‘Coercive measures’: slave rebellion,torture, and sovereignty in Cuba, 1812–1844

This article examines the use of judicial torture against free and enslaved people of color in Cuba during the first half of the nineteenth century. Utilizing the records of legal processes relating to dramatic incidences of slave rebellion, it considers the broader implications of the use of judicial torture as the colonial state responded to increasing threats to Cuban slavery and the Spanish Empire by assuming a greater role in promoting insular security. The article argues that the use of torture against enslaved deponents articulated broader transformations in the constitution and expression of Spanish sovereignty in colonial Cuba.     

Freedom,Identity, and the Social History of Empire in Atlantic Cuba, 1795–1817

This essay examines a maritime case involving a Charleston-based French privateer in 1795 as well as members, subjects, and citizens of multiple societies from Western Africa, Cuba, Spain, and Great Britain in order to reveal the fluid legal foundations of trans-Atlantic regimes with respect to slavery and freedom. The French maritime seizure of a British slaving vessel in the Caribbean and the subsequent transfer of enslaved African peoples from British to French to Spanish authority in Cuba set the stage for nearly 40 years of litigation in both hemispheres. The case led to legal disputes in Philadelphia, Madrid, and Havana as members of this Atlantic society sought to confront the most prominent political and social issues of this era. While officials in Philadelphia sought to avoid entanglement in the imperial wars between France and Great Britain, officials in Madrid and Havana competed with each other in order to define the legal identities of a group of Carabalí-Oru peoples onboard the British vessel. For their part, this group of Carabalí-Oru peoples exploited the ambiguities created by a system of Atlantic jurisprudence while relying on their memory of the Middle Passage in order to challenge their unjust enslavement in Cuba.     

Negotiating freedom: Women of colour and the transition to free labour in Cuba, 1870–1886

This article argues that women of colour were central to the process of the legal transition to free labour in Cuba. Through an examination of legal appeals for freedom – which were often facilitated by new opportunities created by transition legislation – it shows that women were motivated by factors such as their families and frequently by their position as urban domestic servants. They could also make use of gendered understandings of slavery and freedom, which were socially prevalent although not legally enshrined. The paper argues that a focus on women and gender may have important implications for our understanding of Cuba's transition to free labour and of some of the constructions of citizenship and nationhood with which it was entwined.     

La revolución digital: mobile media use in contemporary Cuba

ABSTRACT

Recent scholarship on mobile internet use in the Global South highlights access disparities, along with shifting social practices that accompany greater web connectivity. Cuba is part of the Global South, and ranks among the least internet connected countries in the world. Venegas’[2010. Digital dilemmas: The state, the individual, and digital media in Cuba. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press] thorough account of technology use in Cuba positions Cuban digital media as an assemblage of political, economic, historical, and global factors. Recently, however, mobile digital technologies in Cuba have undergone rapid transformation. Continuing tensions between the US and Cuba remain part of how the country's infrastructure and internet practices develop in location-specific ways. In this paper, we utilize ethnographically-informed data to provide a case study of the mobile internet adaptations in Havana, Cuba. Specifically, we draw upon Sutko and de Souza e Silva [2010. Location-aware mobile media and urban sociability. New Media & Society, 13(5), 807–823] framework for location-aware mobile media and urban sociability to examine the unique communication and coordination practices of Havana internet culture. Additionally, Massey [2005. For space. London: Sage] and Wiley and Packer [2010. Rethinking communication after the mobilities turn. The Communication Review, 13(4), 263–268] notions of space allow investigation of Cuban cultural technologies within a larger social field. These theoretical lenses enable interrogation of mobile device adaptations on mobility, sociability, and space to position Cuban media use as an assemblage of local and global forces.     

