Vol. 73/No. 38      October 5, 2009

Martí was the central organizer of Cuba’s final independence struggle against Spanish colonial rule, and warned about U.S. designs on Latin America as the imperialist epoch began in the late 19th century. Juárez led Mexico’s 1858-61 democratic revolution and the 1862-67 war to defeat a French invasion backed by European monarchies.

Lincoln, elected president of the United States in 1860, marshaled the forces that assured victory in the Civil War—the second American revolution—which overthrew the Southern slavocracy, and backed Juárez’s forces in Mexico.

Drawing on the ideas represented by these three leaders and the legacy of the revolutionary democratic struggles they led, the conference will “promote an Alternative for the Americas Inspired by the Ideas of Martí,” the organizers said in a conference announcement.

The event is sponsored by Monterrey-based institutions, including José Martí Cultural Society, José Martí Institute of Higher Education, and the Autonomous University of Nuevo León; the Center for the Study of Martí in Havana; and other academic and cultural groups in Mexico, the United States, and Cuba.

The international conference will include panels on topics such as “Martí and the Literacy Campaign in 1961 Cuba,” “The Teachings of Juárez in the Fight for a Better World,” “Martí, Juárez, and Lincoln in Face of the Challenge of Education with All for the Good of All,” “Slavery, Lincoln, and the U.S. Civil War,” and “From Bolívar to Fidel: The Liberation Struggle and Regional Integration.”

In addition to academics, organizers are encouraging participation by Chicano, Latin American, Black, and other student organizations, as well as workers involved in the fight for immigrant rights and other social struggles.

María de la Paz Quintanilla of the Juárez-Martí Center for Latin American Studies told the Militant that organizers expected about 200 to attend.

Featured speakers will include Miguel D’Escoto, president of the United Nations General Assembly; Gilberto López y Rivas, a well-known anthropologist and columnist for the Mexico City daily La Jornada; and Miguel Concha Malo, a prominent academic, theologian, and human rights activist in Mexico.

The conference will hear a keynote address by Armando Hart, one of the historic leaders of the Cuban Revolution and former minister of education and minister of culture. Today Hart is the director of the Office of the Martí Program in Cuba.

Hart will also speak at a panel on “Culture as the Driving Force of Economic Development.”

Mexican participants will be coming from Mexico City, Guadalajara, Jalisco, and Morelia, Michoacán; and students from the Monterrey, Nuevo León, area. U.S. participants are expected from Austin, San Antonio, Houston, and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas; from Minneapolis, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C. Panelists will also come from Quebec and Ontario, Canada.  
 
 
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