The Steve Marquardt Papers consists primarily of research files, reports, and correspondence relating to Cuba’s political system, human rights conditions, and restrictions on intellectual freedom. A substantial portion of the material focuses on independent libraries in Cuba and international responses to censorship, repression, and limitations on freedom of expression. Included are Amnesty International reports, Human Rights Watch publications, United States government accountability reports, United Nations documentation, and scholarly analyses addressing Cuban politics, diplomacy, migration, race, health care, and civil society. The collection also contains writings and interviews concerning Fulgencio Batista, Fidel Castro, and post revolutionary Cuba, as well as court and sentencing documents related to political trials. Additional material documents Marquardt’s involvement with human rights and reconciliation organizations in Brookings, South Dakota, and includes limited political campaign materials from the 2008 presidential campaign of Bill Richardson. Other files reflect related interests in libraries, librarianship, literacy, censorship, film, and professional and civic organizations.
The collection documents of international human rights advocacy and scholarly inquiry focused on Cuba during the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries. It offers primary and secondary source material useful for the study of censorship, independent libraries, political repression, and international monitoring of human rights, as well as insight into the activities of advocacy organizations and the role of information professionals in global human rights discourse.
