july26.org

Cuban film at the 2019 Boston Latino International Film Festival, BLIFF.org –“Bakosó: Afrobeats of Cuba” –- Thursday,  September 26, 8:00, Harvard University, Tsai Auditorium at CGIS, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge. Documentary by Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi, 50 mins, that shows the technology, culture and landscape that shape this new genre of African-Caribbean fusion. Preceded by “Nowhere Bastards” by Mario González Jiménez, 11 mins, the story of three Mexican rappers who have found a shelter from adversity in hip-hop.

Saturday afternoon, October 5, 4:00 — Dr. Jourdy James Heredia, Subdirector, Global Economy Research Center in Havana, “An Economy Under Siege: Building Socialism and Solidarity with Cuba Today.” Witness for Peace “Solidarity Collective” tour, Boston Nature Center, 500 Walk Hill St., Mattapan. For the full schedule, see the tour events page.

The National Network on Cuba (NNOC) is holding its annual conference Friday through Sunday, October 18-20, at the Institute for Policy Study with two additional days of Congressional visits and advocacy for those interested in meeting with elected representative and staff, especially around the new travel bills.  Basic overview here; updates available in the NNOC mailings archive.

Cuba Exhibition through October 12 at the Montserrat College of Art in Beverly — Adrián Fernández Milanés built the massive multi-media installation “Pending Memories” over a recent two-week period.

Early November, presentation by Boston reps of this year’s Cuba May Day Brigade, Judy Freiwirth, Bob Mulcahy, and Aba Taylor. Details to follow.

Late 2019/early 2020 Witness for Peace “Solidarity Collective” trips to Cuba can be found here.

The July 26^th Coalition presents

The Cuban Revolution 60^th Anniversary Celebration

Monday, July 29^th, 7:00-9:00

Fenway Community Center
1282 Boylston St. at Jersey St.
a block south of Fenway Park, handicap accessible

Nalda Vigezzi and Wally Sillanpoa ; Mavis Anderson; Jessica Borges.

Program Introduction by Margaret Witham — Moderated by Nalda Vigezzi
Greetings from Rep. Jim McGovern

Jessica Borges, graduate student, Clark University; Policy Specialist, Cuba Ministry of Foreign Relations; Intern, Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples, icap.cu: “Living and Working in Cuba as a Young Revolutionary”

Wally Sillanpoa, political activist, July 26^th Coalition, 20+ years experience in Cuba: “LGBT Issues in Cuba: Personal Narrative of a Gay Northamerican Comrade”

Mavis Anderson, Senior Associate, Latin America Working Group, lawg.org:  “A DC Strategy in the Current Era of U.S.-Cuba Relations”

Announcements

Program flyer.

The July 26th Coalition of Boston is hosting
The Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan
Wednesday, June 19, 2019, 7:30 pm
First Baptist Church Of Jamaica Plain
633 Center Street

• Featuring
• Gail Walker, Executive Director of IFCO/Pastors for Peace, “The Case for Ending the US Blockade Against Cuba”
• Rachel Domond, PSL Boston, on “The Recent Boston Urban Farmers Delegation to Cuba”
• Lee Schlenker, Witness for Peace New England, “Recently Returned: Update on Venezuela”

Facebook Event   —    program flyer
ifconews.org   —   july26.org   —   solidaritycollective.org

The July 26 Coalition is hosting up to 20 Cuban scholars participating in the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) annual conference at Marriott Copley. Miguel Fraga, the First Secretary of the Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C. is also invited.

• Saturday, May 25, 2019, 8:00-10:00 pm
• Lenox Hotel’s City Bar reception room
• 1st floor, wheelchair accessible
• Complimentary appetizers, Cash bar
• RSVP: Margaret Witham, pegaleg45@gmail.com – (617) 905-9510

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• • “Imperialist War on Cuba and Venezuela: Afro-Caribbean Socialist Women Fight Back”
• Friday, May 24, 7:00 pm
• Encuento 5, 9A Hamilton Pl. (near Park St. T station)

Join the Boston branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Witness for Peace New England, the Boston Venezuela Solidarity Committee, and the July 26th Coalition for a special panel discussion on empire, race and socialism in Cuba and Venezuela. With

• Jourdy James Heredia, subdirector of the Global Economy Research Center in Havana;
• Gisela Arandia, president of the Cuban chapter of the Regional Articulation of Afro-descendants in Latin America and the Caribbean; and
• Jeanette Charles, international solidarity liaison with VenezuelAnalysis.com.

This event will be held in both English and Spanish; interpretation services will be provided. Food and drink will be served; unfortunately encuentro5 is not wheelchair accessible. Additional information about the presenters is in the full posting, along with a photo of the event. Continue reading →

Unfortunately filmmaker Eric Corvalán had to cancel plans for this trip at the last minute. We’ll try to get a copy the movie and show it at a later date.  

Award-winning Cuban filmmaker Eric Corvalán Pelle will introduce his 35-minute documentary Race (Raza): A Cuban Documentary in Colors (2009) on Monday, April 22, at 7:00 at Encuentro 5, 9A Hamilton Place, next to the Orpheum Theatre at the Park Street MBTA Station.     Continue reading →

Amidst new year tributes on the Cuban Revolution’s 60th anniversary, foreboding reports about Venezuela

New year congratulations and tributes to the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution have been posted from around the globe — e.g., from the National Network on Cuba (NNOC), the African Awareness Association, Let Cuba Live, the Republic of South Africa, Vietnam, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere.   There are celebrations occasioning the 50th anniversary of the Venceremos Bridge and invitations to join it in July — vb4cuba.com — and for IFCO/Pastors for Peace’s 38^th Friendshipment Caravan also in July. 

Mixed with these announcements, Havana was hit at the end of the month by a destructive tornado (note the link for support) — and foreboding reports about Venezuela.

What makes the Venezuela reports so worrisome is the complicity of so many seemingly progressive voices in U.S. aggressive militarism and avoidance of U.S. responsibility for the country’s destabilization.  FAIR (and more generally here), Democracy Now, NACLA have been especially informative in both providing thoughtful and detailed analyses of media complicity in U.S. aggression as well the on-going struggles there.

Notable is the special February 4th weekly Resumen Latinoamericano English Edition (on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook as well as at resumen-english.org), issue 302, devoted entirely to Venezuela.

Join Witness for Peace at encuentro 5, Sunday, December 2, 6:00-8:30 for a community dinner, screening of Tierralismo (2014) about the 26 acre farming co-op on the outskirts of Havana, and dialogue with urban farmers of color from Boston about their upcoming delegation to Cuba in December.

This fundraiser and send-off event for the delegation, with a $10 suggested donation at the door for food and the screening, will help to cover participants’ delegation fees for meals, lodging, transportation, interpretation and guide services, program and entrance costs, direct support to Cuban farmers, popular educators and organizers on the ground, and extensive reading and activist tools for delegates. More on the trip at its Facebook site.

See, too, the flyer about the WFP March 2019 Arts, Culture and U.S.-Cuba Relations Delegation trip here.

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We’re interested in hearing from anyone attending the Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies November 30 program at Harvard on Cuba Studies Graduate Student Symposium: New Voices in Cuba Studies. Contact info@july26.org.

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Just in from Judy Robbins and our colleagues on the Maine solidarity committee — The Let Cuba Live web site has been updated with:

• Articles written by the Cuban doctors returning from the Mais Medicos program in Brazil
• Coverage in “Our America” of increasing intervention in Latin America by the Empire and its allies
• Several new pieces in “News and Views” by Tom Whitney, Arnold August and others
• p.s. does everybody know that JetBlue.com now flies from Boston to Havana ?!?!