The catalog of MSK, an undertaking dedicated to the promotion of Cuban music in the digital sphere, includes from son musician Manolito Simonet to the Cimafunk phenomenon, from jazzman Alejandro Falcón to the Conga de Los Hoyos, from singer-songwriter Luis Franco to the Golpe Seko rappers. When it began just six months ago it had only three names in its catalog; today it has around 40. And not only from Havana; also from Matanzas, Villa Clara, Santiago de Cuba, Pinar del Río. And even from outside the island. "The goal is to promote good Cuban music, wherever it comes from and regardless of the genre," explains to OnCuba Gilberto Grave de Peralta, a computer scientist and project director, who, along with his wife, the designer and musician Mirsa Martínez, had a previous experience in artistic marketing with the now extinct Habana2Go magazine. MSK was born with this and other antecedents, but with a more comprehensive and ambitious idea; an enterprise for which they had been preparing more than half a year until its launch last December 13. MSK logo. It hasn’t been an easy road, but it’s very comforting, according to its members, only six and coming from diverse professional...

Three years ago, Havana’s San Cristóbal Restaurant became a symbol of the new era that Cuba and the United States were living. During his visit to the island, in March 2016, then President Barack Obama dined with his family in the "paladar" founded in 2010 by Chef Carlos Cristóbal Márquez and the entire world had its eye on the spot. "It was a unique moment. That he chose us over other excellent restaurants in Havana has been very important for us," recalls Márquez, who has a recognized experience as a chef in emblematic Cuban hotels such as the Riviera, the Capri and the Nacional, and also outside the island. It’s not the only famous visit to the restaurant on San Rafael Street, in Centro Habana, where politicians like former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and former Brazilian President Lula da Silva have eaten, as well as celebrities such as Kardashian and music stars Beyoncé and Jay-Z. However, Obama's dinner, as explicit support for the island's private sector, marked a before and after, and left a trail that many foreign visitors have tried to follow. Above all, from the United States. But today’s reality is very different. Donald Trump’s arrival to the...

The memories of the “Special Period” in Cuba have been engraved in cast iron for those of us who lived it. More than 20 years have passed, at least since its crudest stage, and it is still hard to freely speak or laugh about all its shortages and vicissitudes. At some point in the dialogue, it does not matter whether at the beginning or at the end, the shadow of the trauma takes over, and what was a simple list of experiences ―many, logically, similar― becomes an act of exorcism. In a spiritual cleansing so that those dark times don’t return. Now that the ghost of that period is again soaring over Cubans and that the long lines and other "symptoms" seem like an ominous prediction, many rescue the stories of that time to give themselves courage for what they suppose is coming and to teach the younger people ―who didn’t live or don’t remember the hardships suffered― about the crisis using the most acute list of words. Cuba, certainly, is not the same as in the 1990s and whatever the times that will come ―if they’re not already here― they wouldn’t have to be the same. But in any...

After decades of lurching and putting on the brakes, the Cuban passenger railroad is trying to recover. The recent arrival of 56 Chinese cars, as part of the 240 agreed between Beijing and Havana for the next months, worth 150 million dollars, has started to materialize the intention of giving back the lost dignity to this means of transportation. Or at least, some of that dignity. These are the first cars with zero mileage that have arrived to the island in 44 years. They will be joined by another 24 within a few days to complete the first batch of 80 that, according to Cuban Transportation Minister Eduardo Rodríguez, "will be in service this summer." Since 1975, long before the fateful “Special Period” and even the "golden" 1980s, did such "brand-new" wagons disembark in Cuba. Not even those of the trains popularly known as "Locura azul" ―because of the color of their cars reminiscent of the film about Los Zafiros― and "the French" ―because of their country of origin―, were brand new. The most "luxurious" Cuban travelers remember in the last three decades already had quite a bit of mileage when they began being used in Cuba. And because of...

