Raul A. Fernandez

Picture of Raul A. Fernandez
Professor Emeritus, Chicano/Latino Studies
School of Social Sciences
PH.D., Claremont Graduate School
Phone: (949) 824-5272
Fax: (949) 824-5037
Email: rafernan@uci.edu
University of California, Irvine
4139 Social Sciences Plaza A
Mail Code: 1775
Irvine, CA 92697
Short Biography
Professor Raúl Fernandez completed his secondary education in Cuba, received his B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1966 and his Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University in 1971. Currently Professor Emeritus, he was a member of the UCI faculty from 1969 to 2014. Professor Fernandez is actively engaged in research and writing.

His research is focused on economic and cultural transactions between the U.S. and Latin America. A Fulbright Scholar, Fernandez has authored six books The U.S.-Mexico Border: A Politico-Economic Profile, University of Notre Dame Press, 1977; The Mexican-American Border Region: Issues and Trends, University of Notre Dame Press, 1989; Latin Jazz: The Perfect Combination, Chronicle Books and Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, 2002; One hundred years of Chicano History: Empire, Nations, and Migration (with Gilbert González), Routledge, 2003; From Afro-Cuban Rhythms to Latin Jazz, Univ. of California Press, 2006; and Ontología del Son, Editorial Letras Cubanas: La Habana, 2019. He edited (with Jeff Belnap) José Martí’s Our America: From National to Hemispheric Cultural Studies, Duke University Press, 1998; and (with Gilbert Gonzalez et al) Labor versus Empire: Race, Gender and Migration, Routledge: New York and London, 2004. Fernandez was the Curator of the Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibit Latin Jazz: La Combinación Perfecta, which opened in Washington, D.C. in 2002 and traveled to twelve US cities through 2006.

Professor Fernandez is the Secretary of the UC-Cuba Multi-Campus Research Program, a consortium which brings together faculty and doctoral students involved in Cuba-related research in all the campuses of the University of California. https://www.uccuba.socsci.uci.edu/

Recent miscellaneous publications

“Cuba’s Second Golden Age of Popular Music, 1989-2005”, (co-authored with Anita Casavantes Bradford), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History, 2016.
http://latinamericanhistory.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.001.0001/acrefore-9780199366439-e-333

“Music, Blackness and Black Identity in Cuba,” Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies, Vol 14, 2019 – Issue 1.

“Que le pongan salsa”, Preface to Leonardo Padura, Los rostros de la salsa, Barcelona; Busquets Editores, 2019, pp. 11-13.

“Pérez Prado: A Story of Rhythm, Drumming and Dancing,” International Journal of Cuban Studies, Vol 13, Summer 2021.

“La Salsa de Pacheco: Confederación Antillana del Sabor, (with César J. Ayala), 80Grados, March 12, 2021
https://www.80grados.net/la-salsa-de-pacheco-confederacion-antillana-del-sabor/

Opinion: “US Economic Policies have turned Central American Countries into Unsafe Prisons of Poverty”, Latino Rebels, April 14, 2021.
https://www.latinorebels.com/2021/04/14/opinionuseconomicpolicies/

“Latin Jazz and Salsa,” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History, 2023.
https://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-641;jsessionid=AA0371D7D280797FFA2704449A95F4AE

“El lado latino de Harry Belafonte,” Categoría Cinco,” (forthcoming 2023).

“La transculturación de instrumentos musicales,” Catauro: Revista cubana de antropología,” Vol 22, no. 41, (forthcoming 2024).

Review, “Chano Pozo: La vida (1915-1948)”, by Rosa Marquetti Torres.
International Journal of Cuban Studies, Vol. 11, No. 1, Summer 2019, pp. 126-130

Review, “Improvising Sabor: Cuban Dance Music in New York,” by Sue Miller. The World of Music, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 172-175
Last updated
07/25/2023