Editor’s Note

This is the first volume of Cuban Studies produced under a new editorial team based at Harvard University. The journal was dormant for several years, a transitional period during which it depended on guest editors and occasional submissions. That period of uncertainty is over, and we are pleased to report that Cuban Studies, now one of the longest-lasting academic journals dealing with Cuban topics published anywhere in the world, has entered a new period.

We began by appointing a new editorial board, as memberships in the previous board had all expired or were about to expire. The new board seeks to reflect the richness and diversity of the field of Cuban studies in terms of disciplines, approaches, authorship, and the geographic dispersion of its production. Serious scholarship on Cuba is produced today well beyond Cuba and the United States, the traditional centers of knowledge production about the island. There are important centers in Canada, Mexico, Spain, and Great Britain. Several scholars of Cuba, including a growing number of Cuban scholars, are also working in various academic centers in Latin America, stretching the geographic reach of the field, and benefiting from exchanges and perspectives brewed in other intellectual traditions. The field is no longer the near-exclusive monopoly of white males, a welcomed change that our editorial board seeks to reflect as well. Nor are studies of Cuba mostly confined to traditional disciplines such as history, political science, economics and literature. They now encompass cultural studies, gender studies, art history and criticism, LGBT studies, ethnography, anthropology, musicology, racial and ethnic studies, environmental studies, and more.

We build on a long and distinguished tradition of excellence, collaboration, and intellectual integrity. Even during the times when studies about Cuba, no matter the subject, were hopelessly politicized, Cuban Studies was always a rare space of academic integrity, respectful dialogue, and productive exchange. Even at a time when Cuban culture was produced through what Ambrosio Fornet has called “reciprocal negations,” the journal sought to publish empirically based, methodologically sound, serious academic research. Some of the first academic polemics involving scholars based in Cuba and the United States were published by the journal, with great respect for all involved. We honor these legacies and benefit from the wisdom of more than forty years of editorial existence by having the founding editor of Cuban Studies (Carmelo Mesa-Lago) and the former rotating editors—Jorge Domínguez, Jorge Pérez López, Louis A. Pérez Jr., and Enrico Mario Santí—as “honorary members” of our board. They have deep, unparalleled knowledge about the evolution of Cuban studies—both the journal and the field.

Following a sensible initiative introduced by Louis A. Pérez Jr. during his editorial tenure, we asked two colleagues to serve as book review editors, one based in Cuba and one based in the United States. They need no introduction. Lillian Guerra is a renowned historian of twentieth-century Cuba and the Caribbean, author of several key texts about the history of the island. Reinaldo Funes Monzote is an expert in the field of environmental studies, the top environmental historian of Cuba. Through their efforts, we will be publishing reviews about books on Cuba published all over the world, but we are particularly committed to the inclusion of books published in Cuba and of reviewers based in the island. We ask our readers and collaborators to bring interesting books to our attention: tracking today’s global editorial production is no easy task. Finally, we are lucky to have Cary Aileen García Yero as managing editor of Cuban Studies. A scholar of Cuban culture, with training in history and music, García Yero oversees the peer-review process of manuscripts, participates in editorial decisions, and helps assemble the volumes.

Thanks to the dedication of this editorial team, and of our multidisciplinary board, we have produced this issue in record time. In addition to papers in history, culture and politics, this volume contains a central dossier on demography. This dossier charts some of the important changes experienced by the Cuban population—a concept that of course includes those living abroad—and some of the challenges posed by those...