This talk challenges prevailing narratives of the Cuban Revolution by exploring the subterranean dynamics of policies towards shantytown communities in Havana—and it considers the significance of this challenge in light of the present day. As government officials sought to relocate sites of informal housing in the 1950s, shantytown leaders organized protests, pressuring officials to generate social welfare initiatives. Although they offered many benefits, these initiatives also silenced local activists. The policies of the 1959 Revolution and the silence that followed grew from precisely this compromise. As urban poverty has reemerged in 21st century Havana, we will reflect on the meaning of this history amid the volatile currents of US-Cuban relations following Barack Obama’s unprecedented opening.
Jesse Horst is the Director of Sarah Lawrence College in Havana; BA, St. Olaf College. MA, PhD, University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Horst's research centers on slum clearance and popular housing before and after the Cuban Revolution of 1959. His research challenges the notion of a “great divide” between Republic and Revolution and it explores contentious interactions between urban elites and mostly-Afro-descended tenants and shantytown residents. In 2017, Dr. Horst was awarded the University of Pittsburgh’s Eduardo Lozano Memorial Dissertation Prize for best doctoral dissertation in Latin American Studies.