Damaris Puñales-Alpízar, Ph.D.
Dr. Damaris Puñales-Alpízar will present a lecture titled “Cuba: The Soviet Flavor of a Tropical Island, a Visit 20 Years Later” on campus at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 16, 2011 in Ogden P. Confer Hall, Room 128.
Puñales-Alpízar will discuss the Soviet influence on Cuban popular culture in the 1990s. She will look particularly at the film industry and will discuss Cuban and Russian co-productions like “Soy Cuba/Ya Kuba.”
As a member of the generation of Cubans born between 1960-80, Puñales-Alpízar holds the unique experience of growing up in what she refers to as a “sentimental imagined Soviet-Cuban community.” Growing up in such a community included learning Russian in school, watching Russian cartoons, and studying the Soviet Union.
Puñales-Alpízar holds a B.A. in journalism from the University of Havana, as well as an M.A. (2006) and Ph.D. (2010) in Spanish from the University of Iowa. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Spanish at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Her areas of expertise are Latin American literature as well as Cuban popular culture and film. Her recent research includes Cuban literature and culture after the collapse of the Soviet Empire.
“People should attend this event because they will get to hear an interesting talk on how the Soviet ideology influenced popular culture in Cuba in the 1990’s and she will show clips of Cuban films that are not accessible to the mainstream [as well as] photographs that she has taken during her many trips to Cuba that were related to her research,” says Gustavus Assistant Professor of Spanish Angelique Dwyer.
This free, public event is sponsored by the Gustavus Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (MLLC) and Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies Program (LALACS).
For any questions, contact professor Angelique Dwyer at adwyer@gustavus.edu or 507-933-7419.
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Media Contact: Director of Media Relations and Internal Communication Luc Hatlestad
luch@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510