Considering I was born in Santa Clara, my wife in Jovellanos and my offspring in Vedado, I have come to the disturbing conclusion that in baseball terms I'm sleeping with the enemy and raising a traitor. So I tend to be an extremist... I know it's a bad time to come out and confess my tortuous Orange prediction: Villa Clara, the team I love and suffer from childhood because of his current executioner, has left me wanting once more. I should be used to but not... The problem is that one can change faiths, ideologies, tastes, habits, women, airs, but never teams. No matter how many times thou forsake him, you end up forgiving him, and each time you renew your faith that “this year yes, this is good.” One takes these things too seriously, as if your identity, your moral and human integrity depended not on you, but on the performance of strangers, they don’t know you or get a heart attack like you after an infamous move and a bad running, or losing a game . That masochism always reminds me the movie A Bronx Tale when Sonny told the young Calogero: "If your father can not pay...

It is another monument to the art of cryptology and saying nothing. A note issued by the Commission of sport and INDER in the Isle of Youth, reads that the international Wilber Pérez , main pitcher of the Isla de la Juventud team and veteran of the III WBC, was suspended for one year of any activity related to the ball for unsportsmanlike conduct. But the statement never said what was involved in his indiscipline, and fans wondered what may have caused the lefty to deserve such punishment. Judging by the closest references, he could have hit an umpire with a bat, taken down his pants or sat on the mound of Cristóbal Labra stadium... According to the text circulated and amplified, Wilber had a “misguided action “that” damaged the image of his team and the best performance of the show” , while affected the possibility that the Pirates improved their result of last year. OnCuba contacted sports authorities in Isle of Youth to know what the pitcher age 37 and 13 seasons did. In good Cuban, Wilber threw the game down the drain that his team lost 4 × 17 to Industriales. He began to throw very slowly without...

The Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) will be 55 years old this March 24. One of the highlights of the celebration will be the delivery of the National Film Award to director Juan Carlos Tabio. We have to thank Tabío, if someone ignores it, some cult films, as he was co-director of "Strawberry and Chocolate" and "Guantanamera” with Tomas Gutierrez Alea (Titon) and directed "Se permuta" and "Plaff or too afraid of life". He also has a vast work as a documentary and short movies filmmaker, perhaps the most famous the surrealist "Dolly back" (1986). After participating in the collective project "Seven Days in Havana" Tabío spends much time at home, where he agreed to answer us some questions via e-mail. Here it going in Take One ... Why did you get involved in movies? How did you start? In 1961 I was studying in one of the many scholarships that existed at that time. I was expelled from the fellowship and I was "in the air," I was 17 and doing nothing. When this, the chief of staff of Alfredo Guevara was the daughter of my father's best friend, and like all vessels are communicating, I...

"Chango ... the mysterious one ... break the paila ...” Pedrito Calvo 's exhortation wasn’t not only giving the green light to José Luis Quintana to put the beat the paila in the legendary Sandunguera by Van Van, but also created an enigma in the Cuban popular dance music: Why the mysterious one? OnCuba directly asked the prestigious master , whose six decades of artistic life were honored in the current Guillermo Barreto in Memoriam Drum Festival, better known here as the Fiesta del Tambor. "That was something Pedrito came out with and this was not because I was someone with secrets or mysteries , but because I have always liked to walk alone , even when I go out , I'm someone more introverted , quiet, I do not like to talk much ... "he said. Yes, he revealed that the only secret to get into the paila is to give it " heart and soul, because without that you can’t get the rhythm. We also have to deeply understand the instrument, and do not stop studying it, no matter whether it is in the academy or in the street. " Dressed in the emblematic cloth cap of the...