Although the Trump administration threatens to further limit trips to Cuba by Americans and lawsuits under the Helms-Burton Act could reach U.S. airlines, American Airlines (AA) is seeking to increase its flights to the Island. "Our experience here has been very satisfactory. It has allowed us to continue growing, to increase the number of operations and to consolidate us as the airline with the most flights between the United States and Cuba," Ramón Jiménez, director of AA operations on the Island, assured OnCuba. "That’s why our approach is to make a long-term bet on the Cuban market." The U.S. airline opened a commercial office two years ago in Havana, at a time when the number of flights and travelers from the U.S. was growing exponentially after the Obama era’s thaw. Since then, despite the rollback promoted by Trump and contrary to what happened with other companies, AA has not stopped growing in Cuba. AA currently operates 12 daily flights to several cities on the Island, after the beginning in early May of the route between Miami and Santiago de Cuba. But in the coming months the company will increase the number of its departures. https://oncubanews.com/cuba-ee-uu/santiago-de-cuba-recibe-el-primer-vuelo-de-american-airlines/ "We are very enthusiastic about...

A few months before celebrating its 500th anniversary, Havana is strongly committed to international tourism. In the midst of the recovery of the recent tornado and the uncertain economic situation Cuba is experiencing, the construction of new hotels and the restoration of others, until recently in ruins, continues. Only this year, the Havana authorities are envisaging the opening of a dozen, to raise the number of rooms to more than 12,500, just over half in four- and five-star facilities. A few days ago, during the FitCuba 2019 International Tourism Fair, two of them opened: Palacio Cueto, in Old Havana, and Vedado Azul, in Vedado. But the state plans go further and include the rehabilitation of others such as the Deauville, the Lincoln, the Sevilla, and the Neptuno-Tritón, and the revival of extra-hotel services that include restaurants, marinas, centers and golf courses, in an ambitious plan that will go on throughout the next years. The most recent business portfolio for foreign investment is even proposing plots currently occupied by buildings or public spaces, such as the intersections of the well-known 23 and B, Línea and Paseo, and Boyeros and 19 de mayo streets. The intention, according to Xonia Beltrán, delegate of...

When Lis Núñez moved to Guanabacoa, in November of 2017, she did it with six cats. They were, are, part of her "family" and they walk freely throughout the house and they’re "never going to leave," those which "chose" her and which she chose. But a year and a half later, they aren’t the only ones that are keeping her company. A year and a half later, Lis has more than 50 cats in her care. The figure, just hearing it, impresses. She reached it little by little, deliberately. When she bought the house ―when she had her own resources to do so―, she did it with the intention of turning it into a shelter, for sheltering wounded and abandoned animals in the street. And so it has been. Hers is one of the shelters that form part of "De la calle," a collective project dedicated to animal protection in Havana, which she shares with other independent protectors and who currently have the support of the U.S. Ocean Doctor organization. Lis Núñez wasn’t born in the Cuban capital, but in Cabaiguán, in the center of the island, and since childhood she felt a special connection with animals. She studied law...

Three weeks ago, relations between Cuba and the United Kingdom lived a momentous moment with the trip of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall to the Island. Never before had a member of the British Royal House trod Cuban soil on an official visit. The symbolism and the impact of this fact are indisputable. "Although it was not a government visit, but a Royal one, due to its scope and extension it demonstrated the two countries’ progress in bilateral relations and the will to continue advancing," Mr. Antony Stokes, Ambassador of the United Kingdom in Havana, told OnCuba. "The visit was very substantial and emotional, with many different elements, which served for the Prince and the Duchess to learn about Cuban culture and life and to exchange with the people, not only with President Miguel Díaz-Canel and other government representatives, which was very important, but also civil society: artists, entrepreneurs, members of community projects, with people in the streets, something that interested them very much. "In addition, it allowed for showing substantive cooperation and bilateral exchange projects, and also for direct meetings by officials of our government, who accompanied Their Royal Highnesses, with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno...

