ES / EN
Carla Gloria Colomé

Carla Gloria Colomé

Cervantes still had a lot to say

They say that sequels are never good, but certainly Miguel de Cervantes was the exception to that proved the rule: the second volume of Don Quixote, written 10 years after the first, did not respond only to the popularity of the walking knight, but the indisputable fact that the Manco de Lepanto still had much to say... At least the Spanish researcher José María Reyes Cano believes that, who gave a lecture at the University of Havana on the occasion of 400th anniversary of the publication of Don Quixote, in the context besides of the the 24 International Book Fair Havana-2015. "Cervantes could not stay with the first volume alone," said the professor of the University of Barcelona and Real Academia de Sevilla, before a penetrating question. Such was the success of the first volume, published in 1605, the author appealed to popularity as a stimulus for their characters. But though the work had been a fiasco, and not the phenomenon that it was, Reyes Cano estimates that Cervantes still would have written a sequel, believing that the author had still much to say. In fact, even his novel La Galatea would have had a second part if death had...

"I represent all that I live, what I have closer" / Photo: Roberto Ruiz

Leo D’Lázaro in the El Ojo del Ciclón

I cross the threshold El Ojo del Ciclón (The Eye of the Cyclone) and I am in thousands of locations all time. The Aleph described by Borges is in O'Reilly 501, corner A Villegas, in the center of Old Havana. The multiplicity of images, sounds and smells stimulate the senses of visitors. Paintings, coffee, sons, sculptures, rock, fresh coffee brewing, dominoes, football, expensive perfume, sweat, The History of the United States, Complete Works of Martí (Vol XXI), people, yesterday, today, tomorrow, Christ crucified, the artist sculpting the movement of Viengsay Valdes A middle-aged French woman walks through the exhibition hall. She observes a "phone booth". Enters it. Inside, a collage of photographs reveals moments in someone's life. "Do not tell what you see," reads the sign over the phone. Perhaps out of curiosity, she raises the aged up of layers of silver paint handset. To her surprise, she hears the tone of the instrument. An invisible flash captures the moment. In short, the artist's hands D'Lázaro Leo could turn the woman into art. Surely, she will never know. "Both as representing my works in this space, I try to represent this space in the works. I have the doors open...

Café Versailles / Foto: Roberto Ariel Lamelo.

Cuba-US: mixed reactions from Miami

By: Dayana Rosquete The restoration of diplomatic relations between Havana and Washington generated dissimilar reactions in the Cuban community in Miami. The historic Café Versailles, symbol of a sector of emigration in South Florida, has seen mixed emotions after the presidents of both countries confirmed the start of a historical approach. For no Cuban the measures announced by the presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro went unnoticed. Ruben Hernandez, 52, who lives in Miami, told OnCuba that "if it was momentous that they returned the three Cuban spies and Allan Gross to their countries, not even Mandraque the magician would expect normalization of relations, something unheard of and hopefully Miami extremists cannot stop it, since what announced by Obama is very good, at least on a personal level I hope family visits can become regular” Others, from a contrary position, feel betrayed by the US president. To Felipe Guerra, 25, they yell traitor for defending the decision of Barack Obama. "It was a policy that has proved ineffective because Cubans continue to go to the marches of May and celebrate every January the triumph of the Revolution," Guerra said. Alberto Gonzalez is 70 years old and came to the United...

Conner Gorry: “Cubans are awesome; flowers come out of their mouths”

Many Cubans have called Conner Gorry crazy, because in 2002 she left New York and came to live in Havana, in love with Cuba and a Cuban. Her first physical contact with the country was in the fields harvesting root vegetables, when in 1993, during the Special Period, she came to work as a volunteer. "In the midst of my Masters in International Relations I felt the need to come touch reality myself. People talked about what they were living here, but from outside. I wanted to draw my own conclusions. " A year ago, Conner and her family opened the Habana Libros literary café, entirely with in English literature. The New Yorker, National Geographic, Wired, Rolling Stones, Times are some magazines that can be read in their café, kind of community project in 19 and 24 Streets, Vedado neighborhood. If it wasn’t for the fact that she has hair too blond, overly blue eyes and skin too white, people would not suspect that Conner was born in the United States. Moreover, when she learned to speak "Cuban", she moved to a Soviet-made building, and rode on many "camels" (Cuban large buses pulled by trucks) as any Havana inhabitant. The...

Luz María

Luz, the one from the Bote

For ten years Luz Maria has lived at the foot of the largest landfill site in Havana called "Bote de Cien."  She is tall and thin and now she seems the wake of the dancer in a site in decline. Ten years ago, when she no longer danced in the Tropicana cabaret, Luz Maria lifted some wooden boards, secured the ceiling pieces of cardboard and wood with beams, made a mattress with wagon wheels and old clothes, and settled in that cottage (a quimbo, as she calls it) full of old artifacts and clothes. "I was told there was a place where they threw clothes and shoes and what I did not like I exchanged for rice and beans, and so I survived. My mom lived in Havana but I could not go to her house, so I said, I will build a small cottage here in the bush. My husband and I built it, but he caught on the ¨Bote¨ and they sent him to prison. " She innvites us to know the quimbo: a bottle, a pornographic magazine in the corner, keychain, a pacifier hanging from the ceiling, a broken bag, worn plastic flowers, everything that she has...