On Hurricanes: My Favorite Metaphor
The hurricane is my favorite metaphor for the study of both Cuba and political science. Living through hurricanes as a little boy predisposed me to study both. Hurricanes combine certainty…
Category: Hurricanes of History
The Winds of Justice
n the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Arsalan Suleman, a third-year Harvard Law School student from Kenner,Louisiana, was one of the 240 students from 57 law schools who traveled to…
Hurricane Katrina and the Re-Latinization of New Orleans
One of the things that was most immediately obvious to those of us working in relief shelters in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was the relative absence of the color brown. Race relations in…
In the Shadow of the Winds
The comparisons were inescapable in the aftermath of Katrina. New Orleans as the Third World: displacement and destitution…
Photo Reflection: 1976 Earthquake in Guatemala
In the early morning hours of February 4, 1976, an earthquake that registered 7.5 on the Richter scale ripped through Guatemala. The quake left 23,000 dead, affected almost five million…
About Hurricanes and Other Vicissitudes
T’was the night before the hurricane and out came the pasteles (Puerto Rican tamales), along with batteries, candles, radios, matches and canned goods. This may sound like a strange way to…
Differential Disasters
Every Puerto Rican knows this plena and can sing its chorus, and on that island where from July to October everyone frequently checks the weather reports and looks to the sky, the song…
