Tiffany A. Sippial - Celia Sánchez Manduley: The Life and Legacy of a Cuban Revolutionary (Envisioning Cuba)

The list of people who deserve my gratitude for supporting me with this book is long. First on the list of people to thank is Sonia Riquelme, who introduced me to the name Celia Snchez Manduley in 1995. When she invited me to Cuba to assist her with her research on Afro-Cuban poets, Sonia insisted that I pursue my own research project. I learned so much about the research process from her that summer and only wish she were still alive to read this book. At Southwestern University, I must thank Eric Selbin, who has been a constant supporter of this project for more than twenty years, and of me for even longer. His Latin American politics class changed the course of my life, and his friendship and mentorship continue to mean the world to me.

With support from the Latin American and Iberian Institute at the University of New Mexico, I decided to extend my undergraduate work on Snchez into an M.A. thesis. My thesis committeeJudy Bieber, Linda Hall, and Elizabeth Hutchisonpushed the work in fruitful new directions. I am also indebted to Jane Slaughter, whose graduate seminar on gender, war, and memory introduced me to a whole new field that shaped in important ways how I thought about Snchezs legacy. Another of my UNM mentors, Melissa Bokovoy, offered instructive feedback on a section of this work at the American Historical Association meeting in 2016.

At Auburn University, where I have been on the faculty since 2007, I must thank my amazing colleagues for their friendship and support in all things. Special thanks to Dave Lucsko, Donna Bohanan, Ken Noe, Joe Kicklighter, Jim Hansen, Cate Giustino, Kathryn Braund, Charles Israel, Alan Meyer, Jennifer Brooks, David Carter, Matthew Malczycki, Christopher Ferguson, Abby Swingen (now at Texas Tech), and Ralph Kingston. To my amazing Honors College team, I have loved every minute of this new adventure together and look forward to all the great things to come. Many thanks also to Andrew Gillespie and the Office of International Programs at Auburn University, who helped finance my final two trips to Cuba to complete the research for this book through an Internationalization Grant. I feel so privileged to work with such supportive and inspiring colleagues.

I am also grateful for the support extended to me by the staff at a number of U.S. archives. The University of Floridas Center for Latin American Studies awarded me a Library Research Grant in 2016, and my experience with the entire library and special collections staff was stellar from beginning to end. My research in the University of Miamis Cuban Heritage Collection was equally enriching, and the helpful staff there both tracked down the sources I requested and brought others to my attention. I have made countless trips to the University of Texas at Austins Benson Latin American Library, and each was as helpful as the last. I also appreciate the assistance I received (on both of my books) from library and archival staff at Yale University.