The deliberation lasted little, because there was not much to discuss: they had several strong candidates, but no one doubted that the National Film Award-2014 was for Juan Carlos Tabio, the director of the best comedies ever made in Cuba. A humble man, when the jury called him to announce that he had been elected, the director of the monumental "Plaff or Too afraid of life" took it in stride, because his life does not revolve around a prize. Moreover, following his routine, he took his dog for a stroll, thinking perhaps of his new status... A jury chaired by writer Miguel Barnet, president of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, chose Tabío for his contribution to the film industry in this country, both in conducting thirty documentaries and short feature films, as his work behind cameras on multiple films of worship. Besides the aforementioned Plaff-made in 1988 and that seems to have been filmed today, Tabío’s work includes several features that constitute a corrosive portrait of the Cuban reality view with a sharp humor that takes care of vulgarity and commonplace. Outstanding films of his are Swap (1983), The Elephant and the Bicycle (1994) Waiting List (2000)...

Grey-haired, but still with that manhood that melted women and made men admire him, Tom Jones is in Havana. When I told my mother, who fell in love with the Tiger of Wales since she was a teenager, she almost fainted. The legendary singer who overcame tuberculosis to devote to music his warm voice came to the party of the Cuban cigars, and abetted by his close friend David Tang arrived in the National Ballet School, where he met with students and teachers, and made them the great gift of singing a capella his immortal "Dalilah" ... Sir Thomas John Woodward, his real name, also enjoyed the Grand Pas from Paquita, played by a group of young dancers, and the children danced for him excerpts from "The Little Prince", choreographed by teacher Laura Domingo. Smiling, funny and gentle, this Knight of the Crown had his picture taken even with the cleaning ladies, and although some did not know him, they sensed that he was huge. However, very few knew of its presence in the Habanos Festival, an event that annually attracts many celebrities that come and go incognito. Tom Jones visits the National School of Ballet / Photo PL Although...

Leo Brouwer is in shock. The sudden death of Paco de Lucia has been a blow to the Cuban guitarist and composer, his friend for four decades and who was responsible for the genius of flamenco offered two concerts in Havana, with 26 years of differences, but the latter barely a few months ago, in October... “The Maestro is very concerned, has put aside all his activities, including the composition," his wife, Isabelle Hernandez, who directed the Leo Brouwer Festival of Chamber Music, told OnCuba. The last edition’s highlight was the big recital by the Spanish virtuoso at the Karl Marx Theater, a unique gift for those who attended. That show was undoubtedly memorable: for two hours Francisco Sánchez Gómez, from Algeciras to the world, regaled the audience with his unparalleled strumming. Brouwer himself had already warned: "none of Paco’s performances is the same”. He opened with "Rondeña" and there he performed some masterpieces, accompanied by Antonio Sanchez on guitar, Antonio Serrano on harmonica, Israel Suarez on percussion, Cuban Alain Pérez on bass, the singers Antonio el Rubio de Pruna and David de Jacoba, and the bailaor Antonio Fernández (Farruquito). "Paco is a genius who transformed flamenco without losing tradition,...

According to the Dominican Republic's ambassador to Cuba, José Manuel Castillo, several players and coaches from his country have suggested they would come to Cuba to teach batting clinics. Such a possibility would have offended me a while ago, but as things stand, I only managed to say as Silvio, "I wish ..." Shortly before a lecture by Roberto Cassa, director of the National Archives of the Dominican Republic, the diplomat told OnCuba that there is a good field and interest of his countrymen in helping us, and I quote, "to adapt to the use of modern techniques to which Cuba has not have access for having been left out. " Castillo acknowledged that Cuba is a quarry of premier sporting talent, with commendable Olympic history, but warned that we need to adapt to modern baseball. “Cuba already returned to the Caribbean Series, and will go slowly adapting, no doubt to regain its usual place," the ambassador said. He added that at governmental level they are negotiating with the Cuban Sports Institute ( INDER) the renewing of their agreements in sports. It should be recalled that under such agreements, the Dominicans have raised their level in volleyball thanks to Cuban...

