University dedicates first interactive Cuban cultural center in U.S.

n the recent 133rd anniversary of Cuba’s declaration of independence from Spain, the University of Miami embarked on a major initiative to preserve the history and culture of that island nation that is a mere 150 miles to the south. U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez joined UM President Donna E. Shalala and about 200 other guests to unveil plans for the future home of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) and its Casa Bacardi, a state-of-the-art interactive Cuban cultural center on the University’s Coral Gables campus.

“Casa Bacardi will be a permanent symbol of the University’s commitment to Cuban and Cuban-American studies,” said President Shalala. “Our unique geographic location affords us the opportunity to tap into the reservoir of history, culture, and ideas in the Cuban Diaspora.”

Funded by a $1 million grant from the Bacardi Family Foundation, Inc., Casa Bacardi will house a 3,000-square-foot exhibition hall for art and other displays, a small cinema for regular screenings of Cuban films and documentaries about the island nation, a conference center, and two pavilions. Construction, which involves expansion and remodeling of the existing building at 1531 Brescia Avenue, is expected to be completed by May 2002.
 

 
“This is a dream that has come true,” said Jaime Suchlicki, ICCAS director and professor of international studies. “Casa Bacardi will provide continuity to Cuban studies. The generosity of the Bacardi family and foundation is making it possible for us to provide students and the greater community something more than traditional academic programs—a modern, fully connected facility dedicated to preserving and sharing Cuban culture.”

The Bacardi family has a long history of supporting Cuban culture. Emilio Bacardi, eldest son of Don Facundo Bacardi Massó, who invented rum and started the family business, built the Emilo Bacardi Museum in Cuba’s Santiago province in the late 19th century, and later donated it to the city. “

The Bacardi Family Foundation Inc. is very proud to partner with the University in helping make the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies a true center for Cuban history and culture,” said Manuel J. Cutillas, Emilio Bacardi’s great-grandson, who is chairman of the Bacardi Family Foundation and member of the board of directors of Bacardi Ltd.

The pavilions to be housed at Casa Bacardi will have music stations where students and visitors can listen to a century’s worth of Cuban music, and computer terminals with access to another ICCAS project, the Cuba database, a comprehensive archive of Cuban history and information online at http://cuba.sis.miami.edu.

Martinez, who left Cuba in the Pedro Pan exodus in 1962, praised the institute and its future Casa Bacardi center as a facility that will teach future generations of Cuban-Americans about their history and culture. “It’s important that our young people understand where they come from and what they’re made of,” said Martinez, who also called the planned center a rallying point and place where the reconstruction of Cuba can begin.

“This institute honors our shared past,” said Shalala. “It honors a history and culture that affects and enriches all of us in South Florida and throughout the hemisphere—a history and culture that also is part of my own heritage,” she said, adding that she recently learned that her grandfather’s cousin immigrated from Lebanon to Cuba.

he University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, with support from the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is ready to start breaking ground on a real-time, commercial industry satellite data reception and analysis facility in southern Miami-Dade County.

UM recently awarded Vexcel Corporation of Boulder, Colorado, a multimillion-dollar contract to build the new Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing (CSTARS), which will have unprecedented environmental monitoring and analysis capabilities and is expected to be fully operational by October 2002.

“We intend to make this facility not only the leading center for environmental remote sensing applications in the southeastern United States, but also a world-renowned center for attracting new scientists and students,” says Otis Brown, dean of the Rosenstiel School and a leading expert in remote sensing technologies.

For the first time, scientists will be able to monitor, collectively and continuously from space, the Equatorial Atlantic region, northern South America, Caribbean Basin, Gulf of Mexico, and the Southeastern United States. Current systems focus on smaller regional areas or are restricted access defense systems.

UM chose Vexcel Corporation to build CSTARS, based on its excellent track record in building satellite ground receiving stations as well as its strength and leadership in software development for satellite data processing.

“Selection of the appropriate contractor is critical for the success of CSTARS to function as a commercial-quality ground receiving station and to carry out cutting-edge research in near real-time,” says Brown. Tim Dixon, professor of marine geology and geophysics, and Hans Graber, professor of applied marine physics at the Rosenstiel School, began to develop the CSTARS project more than four years ago.

One of the most exciting research benefits of CSTARS will be its ability to collect data from satellites that “look” through clouds with synthetic aperture radar. Scientists will be able to see into the core of storms and hurricanes, watch volcanoes as they erupt and even watch the energy transfer between ocean waves and the sky, helping scientists better understand and predict natural phenomena.

The advanced imaging techniques also will improve preparedness and emergency response and relief in the event of natural disasters. “The facility will be an important scientific tool with great humanitarian potential,” says Dixon. “Imagine being able to predict when a volcano is going to erupt, or track land uses and clear-cutting in tropical areas. The potential applications will be a great benefit to mankind.”