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In this fascinating analysis of political discourse in Cuban culture, María de los Angeles Torres focuses on how the concept of time has been employed by different political projects. Torres closely examines the use of time and its political implications in Fidel Castro's "History Will Absolve Me" speech, the writings of Jose Martí and Che Guevara, the poetry of Eliseo Diego and the Orígenes group, and paintings and performance art by Cuban exiles Nereida García Ferraz, María Martínez-Caña, and Tania Bruguera. Delving into political texts and essays, literature, and art, Torres puts theories of temporalities in conversation with the Cuban experience.
Recent events in Cuba have placed the search for democracy and social justice center stage, and Torres also studies the temporalities underpinning these movements, asking whether these projects are providing alternatives to overused past and future tropes. She suggests ways of thinking for today's activists, encouraging them to remember history and imagine new possibilities while cultivating space for human agency now.
Speaker: María de los Angeles Torres, Distinguished University Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago. She is the author or editor of many books, including In the Land of Mirrors: Cuban Exile Politics in the United States and The Lost Apple: Operation Pedro Pan, Cuban Children in the U.S., and the Promise of a Better Future.
Moderator: Tania Bruguera, Senior Lecturer In Media & Performance, Theater, Dance & Media, Affiliate Of Art, Film, And Visual Studies and Faculty Member of the Cuba Studies Program at Harvard University.