arrived, news came that Ike was definitely heading for Cuba, and that the anti-ciclon would not send it to Florida. And, Ike would also be revolutionary, entering Cuba on its eastern coast at a category 4, and covering the entire island. By the time it reached La Habana it had dropped to a category 1. I hunkered down with the residents of my casa particular in El Vedado, playing card games by candlelight, listening to a battery-operated radio, and rationing food and water. Our neighborhood was without light and water for three days, and the damage was minimal—a few broken windows, a lot of downed tree branches. The damage in El Vedado Viejo was much more significant: no light and water for up to 5 days, huge trees ripped up at the roots, taking portions of sidewalk and street with them, power lines down, and 40 houses destroyed. Ike also took 7 lives from the island, and the damages to structures and crops will be felt for a long time. Despite the arrival of the hurricane, my trip was immensely successful. While I was not able to visit the national library, or Santiago de Cuba, the information that I gathered has been integral to furthering my dissertation project, which locates memory of slavery in the modern national imaginary. I was able to personally meet with experts on race, gender, and the literature of Alejo Carpentier such as Roberto Zurbano, Leonardo Acosta, Giro Radames, Luisa Campuzano, Ambrosio Fornet, and Inés Maria Martiatu, and peruse personal libraries. These interviews not only much amplified my bibliography, but also they gave me the opportunity to situate my work within contemporary intellectual debates and social concerns on the island. While in Cuba, I was also able to meet with other US-based intellectuals, such as Professor Jorge Marturano, UCLA, and Professor Adrian Lopez Denis, Brown University. This interdisciplinary exchange has also been immensely productive for my intellectual growth. Not only was I able to significantly further my current project, but also the seeds for future projects and collaborations have been planted. Thank you. Lindsay Puente Comparative Literature, UC Irvine November 14, 2008 Please send any questions to: Professor Raul Fernandez, Chair UC-CUBA MRP School of Social Sciences 3151 Social Science Plaza University of California at Irvine Irvine, CA 92697-5100. 
rafernan@uci.edu |
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