Russian pop singer Leonid Agutin and Cuban Latin jazz flautist and band leader Orlando “Maraca” Valle joined forces to deliver a unique concert at Havana Cathedral Plaza. They enjoyed the company of Buena Vista Social Club diva Omara Portuondo and tres guitar master Pancho Amat. (29 photos)
Read MoreThe Cuban feature length Chamaco, by filmmaker Juan Carlos Cremata, will make its international debut in the Miami International Film Festival, to be held in that U.S. city March 5-14, announced Tiziana Finzi, the event’s artistic director. The film is about the connection between poverty and sexual exploitation in contemporary Cuban society.
Read MoreCuban virtuoso jazz pianist Chucho Valdes will record a special song titled Haiti volverá (Haiti will Return) dedicated to the victims of the earthquake that devastated the capital of the Caribbean country on January 12. Chucho agreed to donate the rights to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to help with the recovery effort.
Read MoreU.S. art gallery owner Gilbert Brownstone donated to Cuba works by important artists from the 20th century visual arts vanguard, such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró and Andy Warhol.
Read MoreThe popular Cuban salsa group Los Van Van were schedule to arrive Monday in Miami, where they will begin on January 28 the prelude to their tour of the United Status, which will begin in May, announced the bands director, Juan Formell. The musician said he saw little possibility that the concert will be boycotted by anti-Castro groups in Florida and thanked Washington for the speed with which they were given the visas.
Read MoreSituated on Old Havana’s main pedestrian boulevard, the Ilé Bata House of Drums is a community-based initiative in which children and teens of both sexes can develop their abilities in dance, painting, percussion, and theater. Presentations such as the one featured here —in which other artists were invited to participate— sooth the soul while filling the artists with pride.
Read MoreI spent the first evening aboard the Giorita pestering the first and second mates for data about our cargo and route. We were carrying a light load: only 1,158 tons of merchandise. Counting the ship’s own weight, fuel, fresh water and ballast sea water, the crew’s weight and its food, it weighed 12,000 tons, 6,000 tons under capacity—a sign of the rough economic times for Cuba.
Read MoreMy first sailing mission intent was not with the Seaweed. I came to the Seaweed because the first tanker I sought to sail with, the Shark, was crippled and under repairs between periodic short-distance exercises during the six weeks I was aboard. The Shark was my first objective because its captain, Antonio García Urquiola, had infiltrated the CIA as a double agent for the Cuban government. He had formed part of my book, “Backfire”.
Read MoreHavana’s annual International Jazz Plaza festival takes place in 2010 on December 16-19. This year’s festival could include the participation of artists previously forbidden by the US government from traveling to Cuba.
Read MoreNew York City recently hosted its first Cuban band in five years, after the group Septeto Nacional became the first to win a visa that allowed it to accept a booking there.
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