Cuban Counterpoints
The Fernando Ortiz Symposium
Cuban Culture and History

March 20-22, 2000
This symposium is organized by

The Cuba Project
Queens College and GSUC
City University of New York

In collaboration with:

The Fernando Ortiz Symposium
Inter-Americas
Instituto Cervantes
The Instituto de Literatura y Lingüística/Sociedad Económica
de Amigos del País
María Fernanda Ortiz

We also thank:

The Ford Foundation
The Christopher Reynolds Foundation
The Reed Foundation
Queens College and The Graduate Center
(City University of New York)

PLACE:
Graduate School and University Center (GSUC)
33 West 42nd Street -- Room 1800
Manhattan, New York

The Symposium

This symposium focuses on the life and work of Fernando Ortiz to explore the complex and fertile relationship between his work and Cuban history, culture, and the arts. The Cuba Project and collaborators in this symposium are grateful for the support by the Ford Foundation, the Christopher Reynolds Foundation, Queens College and the Graduate School and University Center at the City University of New York.

To check the conference publication click here.

Program

Monday March 20
12.30 PM Registration
Exhibit - Photograhs, Paintings, Books
1.45-2.00 PM Opening
Presentation: Mauricio Font (Director - Cuba Project) Welcome: Frances Degen Horowitz (President - The Graduate Center)
Remarks: Margaret E. Crahan (The Graduate Center and Hunter College)
Maria Teresa Linares (Vice President, Fundacion Fernand Ortiz)
Maria Fernando Ortiz

2.00-5.00 PM Panels 1-2: Fernando Ortiz - Life and Legacy
Moderator: Maurcio Font
"Formacion intelectual de Ortiz en Espana"
Consuelo Naranjo (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas-Madrid)
"Fernando Ortiz: mi padre"
Maria Fernando Ortiz (Madrid and Houston)
"El homo cubensis: de la etnologia a la antropologia de la cubanidad"
Rafael Rojas (Colegio de Mexico)
"Ortiz y la etnografia en Cuba"
Maria del Rosario Diaz (Instituto de Literatura y Linguistica)
"Fernando Ortiz: Cubano entre cubanos"
Jose A. Matos Arevalos (Fundacion Fernando Ortiz)

Discussants:
Alfonso Quiroz (The Graduate Center and Baruch College)
Jane Gregory Rubin (Inter Americas)
Pedro Perez-Sarduy (London)

Concert: "Cuban Legacy: The Classics"
Baisley P. Elebash Recital Hall

Tuesday March 21
8.00 A.M. Registration

8.30-10.45 AM Panel 3: Interpreting Cuban History

Moderator: Margaret E. Crahan
"El ideario politico de Fernando Ortiz"
Carmen Almodovar (University of Havana)
"Revisiting Tobacco"
Jean Stubbs (Unversity of North London)
"El nacionalismo cubano y los Estados Unidos"
Ana Cairo (University of Havana)
"Ciencia y pensamiento: La Institucion Hispano-Cubana de Cultura"
Miguel Angel Puig-Samper (Centro Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas Madrid)
"The Early Republic: Politics, Civic Culture and Sovereignty"
Marifeli Perez-Stable (SUNY-Old Westbury and Florida International University)

11-12 NOON
Panel 4: Ortiz and Cuban Cinema

Moderator: Jerry Carlson
"Ortiz and Una Pelea Cubana Contra los Demonios"
Jerry Carlson (City College & Cuny-TV)
Panelist: Rigoberto Lopez, filmaker

12.15 PM Lunch

1.30-3.30 PM Panel 5:Anthropology and the Social Sciences
Moderator: Carmen Almodovar
"Transcultural Anthropology in the Americas: The Uses of Fernando Ortiz"
Fernando Coronil (University of Michigan)
"Fernando Ortiz, Gilberto Freyre and the Myth of Mulataje"
Julio Cesar Pino (Kent State University)
"The Notion of Embeddedness in Ortiz"
Enrique Pumar (Catholic University of America)
"Interlocking Cultures in the African Diaspora: The Work of Fernando Ortiz"
Marta Moreno Vega (The Caribbean Cultural Center)

3.45-5.45 PM Panel 6: Diversity and National Identity
Moderator: Ana Cairo
"The Plantation and the Frontier: Two Keys to Cuban Cultures"
Luis Martinez-Fernandez (Rutgers University)
"Vigencia del concepto de afrocubano"
Tomas Fernandez Robaina (Biblioteca Nacional "Jose Marti")
"Transculturation la Ajiaco: A Recipe for Modernity"
Patricia D. Catoira (University of New Mexico)
"Ortiz's Primitives"
Eduardo Gonzalez (John Hopkins University)
Discussant: Roman de la Campa (SUNY-Stony Brook)

Concert: "Cuban Legacy: The Afro-Cuban Heritage"
Baisley P. Elebash Recital Hall

Wednesday March 22
8.00 AM Registration

8.30-10.30 AM Panel 7: Law and Religion
Moderator: David Lopez
"On Crime and Punishment: Ortiz Reforms the Penal Code"
Alejandra Bronfman (Princeton University)
"La doctrina criminal cubana a traves del pensamiento juridicio de F.Ortiz"
David Lopez (Fundacion Fernando Ortiz)
"La religion en la obra de Fernando Ortiz"
Jorge Ramirez (CIPS)
"Ethnographic Dualism, Racial Ambivalence and Global Santeria"
Lisa Maya Knauer (York University)
Discussant: Margaret E. Crahan (The Graduate Center and Hunter College)

10.40 AM - 12.40 PM Panel 8 - Ortiz and Literature
Moderator: Pamela Smorkaloff (New York University)
"El explorador erudito: emblema, simbolos, y metaforas conceptuales en las teorias de Fernando Ortiz"
Antonio Fernandez Ferrer (Universidad de Alcacia, Spain)
"Carnaval, masculinidad y mascaras de la identidad: el travestismo cultural en Fernando Ortiz"
Jossiana Arroyo (University of Michigan)
"Ortiz Returns to the Island of the Iremes"
Octavio di Leo (Yale University)
"Romance de Dona Azucar y Don Tabaco"
Alfredo A. Fernandez (University of Houston)
"De como Fernando Ortiz supo hallar una moza esquiva para cierto caballero encantado"
Ricardo Vinalet (Instituto de Literatura y Linguistica)
Discussant: Roberto Gonzalez-Echevarria (Yale University)

12.15 PM Lunch

2.00-3.45 PM Panel 9: Music and Dance
Moderator: Olga Garay (Doris Duke Charitable Foundation)
"Fernando Ortiz, Fundador"
Maria Teresa Linares (Ethnologist, Fundacion Fernando Ortiz)
"Changui: The Afro-Haitian Presence in Eastern Cuba and its Significance in the Development of Cuban son"
Benjamin Lapidus (Graduate School, City University of New York)
"Dance and the Formation of National Subjects in Revolutionary Cuba"
Tara Susman (Columbia University)
Discussant: J. Michael Turner (Hunter College)

3.00-5.00 PM Closing
Rapporteur's Rapport: Octavio di Leo
Commentary: Bill Kornblum