Visiting scholar to discuss Cuban Revolutions

"From Cuba to the Zapatistas: Social Change and Revolution at the End of an Era" is the title of a talk to be given by guest speaker Gustavo Esteva at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23. Free and open to the public, the lecture will be in Gannett Auditorium of Palamoutain Hall.

The talk relates to this year's Latin American Studies Program theme of "Cuban Revolutions" in this, the 50th year of Cuba's best-known revolution.

Cuba was, for many years, the beacon on the hill for Latin Americans?a source of inspiration, a promise, a radical hope. In spite of its impressive achievements, Cuba also became a source of frustration and disappointment. New winds of social and political transformation are currently blowing in the subcontinent and all over the world. It may be a symptom of the turbulence at the end an era and the beginning of a crisis. This social change brings us to ask, ?Is there still room for socialism?? And how do we capture the new semantic of change, with terms like autonomy, conviviality and radical democracy?

Kalu Long '10 (and several other Skidmore students) have arranaged to bring to campus the professor who inspired them in a semester-long program called "rethinking globalization" that took them to Mexico, India, and Tanzania last spring. Esteva will be here Wednesday evening, Thursday, and Friday (Sept. 23-25).

A 2006 interview with In Motion magazine describes Esteva as an author and a local and international ?grassroots activist and de-professionalized intellectual,? and a founder of the Universidad de la Tierra in Oaxaca, Mexico. He is also a former corporate executive, a former guerrilla, a former high-ranking official in the government of President Echeverr a, and an advisor with the Zapatista Army for National Liberation (EZLN) in Chiapas for the negotiations with the government; for more information please click here.