2024
CJMSA at the 2024 Congress of the Latin American Studies Association
Date and Time: June 12-15, 2024
Location: Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia
Co-directors James López and Denis Rey will lead a workshop of our 2019 and 2023 NEH Summer Institute alumni on Teaching José Martí in the U.S.: Theory and Practice. Thirteen participants will share experiences, materials and methodologies for teaching the fascinating history of José Martí, the Cuban émigré communities of the 19th century U.S., and related topics in a wide variety of educational contexts.
CJMSA at the XVIIRecovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Conference
Date and Time: April 26-27, 2024
Location: University of Houston
Co-directors James López and Denis Rey will further CJMSA’s collaboration with the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Conference at the University of Houston. Our two centers continue to work together in the recovery, digitization and preservation of the 19th-century Cuban émigré press. In addition, Dr. Rey will present his research utilizing analytical software to evaluate affective content over time in José Martí’s extensive correspondence.
Denis Rey and two undergraduate Research Fellows to present at the 2024 Conference of the Southwest Council on Latin American Studies (SCOLAS) in Panama City, Panama.
Date and Time: March 21-23, 2024
Location: Intercontinental Hotel, Panama City, Panama
Co-director Denis Rey and Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows Dayana Figueredo-Pérez and Melissa Belén-Cruz will present their findings on the panel Word Choice and the Nineteenth-Century Cuban Émigré Press. The papers “Elation and Enervation: Evaluating Emotion in Marti's Letters,” “Words Matter: Analyzing the Emotional Tones of the Cuban Émigré Press in Key West, 1883-1896,” and “A LIWC Analysis of New York's 19th Century Cuban Press” are the result of research conducted on newspapers recovered by the CJMSA in Spanish archives over the past three years.
James López to speak at Berry College on José Martí and the Cuban Émigré Communities of Florida
Date and Time: March 20, 2024, at 7 p.m.
Location: Berry College
Co-director James López will give an invited talk to the students and faculty of Berry College in Rome, Georgia titled Latino History is U.S. History. The Role of José Martí and the Cuban Émigré Communities in the Dawn of the American Century (1868-1931).
CJMSA to host the fourth public program of its Preserving Voices Project, funded by the Florida Humanities Council
Date and Time: March 20, 2024, at 7 p.m.
Location: Zoom
The Preserving Voices project strives to re-establish the tradition and showmanship of the lector de tabaquería. Like those who once read to the cigar workers of Key West, Ybor City, West Tampa, New York and beyond, our distinguished readers showcase their talents as they perform key essays and articles published within the Cuban émigré press of the latter half of the nineteenth century. The fourth and final panel will celebrate the 171st birthday of José Martí with a live panel titled Immigrant Perspectives of American Life, and will feature readings and discussion from Drs. Dalia Caraballo Muller (U Buffalo), Kelley Kreitz (Pace U) and Carolina Villaroel (U Houston). This panel discussion is free and open to the public and has been made possible by a grant from the Florida Humanities Council.
CJMSA at the Cuban Research Institute’s 14th CRI Conference on Cuban and Cuban American Studies
Date and Time: Feb. 16, 2024
Location: Florida International University
Co-director James López will moderate a panel organized by CJMSA NEH Summer Institute participants Drs. Ricardo Pelegrín-Taboada, Lauren Peña and Daniel Pedreira titled “A Diaspora of Ideas: Social and Political Activism of Cuban Intellectuals and Cigar Makers in Florida since the Late Nineteenth Century.”
CJMSA to host the third public program of its Preserving Voices Project, funded by the Florida Humanities Council
Date and Time: Jan. 28, 2024, at 7 p.m.
Location: Charlene A. Gordon Theater, University of Tampa
The Preserving Voices project strives to re-establish the tradition and showmanship of the lector de tabaquería. Like those who once read to the cigar workers of Key West, Ybor City, West Tampa, New York and beyond, our distinguished readers showcase their talents as they perform key essays and articles published within the Cuban émigré press of the latter half of the nineteenth century. Our third panel will celebrate the 171st birthday of José Martí with a live panel titled Constructing Local Community, and will feature readings and discussion from esteemed local historians Hon. Emiliano J. Salcines, Maura Barrios and Gabriel Cartaya. This panel discussion is free and open to the public and has been made possible by a grant from the Florida Humanities Council.
