Two Programs:  Thursday and Friday, February 1 & 2 — and a Sunday addition. (Scenes from the Friday program here.)

Alan West-Durán, A Cultural History of Cuba, book launch — reading, discussion, Q&A — Thursday, Feb 1, noon-2:00, Northeastern University, Department of Cultures, Societies, and Global Studies, 310 Renaissance Park, 1135 Tremont St., across from the Ruggles MBTA station and parking garage, #63 on the campus map. Alan will host the Friday program.

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Friday, Feb 2, 7:00 at Encuentro 5. Griselda Aguilera Cabrera was a seven-year-old teacher in Cuba’s 1961 Revolutionary Literacy Campaign, one of nine women featured in “Maestra,” the award-winning documentary whose synopsis begins: “250,000 volunteer teachers joined the national literacy campaign. Almost half of them were under 18 and over half of them were women. Together they taught a nation to read and write – and their lives would never be the same.”

Now retired from her career as an educator, Griselda works with the Cuban Psychology Society’s Working Group on Identity and Diversity.  We plan to show the 32-minute documentary at the beginning of the program. Griselda will talk on Cuban education then and now and entertain questions about a wide range of topics.  Encuentro 5/E-5 is located at the Park Street T Station, next to the Orpheum Theatre at 9A Hamilton Place. Cuba travel information from the notice below will be available. This program is co-sponsored by the Boston Latino International Film Festival. West-Durán moderates and provides translation services. [Scenes from the program are here.]

Griselda will also be doing a short “seven minutes on a Sunday” presentation at the Community Church of Boston, at Copley Square, on Sunday, Feb. 4th at 11:00 a.m. before the main program. Details here.