CENTER FOR CUBAN STUDIES

Sandra Levinson, Executive Director

The Center for Cuban Studies was opened in New York City in 1972. It maintains an up-to-date library of Cuban books and periodicals; offers a wide-ranging educational and cultural program, including several publications; organizes professional study tours to Cuba, and serves as a general information center.

The Center is a non-profit, tax-exempt membership organization. Information on membership and activities may be obtained by writing the Center, 220 East 23rd Street, New York, New York, 10010.
 

COMMITTEES FOR THE FIRST NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CUBA

Program Committee

SANDRA LEVINSON, Center for Cuban Studies, Coordinator

GORDON ADAMS, Rutgers University

JOHNNETTA COLE, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

RICHARD FAGEN, Stanford University

HAL AYERSON, National Lawyers Guild

MARIFELI PEREZ-STABLE, State University of New York, Old Westbury

BARBARA WEBB, Queens College

THE REV. DR. WILLIAM WIPFLER, National Council of Churches

JOSE YGLESIAS, writer
 

Arrangements Committee

ANNICK PIANT, Center for Cuban Studies, Coordinator

PAULA DI PERNA, author, Complete Travel Guide to Cuba

FRANCES KISSLING, Board of Directors, Center for Cuban Studies
 

GENERAL INFORMATION
 

Registration

The Conference Registration Desk is located in the Cloister Lounge of Riverside Church, which is reached by entering Riverside at the Claremont Avenue entrance.

All Conference registrants are asked to wear their badges at all times. Entrance to the panels is with your badge and the ticket for that particular panel. If you wish to attend a panel for which you have no ticket, you can obtain one at the Registration Desk, space permitting. [Only panel participants and Conference workers may enter the various panels without tickets.]
 
 

CUBAN DELEGATION
 

José Arañaburo García, Secretary of the National Assembly of Popular Power.
 

Raúl Roa Kouri, Cuba's Permanent Representative to the United Nations since 1978, was born in Havana in 1936. He studied social science and public law at the University of Havana, and social psychology at Columbia University. At the beginning of the revolution, he served as minister-councillor at the Cuban Embassy in Santiago de Chile and was then named alternative representative to the United Nations, 1959-60. He was Cuban Ambassador to Czechoslovakia from 1961 to 1963 and Ambassador to Brazil, 1963-64. From 1964 to 1967 he was director of foreign trade policy at the Ministry of Foreign Trade, and from 1967 to 1970 was director-general at the Ministry for Food Industry. He became Permanent Secretary of CMEA (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) in 1970, a post he held for five years. In 1975 he was named Senior Political Adviser to Vice-President Carlos Rafael Rodriguez, and worked with Carlos Rafael until becoming U.N. Ambassador.
 

Ramón Sánchez-Parodi Montoto, head of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., was born in 1938. Although trained as an industrial engineer, Sánchez-Parodi began to work with the Ministry of Foreign Relations (MINREX) in the Latin America area at the beginning of the revolution and worked there until 1961.

He worked as a journalist for Combate and Hoy 1961-62, and then worked for six years in the department of international relations of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party. From 1968 to 1977 he worked in MINREX in the area of international organizations and with the division of U.S. Affairs. He was named head of the Interests Section when the U.S. and Cuba opened this first level of diplomatic exchange in September, 1977. This is Sánchez-Parodi's first permanent assignment abroad, although he has traveled frequently to Latin America, Europe and Africa and as part of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations.
 

Pedro Serviat Rodriguez, was born in Havana in 1914. He is currently associated with the Institute of the History of the Communist Party and the Socialist Revolution in Cuba, and is publishing a multi-volume definitive history of the Black experience in Cuba. Serviat fought against both the Machado and the Batista dictatorships and has a long history of activity as a trade union educator. Known as revolutionary and historian, he is the author of numerous articles on the Cuban labor movement and Cuban Black history. He is currently on a lecture tour of the United States sponsored by The Black Scholar.
 

Tomas Gutiérrez Alea, distinguished film director, Cuban Institute of Cinema Art and Industry (ICAIC), was born in Cuba in 1928, received his law degree from the University of Havana and subsequently studied filmmaking at the Centro Sperimentale in Rome in 1951-53. During the struggle against Batista he worked with Cine-Revista, a "guerrilla" newsreel organization. With the triumph of the revolution, he was one of two Cubans with advanced prior training in the art of filmmaking. His best known films include The Last Supper (1976), A Cuban Fight Against the Demons (1971), Memories of Underdevelopment (1976), Death of a Bureaucrat (1966), and The Twelve Chairs (1962). His latest film, The Survivors (1979), will be shown at the conference.
 

