UA Hosts History Conference on Connections Between South and Latin America

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama’s history department is hosting a daylong conference Monday, March 27, that will highlight the connections between the U.S. South and Latin America in the 19th century.

The conference, “Dreams of Dominion: The U.S. South and Latin America,” consists of a panel discussion from 9 to 11 a.m., a free lunch to those who attend, a second panel from 2 to 4 p.m. and a keynote address at 4:30 p.m.

It will be held at Hotel Capstone and is free to the public.

“When I first came here in the fall, I was looking for ways to highlight the strengths of the department of history and what’s unique here,” said Dr. Lesley Gordon, the Charles G. Summersell chair of Southern history at UA.

“We have a particularly strong program in U.S. Southern history, and we have several specialists in Latin America, as well as UA’s  Center for Cuba Collaboration and Scholarship. This conference is the fruition of those ideas: I wanted to emphasize the South’s ties to Latin America, bring other scholars to the University, share scholarship and look for connections.”

Panelists include Gordon and seven others:

• Dr. Martha Santos, associate professor of history at the University of Akron.
• Roberto Saba, a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania.
• Dr. Maria Angela Diaz, a teaching fellow in history at Texas Tech University.
• Daniel Burge, a doctoral candidate at UA.
• Chase McCarter, a master’s candidate at UA.
• Dr. John Giggie, an associate professor of history and African American Studies at UA.
• Dr. David C. LaFevor, an assistant professor of Latin American history and digital humanities at the University of Texas at Arlington.

LaFevor will also deliver the keynote address, “The Slave Ship Ciceròn and the Argüelles Affair.”

“The keynote address will focus on a largely overlooked incident involving a Cuban slave ship and the capture and rendition of the Spanish lieutenant governor of Colón, Cuba, José Agustín Argüelles, from New York in 1864,” Gordon said. “President Abraham Lincoln became directly involved in this episode, casting a shadow over his re-election that November.

“What became known as the Cicerón/Argüelles Affair had far-reaching effects in Cuba and here in the United States. Overall, I want to put into broader context the similarities and differences between the South and Latin America at time when slavery existed in both regions.”

The conference is being sponsored by the Charles G. Summersell chair of Southern history, the Summersell Center for the Study of the South, the departments of history, Latin American, Caribbean and Latino studies, New College, American studies and the College of Arts and Sciences.