The uproar continues.
Facts About Cuban Exiles (F.A.C.E.) has written an open letter to President Julio Frenk of the University of Miami.
In this letter, several prominent Cuban exiles raise issues that they think Frenk has ignored.
Dear Dr. Frenk:
We are writing to you to address the troubling issues unfolding at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS).
The Cuban exile community is grieving under a profound sense of loss. Exiles, by nature, are people who have had to leave their homelands often due to a totalitarian government. Your own family has faced this with your grandparents, therefore, you must understand Cuban exiles quest to “never forget”.
Nobody can erase “Cuban Revolution,” but that doesn’t mean that the Cuban regime and its sympathizers will not try to rewrite history. Historian Jaime Suchlicki, Ph.D. is a careful and respected researcher who has dedicated 50 years to the truth about Cuba.
But, if there are to be two versions of the truth about the island, then his work needs to be continued unabated. He has lived the history he has written about, but always publishing with accurate statistics, footnotes and bibliography from impartial sources as well as from the regime’s own publications and official figures. Under his direction, the Institute of Cuban and Cuban-American Studies ICCAS has served as a platform for the exile community on a global scale.
The reality is that we are not in a post-Castro Cuba, as the Castro dynasty still holds power and will continue to do so even if behind a figurehead. Casa Bacadí was not only ICCAS’ home, but also the intellectual home of Cuban exiles. If it is no longer led by Dr. Suchlicki, and instead led by someone willing to live with the fantasy of a “post-Castro Cuba,” then it will be a fantasy that Cuban scholars in freedom cannot abide by.
We urge you to have a productive dialogue to ensure a good outcome that will allow for the mission of ICCAS to continue.
Respectfully yours,
The Board of Directors of Facts About Cuban Exiles (F.A.C.E.)
Tony Argiz, Chairman
Alexis Abril; Frank Angones; Marilyn Borroto; Frank Carreras; Armando Codina;
Fausto Diaz Oliver; Esteban Formoso; Ed Garcia; Armando Gonzalez;
Sandra Gonzalez-Levy; Adolfo Henriques; Aida Levitan; Raul Masvidal; Carlos Migoya;
Ralph Morera; Rene Murai; Eduardo Padron; Emilio Palomo; Frank Paredes; Rafael Peñalver;
Cesar Pizarro; Jorge Plasencia; Sofia Powel-Cosio; Claudia Puig; Leonardo Rodriguez;
Ray Rodriguez; Sam Verdeja; Enrique Viciana; Alex Villoch.
We should not ignore what may be a very significant element in this business. Frenk was dean of the public health school at Harvard from 2009 to 2015. There is a Cuban professor at Harvard, Jorge I. Domínguez, whose field is international studies or affairs with special emphasis on the study of Mexico, who is also considered a Cuba expert and who is anything but “intransigent” or one of “those people.” It is quite possible and very plausible that he and Frenk may be friends, and that his input to Frenk may be at work here.
Am I the only one who thinks Frenk looks anemic and frail, not to say enfermizo? Sheesh.
I think it’s virtually certain Frenk and Harvard’s Jorge Domínguez know each other and each other’s work, and it seems extremely probable that Frenk is using or will use Domínguez’s input in “normalizing” the ICCAS at UM and bringing it into line with general academic practice on all things “Latin.” Domínguez is a past president of LASA (Latin American Studies Association), and if you know LASA, that’s pretty much all you need to know about Domínguez. In other words, concerning the search for a new director for ICCAS, “those people” need not apply.