Professor's 'History' Gains Him 'Historia' Acceptance

Spanish professor Rafael Saumell-Munoz's personal history and his research on Cuba has led to his acceptance into the exclusive Academia de la Historia de Cuba (Exilio).

As someone who has experienced life under Fidel Castro’s dictatorship first-hand, SHSU Spanish professor Rafael Saumell-Muñoz has had a lot to say on the subject throughout the years.

His first collection of unpublished, “politically incorrect” short stories led to a five-year imprisonment in Cuba in 1981. Since then, he has written a number of articles, papers and books on Cuban literature, prison narratives and the histories of human rights and the prison system in Cuba.

These scholarly contributions recently earned him unanimous election into the Academia de la Historia de Cuba (Exilio), an exclusive scholarly organization dedicated to telling its version of Cuban history.

“The people who join this academia, or academy, are people who through their work will show some discrepancy with the official version of the history of Cuba that is told now through the schools,” Saumell-Muñoz said. “The Cuban government also controls the educational process, and they make sure to teach the students from a particular angle that they prefer.”

Most of these people are “dissidents,” people who have been exiled (hence “Exilio”) for similar criticisms of the Cuban government or simply do not accept the government’s version, Saumell-Muñoz said.

“This is an organization created by Cuban scholars and intellectuals living abroad who are dissident, who are opposed to the Cuban government,” he said. “The publishing industry in Cuba is state-owned, so they would never publish a book that goes against them. They would never give you any public space to write a paper or essay that would question the government policies on any subject.”

An award-winning TV writer and producer while living in Cuba in the 70s, a “so-called friend” of Saumell-Muñoz, whom he later found out was a secret police informant, told the police about Saumell-Muñoz’s “politically incorrect” collection of short stories.

“The police arrested me and asked two so-called readers of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba to make a political evaluation of the book,” he said. “These two readers came to the conclusion that my book was counterrevolutionary.”

Labeled “enemy propaganda” by the Cuban penal code, Saumell-Muñoz was sentenced to five years in prison.

“I knew that it was a criticism of the present situation of Cuba at the time, but it would never cross my mind that it would be considered enemy propaganda for two reasons: in order to consider something propaganda, it has to be public, but if a book has not been published, how can you call it public?” he said. “If you label something enemy propaganda, that document must be paid for by a foreign government who wants to use the document to attack another government. Obviously I wasn’t paid by anyone; I was just moved by my consciousness.

“They control the police, they control the courts, they control the prison system. So any time you have political trouble in Cuba, this is a lost battle,” Saumell-Muñoz said. “They will do to you whatever they want.”

When he was released in 1986, he applied for an American visa, which was granted in 1988, and eventually became a graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., where he completed his doctorate.

He came to SHSU in 1992.

In May, Saumell-Muñoz will travel to Miami, Fla., the academy’s headquarters, to read his paper on the Cuban 19th Century poet José María Heredia as his formal acceptance to the group’s invitation.

His memoirs will be published in Spain later this year.

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SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt
Jan. 25, 2008
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