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Andrés Pertierra

@andrespertierra.bsky.social

4.7K followers 390 following 820 posts

Historian of Cuba and Communist systems. LatAm & Caribbean History PhD candidate at UW-Madison. U of Havana BA, UW-Madison MA. Bylines in The Nation Mag & Dissent Mag, among others.

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Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · Jun 5

Happy to announce my feature article on the current Cuban crisis is now no longer paywalled!

Please feel free to read & share

Dissent Magazine @dissentmag.bsky.social · Jun 5

From our spring issue: @andrespertierra.bsky.social on the mass emigration from Cuba.

www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-...

The Cuban Exodus - Dissent Magazine

So long as Cubans’ rage and despair remain, the government cannot afford to curtail emigration. And there is no end in sight.

www.dissentmagazine.org

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Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 1d

I made my way through all of War and Peace but halfway through the epilogue I felt so sad at what Tolstoy considered happy endings for characters that I never finished it

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 2d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 1d

You also have added problem that so many people are sitting on cash, because they don't trust banks, so the money is out there circulating but not returning to the banks that would normally help gov employees/retirees get their money. So the banks lack money, print more, fuel inflation.

Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 1d

Solutions aren't easy either. The gov can raise salaries for state sector workers and retirees (whose incomes are still stuck at nominal values from before hyperinflation), but without any sort of increased offering of goods and services to sop up extra cash, that just fuels inflation

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Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 1d

Keep in mind, this is all over the past half decade. In just 5 years Cuba has experienced 1,000%+ inflation in real terms.

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Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 1d

For years Cuba's peso was equivalent to 25:1 dollar at official rates and around 30-40 on the black market exchange.

Recent inflation shot official exchange to 125:1 dollar and unofficial rates to 300-400. Then it stabilized just short of 400 for a while.

It's now up to an eye watering 460:1 USD

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Reposted by Andrés Pertierra

Renata Keller @renatakeller.bsky.social · 2d

Tomorrow is my book's official pub date! I'm celebrating by tackling a whole new social media platform and hosting an #AskMeAnything on Reddit! Join me and ask me anything about my book, the Cuban Missile Crisis, my hobbies, publishing...whatever! @uncpress.bsky.social @sonyabonczek.bsky.social

Blurb for Renata Keller's book The Fate of the Americas

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Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 3d

German when I arrived: zero

German by end of month 1: a handful of words

German by end of month 2: very basic phrases, can buy at stores in very simple language

Hopefully by end of month 3 I’ll be able to actually communicate outside of very scripted conversations

Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 3d

Trump admin is basically doing the meme meant to show that correlation is not causation but totally unironically

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 6d

Besides linking Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, RFK Jr. now says circumcision is part of the reason why kids are autistic.

"Children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it's highly likely because they're given Tylenol. None of this is positive..."

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Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 4d

Downside of a solo trip to Worms is that I can’t make dad jokes like “wow! This ‘Kein Trinkwasser’ guy is commemorated everywhere, weird I haven’t heard of him”

Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 4d

Turning up the dial labeled “tarrifs” and looking at the audience like The Price is Right

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 5d

oh no

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Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 4d

Surrounded by Europeans this is patently not true

Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 4d

I hope that the luxurious feeling of getting to drink an espresso at heart of the historic platz/square of a centuries if not millennia old European city doesn’t just fade and become normal. At the very least not anytime soon

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Reposted by Andrés Pertierra

Jonathan Healey @jonathanhealey.bsky.social · 5d

It was two OUP books.

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Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 5d

Was told that northern Germans were called “fish heads” and that this term was not a pejorative but have to say that after using it in conversation half a dozen times and seeing the reactions I’m not sure “it’s not offensive at all” is how most “fish heads” see it

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Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 6d

Climbed a small mountain and took photos of a small Rhine spa town from the ruins of a medieval castle owned by some robber baron who lived off extracting tolls from river traffic

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Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 6d

Speaking to European academics who have to submit academic applications, articles, books, etc, in English even when English has nothing to do with their actual topic of expertise beyond how central it is to research worldwide really makes me feel lucky to be a native speaker

Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 7d

Maybe the backlash people like Zohran receive for saying true things about Cuba and Venezuela is healthy, in the mid to long term, because it forces us to have this conversation again and again, which can help well meaning but low info people to wake up

Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 7d

It’s a country of 9 million people with a diaspora of millions more. It’s not just a symbol or rhetorical device. Asking that you keep your use of it grounded in reality isn’t asking much, and it’s what Cubans deserve

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Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 7d

It pisses people off but I don’t think it an especially high bar for entry re: Cuba for people to adhere to basic, patently obvious, facts rather than being able to perform a Cuba that is rhetorically useful to whatever point they want to make

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Reposted by Andrés Pertierra

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 8d

crazy that one of the most storied institutions in american journalism is going to be run by two people with basically no experience to do it

Exclusive | CBS News taps Adam Rubenstein — once ostracized at NY Times for liking Chick-fil-A — as new deputy editor

Sources expect Rubenstein will effectively run the Free Press now that Weiss will be busy steering the editorial direction of shows like “60 Minutes,” “Face The Nation” and …

nypost.com

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Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 9d

(Also, obviously, explaining perspectives =\= validating them or defending them, they’re just helpful to me in understanding how various factions and parties saw themselves and their opponents)

Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 9d

A little over halfway through the recent insider history of Israel-Palestine negotiations, Tomorrow is Yesterday

I don’t know if the book will provide actual solutions in the latter half, but it’s been really helpful so far in understanding both perspectives & why previous negotiations failed

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Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 9d

Wrote a short post over on my substack on Mehdi’s recent interview of the Cuban deputy foreign minister

Interview was great but I wanted to add context which further solidifies Mehdi’s claims

open.substack.com/pub/pertierr...

On Cuban Elections and Dissidence

On the Mehdi Hasan interview of Cuban Vice Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío

open.substack.com

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Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 9d

Btw, this isn't me implying that the 1-5k figure is also going to collapse. That figure honestly sounds much more reasonable. It's the eye watering 20k figure that made me skeptical.

If we're talking hundreds or low thousands, it wouldn't surprise me at all

Andrés Pertierra @andrespertierra.bsky.social · 9d

Back when the story first came out a few weeks ago, I urged caution around the 20k figure because it seemed really, really high.

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