Culture

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)

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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.

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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.

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Cuba Art: Untitled Goes for $7,000 Dollars

Cuban avant-garde art, and whatever resembles this, is experiencing a new moment of glory. Not only has artistic creation become more diverse, but production has multiplied thousand-fold, by the many thousands that collectors, and those who appear to be collectors, are paying for it.

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The Flip Side of Arts Education in Cuba

There’s no doubt that Cuba’s Arts Education system is a global reference. Since January 1959, the arts and literature were put in everyone’s reach as part of the Revolution’s new cultural policy and society’s poorest classes had the opportunity, for the first time ever, to see their dreams of becoming artists, dancers, musicians, painters, architects or filmmakers come true.

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When Cuba Opened Its Doors to Jewish Refugees

When most people think of Cuba, escaping Jewish refugees and the Second World War what pops in mind is the MS St. Louis ocean liner which tried to dock in Havana in 1939. However there is another related and little publicized story that began in the early 1940s, and had a much happier ending. The documentary “Cuba’s Forgotten Jewels” is set to be shown at the ongoing Havana Film Festival.

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Havana Film Festival Opens in Cuba

The 39th International Festival of the New Latin American Cinema (Havana Film Festival) began on Friday in Havana with more than 400 films on display and a tribute to the US director James Ivory. The largest film event in Cuba and one of the most important in Latin America will run from December 8-17 in over a dozen venues of the Cuban capital.

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Boris Lurie in Havana

Boris Lurie’s exhibition in Havana brings the NO ART movement to the temporary exhibit room at Cuba’s National Museum of Fine Arts. It includes nearly a hundreds of his works and will be on display until January 7, 2018. (21 photos)

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“Juan sin Nada”: Cuban Reality and Nothing Else

La singular historia de Juan sin Nada is an independent documentary made in Cuba. Directed by Ricardo Figueredo Oliva and produced by Diana Reyes Barrena, the movie has the audacity to openly and bravely question the raw reality of a Cuban who lives on the edge, with a simple average income that any Cuban living on the island could have.

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