LINGUIST List 6.64

Tue 17 Jan 1995

Sum: Cuba

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. "Paul Foulkes", Cuba

In November I posted a query as to whether anyone on the list,
particularly in the USA, had had any experience of, or problems
 with, communicating with Cuban academics.
Only four people replied, which may in itself be significant. Anyway,
thanks to those four for their communications.
To summarise:
1. Two people I know have been asked for offprints by linguists at
Havana University.
2. There was an exhibition by some 'third world' Americans at the
Biennial contemporary art exhibition just held in Cuba, reported in
the November issue of 'New Art Examiner'.
3. Some academics received last year a Call for Papers for an international
 conference in Cuba including areas on speech processing,
computational linguistics etc. The contact was :
Dr Eloina Miyares Bermudez (cmstgceniai.cu).
4. One respondent from the list told me that it is possible to e-mail
Cuba from the US. There is another source of information in the form
of an e-mail list in Spanish, Espana-Lalbnyvm1.bitnet,which is
primarily a social list for people who speak Spanish (Spanish is the
language of the list) and are Spanish or interested in Spain. The
cuba-l list can be read and contributed to worldwide.
On several occasions, a member has forwarded something from
Cuba to the list,
including recently a cri de coeur quoting passages of the Cuban
constitution and demonstrating that it was actually a travesty.
The original writer, a Cuban, was very openly decrying the
Cuban constitution. The poster quoted por-
tions of the constitution, then gave examples of how the
 regime flouts it to the harm of the cuban people and the
 self-aggrandizement of Castro, the local
police captain, or "the system" in general. That writer seemed to
 have no fear of retribution, as if the Cuban list were the
only safe place to speak up, and
were indeed safe, unlike whispers in the corner bar.
The correspondent finishes: "Castro can't keep Cubans from speaking
 freely, and the US government can't
 keep Americans from listening to or talking with the Cubans."

If anyone else wishes to comment, please forward your communications
to me, and I'll produce another summary.

Paul.Foulkesuk.ac.newcastle