‘La Lenin is my passport’: schooling,mobility and belonging in socialist Cuba and its diaspora

Based on an ethnographic study of transnational networks of alumni of an academically selective boarding school in Havana, this article explores the nexus between mobility, schooling and belonging in the context of socialist Cuba and its diaspora. Drawing on Goffman’s work, I argue that the boarding school experience was transformative; it facilitated or consolidated social mobility for its pupils, which later, for many, led to geographic mobility in the form of study and work outside Cuba. After graduating, alumni continue to identify with the school and to reproduce their alumni identities. The affective webs of belonging forged through family links and friendships fostered at the school constitute emotionally sustaining networks that also provide material support after migrating. I propose that the school represents a site of identification for a globally dispersed non-national diaspora and argue that migration scholars need to embed international migration within people’s lives more broadly.     

Community‐oriented Social Work in Cuba: Government Response to Emerging Social Problems

Cuba developed a unique community‐oriented social work approach in the 1990s that transformed social work education and practice. This paper describes that approach and why it emerged when it did. A review of the literature on social change in Cuba in the 1990s, and 31 open‐ended interviews conducted in Havana, Cuba, showed that social work changed in response to economic crisis, emerging social problems and the need for social workers for community practice. Social workers' participation in neighborhood development projects and Cuba's post‐Revolutionary communal ethos also shaped a community‐oriented social work approach in Cuba. This approach contrasts with an individually oriented model in the US and in Britain. Social workers in Cuba and in these countries can learn from one another, despite the differences that exist among them.     

The role of mediatory myths in sustaining ideology: the case of Cuba after the ‘special period’

After the collapse of the Soviet bloc, management researchers devoted considerable energy to investigating ways to operate the transition to market economies. However, one country of the former Soviet bloc, Cuba, resisted transition and reaffirmed loyalty to the values of La Revolucion. Little is known about management in Cuba. This study seeks to approach one particular aspect of management in this country: the relationship between national ideology and management practice. To analyse the topic, qualitative data from Cuban managers and management professors were gathered over a 10‐year period. Results suggest that the dynamics of managerial ideology can be understood as the interplay of several processes operating at distinct levels: institutional, professional, organizational and individual. The interplay between conformance to the ideology and its use as a practical resource is a potential source of change and of conflict demands that are tackled with recourse to mediatory myths.     

话梅:那酸,那甜,那香

初食话梅,拈一粒放在口中,一阵浓郁的酸味在口中慢慢晕染,禁不住皱起脸和鼻子来感受,一边惊魂不定——这东西真酸!然而正当它化去,浓郁的酸转而变成回味绵长的香。呵,梅,是一个惹人怜爱的女子的名字。喜欢拈梅的女子,大多数和梅一样有一种敏感多情的气质。多变的话梅不变的情李红(女,29岁,银行职员)     

李静:标新立异,永不言败

她是中国第一批独立电视制片人,她总是快乐而毫无顾忌地大笑,甚至拿自己插科打诨,完全打破了国内女主持人一贯保持的淑女形象.她所主持和创办的<超级访问>和<情感方程式>等节目深受观众喜爱.她的直率、她的乐观,她的不拘一格都让人好奇不已,正如她自己所说:"创作中、生活中我都是标新立异的."     

李静:标新立异,永不言败

她是中国第一批独立电视制片人,她总是快乐而毫无顾忌地大笑,甚至拿自己插科打诨,完全打破了国内女主持人一贯保持的淑女形象。她所主持和创办的《超级访问》和《情感方程式》等节目深受观众喜爱。她的直率、她的乐观、她的不拘一格都让人好奇不已,正如她自己所说:“创作中、生活中我都是标新立异的。”     

2005:房价,何去何从

一直以来,房价是最敏感的话题.作为关系到国计民生的特殊商品来说,房价的每一分跳动,都将波及上至国家领导,下到普通百姓每一个人的神经,这就像一只南美亚玛逊河流域热带雨林中的蝴蝶,扇动一下翅膀,可以在几周之内引起美国德克萨斯一场龙卷风.     

公案一:立项,立项,还是立项

<关于从严审查住所使用证明文件的通知>规定(2006年6月19日)中指出,"<房屋所有权证>和购房合同中房屋用途的表述无法辨别为住宅或商业用的(如商住、综合等),均不予登记注册."项目的土地使用年限以及对其用途的表述,是评判该项目是否是写字楼的关键因素,从这个角度讲,考察项目的立项结构意义重大.