Preface

Volume 38 of Cuban Studies provides an occasion to present to its readership new research on a wide array of themes by way of novel perspectives, spanning the middle years of the nineteenth century through the early twenty-first century. The process of liberation in the nineteenth century serves as one thematic concern: Gillian McGillivray's thoughtful essay on the method of liberation, the analysis by José María Aguilera Manzano of liberal thought, and Thomas Ward's juxtaposition of Martí and Blaine. The study of Cuban cinema as a means for a larger understanding of the Cuban condition is represented by Elliott Young's treatment of Suite Habana and Laura Redruello's examination of Alicia en el Pueblo de las Maravillas. The "recovery" of poet José Angel Buesa by Gustavo Pérez Firmat offers new insight into the world of midcentury Cuban letters. Lillian Guerra provides perspective on the meaning of Elián González in the context of life as lived in Miami.

This volume also reflects the growing participating of colleagues outside the United States, including Cuba, Canada, and Spain, as contributors, as reviewers of books, and especially as referees of manuscripts. We have availed ourselves of the technology that enables—in a timely fashion—scholarly engagement, thereby expanding the collaborative scope of our undertaking. This sharing of views, which involves also an exchange of ideas, the dissemination of information, and the interchange of interpretations, has indeed developed into a hallmark facet of Cuban Studies. As the following articles and many of the books reviewed in this volume suggest, Cuban studies is indeed a flourishing intellectual enterprise.