Mili was picked up one night from a garbage container in Havana. A birth defect in one of her front legs had condemned her to abandonment and almost certain death. But, unlike other less fortunate dogs, her story is one of hope. This Sunday, Mili was one of the participants in the Awareness Walk, a pilgrimage to the tomb of American philanthropist Jeanette Ryder ―founder in 1906 of the Bando de Piedad for the protection of children, animals and plants― convened by animal protection activists in the Cuban capital. The dog made the whole march from El Quijote Park, in Havana’s centrally located corner of 23 and J in Vedado, to Colón Cemetery, in a small carriage pushed by activist Luisa Pérez. They were not alone. Hundreds of people and dogs walked with them about two kilometers of the way, carrying signs and orange bows and shouting slogans against the mistreatment of animals and in favor of the approval in Cuba of a law for their protection and welfare. "I brought Mili as an example to show that we need to raise people's awareness and have the government’s support to finally approve the law," Pérez told OnCuba shortly before the...

"I have to get out of here, I have nothing left," says Danaisy Alfonso as she picks up the clothes scattered among the ruins of what was once her home. She does so restlessly, compulsively, keeping an eye on her three-year-old daughter Emilenys. The girl barely leaves her side. At times she tries to play with a broken toy, but she immediately returns to her mother’s side. Her eyes show her fear. Her face and back bear the marks of what she experienced last Sunday with the tornado. Since that night her 10-month-old sister has been hospitalized in the Pediatric Hospital of Centro Habana. Her older sister, seven years old, was also hit by the wall that came down. "I don’t even want to remember...," says Danaisy. The mother was putting her daughters to bed when the wind ripped out an avocado tree in front of her house, in Villa Primera, Guanabacoa, and threw it against the wall of her room. The frayed roof fell in the yard. Some time ago, she affirms, she had asked the forestry services to cut down the tree, "but they told me I had to wait, even though I had three young girls. And...

Since its first edition, Maricel Ponvert hasn’t missed a November of Entrepreneurs, an event that has been organized for three years by the CubaEmprende project in Old Havana’s Félix Varela Center. “I think the idea that we entrepreneurs can meet to share and learn is wonderful,” the head of the D’Marie Wellness Holistic Center, a salon that provides beauty, relaxation and mental and physical wellness services, as it announces on its Facebook profile, said to OnCuba. This time her presence was precisely motivated by the development on the online environment. Social media management and digital marketing were the thematic cores of the event that, along with experts in these fields, brought together some 140 representatives of the island’s private sector on November 22 and 23. For most of them, like for Ponvert, the social media are not an unknown space, but the lack of specialized knowledge, plus the usual difficulties in connectivity on the island, have limited their projection in these platforms. The CubaEmprende initiative sought to have an influence on that reality and fuel the participants’ interest. Maricel Ponvert (fourth from right to left) with other Cuban entrepreneurs attending the November of Entrepreneurs event in the Félix Varela Center....

Minimized and loved, followed by millions and vilified by those who prefer to contemplate the world from an ivory tower, radio is celebrating 96 years since of its first regular broadcasts in Cuba. It’s easy to say, but it is not so. This Caribbean island was one of the first countries of the American continent to have stable radio stations – a term actually grandiose for its artisan beginnings -, established even in the midst of shortages and improvisations, of its own obstacles and the astonishment of an audience that had never known the likes of it. The foundational ranks are owed to military musician Luis Casas Romero, who was the subdirector of the Band of the General Staff of the Army and who on August 22, 1922 inaugurated the 2LC, but the birth of this means was not a thing of one day, as neither was its consolidation. Cuban radio was created step by step, test after test, mistake after mistake. It was actually the result of the simultaneous effort, the search and the creativity of a tireless group of radio hams, not just in Havana but throughout the island, and also of the skillful businessmen who rapidly understood...

Although geographically and culturally far away, Cuba and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been building close relations in recent years. This nation on the Persian Gulf has a high socioeconomic level, in principle boosted by its gas and oil production, and is a significant actor not just in the Middle East but also in the entire international context. “When thinking of the UAE, achievements like the highest tower in the world and Palm Islands usually come to mind, but behind its successes are the efforts of the country and its leadership, headed by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, to be able to accomplish these and other achievements,” affirmed His Excellency Mr. Bader Abdullah Al Matrooshi, ambassador of the UAE in Cuba. Since its foundation on December 2, 1971, the UAE had to face many challenges in key sectors like healthcare and education, said the diplomat to OnCuba, but what has been accomplished since then has made it possible to improve the life of Emirati citizens and give a hand in terms of cooperation to other nations in diverse fields, be they political, economic or cultural. Following that course, its Embassy on the island was inaugurated on October 5,...

