UWI adds CuBajans to reading list for history course

By Anesta Henry

Award-winning journalist and public relations professional Dr Sharon Milagro Marshall has authored a book honouring Cubans of Barbadian descent and the significant contribution they have made to the island, and the publication is set to be reading material for a university history course.

At the launch of A Return to Roots: “CuBajans” in Barbados which was recently published by the University of the West Indies (UWI) Press, Dr Marshall said she looked at the historical context in which migration took place in Barbados and Cuba.

She told Barbados TODAY the book which took five years to produce is social history which also looks at the economic and political developments from the 1930s when the first “CuBajans” came to settle in Barbados, until the present.

“It is going to be on the course list for a history course here at the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies and that gives my heart a great deal of joy to be able to realise that recognition,” she said.

“It started five years ago with the first interviews. After I had done the interviews, I sent the transcripts back to the people I had interviewed for them to check and make sure that it was accurate, then I had to submit an expression of interest from the UWI Press to publish. I had done all the other research.

“Then, when you are publishing with an academic press, you have to have two peer reviews that recommend that the book be published either as is, or with some adaptations. So, I was fortunate enough for the book to be accepted by UWI Press,” Dr Marshall explained.

The author said the book is a tribute to her maternal grandparents who were Barbadians. Her mother was born in Cuba. Dr Marshall is also the author of Tell My Mother I Gone to Cuba, which focuses on Barbadians and other West Indians migrating to Cuba.

“I hope that Barbadians will go out and buy the book and that they will recognise that not all Bajans are born here. The book will be available at the UWI Book Shop, at the Cloister Bookstore, as well as the Barbados Museum book shop,” Dr Marshall said.

Historian Professor Pedro Welch, who gave a review on the newly published book, described it as a fascinating effort by Dr Marshall.

He said the book was a well-researched publication which seeks to uncover the experiences of Cuban-Barbadians who have returned here or are descendants.

“The book reveals the kind of experiences that migrants do have when they come back to our shores. It’s very well researched and very well documented. She followed all the scholarship that we expect of her,” Professor Welch said.

The launch, held at the Walcott-Warner Theatre at the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination was attended by Cuban Ambassador to Barbados Sergio Pastrana, Barbados Ambassador to CARICOM David Comissiong, persons who were featured in the book, Dr Marshall’s colleagues, relatives and friends.

anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb