LAKELAND (Feb. 16, 2012) – America has always viewed Cuba as a strategic and economic prize, but the people of Cuba have had other ideas about their independence. The complicated relationship between the two nations will be the subject of a fascinating lecture at Florida Southern College.

As part of the Florida Lecture Series, author Frank R. Villafaña will give the special lecture, “Expansion: Its Effects on Cuba’s Independence,” at 10:40 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22, in the Hollis Room on the Florida Southern College campus in Lakeland. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Villafaña’s lecture will draw upon his latest book, Expansionism: Its Effects on Cuba’s Independence, which reviews the sources and consequences of American involvement in Cuba. He traces Cuba’s efforts to become free of Spanish domination, starting in the 1830s and ending in the Spanish-American War of 1898. Villafaña proposes that Cuba has never been truly free and independent of foreign influence.

“We are pleased to once again welcome Frank Villafaña to FSC,” said Dr. James M. Denham, Director of the Lawton M. Chiles Center for Florida History. “His lecture on the complicated dynamics of 19th-century American expansion in relation to Cuba will be informative and enlightening.”

About Frank R. Villafaña
Frank R. Villafaña was born in Havana, Cuba. He left Cuba in 1960 and went to the University of Alabama, where he obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees in engineering. He earned a doctor of engineering degree from Cleveland State University. Villafaña worked with Ethyl and Avery Dennison Corp. in the U.S., Belgium and the Netherlands. He spent nine years in Spain combining engineering consulting work with traveling and conducting research about Cubans in Congo, which resulted in his book, Cold War in the Congo: The Confrontation of Cuban Military Forces, 1960-1967. In 1994, Villafaña published a collection of short stories in Spanish about growing up in Cuba, Anécdotas Casi Verídicas de Cárdenas. Now living in the U.S., he continues to research and write about Cuban history.

About The Lawton M. Chiles Jr. Center for Florida History
In its 16th year, the Florida Lecture Series at Florida Southern College is a forum that brings speakers to the FSC campus who explore Florida life and culture from a wide range of disciplines, including history, public affairs, law, sociology, criminology, anthropology, literature, and art. The overall objective of the series is to bring members of the community, the faculty, and the student body together to interact with and learn from leading scholars in their fields.