From makeshift baseball games, to remote villages in Cuba, many have admired Fidel Castro. And for almost fifty years he's been the island's most polarizing figure. Is Cuba ready for life after Castro? In February 2008, the baton was officially handed from President Fidel Castro to his brother Raul. Now Cuba faces one of its biggest challenges since Fidel took over the island nearly fifty years ago. Can the revolution continue without its iconic leader? En Español Cuba y Fidel Desde las canchas de béisbol hasta los remotos pueblos en Cuba, Fidel Castro ha sido admirado por muchos, y por casi cincuenta años ha sido la figura más polarizada de la isla. ¿Está Cuba preparada para la vida después de Castro? En febrero del 2008, la batuta fue oficialmente traspasada de mano a mano del Presidente Fidel Castro a su hermano Raúl. Ahora Cuba confrontará uno de sus grandes retos, desde que Fidel tomó el mando de la isla hace casi cincuenta años. ¿Podrá la revolución continuar sin su icónico líder? Program Guests Martin Carnoy Vida Jacks Professor, School of Education Stanford University Dr. Carnoy is a labor economist with a special interest in the relation between the economy and the educational system. To this end, he studies the US labor market, including the role in that relation of race, ethnicity, and gender, the US educational system, and systems in many other countries. He uses comparative analysis to understand how education influences productivity and economic growth, and, in turn, how and why educational systems change over time, and why some countries educational systems are marked by better student performance than others'. He has studied extensively the impact of vouchers and charter schools on educational quality, and has recently focused on differences in teacher preparation and teacher salaries across countries as well as larger issues of the impact of economic inequality on educational quality. Vicki Huddleston Visiting Fellow, Foreign Policy Brookings Institute Vicki Huddleston is an expert on Latin America and Africa. A career member of the foreign service, she served as U.S. ambassador to Mali and Madagascar, acting U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia and chief of the American interest section Cuba. Vicki Huddleston has been recognized for her work with a Presidential Award and an award for Distinguished Service and Valor. Michael Conniff Director, Global Studies San Jose State University As director of the Global Studies Institute at San José State University, Professor Conniff promotes curriculum reform, faculty and staff development, exchanges with foreign universities, and programs to prepare students to succeed as citizens and professionals in the world at large. Conniff earned degrees at UC-Berkeley and Stanford (Ph.D. 1976) and has published a number of books on modern history, most recently A History of Modern Latin America (with Lawrence Clayton), Africans in the Americas (with T.J. Davis), and populism in Latin America. He has lived overseas for a dozen years, has held several post-doc appointments (including three Fulbright tours), and served in the U.S. Peace Corps. He lectures often in Portuguese and Spanish. Before joining SJSU, he taught history at the University of New Mexico and created Latin American studies programs at Auburn University and the University of South Florida.