To get some perspective on the issues of tourism and prostitution in the fifties we should consider that somewhere between 200,000 and 250,000 tourists visited Cuba every year in the fifties, compared with well over two million for most of the first decade of the twenty-first century.
Read MoreThe Mexican film El infierno, directed by Luis Estrada, won the first prize Coral Award at the 33rd Havana Film Festival, which concluded last night at the Karl Marx Theater in the Cuban capital.
Read MoreWomen playing the bata drum? There are still some people who are amazed by this, but women have entered the world of Cuban percussion — a mostly male endeavor — and these females aren’t thinking of backing off. (10 photos)
Read MoreThe National Music Award was presented on Thursday to Wilfredo “Pachi” Naranjo, the founder and director of the Original de Manzanillo, a popular Cuban dance-music group.
Read MoreWhen confronted with the many expressions of racism in post revolutionary Cuba, spokes-persons and apologists for the regime have historically claimed that these are leftovers of the capitalist past that will fade with the passage of time.
Read MoreWhat Cuban moviegoers appreciate most about the Havana Film Festival are different views about life in the participating countries. Yet when these views differ from the stereotypes, people react in different ways. Some will walk out of the theater, while others will stay (though disturbed) to see what happens.
Read MoreCuban writer Nercys Felipe said from her home in western Pinar del Rio Province that she felt moved by the news of her winning the 2011 National Literature Prize, an award that she learned about yesterday.
Read MoreCuban singer Anais Abreu is one of the voices continuing in the style bequeathed by the greatest performers from the island. “The sad thing is that many singers in Cuba are dying but have never been on television or recorded a CD.”
Read MoreImmigration can be considered the great theme of the 21st century given its presence and the increasing intensity in Latin American cinematography and the production of Latino filmmakers in the US.
Read MoreOne of the most multifaceted sections of the Havana Film Festival is “Hecho en Cuba” (Made in Cuba), as it consists of documentaries, fiction, shorts and animated films. Though these are made by both nationals and foreigners, they always maintain Cuba as the center stage and Cubans as the protagonists.
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