El Archivo De Connie & Other Stories: A Conversation with Anna Veltfort

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El Archivo De Connie & Other Stories: A Conversation with Anna Veltfort
Presented by the Cuban Heritage Collection and in partnership with the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures

Thursday, June 10, 2021 at 4 p.m. EDT

Please join us as we delve into the many stories and experiences of Anna "Connie" Veltfort’s life, both in Cuba and in the United States, as well as the impact of her blog and archive on gaining fresh and nuanced perspectives about art, gender, literature, and the cultural politics of early Revolutionary Cuba.

Anna Veltfort, an American Citizen born in Germany, is a writer and illustrator living in New York City. She was a child when, in 1962, her father moved the family to Cuba from the United States in support of the Revolution. Veltfort lived in Cuba for a decade and attended the University of Havana. Her coming of age and education on the island gives a fascinating glimpse into the broader ideological frameworks that shaped Cuba/US relations during the Cold War, as well as her personal journey from being supportive to critical of the Revolution. Veltfort is the author of a popular blog, Cuba: el archivo de Connie, which offers insight into Socialist Cuba in the 1960s, especially with respect to homophobia and violence against LGBTQ youth.

In 2017, Veltfort’s autobiographical illustrated novel, Adiós mi Habana, was published by Editorial Verbum, and in 2019, the English translation, Goodbye, My Havana: The Life and Times of a Gringa in Revolutionary Cuba, was published by Stanford University Press.

Veltfort recently donated her physical archive to the Cuban Heritage Collection; comprised of over three hundred books, as well as magazines, posters, vinyl, and works on paper, these materials are a unique resource for research and teaching.

About the Writer and Illustrator

Born in West Germany in 1945, Anna Veltfort emigrated with her mother to the United States when she was seven years old; they became American citizens and Anna was adopted by her American stepfather, Ted Veltfort, a communist and Spanish Civil War veteran. When the Cuban Revolution came to power in 1959, Ted Veltfort offered his services to the revolutionary government and moved his family to Cuba in the spring of 1962. Anna attended high school and the University of Havana, graduating in 1972 with a degree in art history. She returned that year to the United States where she became a graphic artist and illustrator, art directing, designing, and illustrating for magazines and educational publishers. She lives with her partner and their two mellow cats in New York City.

Introductory image design by Anna Veltfort, 2021.

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El Archivo De Connie & Other Stories: A Conversation with Anna Veltfort

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