2023
CJMSA to host the second public program of its Preserving Voices Project, funded by the Florida Humanities Council
Date and Time: Nov. 8, 2023, at 7 p.m.
Location: Zoom
The Preserving Voices project strives to re-establish the tradition and showmanship of the lector de tabaquería. Like those who once read to the cigar workers of Key West, Ybor City, West Tampa, New York and beyond, our distinguished readers showcase their talents as they perform key essays and articles published within the Cuban émigré press of the latter half of the nineteenth century. Our second panel will highlight Representations of Revolution, and will feature readings and discussion from Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Dr. Ada Ferrer (NYU), Dr. Bonnie Lucero (Texas Christian U) and New York Times journalist Clay Risen. This panel discussion is free and open to the public and has been made possible by a grant from the Florida Humanities Council.
CJMSA to host the first public program of its Preserving Voices Project, funded by the Florida Humanities Council
Date and Time: Oct. 3, 2023, at 7 p.m.
Location: Zoom
The Preserving Voices project strives to re-establish the tradition and showmanship of the lector de tabaquería. Like those who once read to the cigar workers of Key West, Ybor City, West Tampa, New York and beyond, our distinguished readers showcase their talents as they perform key essays and articles published within the Cuban émigré press of the latter half of the nineteenth century. Our first panel will highlight Formations of Cuban Identity and Nationhood, and will feature readings and discussion from Kenya Dworkin (Carnegie-Mellon U), Lisandro Pérez (CUNY) and Gerald Poyo (St. Mary’s). This panel discussion is free and open to the public and has been made possible by a grant from the Florida Humanities Council.
James López to discuss "Ybor City: Crucible of the Latina South" with its author, historian Sarah McNamara, at the Tampa Bay History Center
Date and Time: Sept. 20, 2023, at 6:30 p.m.
Location: Tampa Bay History Center
Historian and author Sarah McNamara, Ph.D., joins Carmen Alvarez and CJMSA Co-director James López, Ph.D., for a discussion about her new book, Ybor City: Crucible of the Latina South. Sarah McNamara’s book traces the politics of Cuban immigrants and their descendants, the central role of women, and histories of labor organizing in Tampa’s cigar-making community. The new season of Florida Conversations begins at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 20. Registration is required here: LINK
Maura Barrios presents “West Tampa: Cuban to the Core”
Date and Time: July 10, 2023, at 7 p.m.
Location: Charlene A. Gordon Theater, University of Tampa
With an eye to the success of Ybor City, Hugh Macfarlane plotted 200 acres west of the Hillsborough River specifically for the lucrative cigar industry. “Cuba Town” became the City of West Tampa, chartered in 1895 with Cuban revolutionary way her Fernando Figueredo Socarrás as its first mayor. Spared the urban renewal wrecking ball, West Tampa retained its shotgun houses, bodegas, bakeries and cafes, as its population expanded beyond the Old West Tampa boundaries with the influx of exiles of the Cuban Revolution in the 1960s. This presentation is an experiment: part history, part essay, part memoir and also a photo exhibit. Ms. Barrios is a community historian focused on Tampa’s Cuban immigrant neighborhood of West Tampa and on the connections between Tampa, Florida and Cuba. Maura curated the 2006 Ybor State Museum exhibit, “Tampa Y Cuba: More Than 100 Years,” and in 2004 received a major grant from the Florida Humanities Council to direct the ‘community autobiography’: “Our West Side Stories: Voces de West Tampa”. Maura holds an MA degree in Latin American History from the University of South Florida and has presented her work at Latin American Studies Association, Florida International University-Cuban Research Institute, New College, Tampa Bay History Center, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Houston, and Latino Arts and Culture Institute at San Antonio, Texas. This presentation is funded by the 2023 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute “The Immigrant Communities of Florida and José Martí in Cuban Independence and the Dawn of the American Century,” which is taking place on the University of Tampa campus from June 19-July 14, 2023.
