The Bachelor of Economics Juan Alejandro Triana talks about the realities, opportunities and risks of the use of cryptocurrency in Cuba.

Photographer Gabriel Guerra Bianchini is one of the first Cuban artists to publish and sell a work converted to NFT.

Cuban baseball players of all ages, retired and consecrated figures of the sport, celebrated the tenth edition of the Cuban Baseball All-Star Game in Miami, to greet the start of 2021. Children, parents, entire families gathered in the central Tamiami Park to watch prominent figures such as Enriquito Díaz and Lázaro Vargas play, among many others. This time, like so many others, the game was softball, to offset the years of weight in sports figures. Between reggaeton, Industriales t-shirts or the Cuba team caps, it could be guessed that the faces hidden under masks were that of Cubans, baseball fans. Team Cuba Blue (West) and Cuba Red (East) at the all-star game of retired baseball players in Miami, on January 2, 2021. Photo: Marita Pérez Díaz. Agustín Marquetti, a Cuban baseball star, said that although he cannot play due to a knee injury, he participates to see his former baseball teammates. “One misses one’s former team players a lot, I hope one day we can go there or they can come here, that things open up,” said Marquetti. “We’re going to leave politics aside a bit and dedicate ourselves to sports, which is ultimately what determines. We couldn’t play here...

A virtual festival with multiple cultural themes is the proposal of the Miami CopperBridge Foundation to celebrate its first 10 years of founding.  CopperBridge is a non-profit organization that promotes cultural and educational exchange through artistic means of expression. This year, due to the pandemic, the celebration and the events have moved to the digital world, where the institution offers 10 meetings through Zoom until February 2021. The proposals range from panels on Chilean architecture, Argentine art or Cuban contemporary dance, to concerts and films. On virtual events related to Cuba to celebrate this first decade, OnCuba spoke briefly with Geo Darder, founder and president of the foundation. What has been the greatest contribution of Copperbridge Foundation during this decade? The essence of Copperbridge is the dialogue between individuals, countries, and cultures. During this decade, the mission has been to create a neutral space for educational and cultural exchange while at the same time providing support to emerging individual or group projects. If we had to see it as a contribution, we would say that the objective has been to show the Cuba of today, contemporary, diverse, faithful to its roots, but open to influences from all over the world....

His characters Nereida and Cristinito entertain hundreds of thousands of followers on his Facebook, Instagram and YouTube pages, where he publishes videos with puns, gibberish, double meanings and jokes that touch on current, very serious topics. Since the pandemic began, his contents have multiplied on the Internet: “Our mission was to amuse people and entertain, because they needed a daily humor that had to do with the reality of these moments,” he says in an exclusive interview for OnCuba. Alexis Valdes. Photo: Enrique de la Osa. With an engineering degree under his arm, Alexis has a “restless” sensibility. He’s an actor, comedian, singer, musician, writer, TV producer, and sometimes inspiration takes the form of poems. In these months of pandemic, he wrote the poem “Esperanza” that went viral on networks and went around the world, not without controversy, as it has been wrongly attributed to dozens of writers. According to Alexis, the last time he defended the authorship of the poem, they said it had come out during a pandemic almost 200 years ago. Many of his friends of other nationalities, he says, don’t understand how Alexis, being Cuban, has been prohibited from entering Cuba for almost two decades. We...

In the third week of participating in the International Field Program in Cuba, Lucía Muñoz sat down to watch the sunset from the Havana seawall. The orange, red, yellow and blue hues on the horizon where the sky meets the sea contrasted with the “black and white” stance she had about Cuba before traveling to the island. “This range of colors is a rebellion against gross simplifications and partial interpretations. It seems to want to tell me how I should look at the island that stretches under the blanket of the sunset,” she wrote in her notes as a student at The New School in New York City. Two hot summer months in Cuba spent alongside other students and academics were enough to foster an exchange that included intellectuals from prestigious institutions, such as Casa de las Américas and the Juan Marinello Cuban Institute of Cultural Research. Lucía, a 24-year-old Spaniard, says the experience was stimulating. Every day she read, wrote, and talked with people in the street. Eight weeks were sufficient to no longer view the island from the simple perspective of a tourist, but to briefly but efficiently delve into sociological issues such as diversity, gender, and economic...

Several U.S. congresspersons presented a bill this Friday in Florida in support of Cuban families affected by the cessation of the Cuban Family Reunification Program (CFRP), known as "Parole." According to a press release sent to OnCuba by the office of Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, representative to Congress for District 26, this Friday November 1 there would be a dialogue with Cuban relatives living in Florida, followed by a press conference to explain the details of the bill. The main objective of the new law would be to immediately restore the CFRP, detained since 2017 due to the reduction of personnel at the U.S. embassy in Cuba, because of the alleged “acoustic attacks.” https://oncubanews.com/oncuba-media/video/consulta-legal-que-puede-pasar-con-el-programa-cubano-de-reunificacion-familiar/ The law would establish a maximum of 30 days for the State Department to restart the processing of applications. “It would also require the prioritization of those applications that have been waiting to be processed during the last two years,” the statement said. If the bill is approved, the processing of these requests should not take more than 60 days after the new regulations come into force. So far, the only information in this regard is that the Cuban parole program is “under review” by the U.S. Citizenship...

