Jose Marti in the 21st Century

Scholarly panel organized by EFL faculty member Susannah Rodriguez Drissi

How is a nineteenth-century poet who helped pave the way for Cuba's independence still relevant today, amidst thawing U.S.-Cuba relations and normalized sea travel between the island and Florida? Visiting Assistant Prof. Susannah Rodríguez Drissi organized and chaired a scholarly panel addressing this question at a conference on Cuba held at CSU San Bernardino on April 28-29, 2016. The panel, titled "José Martí in the 21st Century," brought together specialists on the work of one of Cuba’s greatest writers, including Bethany Beyer of College of Charleston, and Daniel Whiesell of UCLA. Prof. Rodríguez Drissi's paper explored links between Martí's early dramatic poem "Abdala" and the Arab Spring.