Even though he has built a successful career in the United States and still prefers English to communicate with others, Hermes Mallea feels increasingly more linked to Cuba. Fourteen years ago he experienced a return to the roots, to the origins, thanks to the profession to which he has devoted his life: architecture. Mallea lived in Santiago de Cuba until he was five years old, but he grew up and carried out higher studies in Miami. In Columbia University, in New York, he did a master’s in the preservation of history and later, after a few years in Boston, he established himself in NYC. A study of the architecture of interiors shared with his couple, interior designer Carey Maloney, has been his work and passion for more than three decades. “We have been very lucky,” he says to OnCuba, “and what’s been the most important have been the clients, very special persons with which we have maintained a relationship of loyalty throughout time.” Hermes Mallea. Ten years ago, a Design Biennial in Havana opened an unexpected door to him: “It was the first time I returned to Cuba and I was captivated not just by the values of colonial architecture,...

  Germany is not only the driving force behind Europe’s economy. It is also an actor with a great political influence in the community bloc and in the global context. Its ties with Cuba have gone through different stages and, although they have grown in recent years, its ambassador in Havana, Thomas Karl Neisinger, recognizes that “there’s still a lot to do.” At a time when Cuba and the European Union (EU) are living a new stage in their relations, after the signing of a bilateral agreement and the visit to the island by Federica Mogherini and other European government figures, Germany hopes to strengthen its ties with the island, as part of the regional bloc as well as independently. OnCuba spoke with Mr. Neisinger about bilateral relations and their perspectives, among other issues. At what point are relations between Cuba and Germany? A few years ago relations between Cuba and Europe were not at their best moment and Germany was interested in changing that situation. An important moment to achieve this was the visit to Havana of then Foreign Minister – and now Federal President – Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in July 2015. At the time a moderate cooperation document was...

  For Cubans Ron Perlman will always be Vincent, the main character of the TV series Beauty and the Beast, a role that made an impression on several of the island’s generations ever since it was broadcast for the first time in the late 1980s. But starting now, Perlman – who has been Amoukar in Quest for Fire, Salvatore in The Name of the Rose, Angel in Cronos and in Hellboy in the saga of the same name – will also be Peter, the “quasi revolutionary Jewish journalist from New York,” in the Cuban film Sergio and Sergei. The film, directed by Ernesto Daranas (Los dioses rotos, Conducta), was premiered in Cuba as part of the 39th International New Latin American Film Festival, and the famous U.S. actor didn’t want to miss it. He traveled to Havana for a premiere that had to be suspended a few times but that finally had its reward last Wednesday in the Acapulco movie theater. “It was really exciting,” he said a day later to the press in the Hotel Nacional. “I was able to feel the spectators during the entire presentation: they laughed at every funny thing, remained very quiet and reverent with...

The 35th Havana International Trade Fair (FIHAV 2017) maintains the extensive convocation of previous editions, with more than 3,000 exhibitors from some 70 countries. But not all is growth in the ExpoCuba fairgrounds. In pavilion 7, where around 40 U.S. companies promoted their products and services in 2016 – the largest U.S. participation in the history of FIHAV, which doubled the biggest registry until then – now there are only a dozen. Even some that had previewed their presence in Havana, in the end, did not take up stands. The “cooling” of relations between the two countries caused by the Trump administration has left its imprint on the island’s principal trade marketplace. However, there are those who persevered with Cuba. Like last year, the Secretariat of Agriculture of the state of Virginia is present in the fair. Its topmost authority, Secretary Basil I. Gooden, thinks that the rollback in bilateral relations is “a temporary situation” and not wanted by many U.S. politicians and businesspeople. Gooden told OnCuba that in Virginia there is still “great interest in the Cuban market” independently of the Trump government’s position, and underlined that Governor Terry McAuliffe himself is backing that wish of his state’s businesspeople...

