New Understandings of Cuban Culture and Society lecture

We welcomed two eminent visitors from Cuba, Julia Calzadilla and Jose Alberto Negrín, who came in to talk to our Pre-IB and IB students about economic, social and political developments in Cuba in recent times.

Julia Calzadilla is a poet and renowned author of children's fiction. She has worked for UNESCO in Paris and has also taught art history, the literature of myths and legends and eastern philosophies and religions.

José Alberto Negrín is a trained chemical engineer and he has worked as an editor of school and university science textbooks. He's also a volunteer in the Rapid Response and Rescue Brigade which deals with natural disasters such as Superstorm Sandy which hit the Caribbean and the eastern US last October. He's the secretary of the Havana branch of the Cuban Cultural Workers Union.

Their lecture on "New Understandings of Cuban Culture and Society" was spoken in Spanish and translated into English and our students were able to ask questions in Spanish if they wished in the Q&A session afterwards.

March