Guantánamo is about people. Mired in the languages of the War on Terror, and previous to that, of relief efforts and military operations, it is a fact easily obscured. Guantánamo has been variously discussed as a ‘detainment centre,’ a ‘prison,’ a ‘military base,’ a ‘camp,’ one full of ‘detainees,’ ‘prisoners,’ ‘refugees,’ ‘soldiers,’ with a…

This picture is of former Assistant Principal Jay Gilbo of W.T. Sampson High School and Elementary School with a group of third graders going back to class after lunch.  The current popular opinion and perspective surrounding Guantánamo Bay is of Camp X-Ray and the “enemy combatants” detained at the base. However, there is another side…

Regina José Galindo is a contemporary Guatemalan artist who often uses performance and her own body to comment on international political and social issues.  Often, Galindo will put her body in difficult, violent, and compromising positions as a way to bring attention to ignored or hidden abusive acts by the powerful over the vulnerable.  She…

At the turn of the twentieth century, the regular enlisted men of the U.S. Navy stationed at Guantánamo Bay were enmeshed in a culture of intense masculinity and sexual isolation, with no American women on the base, except for the wives of high-ranking officers. The raucous activities that took place just outside the walls of…

Despite the Guantánamo Bay base’s military purpose, it has also been home to a number of children over the years. In 1931 the W.T. Sampson School was founded to accommodate the children of military personnel and continues to operate today. The school was closed and students evacuated to the mainland during three periods of intense…

Video produced by Debbie Rolf. My project focused on the time period where Cuban rafters were the primary occupants of the Guantánamo Bay naval base. I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Eugenio M. Rothe about his experiences treating Cuban refugee children. I was floored by the level of psychological damage that these children endured.…

Video produced by Bryan Trotman and David Laffey. This personal memoir is part of the Guantánamo Public Memory Project. The University of Miami is participating in the Guantánamo Public Memory Project‘s National Dialogue and Traveling Exhibit. Opening at NYU’s Kimmel Center for University Life Windows Gallery in December 2012 and traveling to 9 sites (and…

Video produced by Rachelle Salnave and Phil Bouknight. This personal memoir is part of the Guantánamo Public Memory Project. Mr. Ira J. Kurzban litigated over fifty federal cases concerning the rights of immigrants, including Jean v. Nelson, Commissioner v. Jean, and McNary v Haitian Refugee Center, Inc., all of which he argued before the United…

The image above is of a group of Haitian refugees who are making their way toward Cuba. This image reveals the terrible conditions of the boats and journey the Haitian people endured during their travels. The over-crowding of people shows how many individuals searched and dreamed of freedom to the west. By Antoinette Strickland In…

Two Guantánamo detainees from China, who were held for more than 10 years without charges, have been resettled in El Salvador. Both were captured in Pakistan along with 20 other Uighurs—a Muslim group who live primarily in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and have had recent troubles with the Chinese government. These men were in…