The Havana International Trade Fair (FIHAV) will be celebrating its 35 years and has become Cuba’s and the Caribbean’s principal commercial market. It is also an indispensable platform to promote the island’s economic potentials and to attract the foreign investment needed for its development. Regarding the peculiarities and perspectives of the fair, OnCuba spoke with Orland Hernández Guillén, president of the Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of Cuba and member of FIHAV’s Organizing Committee, about its 35th edition. OC: How has FIHAV evolved in its 35 years of existence and which are its expectations for this 2017? OHG: FIHAV is an event that has been evolving in time. It can be said that in its 35 years it has been a reflection of the evolution of Cuba and its economy. It began as a small fair in the Convention Center, and afterwards it went on to other locations like Pabexpo until it got to ExpoCuba, which has a much bigger area, and is where it is held at present. This increase in its exhibition space has been accompanied by a growing participation of foreign delegations and confirms the importance the event has gained on an international level. The 2016...

Turned into the principal commercial mart of Cuba and the Caribbean, the Havana International Trade Fair (FIHAV) will celebrate from October 30 to November 3, 2017 its 35th edition. The EXPOCUBA fairgrounds will again be the venue of this event established in 1983 and considered “much more than an exhibition of products or a forum specifically dedicated to business,” according to Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment Rodrigo Malmierca. The organizers expect the fair will confirm the growth experienced in recent years, a reflection of the sustained interest by foreign investors and companies in the island. In 2016 FIHAV lived its all-time biggest edition with a record foreign participation. A total of 3,500 exhibitors from 73 countries were present. Around 150,000 professional visitors and the public in general toured the exhibition pavilions. The 2017 fair could represent a new record. This event will have several singularities. The 35th edition of FIHAV will be the last with Raúl Castro as Cuban president. His announced retirement from power in mid-2018 makes the fair a propitious moment to consolidate his economic legacy, marked by some reforms and the opening to foreign capital. It could also serve to outline – or at least...

In the Floridita you can have 17 types of daiquiris: coconut, strawberry, mint, kiwi, mango…are among the options for visitors to the most famous of Havana’s bars. Its bartenders even offer a non-alcoholic variant so the teetotalers and children can also leave the place pleased. “With no chauvinism, the best daiquiri in the world is made in the Floridita,” affirms Ariel Blanco, director of the bar-restaurant that currently belongs to the state-run Palmares chain. Located in the intersection of Obispo and Monserrate streets, in Old Havana, the establishment is celebrating this year two centuries of existence. Its fame, mainly associated to the figure of writer Ernest Hemingway and the excellence of its daiquiri, has turned it into an obliged site for tourists worldwide. More than a quarter of a million visitors arrive every year to the Floridita. Its director estimates that around 80 percent of the Americans who travel to Havana can’t resist the temptation of entering the bar. However, there are not many Cuban clients. Many on the island can’t afford the bar’s prices – around six dollars for the classic daiquiri. But the numbers, neither of Cubans nor of foreigners, say it all. To understand the meaning of...

Her name is Patricia Zulueta Bravo and she dreams with studying for a master’s in Oxford. “From where I come that only happens in movies,” she said the first time it was suggested to her. But the wish was aroused in her. Patricia was born in Havana and she now lives in Hanoi, thousands of kilometers from the oldest English-speaking university. But at 30 she has already achieved half of her wish: she was accepted in Oxford to study for an MSc in Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition. She doesn’t intend to go to the British university to study English. Strange as it might seem, her wish is to create a method that facilitates the learning of the Chinese language. Patricia is a professor of the language most spoken in the world: Mandarin. Her link with that language was by chance. She doesn’t have almond-shaped eyes nor does she descend from emigrants of the Asian country. In fact, her family roots are in eastern Cuba and her skin color is black. But she feels the Chinese language as her own. The MSc begins in October but before this, on September 28, Patricia must pay her tuition, some 25,000 dollars....