Alfredo García Almeida, Cuban Mission to the United States.
 

Félix Beltrán, President of the Plastic Arts Section of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) and president of the Cuban National Committee of the International Art Association (UNESCO) was born in Cuba in 1938. He received degrees from the School of Visual Arts and the American Art School in New York City, where he also attended the New School for Social Research, Pratt Institute and the Art Students League. In 1965-1966, he attended the Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, He has received nearly 100 national and international awards, has had 50 one-man exhibitions around the world, and has participated in more than 300 collective exhibitions. His works are in the permanent collections of 46 museums. He is an active participant in numerous international associations devoted to art and design, and has written a great deal on design. In 1975, he was awarded Cuba's National Fine Arts Order for his achievements in this field.
 

Juan A. Blanco Gil, Ministry of Foreign Relations, Havana.
 

Edmundo Desnoes, novelist, essayist, short story writer, art and photographic critic, filmmaker, best known in the U.S. as author of Memorias del Subdesarrollo. Born in Havana in 1930, Desnoes published his first book of stories and poems when he was 22, Todo está en el fuego. He lived for several years in New York City before the revolution, where he worked as editor of a Latin American magazine. Shortly after the revolution, he returned to Cuba and began working as editor and art critic. His first novel, No hay problema, was published in 1961 and two others, Memorias and El cataclismo appeared in 1965. A number of his essays were published in 1967 under the title Punto de vista. He worked with the magazine Casa de las Américas, Cuba, and for several years with the Comisión de Orientación Revolucionaria. Currently he works in the educational films department of the Ministry of Education, and this fall is a visiting professor at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
 

Miguel Dotres León, has served as the adviser to Humberto Pérez, director of JUCEPLAN (junta Central de Planificación) since 1978. For two years before that he was the central director of planning for JUCEPLAN, and from 1973 to 1976 worked with the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party as economics adviser. Author of numerous monographs on national economic planning in Cuba, and on the theoretical and practical problems of the Cuban economy, he is also the author of El balancia intersectorial estático (1975), published by the Instituto del Libro in Havana.

Born in 1934, Dotres is a graduate in economics from the University of Havana and worked with the I nstituto de Economia of the University of Havana, from 1962 to 1973, in a variety of capacities, including that of director of postgraduate studies, and head of the department of planning.
 

Dr. Celestino Alvarez Lajonchére, born in Cuba in 1916, is an obstetrician-gynecologist and works with the Institute for Health Development, Cuban Ministry of Public Health. He has practiced medicine since 1944 and before the revolution had his own clinic. Lajonchére has published many articles and given numerous lectures in the fields of obstetrics-gynecology, public health, and, recently, sex education. He has participated in numerous international conferences in these areas around the globe, and was president of the Organizing Commission of the Eighth Latin American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Havana in 1976. In June of this year he served as visiting technical advisor on sex education to the Ministry of Public Health of the Republic of Panama.
 

Sergio Martínez Barroso, Cuban Interest Section, Washington D.C.
 

Nancy Morejón, distinguished Cuban poet and writer, was born in Havana in 1944, and graduated from the University of Havana in French literature. She has published several volumes of verses, including Richard Trajó su Flauta y Otros Argumentos (1967), Amor, Ciudad Atribuida (1964) and Mutismos (1962). Her scholarly works include Recopilacíon de Textos sobre Nicolás Guillén (1974), a collection of documents related to Cuba's national poet, and Lengua de Pájaro, Comentarios Reales (1971), an ethno-historical monograph about the mining region of Nicaro. She works with Nicolás Guillén at the Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC).
 

René J. Mujica Cantelar, Cuban Interest Section, Washington D.C.
 

Manuel Moreno Fraginals, economist, historian and author, is best known for his book The Sugarmill, which presents a concise history of the sugar industry in Cuba. He has also authored numerous articles on sugar for the technical and lay press. Prior to his work in sugar economics, he had spent ten years in Venezuela and the Caribbean working in sales promotion, advertising and, at one point, in the establishment of a chain of radio stations. Recently, he served as invited lecturer in sugar economics at Columbia University.
 

U.S. PARTICIPANTS
 

The Hon. Ronald V. Dellums (D-Calif.)

Dellums has served as representative from California's 8th Congressional District since 1971. As vice-chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, he has been particularly active in trying to build community power. The 44-year-old Dellums has led the congressional fight against the huge U.S. military budget; chairs the armed services committee panel dealing with the problem of Vieques in Puerto Rico; has introduced a comprehensive health care bill, as well as legislation dealing with women's rights, youth and unemployment.

