IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 6 ENGLISH | Page 29

LASA and the Cuban
Regime: An Undesirable
Invasion
José Hugo Fernández
Writer and journalist
Havana, Cuba

I

am told that about 300 Cubans
formally connected to or favorable
towards the Cuba’s governing
machine vied for spots on the island’s
official delegation for the 2015 LASA
(Latin American Studies Association)
conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In
the end, some 150 attended, among them
delegates and invitees; this number may
be higher than that of the sum of all the
other Latin American representatives
combined. This is not the only fact that
highlights the government’s interest in
making the conference it very own dais
and platform from which to promote
itself, but in and of itself if can give one
an idea of the effort that is put into this.
It is also not just any old effort given
LASA is the world’s largest professional
association of its kind; it has nearly
10,000 members. Among them are
experts from any and all disciplines
relating to Latin America who are
devoted to research, intellectual debate,
and teaching, as well as to promoting
civic
commitment
through
communications technology and live
meetings. It has yet to be seen to what
degree the obvious Cuban government’s
ideological penetration strategy is
working in LASA. It is an issue not even

analysts have taken the trouble to
examine,
probably
because
this
penetration has little (and always less)
potential for actually influencing the
continent’s destiny, if not for other
reasons, as well.
To be modern also means finally
realizing what is no longer possible.
Most of the region’s social scientists
already know that a model of a system
such as that of a totalitarian dictatorship
for the purpose of supporting certain
values is irrelevant, or inadmissible,
even in those cases where there is
sympathy for it. Yet, even if the Cuban
regime’s ability to rise above the
thoughts and actions of Latin America’s
new political direction seem limited, its
intention with the closeness of its
relationships with LASA’s core cannot
be futile. This organization’s enormous
power, influence and well-earned respect
among Latin America’s intelligentsia
and, among new groups, particularly,
must be considered an unbeatable way
for the hemisphere’s oldest dictatorship
to seek legitimation.
Cuba at LASA
Upon leafing through the extensive lists
of presentation titles about Cuba that

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