Hélio Augusto de Souza Alves

Hélio Augusto de Souza Alves is a Ph.D. student in Latin American History at the University of Florida, where he works with Dr. Lillian Guerra. He earned a B.A. and a Master's degree in History (in 2017 and 2021, respectively) from the São Paulo State University (UNESP). During his academic career, Alves has also received fellowships to study and conduct research in Brazil, Bolivia, Cuba, and the United States. Alves' previous research focused on Fidel Castro's public image and popularity in Cuba between 1952 and 1959. For his current research project, he aims to analyze Cuba's official narratives, policies, and policies' reversals between 1970 and 1994. Hélio Alves' research aims to shed light on Cuba's political engineering aimed to ensure stability and governability while analyzing the intersections between states legitimacy, toleration, and accommodation of complaints. In addition, this project strives to reveal limits of the Communist State's legitimacy in the eyes of the population. As a scholar, Alves carried out university exchange activities at Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (La Paz/Bolivia) with the support of the Association of Universities of Grupo Montevideo (AUGM); as well as a research internship at the University of Havana (2017) and University of Florida (2019). Most recently, he was the 2022-2023 Goizueta Pre-Prospectus Fellow, conducting research in the Cuban Heritage Collection (University of Miami). Hélio Alves is a member of the following research groups of the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq): Group of Latin American Studies and Latin American Reality. (Source: Lattes Curriculum)