Researching historical crisis during a crisis!
By Leah Guy
Picture this: only three hours supply of electricity after none during 48 to 72-hour blackouts; a scarcity of medicines (paracetamol included); rising food prices; pesky mosquitos generously spreading disease after heavy showers of the tropical rainy season. These challenges coupled with other issues, are part of the current daily reality for many Cubans living in a complicated, worsening humanitarian crisis.
As a recipient of the SLAS Postgraduate Research Support Grant, I experienced a fraction of this crisis during my recent fieldwork trip to Cuba in June 2026. With the financial support provided by the grant as a self-funded PhD student, I was afforded the opportunity to research hidden 1930s labour histories through popular culture in the city of Manzanillo, located in the eastern Cuba province of Granma. The living history in Manzanillo boasts of grand buildings (some now dilapidated), the sea breeze or ‘la brisa’ direct from the Caribbean Sea, and artists, poets, and literary figures of national and international renown.
Manzanillo is a city with rich cultural traditions and a place which had significant labour organisation in 1930s Cuba. For this reason, I conducted research across three key sites: the Archivo Histórico Municipal de Manzanillo, the Centro para la Promoción de Cultura Literaria Manuel Navarro Luna, and the Museo de las Luchas Obreras. From Manzanillo-based newspapers (Timoteo) and magazines (Revista Orto) to songs (guarachas; son), poems (Manuel Navarro Luna; Ciana Valdés Roig), cinema/theatre/radio posters, and testimonios, I accessed sources about the 1930s crises which are unavailable outside of Cuba.
The significance of my research lies in its aims to decentre Havana and to use popular culture rather than the traditional approach of trade union histories. Up until this research trip, I had exhausted all relevant cultural materials on 1930s Cuba in the Hennessy Collection (University of Nottingham), the British Library, and digitised sources online from the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC). Being physically present in Manzanillo and reading the sources in person made my project come alive. In addition, I immersed myself in cultural activities which took place around the city to better understand how manzanilleros, and Cubans by extension, live during a crisis.
Researching a historical crisis during a present-day crisis demanded an inner strength I did not know I possessed, and it already requires a lot to successfully finish a PhD! At times, I was torn between fulfilling the objective of my fieldwork – to obtain information for my thesis – and feeling guilty. Guilt that for each individual who helped me, I was taking away time from them and their families, crucial time needed to coordinate survival in today’s crisis. Now entrusted with the cultural stories of labour crisis in 1930s Manzanillo, my thesis can finally bring these stories of crisis to life. How will we tell our stories of crisis today?
Biography
Leah Guy is a sixth-year self-funded part-time PhD candidate at the University of Nottingham, UK where she investigates hidden labour histories of 1930s Cuba through popular culture. Her thesis explores newspapers and popular magazines (print/literary culture), radio, cinema, and the theatre to uncover the everyday lives of workers in their own words. She has just returned from a multi-association funded research trip to Manzanillo, Cuba, and is looking forward to incorporating the rich cultural histories into her thesis.
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