Bacardi Lecture examines significance of Havana cigar

February 28, 2011

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The significance, history and future of the Havana cigar will be explored by Jean Stubbs in a lecture Wednesday evening.

Stubbs, the UF Center for Latin American Studies Bacardi Family Eminent Scholar, will deliver the 2011 Bacardi Lecture titled “The Havana Cigar Goes Global” at 7:30 p.m. March 2 in Smathers Library, Room 1A.

What was it about the Havana cigar that made it famous and coveted the world over? Why does its history continue inextricably to link Cuba with Florida, New York and Connecticut; the trans-Atlantic world; and places as far afield as Indonesia? And does the future of the emblematic Havana cigar hang in the balance?

Answers to these questions unfold in a visual exploration of the Havana cigar world. It is a journey of transfers of seed, knowledge and people, against a backdrop of landmark political upheavals; smoking, anti-smoking, and anti-anti-smoking campaigns; and disputed brands produced in Cuba and abroad.

Stubbs is a British historian who has published widely on Cuba. She is Associate Fellow at the Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London; and professor emerita of Caribbean History at London Metropolitan University, where she was the founding director of the Caribbean Studies Center. She is co-director of the Commodities of Empire British Academy Research Project and serves on the Academy’s Latin American and Caribbean Panel. She has held teaching and research fellowships funded by Rockefeller, Ford, and MacArthur Foundations at Florida International University and the University of Puerto Rico, University of Florida, and City University of New York.

In 2009 she was awarded the UNESCO Toussaint L’Ouverture Medal for outstanding achievement in combating racism in political, literary and artistic fields. Her interests span race, gender, labour and tobacco, and she is currently researching the new Cuban diaspora in Canada and Western Europe.

The Bacardi Eminent Scholar Chair in Latin American Studies was established in 1991 through the leadership of Bacardi Imports, Inc. and the collaboration of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the state of Florida. The endowment allows the Center for Latin American Studies to invite distinguished scholars and public figures to teach, lecture, mentor students and carry out research at the university.

Founded in 1930, the UF Center for Latin American Studies advances knowledge about Latin America and the Caribbean and its peoples throughout the hemisphere. With more than 170 faculty from colleges across UF, the center is one of the largest institutions for interdisciplinary research, teaching and outreach on Latin America, Caribbean, and Latino Studies. Programs include Tropical Conservation and Development, Crime, Law and Governance in the Americas, and Latin American Business Environment, among others.