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