There are places that shy away from classifications at a distance, which are an invitation to discover their exquisiteness based on personal experience. They encourage unique perceptions, they meet the most rigorous tastes. Havana has the Paseo 206 Boutique Hotel. On one of the city’s principal avenues, in an environment that harmonizes the rhythms of modernity with the beauty of the architecture, the hotel offers its clients personalized attention. The quiet comfort of a home with the splendor of a deluxe installation. “The word standard doesn’t exist for us,” underlined Andrea Gallina, owner of the Paseo 206 Boutique Hotel together with his wife Diana Saínz. Andrea is Italian and Diana is Cuban, which gives the place its own hallmark, born of the combination of both cultures. “A warm embrace between Cuba and Italy,” its owners like to say. Photo: Courtesy of the hotel The welcome to this impeccable combination is Ecléctico. Named for the architectural style of the building it shares with the hotel, this Italian ristorante takes to the table an unparalleled culinary concept in all of Cuba. Exclusiveness, care and inspiration are values that distinguish it. Andrea prefers the term creative cuisine more than that of gourmet. And...

Edgar Sanfeliz-Botta’s story seems like a fairy tale. Or a plot born of the trained imagination of Hollywood scriptwriters. One day, while he was singing “Once Upon a Dream,” the well-known theme of the film Sleeping Beauty by Disney, the person who would change his life heard him. Edgar was working in a Miami McDonald’s and Roberta David had gone there to buy a Cesar salad. Roberta, professional director of choirs, immediately knew of the diamond she had found behind the window of that place. “Was that you?” she asked him in a hurry because of the cars that were following hers on the line. And Edgar, between confused and surprised, told her that it was him. The elderly lady confirmed that the young man with a red apron was a singer, a countertenor to be more specific, and she decided to do whatever was possible to channel him. What happened later has been trending for the Cuban community of Miami and for the press, to the point of making Edgar a celebrity, taking him by surprise. But he does not give importance to the will-o’-the-wisp of fame and prefers to thank the luck of having found Roberta in his...

Twelve minutes with the ball on the forehead. Twelve long minutes floating in the water, without his feet touching the bottom of the pool, maintaining the highest mental concentration and balance so that the ball wouldn’t fall from his head. This is Cuban Jhoen Lefont’s new Guinness Record, established on the morning of this Saturday in Havana’s Meliá Cohiba Hotel. The judges had set a limit of 10 minutes to consider the record, but the so-called soccer ball Dauphin pleased them with flying colors. In his first attempt in the pool he surpassed the record demanded and all the effort in his training and exercises became deserved satisfaction. “I feel very happy with having achieved the objective, which was to surpass the 10 minutes,” Lefont said after establishing the record. “Starting with the training sessions my aim was to get to the 12 minutes and I also achieved it, therefore the satisfaction is even greater. Thank God today there wasn’t too much wind and that helped me psychologically to established the record.” Before this success, the former member of the Cuban water polo national team had set other world records, among them the 1,513 head bunts of the ball in...

Víctor Manuel Moratón works every morning in his nearest WiFi zone. He always gets there very early, going from La Timba to the park on 15 and 16 in El Vedado, where he will spend close to an hour connected. He’s been doing this daily routine for five months, ever since on January 1, 2017 he started navigating on the Internet a site for freelance professionals which he is working on with his friend Fabián Ruiz: NinjaCuba. Víctor, who is 29, is an informatics engineer and Fabián, 33, is a designer. Both of them make up a team of a platform that today has more than 300 users registered free of charge. “The idea was to create a space where users could promote themselves as professionals,” Víctor affirms, “to show their knowledge, their skills, their work portfolio, which would allow them to apply for labor offers and directly contact clients, without intermediaries taking advantage of them.” The commitment with their peers was the principal motivation of the founders of NinjaCuba. They both work independently and know the vicissitudes of those who share their situation on the island. In fact, they are also users of the platform. “We want to support...