Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Making The Grade: What's Motivating China's Educational Outreach In Lac?, Margaret Myers, Brian Fonseca

Research Publications

This paper considers the multiple motivations for China’s educational outreach in the region, drawing from Chinese policy and analysis and many dozens of examples of academic linkages forged between China and Latin America and the Caribbean in recent years. Whether initiated by Chinese or LAC institutions, these programs are an increasingly central feature of China-LAC relations, a part of the extension of China’s BRI to LAC, and a useful measure of China’s varied and evolving interests throughout the region.

China's Investments And Land Use In Latin America, Monica Nunez Salas

Research Publications

Increased demand by China for commodities has impacted natural resources and local people in Latin America, at a time when climate change has created an urgency for sustainable practices. This report aims to contribute to a nuanced view of Chinese major investments and trade, analyzing the soy, copper, and beef industries. In many cases, it shows how unsustainability is not the result of the practices of Chinese companies but rather the nature of the resource, local legal frameworks, or global industry standards. Latin American countries must devise development plans for these industries and not rely solely on voluntary sustainability standards …

Tussle For The Amazon: New Frontiers In Brazil's Organized Crime Landscape, Ryan C. Berg

Research Publications

Brazil is witnessing a “tussle for the Amazon”—a new and deadly phase in the history of its organized crime groups and their operations. While the country is no stranger to violent criminal organizations, recent years have seen groups building increasingly sophisticated networks, both within and beyond Brazil’s borders. In the strategic state of Amazonas, these developments have sparked a power struggle between several of the country’s largest criminal organizations that has concerning implications for the stability of Brazil as a whole. This “tussle” is more than a mere clash between Brazil’s transnational organized crime groups. It is a threat to …

The Cycle Of Risk: Impact Of Climate Change On Security Challenges In The Caribbean, Wazim Mowla

Research Publications

The intersection of climate change and security has geopolitical considerations for Caribbean countries and the United States. Addressing climate change through recovery, resilience, and adaptation requires significant financing. In an indebted region, most governments will look elsewhere before agreeing to accept new loans from international financial institutions. Caribbean decision-makers are pragmatic actors, meaning there are opportunities for U.S. counterparts, such as China and Russia, to strengthen diplomatic ties by offering aid or low-interest loans to governments and others on a smaller scale, such as Venezuela and Cuba. Resilient recovery, access to low-interest financing, expansion of the regional security system, and …

Environmental Explanations Of Central American Migration: Challenges And Policy Recommendations, Betilde Muñoz-Pogossian, Diego Chaves-González

Research Publications

In this report, the authors argue that when countries and relevant stakeholders do not prioritize disaster preparedness and foster community resilience, extreme climate events can deplete people’s material and socioeconomic well-being. This results in internal displacement as people seek economic opportunities and social protection, which may exacerbate conflict and social tension in the cities they move to. Ultimately, this helps explain one unexamined consideration driving migration to the United States from the Northern Triangle countries.

The Return Of Geopolitics: Latin America And The Caribbean In An Era Of Strategic Competition, Hal Brands, Ryan C. Berg

Research Publications

With the advent of the Biden administration, it is clear the idea of focusing U.S. foreign policy on strategic competition enjoys widespread bipartisan support. U.S. statecraft is increasingly directed at the threats posed by powerful state rivals—especially China—as opposed to Salafi-Jihadist extremists and other non-state actors. Yet geopolitical rivalry is not simply something that happens over there in the Indo-Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East. It also happens over here, within the Western Hemisphere. As the United States enters a new period of geopolitical rivalry, it must update its understanding of strategic denial to fit the facts on the ground. …

Hopelessness And Corruption: Overlooked Drivers Of Migration From The Northern Triangle Of Central America, Joy Olson, Eric L. Olson

Research Publications

This work briefly reviews the complex web of factors traditionally considered migration drivers. The authors’ interviews with migrants and their own work on anti-corruption efforts in Central America led them to hypothesize that something is missing from this traditional framework. Interviews with migrants in transit suggested that beyond any individual or combination of factors stood a profound lack of hope that the situation in their home country would improve.

