Argentina and Germany met at the World Cup final for the second time in 24 years and the outcome was the same: Germany came out victorious thanks to another heartbreaking goal. The South American nation’s most recent victory over the Mannstchaft took place in 1986.
Read MoreIt’s been three years since Lazaro Vargas Alvarez was selected to lead Cuba’s top-winning baseball team. I emphasize this, Cuba’s top winning team, because I feel we must draw up a balance of the Vargas’s triumphs and blunders, with a view to deciding if he ought to keep his position or not.
Read MoreThough not one of the most promoted artists, Ruben Lester (Santiago de Cuba, 1977) has broken into Cuba’s folk music world with an interesting repertoire. His lyrics combine feelings and objective observations. They recreate humanity’s relationship with its surroundings – with the countryside, the land and animals.
Read MoreCuba’s province of Ciego de Avila seemed different from what I remember from my first trip during this, my third time in the city. People didn’t seem as civil to me. State Cuban-peso establishments, though still cheap, had lost in quality.
Read MoreCuba’s Beisbol Internacional (“World Baseball”) sports show has been on the air for some months now and we have not yet seen one of the many Cuban baseball players now in the major leagues on TV. Mere coincidence?
Read MoreI am 34 and about to have my first book published. I’ve been in this writing business for 17 years, struggling to get ahead, trying to get my foot in the door here and there, and the truth is that it hasn’t been easy.
Read MoreGood or bad, Cuban baseball continues to awaken the heated passions of sport fans. This is especially true during a post-season involving Havana’s Industriales team, the “emblem of Cuban baseball”, as people have become used to saying.
Read MoreThe pieces of Lien and Rey always seem to be impelled by the need to express something, and that “something” is never trivial. The voices of the two performers fuse perfectly and achieve a whole range of interesting tonalities, gaining and losing volume in step with the momentum of each song and driven by the search of a peculiar sound.
Read MoreBefore it’s outlawed, music and talent will continue to find ways to reach us. Before it’s outlawed, Cuba’s Kamankola project – created and led by rapper Jorge Lian Garcia – will continue to bring us irreverent pieces. “Before It’s Outlawed” is precisely the title with which Lian has christened his first record.
Read MoreSome time ago, I recall having written about my neighborhood’s dog cemetery, a stretch of land at the outskirts of Alamar where residents had, of their own will, begun to bury their dead pets, a place that had been vandalized by insensitive people and institutions.
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