Overlooking Havana’s Plaza de Armas stands the Hotel Santa Isabel. On the top floor is the watchtower, from which one can appreciate Havana Bay, or the former fishing villages of Regla and Casa Blanca, the Castillo de la Real Fuerza colonial fortress and the baroque Palacio de los Capitanes Generales, which today is the city museum. (21 photos)
Read MoreOn the night of each January 27, the day before the birth date of Jose Marti, Cuba’s National Hero, university students carry out a torch light march beginning from the expansive stairway of the University of Havana. The first march took place in 1953 on the hundredth anniversary of Marti’s birth. Participating back then were some of the young people who were planning the assault on the Moncada and Cespedes garrisons in Santiago de Cuba and Bayamo, which would take place six months later. (23 photos)
Read MoreRussian 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 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 MoreJanuary arrived in style– at least in terms of jazz. This past Sunday at the Amadeo Roldan Theater-Auditorium, Havanans enjoyed a jam session backed by strings, woodwinds and percussive instruments. Renowned Cuban jazz pianist Ernan Lopez-Nussa, along with Gaston Joya (bass) and Enrique Pla (drums), joined forces with the National Symphonic Orchestra to give us the first symphonic jazz concert to ever take place on the island.
Read MoreThe Cuban National Ballet —beginning the year at its best— this past weekend presented The Nutcracker(in its complete version). One-hundred children from the Youth Ballet of Hamilton (Canada) performed as special guests. In addition were dancers from the Alejo Carpentier Elementary School of Ballet and the Vocational Workshop of the Dance Department of the Cuban National Ballet.
Read MoreWater has always been an inspiration for art. It’s the substance that cleans and purifies the wrongs of the world in legends and popular song. In Havana, though, it isn’t always as crystalline as we’d like. Water runs in the streets, parks and gardens to form puddles and very few of us contemplate them.
Read MoreThe Havana Times team wanted to give a gift to each child, not only in Cuba but to those around the whole world. Here’s a little joy for those that still refuse to grow up, for those that still want to see the world with astonished eyes.
Read MoreShopping for the Christmas-New Years dinners wasn’t easy as far as purchasing power went, though there was no canceling the pig slaughtering spectacle on the block – a prominent tradition in these holiday festivities. The world economic crisis was clearly felt at the counter.
Read MoreAfter reappearing in my home town in the United States after my trip to Cuba, many discussions about the differences in culture and perspective in a capitalist and a socialist society ensued. My two-week crash course on a society I was previously unfamiliar with had been psychologically hard and exhausting. It was very very challenging to overcome all the propaganda about Cuba that had dictated my mentality, and remain open to it as it is.
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