Going Local: An Assessment Of China's Administrative-Level Activity In Latin American And The Caribbean, Margaret Myers

Research Publications

Local-level engagement is becoming an increasingly central feature of the broader China- LAC relationship, as Chinese central government, quasi-governmental, provincial, commercial and other actors seek to engage more extensively in LAC markets, shape external views of China, and advance China’s various policy objectives and political interests, including vis-à-vis Taiwan. Though prompted by Chinese government policy, the nature of this engagement is exceedingly wide-ranging, however, featuring a complex cast of generally uncoordinated characters with distinct interests and approaches. The outcomes at the subnational are also distinct. Some local-level partnerships have been exceedingly productive, resulting in numerous commercial deals and other forms …

Venezuelan Migration Crisis: Medium And Long-Term Impacts, Betilde Muñoz-Pogossian, Paula García Tufró

Research Publications

The recent debate on Venezuela has primarily focused on the promotion of a political transition to reestablish a functioning democracy, respect for human rights, and restore a viable economy. However, the discussion and resulting actions should also focus on the need to address the medium to long term regional effects of the Venezuelan migration crisis. The human dimensions of the country’s protracted political, economic, and humanitarian crisis have been daunting, with 4.5 million Venezuelan migrants and refugees having fled their homeland between 2015 and 2019. This massive exodus is having the greatest impact on Latin American and Caribbean countries. The …

The Evolution Of Threat Networks In Latin America, Dr. Phil Williams, Dr. Sandra Quincoses

Research Publications

The economic and political environments in Latin America have been advantageous for local, regional, and transnational threat networks. Specifically, technology, increased international trade and economic interdependence, heightened interest in natural resources for profit, synthetic drug production, economic disparities, corruption, impunity, and unstable political conditions have led to a complex web of opportunities that requires new, progressive ways to address criminal activities. The creativity of threat networks along with their entrepreneurial strategies have resulted in increasing power and influence. Despite efforts by the United States and some governments in Latin America to combat these networks, the everchanging global environment has worked …

Back In Power? Brazil's Military Under Bolsonaro, Roberto Simon, Brian Winter

Research Publications

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the 2018 election of Jair Bolsonaro represented the biggest shock to civil-military relations in Brazil in the last 40 years. Bolsonaro, a former Army captain who campaigned on a platform of dictatorship nostalgia amid the country’s worst-ever economic crisis, vowed to bring the generals back to the center of Brazilian politics. Indeed, the military today is exercising power not seen since Brazil concluded its decade-long “gradual transition” from dictatorship to democracy during the late 1970s and 1980s. Retired (and sometimes active-duty) senior military officers are now occupying several critical positions in …

Are China And Russia On The Cyber Offensive In Latin America And The Caribbean?, Brian Fonseca, Robert Morgus, Kiran Green, Alexander Crowther

Research Publications

Cyberspace—the newest domain of conflict—is among the most prominent forums of conflict in the twenty-first century. Increasingly nation-states utilize cyber and information capability in pursuit of foreign policy and national security objectives. This report focuses on two nation-states that are leading the charge in this respect: China and Russia.

While Russia seeks to destabilize the global system for its own advantage, China’s goal is to maintain the current system and replace the United States as the global hegemon. To that end, China and Russia are pursuing robust cyber capabilities to advance their respective geopolitical, economic, and security interests. Moreover, Chinese …

The Future Of Us-Colombia Relations, Christopher Sabatini, Sofia Mateu-Gelabert, Brian Fonseca

Research Publications

Colombia has been one of the United States’ closest allies in the region, stretching back to the 1950s. Colombia was the only Latin American country to join the Korean War in a direct military role. In 1951, the first 1,000 Colombian soldiers disembarked in South Korea where they maintained a military presence until the end of the war. During the 1960s and 1970s, Colombia became one of the largest recipients of United States assistance in Latin America. The assistance was designed to enable Colombia to develop economically through industrialization, agrarian, and social reforms and helped solidify Colombian-U.S. military relations.1 Colombia’s …

