Paquita is Cuban to the Core

January 21, 2023

I am Cuban, I am a patriot,
I will not compromise with oppression;
I want to see my homeland free
from all foreign domination.
And long live Cuba, long live the machete,
long live the brave one who wielded it:
Hurrah! To the mountains, sons of Cuba, if the Intervention deceives us.

After reciting these verses from the Bolero de Marianao, dates and names hidden in the pages of our history, Professor Francisca López Civeira, –Paquita to her students– assured us that she doesn't have a good memory.

In her almost 50 years of career, this doctor in Historical Sciences has received numerous recognitions, which she keeps carefully in the living room of her house. The National History Prize, which she received in 2008, and the Youth Master award, granted last year, hold a special place. On that same little table, she confides to us, she will place the 2022 National Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities, which will be presented to her at the upcoming International Book Fair of Havana.

Daughter of Spanish emigrants, she feels completely Cuban. "The first thing I danced in my life was muñeira, jota and paso doble, but when I hear a guaguancó my feet start moving. My father told my sister and me that we were Cuban, and as Cubans we had to grow up, regardless of whether we heard Spanish music or watched movies from there. The culture of what surrounds you seeps in through your pores and reaches your roots."

Still active in teaching, she teaches four subjects, two at the undergraduate level and two at the postgraduate level, at the Faculty of Philosophy, History and Sociology of the University of Havana. She has been linked to this center of higher learning almost her entire life, since she entered as a student in the 1960s. After graduating, she became a professor at the institution, specializing in Cuban History.

"My choice of this field was greatly influenced by the professors I had. My Cuban History professor, Dr. Olga López, gave analytical classes, but at the same time very emotional ones. She would mount a horse with Máximo Gómez and tremble with indignation at the Platt Amendment. I had other very good teachers like Beatriz Malle, Daysi Rivero, Zaira Rodríguez and Alejo Carpentier."

Different circumstances led her to specialize in the first half of the twentieth century, the period known as the Bourgeois Republic.

Regarding these years, López Civeira believes there are stages that are not explored in sufficient depth. "I feel that in recent decades the revolutionary process of the 1930s is overlooked. Sometimes very important dates pass and no one remembers them.

What were Raúl Gómez García's references when writing Ya estamos en combate? Maceo, Martí, Mella, Guiteras… that process was essential for the Centennial Generation, which achieved the Revolution."

Another of her favorite subjects to research is the life and work of José Martí. As a result of her admiration for the Apostle, she has written the books Homage to José Martí on the First Centennial of His Death in Combat and One Hundred Questions About Martí, one of the most popular titles from Gente Nueva Publishing.

Paquita loves the land where she lives, its history and its culture, and like a good teacher, she loves her students. "There is no greater satisfaction than seeing a student who grows, who publishes something that contributes. And if that student tells you, 'Thank you, teacher!', you think: 'How wonderful, I have been useful'."