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Maria del Carmen Might Surprise in the Fair
02/08/2010
By: Sonia Sanchez
“I don't feel prepared for the fair, I hope it surprises me". Through these seemingly simple words, but filled with an arsenal of feelings, historian Maria del Carmen Barcia Zequiera greeted dozens of national and foreigners journalists gathered at the International Press Center of the Cuban capital.
Barcia Zequiera (Havana, January 21, 1939), owner of the best of her smiles, in her exquisite intervention she looked quite willing to stand up to the homage she will receive in next to the National Prize for Literature 2003 Reynaldo Gonzalez Zamora, in the 19th Book Fair Cuba 2010.
The also investigator, National Prize for Social Sciences 2003, daughter of Galician immigrant father and Cuban mother, has declared that since she was a little girl she had great imagination which in her opinion was favorable to guide her through the field of social sciences. After she graduated from the Faculty of History in the University of Havana, Cuba won a deep expert on the island’s traditions since the very origins of our nationality. Woman of vast culture and great professionalism.
We listen to her in this capacity this time, few days before the starting shot for the popular fair in its venue in Havana City, February 11-21, in San Carlos de la Cabaña Fortress and Los Tres Reyes del Morro Castle, historical constructions located to the east of Havana.
She assured she’ll be present in the texts of her authorship presented in the cultural celebration, and she will gladly greet readers in provinces when she is summoned for that journey through the country.
On a topic that monopolizes her studies to a great extent, the insertion of African slaves in Havana environment after the Spanish conquest and their families through the centuries, she referred to one of her titles that will for sale at the fair "The Illustrious Last Names: Blacks in Colonial Havana" which approaches, she says, another side of Africans and their descendants, because it’s specifically a book that seeks to reconstruct some aspects of the life of blacks and free mulattos in the Havana space, specifically in a city that was built with their work and sheltered their families, fights, and celebrations, that is, their everyday life".
She put in advance that it will be presented another edition of the historical essay that won her the Casa de las Americas Prize 2003 "The Other Family (relatives, networks, and slaves' descendant in Cuba)", about this work she said in an interview that she worked on "formal sociability of associations, but I also analyzed forms of informal sociability, like the family. And thanks to this investigation, she had the certainty that among blacks and mulattos there was a very strong family incidence, based on traditions, customs, habits... and that had marked them for a long time, although perhaps in previous years some things has gotten lost something that is being lately rescued."
The professor of Don Fernando Ortiz House of Higher Studies will also be next to her volume "A Society in Crisis: Havana in the Late 19th Century" that shows the Cuban society of the late 19th century and some of the complexities underwent in a time that shifted from tradition to modernity, changes that took place in a colonized country that struggle for their independence.
Another of the works that will be offered of this significant author will be the new edition of "Popular Layers in Cuba 1880-1930" and as she announced as a new surprise, a compilation entitled "Women on the Edge of History."
Professor by nature of several generations of professionals, María del Carmen Barcia Zequeira has integrated several scientific and editorial juries, national tribunals for granting scientific degrees, and she has participated in the last years in several national and international conferences and events.
All in all Cubans and foreigners of more than 40 countries from all continents will be her wisdom in Havana Book Fair Cuba 2010.
Particularly for those who want to follow her closely, will be able to find her in Nicolas Guillen room of La Cabaña Fortress, on Saturday February 13, at 10:00 a.m., when she lectures, next to other specialists, in the Encounter of Historians with the topic "The Racial Matter in our Social Sciences".
Cubasi Translation Staff
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