Research Interest
I would like my research to be concentrated on the recent events occurring between Cuba and the United States, more specifically the growth of the Cuban private business sector because of the thawing of relations. For the last 58 years, Cuba has been under a Communist regime where all business was under central government rule. In recent years, some private business has been legalized. With the new thawing of relations between Cuba and the United States, there has been massive entrepreneurial and innovative growth.
I want to engage with the changes happening in Cuba, more specifically on how a growing volume of American exposure has changed the mentality and ideas of the Cuban population and private business owners. Has there been a change in ideology? Are Cubans genuinely happy with the changes? How is the government reacting, in terms of new laws? What are the changes? These are some of the puzzles I am interested in exploring. This research topic is significant to me because being born and raised in Cuba, has made constant visits— I have noticed a huge shift in Cuban society after the announcement of the reestablishment of relations. Fortunately, I have had the opportunity to speak and engage with Cuban people, professors, and officials, and ask them about this ongoing social change. Although everyone feels differently about the change of Cuban society, they all recognize that it is undoubtedly a continuing phenomenon. My goal is to bring these feelings and ideas into the conversation and either provide new information or advance current research.
I strongly believe that this ongoing phenomenon is one of the biggest nuances in the field of International Affairs. I view this diplomatic milestone by Obama as one of the final nails in the coffin of the Cold War. This also merits substantial research because of a long history of Cuba’s fight for national sovereignty especially from the United States in terms of their imperialist history with Cuba during the era after the Spanish-American war and their economic dependency before the Cuban Revolution.
Luis — you have an important and compelling topic area here! As you continue to think about puzzles, make sure to meet with your faculty mentor (if you haven’t already done so) and also to consider what other scholars have written about the broad topic area (with particular attention to debates that are still ongoing). You articulate some good starting questions in your second question, but I would also say that to get to a good *research puzzle* you’ll also want to keep digging (and reading!). A good puzzle is built upon solid empirical observation, so that you can point to something concrete — a trend, an outcome, a state of affairs, an event, etc. — that simply demands explanation (and with that explanation, you can then start to address implications, interventions, etc.). What is that *unexplained* thing in your topic area?