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With this masterful work, Louis A. Pĩrez Jr. transforms the way we view Cuba and its relationship with the United States. On Becoming Cuban is a sweeping cultural history of the sustained encounter between the peoples of the two countries and of t
Firmat explores the process of assimilation or transculturation in the case of Cuba, and proposes a new understanding of the issue of Cuban national identity through revisionary readings dating from the early decades of the twentieth century, a time of intense self-reflection in the nation's history. He argues that Cuban identity is translational rather than foundational and that cubanía emerges from a nuanced, self-conscious recasting of foreign models.
With this masterful work, Louis A. Perez Jr. transforms the way we view Cuba and its relationship with the United States. On Becoming Cuban is a sweeping cultural history of the sustained encounter between the peoples of the two countries and of the ways that this encounter helped shape Cubans' identity, nationality, and sense of modernity from the early 1850s until the revolution of 1959. Using an enormous range of Cuban and U.S. sources--from archival records and oral interviews to popular magazines, novels, and motion pictures--Perez reveals a powerful web of everyday, bilateral connections between the United States and Cuba and shows how U.S. cultural forms had a critical influence on the development of Cubans' sense of themselves as a people and as a nation. He also articulates the cultural context for the revolution that erupted in Cuba in 1959. In the middle of the twentieth century, Perez argues, when economic hard times and political crises combined to make Cubans painfully aware that their American-influenced expectations of prosperity and modernity would not be realized, the stage was set for revolution.
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Controlling, measuring, and "designing" the color of food are critical concerns in the food industry, as the appeal of food is chiefly determined visually, with color the most salient visual aspect. In 2010 at the International Color Association Interim Meeting held in Mar del Plata, Argentina, a multidisciplinary panel of food experts gathered to discuss the importance of color in food from perspectives ranging from chemistry to psychology to engineering. Select individuals from this elite symposium were invited to expand upon their presentations for publication in Color in Food: Technological and Psychophysical Aspects. The thematic scope of this volume comprises issues related to color re...
Publisher Description
Recent literary studies and related disciplines have given much attention to phenomena that seem to occupy more or less permanently eccentric positions in our experience. Gustavo Perez Firmat examines three of these marginal or liminal phenomena—paying particular attention to the distinction between "center" and "periphery"—as they appear in Hispanic literature. Carnival (the traditional festival in which normal behavior is overturned),choteo(an insulting form of humor), and disease are three liminal entities discussed. Less an attempt to frame a general theory of such "liminalities" than an effort to demonstrate the interpretive power of the liminality concept, this work challenges conventional boundaries of critical sense and offers new insights into a variety of questions, among them the notion of convertability in psychoanalysis and the relation of New World culture to its European forebears.
While both Spain and Poland developed genteel cultures grounded in Catholic religion, and experienced periods of growth followed by long decline, it is also the case that large differences in political economy and military structures also existed. Thus while Spain merely declined in power, Poland was partitioned by three powerful and rapacious neighbors. The Catholic and conservative elements that have been strong in both Poland and Spain have often been portrayed as obscure nativist and racist and even fascist. The purpose of this volume is to move beyond the simplistic vision this created about both countries into a more balanced and careful appraisal of tradition and development. Puncturi...
Herbert Klein's book makes several distinctive contributions to our understanding of the slave trade. It offers us the first systematic comparative study of major European slave traders based exclusively on archival sources. The author's minimization of the effect of overcrowded slave ships contributes to a longstanding debate regarding the mortality rate of the slaves. His emphasis of the African influences on the character of the slave trade offsets the more frequent emphasis placed on the European influences. Furthermore, Klein maintains that basic similarities existed among the slave-trading practices of all nations, with no one nation being any better than another. Using demographic and...