Do you want to go to the Cuban Art Factory, the current adventure of X Alfonso? You cannot miss it: get on 26th street, bordering El Fanguito neighborhood until you see the Iron Bridge on your left and to your right the longed Posada of 11th. There, where the P3 finishes its route when coming from Alamar , in that mole of brick from which a fireplace is erected, a reminder of those times when the cooking oil came in cans of 5 gallons ... there Art is made ... Until recently when you enter you got the feeling you had invaded a dream of Trent Reznor, due to the music of drills and hammers that were still rehabbing what was until recently an ancient warehouse of the Fisheries Industry, of which X fell in love a day when he came looking locations for a video clip. He had long sought his own space for a project which for a while was hosted at the PABEXPO fairgrounds. "That place got packed ," the musician of dreadlocks black as the star tattooed on his shoulder says, and regrets that it lasted so little, because they were given a chance in a...

Waking up with the news that Jose Modesto Darcourt has died confirms my suspicions that the sunrises here are not as gentle anymore, as certain novelist once wrote. A week ago Santy Feliu left us, and now another tough lefty, that from his songs, this from the box on which he was great, despite being called “Chiqui”. I feel that, no matter how much soup we eat with a fork, we're running out tough guys, in the most virile sense of the term. Instead, we have to deal increasingly with legions of cheap tough guys that denigrate the lineage of those players who, like Isasi said, left the soul on the field, or the skin on it, and one of the last tough guys, Carlos Tabares, still does. Darcourt, victim of cancer at 56, was and will be one of those tough guys we are missing in the game. Intense pitcher, of difficult personality, I remember him wearing the jersey of Metropolitanos and Ciudad Habana in those unforgettable Selectiva championships. Just 12 seasons were enough to carve him out a reputation of "a redoubtable man", imperfect but courageous, who finished disenchanted of baseball, or rather, of those who directed it....

No one disputes the highlights of the gourmet, but in this country where everything is subordinated to the pig in its many elaborations is worth going to Meletius 's Grill, where the national mammal is honored in the best possible way : by eating it ... If you are lost in the Monaco- not the Principality, but the Havana neighborhood - ask about this steak house -bar- grill terrace that many still call “the paladar of Buena Fe" , and discover this family business with a life of its own, and generous caps at reasonable prices . Everything came from two Guantanamo peasants who happen to be pop stars, and although they have squares crowded, sing in Korean and may have the smartest lyrics of Cuban music, yet they crave for a pig cooked as God intended. So when Israel Rojas and Yoel Martinez decided to invest in something other than music, they opted for the hospitality. They remodeled a mansion, built a bar, installed an grill at the sight of the guests, a living room decorated with sepia photos of Cuban peasants, and began to shape this new adventure... Precisely in their song “National Mammal " sung along Eliades...

When I saw him in the lobby of Chaplin, impeccable in his gray suit and handing out smiles left and right, I suspected that Reinaldo Miravalles would steal the show at the Corals night of the 35 Festival of New Latin American Cinema, and I was right: Coral of Honor for being, without doubt, the greatest living legend in action in Cuba... I approached him about half a year ago, when we talked in his house along with Buena Fe duo and baseball player Javier Mendez, and he was kind enough to hide the fact that he did not remember me, but summed up in one word how he felt tonight: "Cheverisimo ...” He posed with whoever asked him and took refuge in the room, in a window where he found peace because everybody approached him to greet and treat him to a dose of the most expressive smile of Cuban cinema. On a night of awards that began late and shined by the many absences – even those in charge of delivering the awards were a no show - Miravalles was the most emotional moment. When Laura de la Uz announced an interim to deliver a Coral Honor, she...

The Mexican film "The Golden Cage" won the Glauber Rocha Award from the foreign press in Cuba, sponsored by Prensa Latina. A jury in which also participated OnCuba recognized the directorial debut of Spanish-Mexican Diego Quemada-Diez, for his deep, soulful and sensitive way to address a current topic: Latin American migration to the United States. Without wallowing in violence surrounding this phenomenon, Quemada-Diez avoids beaten track and narrates the scary journey of 3 boys, one of them an aboriginal, in pursuit of the American dream. It took him eight years to put together a project that was worth: big winner in Vina del Mar, this film stands out among the candidates for the Coral, but the jury also praised other proposals such as the Venezuelan Bad hair (Golden Shell at San Sebastian) and Chilean Glory, the favorite of OnCuba. Quemada -Diez worked in " 21 Grams" as a camera operator for Mexican Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu , who won a Glauber with Amores Perros , and perhaps of that collaboration came the common interest in portraying the surrounding nature. The film came with the guarantee of having impressed at the Cannes Film Festival , where it was selected for the "...