Miguel Failde... Más Allá Del Danzón, Jessica Clemente

Cuban Research Institute Events

Viernes de Musicalia es auspiciado por La Colección de Música Diaz-Ayala y el Instituto de Investigaciones Cubanas (CRI)

Miguel Failde ha sido reconocido por la historiografía musical cubana como el creador del danzón, baile Nacional de Cuba. Fue aquel 1 de enero de 1879 cuando se dio a conocer "Las alturas de Simpson" ante la alta sociedad Matancera. Pero ¿qué hay detrás de este género denominado danzón?, ¿quién fue Miguel Failde?, ¿cómo se desempeñó su quehacer musical en las postrimerías del siglo XIX y los primeros 20 años del siglo XX? En esta ocasión, la musicóloga, cantante y percusionista Jessica …

La Mulata In The Spanish Caribbean From Stage To Films Lecture By Yesenia Fernández Selier, Yesenia Fernandez Selier

Cuban Research Institute Events

In the last decades, several scholars have analyzed the semiotics of La Mulata's ubiquitous presence in Cuban popular culture. Those visual and literary analyses have centered on the Island's national production, leaving aside transnational renditions. Yet the icon of La Mulata traveled with the exile of Cuban minstrel theater after 1869 to Mexico and Puerto Rico, among other circum-Caribbean nations, adopting local themes and slang. La Mulata was already recognizable in Latin American popular culture by the 1920s and gained new levels of dissemination with the development of Latin American cinema. This lecture will partially map out the itinerary of …

The Bearers Of Sacred Sound Ritual Musicians Of Miami, Vicky Jassey

Cuban Research Institute Events

The making of the first set of consecrated bata drums, central to the Cuban religion of Regia de Ocha, in the United States happened in Miami in 1975. Prior to this, the fledgling religious community honored their orichas (deities) using guiros (beaded gourds), a campana (a metal hoe blade), and a conga. At the time only a handful of Cuban exiles knew the sacred rhythms, chants, and ceremonial protocols of a musical tradition that spans centuries and continents. Since the 1980 Mariel boatlift, the number of ritual drummers has continued to grow, as many arrive with the knowledge while others …

Caribbean Children's Music Rhythms, Melodies, And Lyrics Lecture By Marta Hernández Candelas, Marta Hernandez Candelas

Cuban Research Institute Events

Children's songs are a natural way to play and communicate with children around the world. A child can understand his or her world better and share emotions while singing with friends and caretakers.The purpose of this presentation is to share the findings of the author's research at the Dfaz-Ayala Music Collection at FIU about Caribbean children's songs. The talk wil emphasize songs for preschoolers and their possibilities of being adapted for instrumental playing as well as for family-based music education programs. Finding Cuban children's songs has not been an easy task. They should be shared in the same manner as …

Carlos Ripoll's José Marti Lecture By Enrico Mario Santi, Enrico Mario Santi

Cuban Research Institute Events

Carlos Ripoll (1922-2011) was a Cuban scholar who lived in the U.S. for close to half a century, during which he carried out outstanding research on several Cuban historical, literary, and political topics. Chief among them was Ripoll's life-long interest in the life and work of José Marti. Based on personal acquaintance with Ripoll, reading of his works, and a survey of Martiana donated by Ripoll himself to the FIU library upon his death, Dr. Santi will explore Ripoll's reading of Marti, his legacy and, in particular, what Ripoll called repeatedly "the falsification of José Marti in present-day Cuba."

Dr. …

Foro “Presente Y Futuro De Nuestras Sociedades Civiles”, Gonzalo Aguerrevere

Cuban Research Institute Events

Agenda:

9:30 a 10:00 Registro de asistentes.

10:00 a 10:15. Palabras de bienvenida. Roberto Ruiz-Casas. Presidente del Foro de Promoción Democrática Continental, Director de Democracia Participativa, y Director de Cultivamos una Rosa Blanca.

Moderador: Gonzalo Aguerrevere, Director de la Familia Ignaciana, Director del Foro de Promocion Democratica Continental, y Director de VenAmérica.

