Alumni Award Recipients

Nelson Valdés
Bernard S. Rodey Award, 2011

Accurate information is important. Really important. All educated people would agree about that. Because accurate information leads to accurate conclusions. And good decisions. And valid policies.

Nelson Valdés has devoted his career to making accurate information available. That’s why when we sent out invitations to this event stating that he was a Cuban refugee, he let us know in no uncertain terms that our information was wrong . . . and that it could lead to an inaccurate conclusion.

The inaccurate conclusion would have been that Nelson’s was a Horatio Alger story, of rags to riches. Instead, Nelson says, his story is the opposite. His story is about a person who was provided for, and so was able to succeed.

Here’s Nelson’s story, as accurate as I can make it.

Nelson was born in pre-revolutionary Cuba. In the early 60s, at age 15, he became one of 14,068 children whose parents sent them alone from Cuba to the United States. The parents were fearful of rumors that the revolutionary government would send their children to Soviet work camps.

About 300 of the children, including Nelson, were sent to foster homes in New Mexico. Nelson attended St. Pius High School. He got a job as a janitor at UNM where he became a student. The government paid for his education and his health and dental care. “I had rights that New Mexican children didn’t have,” he says.

In 1978, Nelson received his doctorate in history and sociology. His thesis focused on the Cuban Rebellion. UNM hired him as an assistant professor of sociology. In 1991 he was appointed full professor. Upon his retirement in 2009, he became professor emeritus.

A colleague, Professor Howard Waitzkin, says Nelson is one of the pre-eminent scholars of Latin America and especially Cuba. In fact, Nelson’s work influenced Howard to pursue Latin American studies long before he came to UNM.

A student writes that “Professor Valdés is a little known treasure at UNM.”

Behind Nelson’s 40-year career in academia there lies one central impetus: to provide access to information about Latin America, and Cuba in particular.

Students gained access through Nelson’s teaching . . . Through his own studies and pursuits Nelson has amassed an amazing amount of information about Cuba and Latin America. He has shared that in his classes.

Scholars and universities gained access through the data bases he established.

In 1986, Nelson founded the Latin America Data Base in the Latin American and Iberian Institute. He became the LADB director for 10 years. The LADB maintains a searchable database of over 280,000 articles drawn from a variety of Latin American news sources and journals. It is a resource for research universities, colleges, corporations and non-profit organizations worldwide. It is accessed by tens of thousands of users every month.

In 1995, Nelson obtained on behalf of UNM a license from the US Treasury to establish an internet connection between the United States and Cuba.

Nelson also founded the Cuba-L Direct Project at the Latin American and Iberian Institute. Cuba-L distributes daily information on Cuba generated by a wide variety of electronic and print sources from around the world. Cuba-L is the longest on-going distributor of electronic materials on Cuba.

The public as well as scholars have gained access through Nelson’s writing, talks, and lectures. His list of publications is pages long.

Since retirement Nelson has concentrated on writing analytical and opinion pieces dealing with the US, Latin America and/or Cuba. He calls his approach “contrarian.” Generally speaking, a contrarian rejects popular opinion in place of a contradicting viewpoint.

That’s where we come full circle to Nelson’s background. His perspective is unique. His opinions come from a combination of knowledge, experience and information. So, oftentimes, his opinions challenge the mainstream. They challenge assumptions. They challenge us to get things right. That’s what education is about.

Nelson, we appreciate your work through the years. The world needs information. The world needs contrarians. Thank you for dedicating your career to informing us. We would like to honor your dedication and your career with our Bernard S. Rodey Award tonight.