Is National Freedom Possible in Latin America and the Caribbean? A Forthcoming Series of Virtual Forums

Note: The Miami Institute for the Social Sciences’ executive director, Maribel Morey, introduces a new series of forums at the Institute, focused on analyzing the past, present, and future of national freedom in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“Cuba libre” were two common words that we would hear as children here in Miami, whether on the streets in front of the iconic Cuban diner, Versailles, in Little Havana or simply peppered in family conversations at home. One day, as many in our community would say, Cuba would be free. Sixty-seven years after the Cuban Revolution, Cuban Miamians still await a “free Cuba.”

And yet, what exactly are Miami Cubans waiting for? What would a free Cuba look like in the 21st century? Freedom from what, from whom, and for whom?

Because even if Cuba ultimately embraces freedom of expression and holds democratic elections, for example, could it achieve political and economic independence from dominant global players such as the U.S., China, the European Union, and Russia and from the dictates of international finance and billionaire investors? Would the country retain any of the social rights that the Cuban Revolution embraced, such as universal health care and universal literacy? Basically, what would freedom for the Cuban people look like in the 21st century, and would that vision of freedom be the same as (or radically different from) the freedoms that our ancestors once imagined for the island?

Leaning on Venezuela as yet another example of a country whose diaspora in Miami has equally chanted “Venezuela libre” for years, many in the Venezuelan community here in Miami celebrated the U.S. capture of then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier this year. However, since then, Maduro’s governing apparatus has largely stayed in place, with his former vice president now serving as the country’s president. As The New York Times reported in May: “Between the blessed and the cursed [in Venezuela] there is a yawning middle ground where nearly all other Venezuelans—professors, doctors, bricklayers, street vendors—spend their days sifting through the rubble of an obliterated economy. For this sizable slice of the population, U.S. intervention has changed little so far and holds only a faint prospect of anything better.”

In the coming months, please join the Miami Institute for the Social Sciences as we launch a series of virtual conversations bringing together knowledge producers across the Global South and North to discuss the past, present, and future visions for national freedom in Latin America and the Caribbean. The forums will focus on one country at a time—from Venezuela, Cuba, and Haiti to Guyana and Nicaragua—with forum contributors discussing whether (and if so, when) these countries were (ever) committed to national freedom; what this freedom has meant over time; and what national freedom for these countries might look like in the 21st century.

While the focus of these forums will remain on Latin American and Caribbean countries, they will lean on the lived experiences and knowledge produced as well by other Miami Institute community members based in other parts of the world, including throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America.

Our hope is to learn from each other, and to give further thought on what precisely we are awaiting as diasporic communities here in Miami when we chant for freedom in our countries of heritage across Latin America and the Caribbean.  

-Maribel Morey, executive director