Dr. John Linantud

University of Houston Downtown

Republic of Cuba Political Travelogue

17-27 June 2012

The Social Science Lectures

Dr. Claude Rubinson

Updated 12 September 2012

UHD Faculty Development Grant

Translations by Dr. Jose Alvarez, UHD

Havana, Cuba Malecón Mirror

Port of Mariel Ports of Havana

and Matanzas

Miami - Havana 1 Hour

Population 313 million Ethnic Cuban 1.6 million (US Statistical Abstract 2012)

Population 11 million Negative 5% annual immigration rate 1960-2005 (Human Development Report 2009)

What Normal Cuba-US Relations Would Look Like

Being Cuban is like always being up to your neck in water -Reverend Raul Suarez, Martin Luther King Center and Member of Parliament, Marianao, Havana, Cuba 18 June 2012

Varadero, Cuba Fisherman

Soplillar, Cuba (north of Hotel Playa Giron) Community Hall

Questions So Far?

José Martí (1853-95) Havana-Plaza De La Revolución

+ Assorted Locations

Che Guevara (1928-67) Havana-Plaza De La

Revolución + Assorted Locations

Chandler

Derek

Doctor International Airport Exit

Camilo Cienfuegos (1932-59) Havana-Plaza De La Revolución +

Assorted Locations

Havana Museo de la Revolución

JFK?

Batista Reagan

Bush I Bush II

Havana Museo de la Revolución

+ Assorted Locations The Cuban Five

Havana Avenue 31 North-Eastbound

M26=Moncada Barracks Attack 26 July 1953/CDR=Committees for Defense of the Revolution

Source: World Bank (http://databank.worldbank.org/data/Home.aspx) 24 May 12

Armed Forces per 1,000 People

Questions So Far? pt. 2

Marianao, Havana, Grade School

2+4=6

Jerry

Fidel Raul

Fidel

Che

Che

Che

Marianao, Havana Neighborhood Health Clinic

Waiting Room

Over Entrance

Administrative Area

Front Entrance

Chandler

Fidel Raul

Fidel

Food Ration Book

Marianao, Havana, Ration Store

Source: World Bank (http://databank.worldbank.org/data/Home.aspx) 24 May 12.

Life Expectancy

Questions So Far? pt. 3

Police

Personal

Havana Soplillar

Australia

Chinese Tourist

Cristo de la Habana (under renovation)

Brigade 2506

Cube facing Chapel in Fort

San Carlos

MLK Center

Varadero

Mass La Plaza de

Catedral

Varadero Seminary

Artist

Che

Marianao, Havana Martin Luther King Center

Varadero

Havana-Hotel Nacional Nat King Cole Havana-San Carlos Forta

Rec

on

cilia

tio

n?

Varadero

Havana-Parque de la Fraternidad

José Martí International Airport

Suggested Reading

1. Armando Chaguaceda, "The Promise Besieged: Participation and Autonomy

in Cuba," NACLA Report on the Americas (July/August 2011) 20-25, 42.

2. Alejandro de la Fuente, “Race and Income Inequality in Contemporary Cuba,”

NACLA Report on the Americas (July/August 2011) 30-33, 42.

3. Economist, Special Report-Cuba, 24 March 2012.

4. Carlos Eire, Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy (New

York: The Free Press, 2003).

5. granma.cu/ingles/index.html (Cuban Government website)

6. Brian Latell, After Fidel: The Inside Story of Castro's Regime and Cuba's Next

Leader (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2005).

7. Brian Latell, Castro's Secrets: The CIA and Cuba's Intelligence Machine (New

York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012).

8. James W. McGuire and Laura B. Frankel, "Mortality Decline in Cuba, 1900-

1959: Patterns, Comparisons, and Causes," Latin American Research Review

40, 2 (June 2005) 83-116.

Suggested Reading, pt. 2

9. Carmelo Mesa-Lago, The Cuban Economy Today: Salvation or Damnation?

(University of Miami: Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies,

2005).

10. Eusebio Mujal-León, "Survival, Adaptation and Uncertainty: The Case of

Cuba," Journal of International Affairs 65, 1 (Fall/Winter 2011) 149-68.

11. Ricardo Torres Pérez, "Economic Changes in Cuba: Current Situation and

Perspectives," Harvard International Review (Summer 2012) 16-19.

12. Gerald Posner, Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of

JFK (New York: Anchor, 2003).

13. Mark P. Sullivan, Cuba: Issues for the 111th

Congress (Washington, D.C.:

Congressional Research Service) 4 January 2011.

14. United States Government Accountability Office, U.S. Embargo on Cuba:

Recent Regulatory Changes and Potential Presidential or Congressional

Actions, 17 September 2009.

15. Ruth Ellen Wasem, Cuban Migration to the United States: Policy and

Trends (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service) 2 June 2009.

Year Event

1898 Cuba becomes US protectorate after Spanish-American War

1902 Independence from US

1959 Fidel Castro seizes power, installs communist regime, allies with Soviet Union

1960-65 Geopolitical Turmoil

US refuses to abandon naval base at Guantanamo Bay

Cuba nationalizes domestic and foreign properties

US embargo and covert action, including failed assassinations of Fidel

Failed Bay of Pigs invasion by anti-communist Cubans (1961)

Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

President Kennedy assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald (1963)

Anti-communist insurgency fails; first peak of migration to US (1965)

1980 Second peak of migration, a.k.a. Mariel Boatlift

1989 Communism falls in Europe; Castro purges suspect officials

1991 Soviet Union dissolves

1994 Third peak of migration follows Havana riots; US to accept at least 20,000 per year

1996 Cuba shoots down Cuban-American planes off Havana

1999- Hugo Chavez of Venezuela sends oil to Cuba

2002 Russia closes last military facility

2003 Major crackdown on dissidents

2008 Armed forces chief Raul Castro replaces ailing older brother Fidel, elevates

military entrepreneurs and technocrats

2011 Human rights activist Laura Pollan dies of heart attack

2012 Democracy activist Oswaldo Paya dies in car crash

Final Questions?

Regime Timeline