Dellums has traveled to Cuba and met with President Fidel Castro and recently met with him again in October when President Castro came to New York City to address the United Nations. Dellums is a leading proponent of normalization of relations with Cuba.
 

Gordon Adams, Dept. of Political Science, Rutgers University/Council on Economic Priorities, New York City,
 

Eqbal Ahmad, fellow, Institute for Policy Studies; editor, Afrique-Asie (Paris) and Race and Class (London); author, National Liberation (1972).
 

José A. Alvarez, Puerto Rican Socialist Party.
 

Electa Arenal, College of Staten Island (CUNY)/Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College..
 

Max Azicri, Dept. of Political Science, Edinboro State College, Edinboro, Pa., has written widely on the role of Cuban women and on Cuban legal matters.
 

Carollee Bengelsdorf, Hampshire College, Amherst, Mass.
 

Noel Blackman, President, Shore Lobster and Shrimp Co., New York City.
 

Cole Blasier, Dept of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh; co-editor (with Carmelo Mesa-Lago), Cuba in the World (1979).
 

Edward Boorstein, economist, New York City; author of The Economic Transformation of Cuba (1968), worked with the Cuban government in the early 1960's.
 

Robert Borosage, Director, Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, D.C.; co-author of The Lawless State, co-editor of The CIA File.
 

Philip Brenner, Dept. of Political Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Institute for Policy Studies. Co-editor, Exploring Contradictions: Political Economy in the Corporate State (1974); author, Class Collaboration: The Real World of Congress (forthcoming).
 

Rodolfo Broullón, President, Unifilm, distributor of Cuban films in the United States.
 

Robert Browne
 

The Honorable Margaret Burnham, judge, Boston, Mass.
 

Julianne Burton, University of California, Santa Cruz, is the author of numerous articles on Cuban and Latin American cinema and is an editor of jump Cut.
 

Terry Cannon, The Daily World, New York; co-author (with Johnnetta Cole) of Free and Equal: The End of Racial Discrimination in Cuba (1978) and author of Revolutionary Cuba to be published in the spring, 1980.
 

James W. Carty, Dept. of Communications, Bethany College, Bethany, West Virginia, author of Cuban Communications: Comunlcación y Relaciones Publicas.
 

Lourdes Casal, Dept. of Psychology, Rutgers University, Newark and an editor of Areito magazine; author of El Caso Padilla: Literatura y Revolución en Cuba (1972), Los Fundadores: Alfonso (1973), co-author, The Cuban Minority in the U.S. and Contra Viento y Marea (1978); member of the "Committee of 75."
 

Robert Chrisman. editor, The Black Scholar magazine.
 

Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., Senior Minister, Riverside Church.
 

Robert Cohen, poet and essayist, author of Rebelión en Estados Unidos (1969) and There is a Country (1978); coordinator of the Puerto Rico Legal Project in New York City, active with the New York Committee on Nicaragua.
 

Johnnetta B. Cole, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; contributor to The Black Scholar; co-author (with Terry Cannon) of Free and Equal: The End of Racial Discrimination in Cuba (1978).
 

Margaret Crahan, Dept. of History, CUNY; co-editor, Africa and the Caribbean: the Legacies of a Link.

Ross Danielson.
 

Paula Di Perna.
 

Jorge Dominguez, Dept. of Government, Harvard University; author of Cuba: Order and Revolution (1978) and Enhancing Global Human Rights.
 

Michael Erisman, Chairman, Dept. of Political Science, Mercyhurst College, Eric, Pa., is the author of numerous articles on Latin America and on the non-aligned nations movement.
 

Patricia Weiss Fagen, Dept. of History, San Jose State University, San Jose, California/Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, D.C.
 

Richard Fagen, Dept. of Political Science, Stanford University; author of Cubans in Exile (with Richard Brody); The Transformation of Political Culture in Cuba (1969), and numerous other books and articles, including many on Cuba.
 

Philip S. Foner, Dept. of History, Lincoln University, Pa., author of Antonio Maceo (1977), A History of Cuba and its Relations with the United States (1962), The Spanish-Cuban-American War (1972).
 

Geoffrey Fox, U.N. Representation, World Federation of Trade Unions; author of Workinq Class Emigres from Cuba (1979).
 

Constance Garcia-Barrio, teaches literature at the University of Connecticut and has written several articles on the black presence in Cuban literature.
 

