The Cuban Transition: Imagined and Actual

October 7, 2009
The Cuban Transition: Imagined and Actual
A part of the from the CLAS Latin American Briefing Series (http://clas.uchicago.edu)

Rafael Hernández, one of the most visible intellectuals living and writing in Cuba today, will address Cuba's unique social diversity and the emergence of growing inequality that accompanied and has followed the crisis of the 1990s. Hernández is the editor of Temas, the leading Cuban magazine in the social sciences and the humanities, which is renowned for its contribution to intellectual controversy on the island. He is a senior research fellow at the Centro de Investigación de la Cultura Cubana Juan Marinello in Havana and is the author or editor of several books, including Cuba and the Caribbean and United States-Cuban Relations in the Nineties.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Education
• Social Science
• International Relations
• Latin American Studies
• Rafael
• Hernández
• CLAS

[caribbeandiaspora]

@caribbeandiaspora

Panama is in Central America but as in the case of Belize, Costa Rica, Venezuela and others, Panama shares the Caribbean Sea. They have territories which count as part of the Caribbean. To be fully Caribbean they would have to be a member of the West Indies like Guyana. Suriname and Belize for instance, are members of CARICOM as they proclaimed a Caribbean identity rather than South American. The same goes for Guyana. We are very unique, small but strong.

[chsn09]

@caribbeandiaspora Hmm yeah communism is a big problem in Cuba. I don't know why Cubans don't have full membership and they should have full membership. One day there will hopefully be a free Cuba or democracy in the island.

Random but would YOU consider Panamanians to be Caribbean? I see a lot of Panamanians trying to pass off as Caribbeans but they are NOT Caribbean in my opinion.

[chsn09]

@caribbeandiaspora Well in my opinion Cuba is VERY much in the Caribbean and the term Latin AMerica is a confused flawed one. Latin AMerica would technically include French speaking countries in the Western Hemisphere as well as Haiti but the term is flawed.

CUba geographically is in the Caribbean. Latin AMerica is just a term used to group Western Hemisphere nations that speak French, Spanish, and Portuguese(Brazil)

[caribbeandiaspora]

@chsn09

You should also know that Cuba and the rest of the Caribbean are members of regional organisations of both Caribbean and Latin America. Cuba also have bilateral relationship with CARICOM and the reason why they do not have full membership is their lack of democracy!

[chsn09]

@caribbeandiaspora Cuba is PART of Latin AMerica as well as the Caribbean and FOR YOU to not acknowledge such would be PURE stupidity.

I never contradicted myself. PLEASE reread my comments and the ones that follow.

And I am FROM the Caribbean. Try again

[caribbeandiaspora]

@chsn09

If being apart of Latin America has nothing to do with geographic location you may as well claim that Portugal, Spain and Italy, the 3 European countries which are hispanic in language and culture, are Latin America too. See how irrational your reasoning on the subject? There are a large Caribbean community in the USA and the UK for instance, but no one would dare to say the USA and the UK are part of the Caribbean!

Well, this debate is not the topic of this video.

[chsn09]

@caribbeandiaspora True. More whites than not have admixture or are mixed and not as white as they claim. This is ESPECIALLY true for White Latin Americans and White Caribbeans

[chsn09]

@caribbeandiaspora LMFAO. Sorry but I AM CARIBBEAN. I am VERY much Caribbean.

Being in the Caribbean does NOT mean that it can't be Latin American. Tell a Cuban that they are NOT part of Latin AMerica and see what they will say. I know Cuba is in the Caribbean. That is OBVIOUS.

Mulatto and blacks make up the majority of Cuba. I know this. Mulattoes are mixed blacks or mixed black and white while blacks are predominately or fully "black"

[chsn09]

@caribbeandiaspora THIS IS WHAT I SAID>>>>>>>Most of Cuba today however is mulatto and black, but there are still a significant number of WHITES.<<<<<<<<<<

SO I NEVER CONTRADICTED MYSELF.

[caribbeandiaspora]

@chsn09

Even your own statistic you quote contradict what you just said! You claimed in one of your post that whites make up the majority, but not noted as the whites migrate. All groups of Cubans migrate and a lot of those who describe themselves as white are not fully white either, which had long been debated.