Preface

Volume 39 goes to press in a time of transition: presidential succession both in the United States and in Cuba, and perhaps the prospects of other changes to follow, some of which may directly affect the work to which this journal is dedicated. The approach of the fiftieth anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution similarly provides still one more occasion for retrospective gazes at the Cuban past and contemplative musings about the Cuban future.

The convergence of these circumstances provides the basis for prompting a meditation on the prospects of continuity, issues that Lisandro Pérez engages in his essay "Reflections on the Future of Cuba." Historical research on diverse facets of nineteenth-century Cuba is aided by the insightful essay "Hard Work with the Mare Magnum of the Past: Nineteenth-Century Cuban History and the Miscelánea de Expedientes Collection," by Jorge L. Giovannetti and Camillia Cowling. Music in the Special Period is the subject of Robert Nasatir's insightful article, "El Hijo de Guillermo Tell: Carlos Varela Confronts the Special Period." In the article "Under the Volcanoes: The Influence of Guatemala on José Martí," authors Robert L. Huish and W. George Lovell shed new light on previously little-known facets of how Martí's time in residence in Guatemala influenced him. Ann Marie Stock addresses technology and the state of Cuban animation arts in the larger world market during the passage from one century to the next in "Tradition Meets Technology: Cuban Film Animation Enters the Global Marketplace."

The Cuban Studies editorial staff wishes to take this opportunity to welcome Joshua Shanholtzer to the University of Pittsburgh Press. We look forward to a fruitful collaboration in the years to come. As always, Deborah Meade has been an important collaborator in the preparation and production of Cuban Studies, for which we are grateful.