Numerous scholars and Cuba experts will attend a College-sponsored conference on "The Future of Democracy in Cuba" from Feb. 19 to Feb. 21.
The conference, sponsored by the John Sloan Dickey Endowment for International Understanding, will address political and cultural issues in Cuba in the wake of recent changes like the U.S. embargo against Cuba, Spanish and Portuguese Professor Jorge Hernandez Martin said.
History Professor Judith Byfield, who will moderate a panel discussion, said the conference will "attempt to explain as fully as possible where Cuba will be in the 21st-century, as part of the world community."
Hernandez Martin and Spanish and Portuguese Professor Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, the main organizers of the event, described the conference as "probably the best conference on Cuba taking place this year."
The event will consist primarily of panel discussions led by scholars from the United States, Cuba and other countries. The panel members are intended to foster "discussion of the issues, reacting to each other and to the audience," Hernandez Martin said.
According to Lugo-Ortiz, the overall goal of the conference is to instill the participants with the "perspective of different standpoints, both intellectual and political."
She said she hopes the event will "familiarize the Dartmouth community with the issue" that she called "a crucial issue for America."
Two keynote speakers will launch the conference.
Cambio-Cubano President Eloy Gutierrezz Menoy will focus on Cuban-American relations.
Hernandez Martin said Cambio-Cubano is a group that wants to "establish dialogue with the Cuban government to do away with the embargo out of concern for the Cuban people's well being."
The other speaker, Maria Elena Cruz Varela, will discuss politics within Cuba.
A professor at Universidad Interamericana in Puerto Rico, Varela heads Criterio Alternativo, an organization aimed at forming a Social Democratic party in Cuba.
American participants in the conference include Cuban experts from Princeton University, Smith College, Georgetown University and nine other universities.
There will also be international participants from Puerto Rico, England and Cuba.
The Cuba conference, originated by Dickey Endowment Director Martin Sherwin, is part of a continuing series on the future of democracy around the world. The series previously dealt with Russia, China and Haiti.
