Luis Martinez-Fernandez Speaker Biography

Renowned Hispanic-American Historian, Syndicated Columnist, Award-Winning Scholar in the Fields of Cuban and Caribbean Studies & Author

Dr. Luis Martínez-Fernández is an historian, university professor, author and public speaker, whose fields of expertise include Latin America, the Caribbean, education, and Latino / Hispanic politics, culture, and society. Born in Havana, Cuba and raised in Lima, Peru and San Juan, Puerto Rico, he holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in History from the University of Puerto Rico and a Ph.D. in History from Duke University. He is recognized as one of the most prolific and influential scholars in the field of Caribbean Studies.

Books & Publications

His publications include articles in Cuban Studies, Slavery and Abolition, Latin American Research Review, The Americas, Caribbean Studies, History Today, and in numerous anthologies and edited volumes. His books include Fighting Slavery in the Caribbean, Revolutionary Cuba: A History, widely acclaimed as the most comprehensive and systematic study on the subject ever written, and Key to the New World: A History of Early Colonial Cuba, winner of the 2018 Florida Book Awards’ Bronze Medal for Nonfiction. Martínez-

Board Roles

Fernández served as trustee of the College Board (2009-2015) and in numerous professional, editorial, and community boards, among them the Cuban Studies journal, the South Atlantic Humanities Center, the Community Advisory Board of WMFE (Central Florida’s NPR station), and the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the Historical Society of Central Florida. In 2005 he founded the annual Latin American Cultural Festival of Orlando. In March 2019, he joined the Board of Directors of the National Council for History Education and assumed the role of Board Secretary.

Hispanic Heritage Month

Award-winning Latino Scholar and acclaimed professional speaker Dr. Luis Martínez-Fernández offers exciting and informative programing options for Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations. Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, also known as Latinx Month, with an event that combines intellectual substance and accessibility, as well as depth and an engaging style of delivery. Multiple book-award winning author and nationally syndicated columnist Dr. Luis Martínez-Fernández is available for speaking engagements, keynotes, and workshops during Hispanic Heritage Month and throughout the year.

Clients & Venues

State Department, Foreign Service Institute
Kennedy Space Center
National Society of Newspaper Columnists
National Council for History Education
International Association of Tour Directors and Guides
Florida Library Association
College Board Forum
Florida Bar International Law Section
Queens Borough (NYC) Library
Philips Performing Arts Center
Word of South Festival of Literature and Music
NASCAR
The Jefferson Monticello

Luis Martinez-Fernandez Speaking Topics

Latinos/Hispanics, Cultural Fluency, Diversity

• Beyond Salsa Dancing, Sombreros, and Empanadas: Latin America's Rich Culture • Translating Hispanic/Latino Culture • How to Best Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month • Who Is Missing at the Table?: Creating an Institutional Culture of Diversity and Inclusiveness • Don Quixote in the Boardroom: Hispanic/Latino Culture, a Toolbox for Business Success • Latinos in the United States: Challenges and Opportunities in the Twenty First Century • The Art and Diplomacy of Haggling: Lessons in Cross-Cultural Communications • Our "Weaknesses" Are Our Strengths: A Closer Look at Hispanic/Latino Culture • Demographic Transformations and Latino Politics in the United States • Reaching Hispanic/Latino Consumers, Job Candidates, Donors, and Voters • Toward a Global Culture?: Not Quite Yet • Ten Defining Characteristics of Latino Culture • Diversifying the Workplace: It Makes Business Sense and Is the Right Thing To Do • A Latino in the US Academy: Wounds and Medals from the Battlefields • Orlando, Florida, the Puerto Rican Frontier

Motivational

• My Road to National Syndication • How I Reinvented Myself Into a Weekly Syndicated Columnist at age 60 • I Never Left the Classroom; and You Shouldn't Either • They Are Counting on Your Ignorance. Read! Think! Disappoint Them! • The Thin Line between What We Call Success and Failure • Many People Wish they Could Sit at Your Desk. Be Grateful and Make the Best of that Opportunity • A Toolbox for Student Success

Contemporary Caribbean and Latin America

• The Twenty Plagues of Contemporary Puerto Rico • Recent Changes in US-Cuba Relations • Puerto Rico Before and After Hurricane Maria • Revolutionary Cuba: A History • Sugar and Revolution: Cuba, 1952-2016 • Sixteen Threads in the Labyrinth of Cuban Culture • Cuba: A History in Fifteen Photographs • Cuba in the Twenty First Century • Perplexing Puerto Rico • A Historical Perspective on Prospects for a Post-Castro Cuba • The Longest Ninety Miles: Cuban Migration to South Florida since 1959 • Puerto Rico's Political Status in Historical Perspective • Puerto Rico in Forty Minutes • Ten Keys to the Caribbean

History and Culture: Cuba, Puerto Rico

• Cast in Bronze and Chiseled out of Stone: The Story of the Caribbean as Told by Its Statues • Cuba's History in Twenty-Five Artifacts • Key to the New World: Early Colonial Cuba • Three Crops That Transformed the Caribbean: Sugar, Tobacco and Coffee • Divergent Patterns of Political Culture in the Twentieth-Century Hispanic Caribbean • In the Plantation's Own Image: Puerto Rico's First Protestant Congregations, 1868-1898 • Ten Historiographical Keys to the Caribbean • The American Mediterranean during the American Century • Puerto Rico in the Whirlwind of 1898: Conflict, Continuity, and Change • Life in a Male City: Women in Nineteenth-Century Havana • Caudillos, Annexationism, and the Rivalry between Empires in the Dominican Republic, 1844-1878 • The Formation of Creole Cuba, 1525-1607 • Geography, Will It Absolve Cuba? • Far Worse than Slaves: Emancipados in Nineteenth-Century Cuba • History Meets Literature in Latin America and the Caribbean • A History of the Caribbean in Fifteen Pictures • Beyond La Niña, La Pinta, and La Santa María: The Mental Mapping and Invention of a New World

Education / Pedagogy

• Reading Across the Curriculum • The Seven Deadly Sins of the Modern University • Twelve Keys to Successful Teaching/Learning • We Are in It Together: Dialogue and Collaboration between Historians and History Teachers • "C" Students, Children with ADHD, and the Class Clown: Why We Need them in Every Classroom • Let's Start from Scratch: A Blueprint for a Twenty-First-Century Model School of Education • We Need Poets More than Ever: The Critical Importance of the Arts and Humanities from Pre-K to College • What If...?: Out-of-the-Box Reflections on How to Improve Our Education System • "I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand": Visual and Participatory Methods for Teaching and Learning • Integrating Latin American and Caribbean History into the Curriculum • Windows to the Past: Using Texts, Artifacts, and Captured Moments in the Classroom • Why Did I Become a Historian?