Perhaps for being the eldest, Barbara Boyle has the rare privilege of being the first to speak at any conference, and she doesn’t mince words. This veteran American filmmaker has sharp opinion she is unafraid to share, like when she says that women are more perceptive and moving when directing a film, or is negligible the percent of the filmmakers directing action films in the United States ... Professor at UCLA and a heavy weight on the board of the organization Women in Films (WIF), Boyle took the lead in an exchange between filmmakers of Cuba and the United States, during the 35th International Festival of New Latin American Cinema. She is part of a delegation of 19 women including agents, producers, stunts and other women related to movies, exchanging a few days ago with the Network of Cuban women filmmakers, directed by Marina Ochoa. Her presence in Havana continues and strengthens a link early this year begun with the first International Exhibition of Cuban filmmakers in three U.S. cities: Los Angeles, New York and Miami. Among the visitors stand out Boyle, Gayle Nachis, Carol Savoie, Ruby Lopez, Lissette García and Mara Jacobberger, all with a successful career in a...

It is official: the 35th New Latin American Film Festival kicked off and with it the fever of seeing movie after movie eating a pizza or some peanuts cone to stall the roar of guts in the marathon film sessions, which if tasting bitter, is our cinema... With a minute of silence in respect for a film character, Nelson Mandela , a gala began, which presented its refreshing cards with the electronic music by Djoy of Cuba, characterized as the Macabre Clown, with his version of "Desde la aldea" (From the village), the track that musically identifies the Festival. Without red carpet but with the usual cinema fauna, Karl Marx theatre hosted a different inauguration because for the first time Alfredo Guevara would not be in it with his jacket over the shoulder to open the Festival . In his place was Ivan Giroud, who, dominating the nerves, defended the Festival , which more than a platform for showcasing new filmic proposals, has been a strategic stage and precursor of the present now enjoyed by the cinema produced in Latin America, which mainly owes its existence and dissemination to this contest. Before Giroud’s words, the Contemporary Dance company took the...

When nobody expected it, Alicia Alonso entered the National Museum of Dance, and confessed that she did not think it had been so many years since the release of Giselle. Paraphrasing Carlos Gardel, 70 years is nothing... Yuris Nórido , a Cuban journalist, says " Alicia is Giselle ." Maybe that's why the prima ballerina assoluta would not miss a stamp cancellation saluting the seven decades of her flagship role, with the American Ballet Theatre. Like levitating, with her demeanor that can stand all types of ballasts, Alicia arrived with Pedro Simon, signed the table where the stamp was canceled with illustration by Portocarrero and hinted she still feels like dancing Giselle, her Giselle. It was a fleeting appearance: reporters were happy until Alicia assistants cut them with a "Thank you! It's all “and the diva left for the office of Simon, while an exhibition was opened on the anniversary of Giselle. In recent months the event has been held in various ways, both in Cuba and in Spain, where Giselle was played by Anette Delgado in La Maestranza in Seville. In Cuba, the gala was in the Avellaneda Hall at the National Theatre. Giselle, considered a masterpiece of romanticism,...

Now that the anticipated return of Alicia Alonso from her Spanish tour has raised endless speculation, the return of whom many consider the successor of Rudolf Nureyev excites Cuban ballet fans: Russia's Vladimir Malakhov will perform in Holguin. The minute people knew the news they went for their tickets in the City of Parks, to feast in December pleased to see the towering and soft mannered blond that three years ago made the public in Mella and García Lorca theaters to stand up in an endless ovation for his masterful interpretation of a male version of the Dying Swan. This fulfills the old dream of Malakhov and his people, to act again for the Cuban public, in a project that was initially rejected the National Ballet of Cuba (BNC), for reasons only they know, but he found warm welcome in the Contemporary Dance and Codanza companies, the latter directed by Maricel Godoy in Holguin. Under the title "A gift from Malakhov" the Eddy Sunol theater will host the veteran of the American and the Bolshoi theaters on December 6 and 7, as guest of Codanza. According to the project developers, Cuba will give away a gala to Malakhov, with members...