The Hon. Emiliano J. Salcines presents “José Martí in Tampa: 20 Documented Visits”
Date and Time: June 27, 2023, at 7 p.m.
Location: Reeves Theater, Vaughn Center, University of Tampa
The last three years of his life, Jose Martí came to Tampa 20 times. He loved Tampa. He called Tampa “el pueblo fiel” –the loyal people of Tampa. Tampa became a part of Martí and Martí became a part of Tampa. This interactive presentation will take the participants on a voyage back in time, tracing José Martí’s unique and close relationship with the cigar workers of Tampa. Judge Salcines will show us all there is to know about Martí in Tampa, where he went, who he saw, where he slept, where he ate, where he visited, where he gave his most famous speeches, where he drafted the fundamental principles of the Cuban Revolutionary Party, who were his most trusted confidants, and how he was able to convince the cigar makers of Tampa to give one day’s salary a week to the cause of Cuban independence. The Hon. Emiliano Salcines (EJ) is a retired federal judge of the District Court of Appeals and highly-respected local historian, and is responsible for having meticulously documented all the known visits by José Martí to Ybor City, West Tampa and Key West. This presentation is funded by the 2023 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute “The Immigrant Communities of Florida and José Martí in Cuban Independence and the Dawn of the American Century,” which is taking place on the University of Tampa campus from June 19-July 14, 2023. It is an incredibly informative and entertaining trip through time, and includes a great number of historical artifacts and photographs, bringing to life the propitious encounter between Martí and the cigar workers of Tampa.
Author Joy Castro Presents Her Most Recent Novel, One Brilliant Flame
Date and Time: Jan. 25, 2023, at 7 p.m.
Location: Charlene A. Gordon Theater at the Ferman Center for the Arts, University of Tampa
Renowned author Joy Castro presents her latest novel, One Brilliant Frame, inspired in part by her experience during the CJMSA’s 2019 NEH Summer Institute. This is Joy Castro’s fourth novel and is set among the cigar workers and immigrant communities of Key West in the late 19th century. In addition to her prolific work as a novelist and essayist, Professor Castro teaches creative writing at the University of Nebraska, where she directs the Institute for Ethnic Studies. Please join the CJMSA and the Writers at the University Series in hosting Joy Castro’s return to Tampa.
2022
Denis Rey, Co-Director, CJMSA: “Reconstructing Cuban Immigrant Life Through Recovered Newspapers, 1868-1900”
Date: March 11, 2022
Location: delivered via Zoom at the University of Quebec at Montreal
The Cuban revolutionaries who migrated to Florida and New York in the latter part of the 19th century played a pivotal role in launching the Cuban war of independence. Along with their counterparts in Latin America, the Caribbean and Gulf world, these émigré communities coordinated, fund-raised and prepared to fight for liberation by interacting, to a large extent, through print media, as each community had its share of locally published newspapers. This presentation — delivered by Rey to the Centre d’études sur l’intégration et la mondialisation (CEIM) at the University of Quebec, Montreal — focuses on the transnationalism that emerged among these communities and elaborates on the effort to recover these important resources. View the presentation.
CJMSA Commemorates the 127 th Anniversary of Cuba’s War of Independence with presentations by Gabriel Cartaya and Adolfo Lagomasino
Date: Feb. 24, 2022
The CJMSA commemorated the start of Cuba’s War of Independence with talks by Gabriel Cartaya, Spanish-language editor of La Gaceta and author of the recent book Tampa en la obra de José Martí, and Adolfo Lagomasino, visiting assistant professor of communication. Lagomasino spoke about the history and significance of the Friends of José Martí Park in Ybor City, an important historical landmark with a rich and complex history. View his lecture.
2021
CJMSA Welcomes Alfred López, author of José Martí: A Revolutionary Life, to The University of Tampa
Date: Oct. 25, 2021
Alfred J. López, director of the Latin American and Latino studies program and interim head of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies at Purdue University, discussed his most recent book, José Martí: A Revolutionary Life (U of Texas Press, 2021) to a capacity crowd in the Reeves Theater at The University of Tampa. López’s book, recently released as a paperback, is the first and most complete English-language biography ever written of the great Cuban revolutionary, one that dispels many of the myths surrounding this legendary patriot, while also cementing his reputation as one of the greatest Latin American writers and thinkers of all time. Watch a recording of the event.
