Culture

December 31st Doesn’t Mean Anything Anymore

This isn’t anything new. Every Cuban, both here and there, know this. When the end of the year comes around, most Cubans want to eat pork (preferably roasted), cassava with garlic sauce, mashed chatino or plantain, black beans, a lettuce and tomato salad, and if your budget allows for it, have one or two beers or a few glasses of rum.

Read More

Making Political Theater in Cuba

After my furious state in front of the police and State security forces, when they tried to prevent my play “Enemies of the People” from making its debut (I say “tried” because, in spite of the pain it caused to have to bid farewell to all my guests, the play was performed for the only two people who had managed to enter), everyone is advising me to calm down…

Read More

Adopting Foreign Influences and Not Fighting Them

“El Ciervo Blanco” is an alternative space where its audience can enjoy music they can’t find on Cuban TV. With a newsletter on Facebook and a book club that used to run on the roof terrace of a private home in Old Havana for five months, it sets out to research and spread awareness about old and new paganisms and anything that is magical, mythological and religious.

Read More

Cuba’s Special Period as a Pedal-Driven Space Odyssey

Conversation over New Year’s dinners in Havana will surely include Ernesto Daranas Serrano’s lastest movie Sergio y Serguei. Set at the end of the Soviet Union and the start of the Special Period, this melodrama pokes fun at dogmatism and corruption while celebrating transnational person-to-person ties and grassroots initiative.

Read More

The Power of Art and the Fear of Leaders

Everything seems to return to “normal” after the repression suffered by several artists on the afternoon of Wednesday, December 20th in the Cuban capital. They were going to enjoy a play in the independent house-gallery El Circulo and suddenly they were victims of a performance by a government that prevents free expression at all costs.

Read More

Ileana the Painter: Art is the Path to Happiness

Ileana the Painter moves with the force of a torrent and irradiates the joy of a little girl. She confesses that she has always been “different” and challenging implacable society hasn’t been the greatest challenge in her life. She paints, she cooks, she lives with contagious and authentic freedom. With an unstoppable flair for improvising. (14 photos)

Read More

The Giant Puppet Tradition in Sutiava, Nicaragua

In Sutiava, a suburb of Leon, a family of “gigantona makers” have held on to the tradition of these giant puppets for decades, although in some periods of history it’s been menaced. Wilfredo Arostegui works with rigorous historical accuracy. He notes that to make the body of a gigantona, he consulted magazines and articles from the era.

Read More

Cuban “Salsa” in Europe

Over recent decades a number of talented Cuban dancers have made new homes in various European cities and, thanks to their efforts, along with those of a large number of dedicated European enthusiasts, a fertile Cuban dance scene has blossomed from Madrid to Moscow, Scandinavia to Sicily.

Read More