Juan Formell took the stage in Las Vegas, not to mark with his bass the rhythm of Van Van, but to pick up the second prize for his excellent career he has received this year: first was the WOMEX World Music in the Cardiff Fair, and now a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, recognition that the Master enjoys more, because it cost him a lot... “We have had to sacrifice a lot, is not something that fell on our lap because Cuba has been blocked in the major markets, because the disk is an important cultural weapon," the founder and director of the so-called Salsa Train, an orchestra whose longevity made late George Smith defined it as " the Rolling Stones of Salsa", told reporters. Formell dedicated this award to all Van Van people, from the founding members to today's musicians and those who are to come, but especially to Cuba. "It's a lot of emotion, this is a big recognition for the career of a musician who also reaches all Cuban musicians and the rest of my fellow citizens anywhere in the world where they are," the father of songo said. The man who started making history in the...

The Centro pablo , which honors the most talented reporter of his generation and occasionally troubadours performed accompanied solely by their guitars, has been taken by proponents of something that is neither declamation or monologue: simply " spoken word " ... Its translation into Castilian would be spoken poetry , accepted term that emphasizes the colloquial soul of a genre with strong roots in hip- hop culture , but also in the repentismo in Cuba , rumba , jargon , but above all of life ... life ... Three of its main exponents in Havana confirmed OnCuba that the “spoken word " is everywhere, in their experiences, hopes and concerns , and only require a microphone and someone who will listen for them to recite their verses . Personal and non-transferable... "There is a confusion of those who think we do monologue or declaim : ours is a very own oral way, spoken word demands that you create your own verses, do not tell anyone else's ," Luz de Cuba said, who was pigeonholed in a category as crazy as " Alternative Hip- Hop ". As if there was something like a Mainstream Hip- Hop... She came from hip -...

A few weeks ago, OnCuba announced the possibility that Maria Gattorno was the new director of the Cuban Rock Agency. The rumor, that deserved to be true, expressed the feelings of the proponents of a genre that both loved and still do Maria la del Patio, who even dedicated her a tribute concert recently With such a precedent, it would not be unreasonable to think that soon the Maxim Rock will host a sort of Lollapalooza –Cerro in salute to the news that Maria will assume leadership of the Agency on January, after the headquarters of the Cuban rock is subjected to a rigorous audit to discover how they planned to make it profitable by bringing in reggaeton singers. Bassist Alejandro de la Torre (Dela), one of the signers of the open letter to the Ministry of Culture and the Cuban Institute of Music to denounce mismanagement of director Blanca Recodé, promised an avalanche of bands playing to give the welcome to who is , perhaps unintentionally , a legend for Cuban rock fans. Dela himself reported on his Facebook page that Fernando Rojas, Vice Minister of Culture, attended the Thursday afternoon the National Council of Houses of Culture, where...

Crossing the Jaimanita bridge a blue marlin wearing a chef's hat winked at me and I feared that my old desire to eat fish had me hallucinating, but no ... On a hipped roof, a marlin seemed to show me the cloudy sky, and that there was no better place to take shelter than this house, that is, the House of Santy. Blessed be that summer downpour that led me to the door of Santiago Alvarez and his offspring, people with the sea and the "cuisine" flowing through their veins, a fishing family that receives you as one of their own, no more fuss than a comrade takes. They say that the late "Goyo " Fuentes, the skipper who inspired the Old Man and the Sea, felt so good here that one day came and did not want to leave by car, but climbed in a boat as his Hemingway’s Pilar, to return sailing to Cojimar town. I pulled a stool in the family pier and ordered a coffee to warm the body and enjoy the rain that pelted - and stirring - the dark waters of the river, with its rustic piers, boats and nets, and even some bow...

