In this post, William A. Booth, Lecturer in Latin American Studies at the UCL Institute of the Americas, reflects on Cuba after a recent visit to the island, where he attended a conference marking the sixtieth anniversary of the Tricontinental Conference.

 Cuba’s Past, Present, and Many Possible Futures 

 William A. Booth 

I have just returned from Havana, Cuba where I was taking part in a conference examining the ‘context, impact, legacy and future’ of the Tricontinental Conference on its sixtieth anniversary. This was hosted by the University of Havana and co-organised by the University of Nottingham’s Centre for Research on Cuba, and attended by almost two hundred scholars from all over the world. It was covered by local and regional television stations. 

 It was an interesting and rather tense time to be in Havana – the morning after I arrived, two days of national mourning began for the thirty-two Cuban soldiers killed in Trump’s raid on Venezuela; the day after I left, their bodies were repatriated and Havana saw huge marches marked by sorrow, anger and defiance. The conference served as a timely reminder of the solidarity, co-operation and sacrifice associated with the Tricontinental; we heard excellent papers on education, health, construction and military training. One of the keynotes was given by Comandante Victor Dreke, veteran of anti-colonial struggles in Africa and former comrade of Amílcar Cabral. Now almost ninety years old, his incandescence over ongoing US intervention in Latin America was palpable.  (more…)