Martínez-Fernández Collection Featured in First Bilingual History Center Exhibit
By Chad Binette (cbinette@mail.ucf.edu)

ORLANDO, Nov. 30, 2005 -- Luis Martínez-Fernández's collection of Cuban artifacts, including 16th-century maps, sugar plantation tokens and books and documents from contemporary revolutionary Cuba, is on display in the Orange County Regional History Center's first bilingual exhibit.

"Cuba Through Time: Highlights from the Luis Martínez-Fernández Collection" will be on display through Jan. 2.

Martínez-Fernández, director of the Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies program at UCF, was born in Havana. He has compiled a large collection of Cuban artifacts during his two decades of teaching courses about Latin America and writing several books about the island nation.

Martínez-Fernández said his favorite item is a copy of Reinaldo Arenas' first book, "Celestino antes del alba," ("Celestino Before Dawn") which was dedicated by hand to his boss at the National Library. Arenas was a poet, playwright and novelist who joined Castro's revolution at age 15. Later, he endured censorship and imprisonment and eventually fled Cuba during the Mariel Exodus of 1980. Arenas' life was depicted in the film "Before Night Falls."

"The exhibition was conceived with a strong teaching orientation in which particular themes are highlighted," Martínez-Fernández said. "Sugar, as one of Cuba's most enduring themes, is represented by sugar plantation tokens from the 1880s. Such currency was used to pay former slaves. Another representation of the sugar theme includes two 100-pound sugar sacks used to ship sugar produced by U.S.-owned plantations such as the Hershey plantation located in the outskirts of Havana."

An expert on Cuba, Puerto Rico and other areas of Latin America, Martínez-Fernández began teaching at UCF in fall 2004 after he taught for 10 years at Rutgers University. He was the senior editor of the two-volume "Encyclopedia of Cuba: People, History, Culture," which was published in 2003.

The History Center is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. General admission is $7; students with valid student identification and seniors (60 and older) pay $6.50 and children ages 3 to 12 pay $3.50. Historical Society members and children under the age of 3 are free. For more information, call 407-836-8500 or visit www.thehistorycenter.org.

DATE
November 30, 2005

CONTACT
Luis Martínez-Fernández
407-823-1174
martfern@mail.ucf.edu

Chad Binette
407-823-6312
cbinette@mail.ucf.edu

Shanon Larimer
History Center
407-836-8595
shanon.larimer@ocfl.net

LINKS
LACLS Website
Orange County Regional History Center

PHOTOS
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