2019 Program Overview
Date
2019-06
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The Center for José Martí Studies Affiliate at the University of Tampa
Abstract
PROGRAM OF STUDY
The Institute’s 4-week program of study will be organized according to the three principal
elements that make up this extraordinary history. First, participants will come to know the history
of the immigrant communities of Ybor City and Key West during the last two decades of the 19th
century, their origins, settlement, rapid growth, and the novel forms of civil society they created,
blending old world traditions with the new economic and social realities of their adopted nation.
All aspects of these communities will be explored, including political activism, labor strife, social
organization, and cultural production. Secondly, the Institute will focus on two key aspects of the
life and work of José Martí: his role in establishing the Cuban Revolutionary Party among the cigar
workers of Tampa and Key West, and his place among the great U.S. chroniclers of the Gilded
Age. Special emphasis will be placed on the enormous influence these immigrant communities
had on Martí’s formulation of a national identity –Patria–, and on his unique and revealing
analysis of U.S. government and society. Thirdly, the Institute will examine the rationale for the
U.S. intervention in the struggle for Cuban independence and analyze the far-reaching
consequences that the Spanish-American War has had on the global distribution of power,
consequences that to this day reverberate through politics, history, culture and economics.
During the final week, participants will have ample time to develop their teaching modules
and/or research projects while engaging in a series of workshops and discussion panels designed
to weave these stories together into an integrated and multidisciplinary portrait.
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Keywords
Ybor City, James Lopez, Denis Rey, Havana, Cuba, Jose Marti, Martí Pérez