[Blogger’s note: Here is the last anthro in the news for 2014. Please stay tuned for my annual “best cultural anthropology dissertations” post coming soon]

• U.S. Cuba relations: Hoping for a miracle

Ruth Behar, professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan, published a piece in The Tico Times, reflecting on President Obama’s recent statement on U.S.-Cuba relations:

“When I awoke to the news of President Barack Obama’s proposed U.S. policy changes, I immediately thought: Isn’t it amazing that this occurred on Dec. 17? It’s a day of great significance to Cubans, when thousands of them make an annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Rincón to mark the feast day of San Lázaro…It is a Cuban custom to bring pennies to San Lázaro, hoping they will translate into miracles. Even my father likes to scatter pennies on the porch of his house in Queens…Right now, I don’t know whose promise of miracles to believe in more — those of San Lázaro and Babalu Ayé, or those of President Obama. Maybe both. Maybe both.” Continue reading “Anthro in the news 12/29/14” →