Culture, Sports, Events

The first place to start looking for information is Cubadeportes S.A., a state-owned agency coming under INDER (Instituto Nacional de Deportes, Educación Física y Recreación / National Institute for Sports, Physical Education and Recreation) – the Cuban Sports Ministry.

There are a number of ways to contact Marabana in Cuba and to get information. In a consultation with the director ofMarabana, Carlos Gattorno, the following information was provided:

As of November 2009, the head offices of Marabana will be permanently located in Ciudad Desportiva, a large sports complex located in the municipality of Cerro.

One of the finest institutions in Cuba for doing serious studies in the arts – Music, Theatre, Dance, the Plastic Arts and Audiovisual Communication – is the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA or Higher Art Institute), located in Havana. Over the past years, ISA’s academic structure has expanded and one can now find affiliated branches in the provinces of Holguín, Camagüey and Santiago de Cuba.

No formal agreements exist between Cuba and the United States that allow American blues / rock bands, or any other kind of musical group, to play in Cuba.

If a North American group wants to play in Cuba, it must go through the necessary process for authorization on both the Cuban and the U.S. end. Neither process has anything to do with the other. In other words, one side may grant authorization and the other side not.

When doing professional photographic work in Cuba, it is important to have a sponsoring organization on the Cuban end. In a consultation with the Ballet Nacional de Cuba (BNC), they suggested that you contact the following individual to explore your needs and the best way to proceed:

In recent years, several Orthodox Churches have opened in Cuba. The first was the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Nikolaos (the patron saint of sailors), located in Habana Vieja, on January 25, 2004, in the presence of then Cuban President Fidel Castro and Ecumenical Patriach Vartholomeos (Bartholomew I). In fact, this was the first Orthodox Church to be constructed in Cuba after approximately 50 years. Of the few thousand Orthodox residents in Cuba, only 50 are Greek.

Clutch hitter Frederich Cepeda is the new captain of the Cuban National Baseball Team as the squad readies for the World Cup which begins on Sept. 9. Esteban Lombillo, manager of the Cuban League champions Havana Province, is the skipper of the island’s squad, a blend of veterans and younger players.

Havana Times prefers to list official Cuban websites for Cuban-related events such as Marabana, rather than making references to links or organizations located outside the country. However, if you are unable to access either the INDER or Marabana official websites, you might try contacting cuba1tours, a Canadian-based agency which is organizing a sports tour for the 2009 Havana Marathon, to see if they might be able to help you. The website for the marathon iswww.cuba1tours.com/marabana/running.html

Answer: Click here for the Cuban rules and regulations on taking art work out of the country:http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=8492

The INDER site, which is the official site of the Cuban Sports Ministry, does indeed work and provides all the necessary information for Marabana. Try using this link which seems to work better: http://www.inder.cu/beta/competitions/marathon&race/marabana/sp/index.html

If you are still not able to get into this site from your particular location, you have three options