10:15 a 10:35 Padre Luis Ugalde SJ. Caso Venezuela.

Sacerdote Jesuita vasco-venezolano. Licenciado en Filosofía y Letras, en Sociología y en Teología. Maestría en Historia Económica y Social de Venezuela. Doctorado en Historia. En universidades de Venezuela, Colombia y Alemania. Superior Provincial SJ de Venezuela (1979-85). Presidente de …

The Feminization Of Aging And Migration In Cuba: Prospects And Challenges Of A "Silent Revolution" Lecture By Elaine Acosta González, Elaine Acosta Gonzalez

Cuban Research Institute Events

Cuba is facing another crisis, a more invisible and yet unacknowledged one. The "crisis of care" is already present in Cuban society and one of its main causes is the "silent revolution" based on the problems associated with the aging of the population. Two traits of contemporary Cuban migration are closely tied to this sociodemographic process: the high migration rate of young Cubans and the growing participation of women in the migrant flow. This lecture will address several issues related to the feminization of migration and its impact on the social organization of care for older adults in Cuba.

Dr. …

Living And Eating Comida Criolla In New York City, Melissa Fuster

Cuban Research Institute Events

Based on interviews with Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and Dominicans living in New York City, this talk reviews differences in how traditional Hispanic Caribbean cuisines (comidas criollas) are defined and experienced by these communities. These experiences are linked to the contrasting migratory experiences and relationships with communities back"home"in the Caribbean.

Dr. Melissa Fuster is an Assistant Professor in Public Health Nutrition at CUNY Brooklyn College and a Faculty Fellow at the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute. Dr. Fuster has over ten years of experience in community-based research, focused on minority and immigrant populations in the United States and, internationally, in Central …

Spanish Legacies The Coming Of Age Of The Second Generation A Panel Discussion With Author Alejandro Portes, Alejandro Portes, Lorenz Cachon Rodriquez, Richard Tardancio

Cuban Research Institute Events

Much like the United States, the countries of Western Europe have experienced massive immigration in the last three decades. Spain, in particular, has been transformed from an immigrant-exporting country to one receiving hundreds of thousands of new immigrants. Today, almost 13 percent of the country's population is foreign-born. Spanish Legacies, written by internationally known experts on immigration, explores how the children of immigrants—the second generation—are coping with the challenges of adaptation to Spanish society, comparing their experiences with those of their peers in the United States.

This panel discussion will feature the following speakers:

• Dr. Alejandro Portes, Howard Harrison …

Vestido De Novia Film Screening And Conversation With The Filmmakers, Marilyn Solaya, Lisandra Chaveco Valdes, Jesus E. Munoz Machin

Cuban Research Institute Events

Join the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs for the Miami premiere of the film Vestido de Novia, followed by a conversation with the filmmakers at the Coral Gables Museum (across from Coral Gables Art Cinema).

Set in Havana in 1994, the film explores transgender culture in Cuba. Rosa Elena - a 40-year-old assistant nurse, caretaker for her sick father and recently married to Ernesto, the chief engineer of a construction brigade - is unhappy with the life she is living and returns to sing in the all-male choir where she worked before meeting her husband. As …

Severo Secreto Film Screening And Panel Discussion With Co-Directors Oneyda González And Gustavo Pérez Moderated By Catalina Quesada Gómez, Oneyda Gonzalez

Cuban Research Institute Events

Severo Secreto is an extended visual essay on the life of the prominent Cuban exile writer Severo Sarduy (1937-1993), the creator of the concept of the Neo-Baroque in literature. The film focuses on Sarduy's formative years in Cuba, his interest in black culture, performance, ritual, and experimental poetry in the early years of the Cuban Revolution. The documentary is based on extensive interviews with the writer's friends, classmates, and fellow members of literary groups, including François Wahl, who shares his archives and offers testimony of Sarduy's working method and private universe.