Although all nostalgia for Maria can be problematic, or at least give grounds for misunderstandings, rock lovers in Cuba can be excited by the rumor that Maria Gattorno, the legendary Maria del Patio, will be the new director of the Cuban Rock Agency. Close sources to the country's cultural authorities revealed to OnCuba that Maria would take the post until now occupied by Blanca Recode, whose demotion was demanded in a public letter signed by the heads of major Cuban rock bands, accusing her, among other things, of ignoring the genre and sabotaging its development. Recode assumed after several years away from the cultural sector, and she at once intended to make the Maxim Rock, headquarters of rock in Cuba, more profitable.However,her policies were unpopular immediately in a guild with its own characteristics, which finally had its space and won in social and artistic recognition. The Agency was born sponsored by the Cuban Music Institute and the Hermanos Saiz Association, which recently celebrated its second congress with extensive media coverage. Almost immediately after its closure the letter began circulating denouncing the atmosphere of disunion and apathy generated by Recode and her staff. OnCuba immediately communicated with the Maxim Rock to...

It all began when the Bambino’s Curse ended. The Red Sox had won their first World Series in 86 years, and Michael Eizenberg was wearing his Boston cap when he arrived in Cuba in 2006 with a crazy but felicitous idea. While talking with a friend, the founder of the organization Educational Travel Alliance had an idea for another exchange between Cuba and the United States, appealing to their common passion for balls and strikes: a friendly softball tournament for veteran players. While nothing like that had ever been done, Cuba’s sports authorities gave the green light to organize the event in Havana. In August 2009, the U.S. government granted a license for 60 of the 350 members of the Eastern Massachusetts Senior Softball Association (EMASS) to come for these games. The first game was played in November of that year. The legendary Cuban boxer Teófilo Stevenson threw the first pitch, and the game was a success: hard-fought competition and lots of adrenaline among players, some over 70 years of age. In an interview with OnCuba, Eizenberg remembers those first games with emotion, and views the future optimistically, because the present is inspiring. In fact, for two consecutive years, veteran...

It is said that in days gone by Ping-Pong diplomacy favored a rapprochement between Washington and Beijing, two peoples separated geographically and ideologically, so it is reasonable to say that Cuba and the United States share a passion for baseball that could reduce the 90-miles distance and disputes that keep these neighboring countries apart… An annual friendly softball tournament among veterans from both nations takes place every year since 2009 as a result of a crazy idea by US professor Michael Eizenberg during a visit to Cuba. Four years later and a few days from a new season of this event in Havana, OnCuba interviewed Eizenberg on this initiative and its projection. When did it all start? Kathy Rice and I founded Educational Travel Alliance in 1999, and during the next five years we were very active in Pueblo a Pueblo (People to People) programs until the government banned these exchanges. We continued working with Cuba but there were too many regulations. In 2007, the year Boston won the World Series, I travelled to Havana proudly wearing my Red Sox cap, and I came up with the idea, while talking with a friend from Havanatur, of bringing veteran teams for...

Panfilo Epifanio , the great chronicler of the everyday Cuba on television, was the unexpected Knight of one Roundtable that managed to surprise me: bringing his grumpy character played by Luis Silva to talk about aging in Cuba, is a milestone for a space that in more recent times is trying to have a taste of the national mood . In his program Vivir del Cuento, Silva says what the press is silent about. As a young man he plays a credible old timer, those who rise early to get the newspaper or the checkbook. Panfilo was born in 2001, with the monologue of bread that make the University of Havana laughed to death. A student of Cybernetics is perhaps the most popular comedian of the moment. A month ago I asked him at the Festival of Radio and Television how he came to take the place of journalists and he smiled: “It has been shifting, Panfilo emerged criticizing the bread and when Vivir del Cuento started I knew that there would be the thing. With humor I can make social criticism and address tough topics. As the ration card, for example. " In its never better called "appearance” at...