1st Biannual Conference of the Center for José Martí Studies Affiliate
Date: Jan. 28-30, 2021
With the desire to remain true to the Center for José Martí Studies Affiliate’s mission during pandemic times, the Center organized the virtual conference, “ Envisaging José Martí in 2021: History, Culture and Education,” to gather teacher-scholars from multiple disciplines who are currently engaged in new scholarly, creative or educational work. The overall objective was to share established and ongoing scholarship, as well as creative and pedagogical projects related to the Center’s focus, and provide a platform and stimulate discussion regarding potential future projects and directions. The Center’s interests include, but are not limited to, the humanities, social sciences, creative arts, education, and digital approaches to these and other related disciplines. The full conference program, and some video resources for scholarship and teaching are available online.
2020
Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico
Date: May 13-16, 2020
Location: Guadalajara, Mexico
CJMSA Co-Directors Denis Rey and James López will be leading a workshop at the LASA 2020 International Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico, on May 14 titled "Teaching José Martí in the U.S.: Strategies and Practice."
CJMSA Commemorates Martí’s Birthday Jan. 28, 2020, with Bilingual Poetry Reading and Musical Performances
Date: Jan. 28, 2020
Location: The University of Tampa
On Jan. 28, 2020, the Center for José Marti Studies Affiliate (CJMSA) commemorated the 166th anniversary of the birth of José Martí, father of Cuban independence, who visited Tampa on more than 20 occasions between 1892-1894 to gain the support of the Cuban immigrant communities of Ybor City and West Tampa in the cause of Cuban independence. To celebrate this event, CJMSA hosted a bilingual poetry reading by internationally recognized Cuban-American poet Asley Mármol on The University of Tampa campus. Mármol’s latest collection, El esplendor/The Splendor, was published by Verbum in 2019, and includes a prologue by CJMSA co-director James López. The reading was followed by a reception and musical performance by Alina Izquierdo, a renowned Cuban singer and musician, who interpreted classic compositions from the period. Watch the event.
2019
CJMSA Co-Director, James López Delivers Commencement Address at Fall 2019 Graduation Ceremony
Date: Dec. 13, 2019
Location: Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall
Time: 1-3:30 p.m.
CJMSA Co-Director, James López, Professor of Spanish, addressed the graduating class of 2019 at the fall commencement on Dec. 13 at the Florida State Fairgrounds. López was the recipient of the Louise Loy Hunter Award for Outstanding Faculty Member 2018-2019, which is the highest award bestowed on UT faculty. In his address, López shared his thoughts on the legacy, relevance and lessons that students can derive from the life and work of José Martí. Watch the Fall 2019 commencement.
The Cuban Revolutionary Party in Tampa: Origin, Objectives, Achievements and Relevance
Date: Nov. 13, 2019
Location: The University of Tampa, Vaughn Center, 9th Floor, Trustees' Board Room
Time: 4-7 p.m.
On Nov. 13, 2019, the Center for José Martí Studies Affiliate hosted a presentation by Ibrahim Hidalgo de Paz, recipient of the National Cuban History Prize and a voting member of the Cuban Academies of History and Science, on the importance of Tampa in the formulation of the Cuban Revolutionary Party under the leadership of José Martí. Over 100 members of the university and the community at large attended this outstanding event. View the lecture in its entirety.
The Center for José Martí Studies Affiliate at The University of Tampa at the International Congress of Martí Chairs at the University of Costa Rica
Date: Nov. 18-23, 2019
Location: University of Costa Rica in Punta Arenas, Costa Rica
Denis Rey, associate professor of political science and international studies and co-director of CJMSA, will represent the CJMSA at the International Congress of Martí chairs that will be held on Nov. 18-23, 2019, at the University of Costa Rica in Punta Arenas, Costa Rica.