Overview of the Course

- Remember to check out important factoids on both Mexico and Cuba:

• CIA Factbook on Mexico
  
• Mexico (basics about geography, people, government, economy, transportation, and defense forces)
• Statistics on Mexico (eb)
  • CIA Factbook on Cuba
    
  • Cuba (basics about geography, people, government, economy, transportation, and defense forces)
  • Statistics on Cuba (eb)
  • Destination Cuba by LonelyPlanet

  - Take a look at some maps to familiarize yourself with the territory

  

  Political Map of Mexico Relief Map of Mexico	(courtesy of the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection of the University of Texas)
  Clickable Map of Mexico (eb)

Political Map of Cuba Relief Map of Cuba	(courtesy of the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection of the University of Texas)
Clickable Map of Cuba (eb)

- This would be a good time to start looking at some photo essays. (If the links below are not enough, be sure to look at the Images page for more sources.)

• Mexico Connect Photo Gallery - hundreds of photographs on Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Mexico City, Nayarit, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, and Zacatecas. (Choose a location of interest under the Places menu of the Index which will then link you to a list of internal links.)
• Fires of Life, Death by Jeffry Scott - the difficulties of dealing with cold temperatures in Nogales, Mexico. This photographer also has photographs about immigration and pollution on the U.S./Mexican border.
• Treasures of Sierra Madre, Mexico's Copper Canyon
• A fight for children by Billy Calzada - a photo essay on how illegal drugs and their use are turning the U.S.-Mexico border into a war zone

When browsing these sites, look for a "Next" button or click on the images to move from one picture to the next.

• "Cuba as it is" by Piet den Blanken, Dutch photojournalist. (Scroll down his Cuba page for links to pictures.)
• Slide Show of a Canadian visitor in Havana during the 14th World Youth and Student Festival. Show includes pictures of the city of Havana and its residents in 1997; the host family of the narrator; images from the closing ceremonies at the Panamerican Stadium; and a few pictures of the time spent at the camp, working for solidarity with Cuba.
• Cuba Photo Journey - a photo exhibition by N. Glinoer (comments are in French, but since a picture is worth lots and lots of words, it doesn't matter if you don't understand those comments)
• Photographs of Havana, Cuba - by Jeff Dunas
• An American Artist in Cuba - Paintings by Dennis Aufiery
• Cubans trying to make it over to the United States by Jock Fistick
• 21 Cuba Photos by Jorge Luis Monteagudo
• Cuba by Ernesto Bazan
• Cuba '97
• Images from Havana by Pablo Cabado; you can read his introduction to the images here
• Cigarcountry
• Cuba's People - Images from Across the Straits - twenty pictures with little narratives
• Permaculture in Cuba: Urban Agriculture in Havana
• Cuban Postcards - courtesy of Annie I. Antón (the connection is slow, but it's worth the wait!)
• Cuba, The Lost Paradise
• Cuba's Ecolife
• Photo Collection on Cuba - pictures obtained from books; the images feature "some of the most known areas and spots" of Cuba.

- some other sites of general interest

• Timeline of Mexican History
• National Geographic's Mexico Journeys features a section on Tijuana and the border, the Heartland, Mexico City, and Chiapas. (Scroll down the page and click on the images to see photo essays on various topics such as Tarascan Indians, air pollution in Mexico City, Zapatistas in Chiapas, and life on the U.S. border.)
• The National Geographic site also features so called Dai$ Dispatches with more photo essays.

• Our People and Their Life - A few words and images describing Cuba's population, religion, foods and drinks, art and music on the official site of the Republic of Cuba: CubaWeb.
• The Ultimate Cuban Webpage
• Cuba (in Spanish only!)