n Cuba, race, nation, and popular music were inextricably linked to the earliest formulations of a national identity. This article examines how the racialized discourse of blanqueamiento, or whitening, became part of a nineteenth-century literary narrative in which the casi blanca mulata, nearly white mulatta, was seen as a vehicle for whitening black Cubans. However, as the novels of Cirilo Villaverde and Ramón Meza reveal, the mulata's inability to produce entirely white children established the ultimate unattainability of whiteness by nonwhites. This article analyzes the fluidity of these racial constructs and demonstrates that, while these literary texts advocated the lightening of the nation's complexion over time, they also mapped the progressive "darkening" of Cuban music as popular culture continued to borrow from black music;
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Journal Title Details:
3.5 Linear Feet
Notes:
Collection documents the life and academic career of Inez Adams, most notably including fieldwork on the United States civil rights movement and school desegregation. Series 1: Biographical Material, 1922-1962 includes "Ephemera and itineraries pertaining to travel in the Caribbean"; Series 3: Faculty Appointments, 1949-1965 includes "Folder 3: Fisk University: Bibliographies in Caribbean studies, 1956"; Series 4: Field Notes, 1950-1965 includes notes dealing with he Caribbean island of Trinidad;
Climatic changes and the increased air pollution intensify the atmospheric degradation of stone, affecting the aspect and integrity of valuable historical buildings constructed using limestone and located in tropical coastal sites. This paper analyzes limestone degradation process due to air pollution and humidity in tropical humid conditions in historical buildings located in the cities of Havana, Cuba and San Francisco de Campeche, Mexico. Havana shows higher pollution level than San Francisco de Campeche, which presents pollution levels as a consequence of a multipollutant situation along with the presence of airborne salinity. Temperature and humidity data were recorded from the walls of historical buildings in the city of Havana: the Minor Basilica and the convent of San Francisco. Changes in dry/wet cycles due to the absence of direct sun radiation as well as a high level of SO(2) allow the formation of a black crust (mainly composed of gypsum) in the lower part of the surface of the facade of the Basilica Minor in Havana; however, crusts formed in historical buildings located in San Francisco de Campeche City are mainly composed of calcium carbonate, indicating the importance of natural degradation mechanisms mainly due to dissolution in water. In the last case, the influence of water plays an important role in the development of biodegradation, which induces the formation of calcium oxalates. Caves and cracks were found in the walls of military buildings caused by water infiltration. The influence of air contamination, humidity, and construction materials determine the type of degradation that historical buildings undergo.
The Caribbean space is characterized by its cultural pluralism and is the scene of one of the most complex processes of syncretism and transculturation in America. Music, as an element of integration and at the same time of regional differentiation, is deeply rooted in the collective consciousness of the people of the Caribbean and is strongly associated with the identity that defines the region.
18 pages., This article reports on findings of a study that was conducted to establish the information needs of women subsistence or smallholder farmers and the various information sources they consulted to resolve their information needs. The study was qualitative,and a grounded theory design was used. Focus group interviews and observation were used to collect data from 14 women crop farmers and three women livestock keepers.The farmer-to-farmer extension (FFE) model was adopted to understand theinformation-seeking behaviours of women farmers and how they can be improved, if need be. The findings revealed that while the women crop farmers needed help with seeds, soil treatment and the protection of crops from pests and stray animals,they needed more information on drought preparedness and management, and,on how to transform from subsistence to commercial farming. Women livestock keepers needed information on livestock feeds, the treatment of various ailments, and disaster preparedness and management. In addition, they needed the reintegration of the extension officer.It also transpired that local libraries were not responding to the information needs of farmers.The main source of information was oral communication. The use of radio, television, cell phones and extension officers was limited.This study echoes other studies which propose it is important that libraries, non-government organisations (NGOs) and extension officers respond to the information needs of smallholder farmers, especially women.
21 Pages, Agricultural advisory services generally rely on interpersonal knowledge transfers by agricultural extension agents who visit farmers to provide information. This approach is not always effective and has proved hard to scale sustainably, particularly in highly dispersed smallholder farming systems. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been advanced as a promising way to overcome many of the problems associated with conventional agricultural extension. We evaluate the effectiveness of an ICT‐mediated approach to deliver agricultural information in a field experiment conducted among small‐scale maize farmers in eastern Uganda. Three complementary technologies designed to address both informational and behavioral constraints to technical change are considered. First, we investigate the effectiveness of audiovisual messages (video) as a means of delivering information on input use and improved maize management practices to farmers. Second, we quantify the additional impact of complementing video with an interactive voice response (IVR) service. Third, we estimate the incremental effect of time‐sensitive short message services (SMS) messages designed to remind farmers about applying key practices at specific points during the season. We find that households that were shown a short video on how to become better maize farmers were performing significantly better on a knowledge test, more likely to apply recommended practices, and more likely to use fertilizer than households that did not view the video. These same households also reported maize yields about 10.5% higher than those that did not view the video. We find little evidence of an incremental effect of the IVR service or SMS reminders.
