Interviews

Frank Carlos Martinez, 24 June 2020

Larry Catá Backer interviews Frank Carlos Martinez, the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy’s youngest board member about his life journey from Las Tunas to the University of Havana to the University of Rhode Island and his aspirations in the areas of diplomacy and international affairs.

Rafael Velazquez Perez 2 July 2020

We spoke about the structure and operation of Cuba’s bilateral economic relations, the effects of the pandemic on the character and operation of those relations, the way that pandemic may be reshaping Cuba’s bilateral economic relations with its key partners (China, Iran, Venezuela; Spain, etc.), the future course of Cuba’s bilateralism especially in the context of regional integration, and lastly his ideas for reform centered on the development of a mechanism for inbound investment by small and medium size enterprises directly with actors in the private sector. 

Michael Strauss 7 July 2020

We spoke about the the long and quite interesting history of the Guantanamo Naval Base from its creation in 1903 through current times. What appears at first glance to be a straightforward issue–the lease of another sovereign’s territory, turns out to have produced complex issues of international law, international relations, and internal operations for the US military services. The politics of the closing of the Naval Base during the very brief movement to normalization that ended in 2017 is also discussed.

Sylvia Pedraza 13 July 2020

We spoke about her experiences growing up that led from her childhood immigration experiences to sociology at the University of Michigan and how that shaped her research. She speaks then to the sociology of Cuban migration, focusing on the five distinct ways of migration out of Cuba, from the group who left at the time of the revolution (whom she calls “those who wait”) to those who have been leaving now (“those who walk”) literally describing the experiences of Cuban migrants walking from South America to the U.S. border.

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