Interviews

A Cuban Who Made It to the Paris Olympia

“I’m a guajira (a farm girl), and I’ll always be one,” said Cuban singer Leyanis Lopez in her interview with HT. “My first record was in 1999, “Como la mariposa” (Like a butterfly), on the foreign label Lusafrica, along with my musicians in Guantanamo.”

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Setting the Record Straight

“My little girl was called Lesdiany Rodriguez Vidal; she was twelve years old and was in the 8th grade in the “People’s Republic of Angola” high school in the East Havana housing projects of Alamar,” said Anabel Vidal Fernandez who wants justice.

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Cuba’s First Crowd-Funding Platform

Projects registered on www.yagruma.org are funded by visitors to the site interested in what it has to offer whether it is a documentary, an exhibition, a video clip, a movie, a book, or a long list of projects. To find out more about the web site I met up with Ubaldo Huerta, one of its founders, on an afternoon early in May 2012.

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Cuban Photographer Pedro Abascal

Considered one of the greatest exponents of Cuban photography in recent times, Pedro Abascal — self-taught — involves us in each of his images of the varied themes of Havana life. His work is showing within the 11th Havana Biennial Art Festival underway through June 11 in the capital.

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Slowly Breaking Down the Barriers

Two years ago I interviewed Michel (Nonardo) Perea Enriquez, writer and plastic artist. Homosexual. His partners, always occasional, were guys who defined themselves as heterosexual in public and even in private adopted homophobic attitudes and were never seen with him in the street.

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The Right to Think and Express Oneself Un-Hypocritically

What’s being trampled here is the Constitution of Cuba, our constitution. This constitution didn’t cost only sweat, it cost blood. It makes no sense to stand up in a mass rally and talk about heroes or recite poetry about them if we remain silent when it comes to defending their legacy.

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Getting Closer to Heaven

Our guest is Marvin Rodriguez Torres, a young, self-taught Cuban photographer and adventurer who has just had the wonderful experience of climbing to the highest point of the island. His photos and views accompany this interview.

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