Oneyda González, born in Camagüey, Cuba, holds a Master's …

Memory, Conflict And Reconciliation A Half-Day Conference, John F. Stack Jr., Martin Palour, Henrik Syse, Glenn Hughes, Aurora Morcillo, Michael Zantovsky, Marifeli Perez-Stable, Liliana Trevizan, Carlos Gonzales, Marie Janouskova, Michal Smid, Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat

Cuban Research Institute Events

Join the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs and the Vaclav Havel Program for Human Rights and Diplomacy for a half-day conference exploring the role of memory in conflict and reconciliation. A distinguished group of scholars and practitioners will articulate diverse perspectives on the nature of memory, its role in public discourse, and the ways it can both feed conflict and promote reconciliation.

1:15 PM-1:30 PM I OPENING REMARKS

John F. Stack, Jr., Founding Dean, Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs

Martin Palous, Director, Vaclav Havel Program for Human Rights and Diplomacy

1:30 PM-3:30 …

Madhouse Psychiatry And Politics In Cuban History, Jennifer L. Lambe

Cuban Research Institute Events

On the outskirts of Havana lies Mazorra, an asylum known to—and at times feared by—ordinary Cubans for over a century. Since its founding in 1857, the island's first psychiatric hospital has been an object of persistent political attention. Drawing on hospital documents and government records, as well as the popular press, photographs, and oral histories, Dr. Jennifer L. Lambe charts the connections between the inner workings of this notorious institution and the highest echelons of Cuban politics. Across the sweep of modern Cuban history, she finds, Mazorra has served as both laboratory and microcosm of the Cuban state: the asylum …

Memory Adn/Memoria Dna Experimental Flamenco With Niurca Márquez, Niurca Marquez, Jose Manuel Dominquez, Jose Lius De La Paz

Cuban Research Institute Events

Memory ADN/Memoria DNA is an exploration of cultural memory and how it is passed down from one generation to the next. It is a voyage through the sayings, customs and stereotypes, at times filled with humor, at times nostalgic, that explores the idea of what is"Spanish"from the perspective of a particular group of Latino immigrants, namely Caribbean and coastal. It is a work of experimental flamenco that combines dance, theater and film and deconstructs the forms of flamenco music and dance. Join us for this compelling performance and fascinating experience.

Niurca Márquez is an artist/researcher with a wide range as …

Mental Health Care In Cuba And The Diaspora A Panel Discussion, Jennifer L. Lambe, Eugenio Rothe, Hector R. Castillo Matos

Cuban Research Institute Events

This panel takes as its cue the recent publication of Jennifer L. Lambe's book, Madhouse: Psychiatry and Politics in Cuban History, focusing on Mazorra, the island's first psychiatric hospital. The book examines how, from its birth, Cuban psychiatry was politically inflected, drawing partisan contention while sparking debates over race, religion, gender, and sexuality. Psychiatric notions were even invested with revolutionary significance after 1959, as the new government undertook ambitious schemes for social reeducation. Debates about the treatment of mental health issues continued among exiles in South Florida. In particular, the 1980 Mariel boatlift turned into a psychiatric problem both for …

Craving Cuba Film Screening And Discussion With Director Zuzelin Martin Lynch, Zuzelin Martin Lynch

Cuban Research Institute Events

Craving Cuba is a documentary film about the Cuban-American experience and its complicated relationship with Cuba. It explores identity and what it means to be and become American in a time when the whole world is obsessed with Cuba.This is a story about identity, family, exile, and hope. Follow the journey of a Cuban-American woman who has never been to Cuba. Although she has always felt very American, there was always a strong pull to the other half of her identity. Like most in the exiled community, she grew up not being able to go to Cuba. After the December …

Life Around The Hyphen: Inherited Legacies And Their Impact On How We Teach, Write And Talk About Exile/Immigrant Experiences, Rebecca Friedman, Heather Russell, Boris Fishman, Jorge Duany, Ana Luszczynska

Cuban Research Institute Events

The Exile Studies Program

In Collaboration with:

The Betsy-South Beach Hotel

The Department of English

The College of Arts, Sciences & Education

Panel Discussion