GARCÍA ALVAREZ, Alejandro 1932-

PERSONAL: Born February 6, 1932, in Matanzas, Cuba; son of Casimiro García Cerezal (a confectioner) and María Alvarez Estevez (a professor); married Calixta Peraza Martínez (a professor), 1973; children: Carolina. Ethnicity: "Ibero-American." Education: Instituto Superior Pedagogico E. J. Varona, received degree, 1967; University of Havana, degree in history, 1969, doctorate, 1985. Hobbies and other interests: Music, painting.

ADDRESSES: Home—Avenida 231, No. 21026, Fontanar 19250, Boyeros, Havana, Cuba. Offıce—Department of Cuban History, University of Havana, Calle 27, 160 Esquina L. Vedado, Plaza, Havana, Cuba. E-mail—asscab@dict.uh.cu.

CAREER: University of Havana, Havana, Cuba, professor of Cuban history, c. 1970—.

MEMBER: Association of Caribbean Historians, Academia de Ciencias de Cuba, Unión Nacional de Artistas y Escritores de Cuba, Unión de Historia de Cuba.

AWARDS, HONORS: Elsa Goveia prize, Association of Caribbean Historians; Premio de la Crítica (Cuba), 1992.

WRITINGS:

(With Oscar Zanetti) La United Fruit: un caso del dominio imperialista de Cuba, Editorial de Ciencias Sociales (Havana, Cuba), 1976.

(With Aleida Plasencia and Oscar Zanetti) Metodología de la Investigación histórica, Editorial Pueblo y Educación (Havana, Cuba), 1985.

(With Oscar Zanetti) Caminos para el azúcar, Editorial de Ciencias Sociales (Havana, Cuba), 1987, translation by Franklin W. Knight and Mary Todd published as Sugar and Railroads: A Cuban History, 1837-1959, University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 1998.

La gran burguesía comercial en Cuba, 1899-1920, Editorial de Ciencias Sociales (Havana, Cuba), 1990.

(Compiler with Luis Miguel García Mora) Textos clásicos de la historia de Cuba (CD-ROM), Fundación Histórica Tavera (Madrid, Spain), 1999.

Also author of short historical works, including El canal de occidente, Centro de Información Científica y Técnica, Universidad de la Habana (Havana, Cuba), 1972, and Algunos aspectos de la realidad sociocultural cubana en las tres primeras décadas del siglo XX, Editorial de Ciencias Sociales (Havana, Cuba), 1991. Contributor to numerous journals and books, including Congressional Acts: Crisis and Change in the International Sugar Economy, 1914, 1940, and the 1980s, Norwich, England.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Las relaciones económicas entre España y Cuba, desde el fin de la Guerra de Independencia (title means "The Economic Relations between Spain and Cuba, since the End of the War of Independence"); research on Cuban history, particularly on the banana and sugar industries.

SIDELIGHTS: Alejandro García Alvarez told CA: "The principal motivation for writing is 'to have something to say which is considered of interest'; if this is lacking, the whole construction will fail. As a consequence, in order to write, I first need to investigate what I consider important or what moves my sensibilities.

"My fundamental inspiration to write starts from the recognition of my own national identity and the necessity of spreading the knowledge of its formative circumstances. The formulas for doing this arise from the work; that is, in the process of elaborating the discourse."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Hispanic American Historical Review, February, 1989, review of Caminos para el azúcar, p. 160.