Roberto Zurbano Torres

The Black in the Americas Series presents Roberto Zurbano Torres, a Cuban-Haitian essayist, cultural critic, and anti-racist activist.

The film Zurbano and His Racial Conscience, produced in 2022 by the University of Missouri and directed by Juana María Cordones-Cook, will be shown at the event.

Roberto Zurbano Torres served as the Director of the Editorial Fund at Casa de las Américas (2006–2013), where he introduced discussions on racial issues. He was removed from this position due to his article on racism in Cuba, which was published in The New York Times in 2013, and the ensuing debate (Afro-Hispanic Review, 2014). Zurbano has authored multiple books addressing topics such as racial politics, music, and Black writers in the Caribbean and Latin America. He founded the Pichón Haitien project, a community of Cuban-Haitian descendants located in eastern Havana. Zurbano has been awarded the Order for National Culture and has twice received the National Prize for Cultural Journalism. He currently works at Casa de las Américas in Havana, Cuba.

Admission is free. Please note that this event has been moved to 011 Fine Arts Building.

Hosted by the Language, Literacy, and Culture Doctoral Program with support from The Dresher Center for the Humanities; Center for Social Science Scholarship; Center for Innovation, Research, and Creativity in the Arts; Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies; Global Studies; Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication; Political Science; and Sociology, Anthropology, and Public Health.