Event Highlights: The Cuban Hustle | Latin American Studies

Event Highlights: The Cuban Hustle

On Thursday, October 14, Sujatha Fernandes, Professor of Sociology at the University of Sydney, joined us via Zoom from Australia to talk about her 2020 book The Cuban Hustle: Culture, Politics, Everyday Life. The book is a collection of essays about Cuban life in the last two decades, since the end of the “special period.” The essays coalesce around the idea of “hustle,” a word arising out of the Cuban vernacular of “luchar,” describing the various ways Cubans have improvised and invented in order to navigate daily life in uncertain sometimes desperate conditions. She focuses particularly on art and music and how Cuban work through sociopolitical issues through the arts.

The conversation was moderated by Michael Birenbaum Quintero, Associate Professor of Music and Chair of Musicology & Ethnomusicology at BU’s College of Fine Arts.

Statement on Diversity and Inclusion

The Center for Latin American Studies at Boston University is proud of BU’s history of diversity and inclusion. BU’s founders opened the University’s doors to all students without regard to religion, race, or gender, and building and sustaining a vibrant community of scholars, students, and staff remains essential to its mission of contributing to and preparing students to thrive in, an increasingly interconnected world.

Success in a competitive, global milieu depends upon our ongoing commitment to welcome and engage the wisdom, creativity, and aspirations of all peoples and the Center for Latin American Studies is vital to the University’s mission of preparing global citizens. We forge concrete initiatives to integrate faculty and students across the university in the promotion of antiracism, diversity, and inclusion from a Latin American Studies perspective. Through our in-depth and interdisciplinary academic programs, as well as through a rich array of talks, lectures, round-table discussions, conferences, and other educational and cultural events, we assist the University in its efforts to create environments for learning, working, and living that are enriched by racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity.

At the Center for Latin American Studies, we believe in and practice respect for individual differences in life experience, sexual orientation, and religious belief, and we aspire to be free of intellectual parochialism, barriers to access, and ethnocentrism. We appreciate and deeply value the contributions and talents of every member of the Boston University community and invite you to learn more about us.