The U.S. Embassy in Havana was officially reopened in August 2015.
Dr. Jorge Duany has been invited to give a public talk titled "So Close and Yet So Far: Changing U.S.-Cuba Relations," at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Helsinki in Finland. The event is scheduled to take place on Monday, November 11, 2019.
In his lecture, Dr. Duany will evaluate the impact of the Cuban Revolution of 1959 on the Island's relations with the United States. He will emphasize key events during the 1960s—such as the establishment of the U.S. embargo, the breakup of diplomatic relations, and the Cuban missile crisis—, which led to increasing geopolitical tensions between the two countries at the height of the Cold War. Furthermore, U.S. policy changes toward Cuba under President Barack Obama after December 14, 2014 will be reviewed. Finally, Dr. Duany will discuss the current situation of U.S.-Cuba relations under President Donald Trump, which have deteriorated substantially since January 2017.
Dr. Jorge Duany is Director of the Cuban Research Institute and Professor of Anthropology at Florida International University. He has published extensively on migration, ethnicity, race, nationalism, and transnationalism in Cuba, the Caribbean, and the United States. He is the author, coauthor, editor, or coeditor of 21 books on Cuban, Puerto Rican, Caribbean, and Latino studies.
