Daniel Howell of New York University will give the talk "To Die for the Fatherland! 19th-Century Cuban Nationalism and Havana's Multiracial Working Class" on Feb. 20 at 6:00 p.m.in the Nebraska Union's Heritage Room. The talk is free and open to the public.
In 1865, the writer Luis Victoriano Betancourt published a prose poem titled “To Die for the Fatherland!” It appeared in the workers’ newspaper La Aurora and was likely read out loud in cigar factories. Three years later, Betancourt would participate in the Constitutional Assembly at Guáimaro and even take up arms against the Spanish.
So how was he able to publish his incendiary poem under the Spanish censor’s nose? And why have historians ignored it, even though they have extensively studied the publication in which it appeared?
Howell earned his Ph.D. from NYU and historicizes Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking literature within the political and intellectual contexts of its time.
