Culture, Sports, Events

Many visitors to Cuba do not speak Spanish, not even minimally. And yet they have a wonderful time, meet people and have interesting discussions. Although it’s hard to estimate how many people in Havana speak English, it is not hard to find people with whom one can talk. And especially in a university environment, it is not difficult to find Cuban students who speak English with varying degrees of proficiency, from excellent to being able to say a few words. But one thing you can count on: those Cubans – whether university students or people on the street – who speak even a little bit of English will be very keen to practice on you.

There are a number of sources of information for things to do in Havana, especially in relation to learning Spanish or Cuban Salsa, etc. Although a simple google search will pull up programs offered by overseas organizations, there are some Cuban organizations and websites that you might want to check out first.

Unitarian Universalism (UU) has been growing in Latin America over the past several years. In January 2005, the Alianza Unitaria Universalista Latinoamericana (AUULA or Latin American Unitarian Universalist Association) met for the first time, in Argentina, with leaders from emerging UU groups from around the region. Although Cuba already had its own emerging groups, it was not able to ‘participate in these meetings.

The official website of Marabana is www.inder.cu/beta/competition/marabana

The official summons and general information for Marabana is provided in Spanish, English, French, German, Italian and Russian and can be found on the main page.

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.