Racial politics of revolutionary Cuba to be Oct. 22 topic

How Fidel Castro's Cuba invoked racial conflicts to gain both domestic and international support for the revolution will be the subject of an Oct. 22 lecture titled "Race in Cuba: Afro-Cubans, African Americans, and the Politics of Revolution, 1959-1961."

Free and open to the public, the talk will be presented by Devyn Spence Benson, an assistantprofessor of history and Africana Studies at Williams College in Massachusetts. It will begin at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, in Emerson Auditorium, Palamountain Hall.

Bensondiscovered her scholarly interests inLatin American and Caribbean historywhile teaching third grade in a bilingual elementary school in Houston, Texas. She went on toreceive her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, whereher research focused on racial politics during the first three years of the Cuban revolution. Her current research explores connections between African Americans and Cubans of African descent, before and after the Cuban Revolution.

Using a variety of sources, including Cuban newspapers, government speeches, and photographs, Benson's research reveals howthe post-1959 Cuban revolutionary government highlighted racial conflicts in an attempt to undermine counterrevolutionary movements and solicit support from Afro-Cubans."As with any government-sponsored project, however, many Afro-Cubans interpreted the new racialized discourse in ways that went beyond official pronouncements," explained Benson. She analyzed testimonios and oral histories from Afro-Cubans to uncover the ways people of color contributed to and challenged the new leadership's claims over racial politics.

Benson's talk is one of three public events co-sponsored this fall by the College's Latin American Studies program. The series began Sept. 23 with Gustavo Esteva's lecture, "From Cuba to the Zapatistas: Social Change and Revolution at the End of an Era," and continues with the Case Gallery photo exhibition, Peace Through My Eyes, on view Oct. 15-29. Organized by Verena Bunge '11 and Elana Hazghia '10, the exhibition features photos taken by Guatemalan children who took part in the art program the two students led as a Davis Peace Project last summer.

The Oct. 22 lecture is sponsored by the College's department of American Studies and the Latin American Studies program. For more information, call 518-580-5272.