Mariana R. Gastón works with the Brigada Antonio Maceo and the Committee of 75 in New York City.
 

Margaret Gilpin, A.C.S.W., Dept. of Community Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine; coordinator of Psychosocial Education, Residency Program in Social Medicine, Montifiore Hospital and Medical Center, has worked with health workers' exchange program between Cuba and the U.S.
 

Manuel Gomez, Hunter College, CUNY; Cuban-American Committee for the Normalization of Relations with Cuba; author of At Work in Copper (1979),
 

Janice Gordils, teaches literature in the Dept. of Puerto Rican Studies of Fordham University, New York City.
 

John A. Graham U.S. Mission to the United Nations; advisor in African and Non-Aligned Affairs Dept.
 

Bertram Gross, Dept. of Political Science, Hunter College, is the author of numerous books and articles on U.S, politics.
 

Jill Hamberg, State University of New York, Old Westbury, Iived and worked in Chile and is doing research on Cuban planning.
 

C. Richard Hatch, teaches at the New Jersey School of Architecture.
 

Maria Christina Herrera, teaches at Miami-Dade Community College in Coral Gables and is the director of the Instituto de Estudios Cubanos.
 

Jim Higgins, teaches in the School of journalism, Boston University and for many years was the editor of the York (Pa.) Gazette.
 

Lennox Hinds is a New York attorney, former director of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, and recently prepared a report to the United Nations on the infringement of human rights in the United States.
 

Eric Holtzman teaches biology at Columbia University; author of Cells and Organelles.
 

John R. Howard, Dept. of Sociology, State University of New York, Purchase; author of The Cutting Edge: Social Movements and Social Change in America, The Awakening Minorities, and co-author of Life Styles in the Black Ghetto.
 

Lemuel Johnson, Dept. of English, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; author of Blacks in Hispanic Literature (1975), Hand on the Novel (1978), Highlife for Caliban (1973), and The Devil, the Gargoyle and the Buffoon: the Negro as Metaphor in Western Literature (19 71).
 

Kirby Jones, head of Alamar Associates, a Washington-based consulting firm which has arranged for hundreds of U.S. businessmen to visit Cuba; co-author (with Frank Mankiewicz) of With Fidel, based on lengthy interviews with Fidel Castro.
 

Lou Jones
 

Peter Juviler teaches political science at Columbia University and has studied extensively Soviet law.
 

Frances Kissling served as coordinator of the recent Abortion Rights Action Week and works in the field of reproductive health.
 

Franklin W. Knight, Dept. of History, Johns Hopkins University, author of Slave Society In Cuba during the 19th Century (1970), African Dimensions of Latin American Societies, and The Caribbean: The Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism.
 

Saul Landau, writer and documentary filmmaker, including a film on Fidel Castro; director of the Transnational Institute, Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, D.C.; coauthor (with John Dinges) of a forthcoming book on the Orlando Letelier murder case.
 

Marvin Leiner, professor of Education, Queens College; author of Children are the Revolution: Day Care in Cuba (19 74).
 

William LeoGrande teaches political science at American University, Washington, D.C., and has written many articles on political developments in Cuba.
 

Sandra Levinson is the Executive Director of the Center for Cuban Studies and formerly taught political sociology; co-editor (with Carol Brightman) of Venceremos Brigade (1971).
 

Michael Locker works with the Cuba Resource Center in New York City.
 

Alex López.
 

Margot Lovejoy is a graphic artist and teaches at the Pratt Institute's Graphic Center and at S.U.N.Y. College at Purchase; author of various articles on printmaking, including one on Cuba.
 

Arthur MacEwan, Dept. of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Boston; an editor of Dollars and Sense magazine; author of Revolution and Economic Development in Cuba (forthcoming, Macmillan, London) and other economic works.
 

Harry Magdoff is an editor of Monthly Review magazine, author of The Age of Imperialism and many other works on economics.
 

Nita Rous Manitzas is a consultant to the Ford Foundation, Latin America Division; coeditor (with David Barkin) of Cuba: The Logic of the Revolution (1973)
 

Robert Marquez teaches Hispanic-American literature at Hampshire College, edits the magazine, Caliban and has written about and translated the poetry of Nicolas Guillén and many other Caribbean and Latin American poets.
 

Hal Mayerson is a New York attorney who works with the National Lawyers Guild Cuba Committee.
 

Paul F. McCleary, Executive Director of Church World Service and Associate Secretary of the Divison of Overseas Ministries of the National Council of Churches; author of Global justice and World Hunger, co-author (with Phillip Wogaman) of Quality of Life in a Global Society.
 

