It was a long-awaited baseball resurrection of sorts and it most appropriately came in an event Cuba has so long dominated. With a resounding five-game sweep of the field at this week’s 22nd Central American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz, Cuba not only regained a hefty measure of its badly tarnished reputation but did so in an impressive – almost flawless fashion.
Read MoreBars in full effervescence, black lights and music set the stage for a night life that awakens when the city goes to sleep. Reportedly, they are prohibited, but private bars in Havana speak the language of supply and demand and give the city a different texture. Full almost every night, these places operate under the license issued to “paladares,” private dining rooms: they sell food, drinks, cigars and cigarettes.
Read MoreAlito Abad (Holguin, 1982) is one of Cuba’s youngest contemporary folk musicians today. The lyrics of his songs reflect a penetrating gaze. It is as though the country, the historic drama of Cuban identity and the most pressing issues of our reality today were singing in his pieces.
Read More“Where are the cows?” This is the question the herders, authorities and police of Villa Clara are asking following a cattle recount conducted at agricultural and livestock cooperatives and State farms that came 6,934 animals short.
Read MoreThe governments of Cuba and the United States have maintained a series of negotiations in different areas of common interest for a number of years now. The two countries refer to such talks as “technical” in nature, but they could well represent the preamble of deeper and more political negotiations.
Read MoreThe number of Cuban rafters has increased substantially over the past four years. According to the US Coast Guard, the figure of Cubans detained tripled, from 422 in 2010, to 1,357 in 2013. During the 2014 fiscal year, a total of 2,059 Cubans trying to reach the United States on rafts were intercepted in the high seas.
Read MoreI knew about the Los Van Van from the very beginning since the orchestra was formed in December 1969, when their songs started to become part of the daily life of Cubans on the island. Back then, I was a skinny little kid, all head and teeth and nothing more. The name of the group came out of the popular enthusiasm generated by the challenge of harvesting 10 million tons of sugarcane in 1970.
Read MoreIn my previous post, I depicted the monster that our agricultural and livestock market is today. It is naïve to think that such an abomination could function in accordance with the universal laws of supply and demand.
Read MoreFigures for Cuba’s food industry and market continue to point upwards. The longed-for drop in prices is still nowhere to be seen six years after the “reform” of agriculture was undertaken, when President Raul Castro entered office.
Read MoreA concert dedicated to the works of musician Pablo Milanes will open this year’s JoJazz festival in Havana on Thursday. Havana’s Lazaro Peña Theater will welcome artists William Roblejo, Rolando Luna, Aire de Concierto, Zule Guerra, Yanet Valdes, Sexto Sentido and others.
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