Lisandro Pérez

Lisandro Pérez was born in La Habana, Cuba, and emigrated to the United States with his parents in 1960. He earned a PhD degree from the University of Florida in Sociology and Latin American Studies. He is currently a Professor of Latin American and Latina/o Studies at John Jay College, City University of New York. His academic career has been devoted to the study of Cuba and especially to the Cuban presence in the United States. His most recent book is Sugar, Cigars, and Revolution: The Making of Cuban New York, and is the culmination of years of research on the Cuban community in New York City during the nineteenth century. It is the first comprehensive study of that community, which was the largest concentration of Latinos in the U.S. Northeast during that century. This book brings that community to vivid life, tracing its formation and how it was shaped by both the sugar trade and the long struggle for independence from Spain.

In addition to Sugar, Cigars, and Revolution, Pérez co-authored with Guillermo Grenier a brief book, The Legacy of Exile, that presents a concise overview of the Cuba presence in the United States. It has been widely used in college courses focusing on immigration and ethnicity. He also edited six annual issues of the journal Cuban Studies, the leading journal in the field, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press.

For more information about Lisandro Pérez, visit his John Jay College faculty page: https://www.jjay.cuny.edu/faculty/lisandro-pérez