Carmelo Mesa-Lago, Director of the Center for Latin America Studies, University of Pittsburgh and professor of economics; author of Cuba in the 1970's (1978), editor of Revolutionary Change in Cuba and co-editor (with Cole Blasier) of Cuba in the World (1979).
 

Herman J. Milligan, Jr. teaches in the Dept. of Sociology at the University of Minnesota.
 

Elizabeth Moos is an educator in New York City who has traveled widely in China, the Soviet Union, and Cuba and written on their educational systems.
 

Victor Navasky is the editor of the Nation magazine and writes on American politics.
 

Julie Nichamin, assistant steward, Local 417 of United Electrical Workers.
 

John S. Nichols, School of Journalism, Pennsylvania State University, co-author (with Robert Pierce) of Keeping the Flame: Media and Government in Latin America (1979).
 

Marifeli Pérez-Stable, teaches at State University of New York, Old Westbury and is an editor of Areito magazine.
 

Alfred Padula teaches history at the University of Maine and has written on energy and development in Cuba.
 

James Petras, Dept. of Sociology, State University of New York, Binghamton, co-editor (with Martin Kenner) of Fidel Castro Speaks (1969) and author/editor of many books on Latin America, particularly on the role of the working class.
 

Annick Piant
 

Adamantia Pollis, Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research; co-author (with Peter Schwab) of Human Rights: Cultural and Ideological Perspectives (1979).
 

José Prince is an economist who teaches at the City University of New York.
 

Michael J. Rivas teaches at Emory University in Georgia and is a member of the Committee of 75.
 

Octavio Roca
 

Sergio Roca, Dept. of Economics, Adelphi University; author of Cuban Economic Policy and Ideology: the Ten Million Ton Sugar Harvest (1976) and numerous other articles on the Cuban economy.
 

Helen Rodriguez-Trias, M.D. works with the Committee to End Sterilization Abuse in New York City.
 

Albor Ruiz is the Executive Director of the Committee of 75.
 

Helen I. Safa, Dept. of Anthropology, Livingston College, Rutgers University; author of The Urban Poor in Puerto Rico (1974); co-editor (with June Nash) of Sex and Class in Latin America and (with B. du Toit) of Migration and Development.
 

Andrew Salkey teaches in the School of Humanities and Arts in Hampshire College, Amherst, Mass. and is the author of many books, including Havana journal (197 1) and editor of Writing In Cuba since the Revolution (1978). He was awarded the 1979 Casa de las Américas (Havana) poetry prize for his book, In the Hills Where Her Dreams Live, dedicated to Chile.
 

Tony Schuman is an architect who teaches at the New Jersey School of Architecture.
 

Bertram Silverman teaches economics at Hofstra University and works in a special educational program with District 65 in New York City; author of Man and Socialism in Cuba (1971).
 

Archie Singham teaches political science at Brooklyn College, works at the United Nations and has written extensively on the non-aligned nations movement.
 

Alfred Stepan, is chairman of the Dept. of Political Science at Yale University.
 

Ruth Ann Stewart, Assistant Chief, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library; author, Portia: The Life of Portia Washington Pittman, the Daughter of Booker T. Washington.
 

Michael Tigar, Esq, Tigar and Buffone, Washington, D.C.; author of Law and the Rise of Capitalism.
 

Nelson P. Valdés, Dept, of Sociology, University of New Mexico; author of The Cuban Revolution: A Research-Study Guide, 7959-7969 (1971); co-editor (with Rolando Bonachea), Cuba in Revolution (1972) and Fidel Castro Ruz: Selected Works (1972).
 

Barbara J. Webb teaches at Queens College.
 

Cora Weiss is the director of the Disarmament Program at Riverside Church, New York City.
 

Rosemary Werrett, editor of Business Latin America, is the author of Cuba at the Turning Point (1977), A Corporate Guide to Solving Operating Problems in Brazil, and Operating in the Central American Common Market.
 

Lynn Wheeler is a graduate student at the University of Indiana.
 

The Hon. Elliot Wilk is a civil court judge in New York City.
 

William Wipfler is the director of the Human Rights Office, Division of Overseas Ministries, National Council of Churches.
 

José Yglesias is the author of numerous books and articles on the Spanish-speaking world, including a book on Cuba, In the Fist of the Revolution (1968).
 

Andrew S. Zimbalist, Dept. of Economics, Smith College/Labor Center, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; author of Economic Democracy (1978) and Case Studies on the Labor Process (1979), and has written on Chile and Cuba.