The U.S. private company Twitter Inc. started restoring the suspended accounts associated with the Cuban government, journalists and official media, which had remained blocked on the platform since Wednesday. Except for the profile of former Cuban President Raúl Castro and the Cubadebate digital media, which remained suspended on Friday morning, other high-profile accounts were restored. The daily Granma, the main news outlet in the country, published on this social network that after recovering access to their account they found only 18,000 followers out of a total of 166,000 they previously had. https://twitter.com/Granma_Digital/status/1172330709463158786?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1172330709463158786&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Foncubanews.com%2Fcuba-ee-uu%2Ftwitter-restablece-mayoria-de-cuentas-cubanas-bloqueadas%2F Granma insisted that the action taken by Twitter was unjustified. "The daily Granma’s account, suspended by Twitter since Wednesday afternoon for no reason, was restored on Thursday afternoon with only 18,000 followers. Twitter has been raising the figure, which we hope will return to the original 166,000," reads the tweet. The profile already has all its followers. Although a high-profile manager of the company explained to OnCuba that most of the accounts were suspended due to "violations of the manipulation policy of the platform," the Journalists Union of Cuba denounced that it was an "act of censorship" specifically targeting the country’s media, journalists and some ministers. https://oncubanews.com/en/cuba-usa/twitter-responds-to-why-it-suspended-cuban-media-accounts/ The...

Twitter suspended the accounts of the main Cuban news media, as well as that of some journalists and officials, for considering that they "violate" the policies on the use of the platform, one of its executives confirmed to OnCuba. The Director of Global Communications of Twitter, Ian Plunkett, shared with OnCuba through an email the actions that the company considered as violations by the suspended official accounts of the Cuban media and some journalists and officials. Among the platform manipulation policies that were considered infringed are those related to the artificial amplification of information through several accounts at the same time. Following we reproduce exactly the executive’s response. You can’t artificially amplify or disrupt conversations through the use of multiple accounts. This includes: -Overlapping accounts: operating multiple accounts with overlapping use cases, such as identical or similar personas or substantially similar content; -Mutually interacting accounts: operating multiple accounts that interact with one another in order to inflate or manipulate the prominence of specific Tweets or accounts; and -Coordination: creating multiple accounts to post duplicative content or create fake engagement Some of the "fake exchanges" alerted by the company include "publishing identical or substantially similar Tweets or hashtags of multiple accounts that...

Emmy Park learned that the word "misu" would be helpful to photograph Cuba’s stray cats, while the pieces of dried chicken that she brought from New York would be useful to attract dogs. Thus, she managed to capture more than 121,000 images since she started traveling to the island in 2015. Two collectible books on those adventures were recently published: The Dogs of Cuba and The Cats of Cuba, by the Schiffer publishing house, with the selection of the best photos that Emmy took of pets as well as of strays. "The first thing that caught my eye when we stepped outside the airport were several dogs wandering and looking for food," said Emmy, who, in addition to being an award-winning New York photographer, also collaborates with charity organizations for animals. Centro Habana, Havana. Photo: Emmy Park. Her beginnings in photography are linked to her work as a volunteer for animal rescue, from which she has created several series about stray dogs and cats. That’s why when she discovered that there was no animal protection law in Cuba, she researched the social media and contacted animal protection groups in Cuba through Instagram. Central Highway, Guantánamo. Photo: Emmy Park. "After discovering...

Congressman Jim McGovern will actively knock on the door of his colleagues in Congress to discuss the latest bill on Americans’ unrestricted travel to Cuba. McGovern hopes that through these talks other American politicians will come together to support and approve the bill. The bipartisan and bicameral bill was presented just before the recess of congresspersons. Senator Leahy presented a counterpart in the Senate with the support of 45 sponsors. https://oncubanews.com/en/cuba-usa/senator-patrick-leahy-i-am-confident-that-if-we-were-afforded-the-opportunity-to-vote-it-would-be-law-for-americans-to-travel-freely-to-cuba/ That is the first step to introduce any legislation in the United States. This bill is very similar to others presented in the past, which seek to allow U.S. citizens and legal residents to travel to Cuba without restrictions. To inquire about why it could be different this time and how, OnCuba spoke with a spokeswoman from Congressman McGovern's office. "It’s not a radical change, it’s a continuity in the history of our Congress so that our own constituents are not punished for the impossibility of the Cuban and U.S. governments to advance in their relations," said the spokeswoman. The official also explained that the next step would be to group together as many co-sponsors as possible. "We will be starting that step when the congresspersons return in September...

A group of young users of the SNet, the largest private network in Cuba, met outside the Ministry of Communications (MINCOM) this Saturday after negotiations for a possible mutual collaboration were canceled. Since the new resolution on telecommunications entered into force on the 29th, all the nodes and networks that SNet usually uses have been banned, although so far they haven’t been dismantled or raids been carried out to seize the equipment, several users confirm. https://twitter.com/RealErnesto95/status/1160185082558210048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1160185082558210048&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Foncubanews.com%2Fcuba%2Fsnet-la-red-cubana-de-la-calle-se-resiste-a-desaparecer%2F On Friday, August 9, the SNet group on Facebook, with more than 20,000 members, published a note about the cancellation of the talks and the elimination of a project they had included as a proposal to collaborate with the Cuban authorities and institutions. "On the morning of August 9, 2019, a meeting was held between representatives of the SNet administration (both parties) and MINCOM executives, among which were the Deputy Director of Communications of MINCOM (David Wong), the director of attention to the population (Noraimi) and three representatives of the Young Computer Clubs. "As a summary of the meeting (for those who don’t want to read the textual words and details about it): No changes of any kind will be made to the resolution...

The Cuban Family Reunification Program (CFRP, also called Parole), detained since 2017 because of the partial closure of the U.S. embassy in Havana, is currently "under review," according to the USCIS. After the recent cancelation of the Parole programs for Haitians and Filipinos, similar to Cubans’, USCIS explained that it will apply changes to exercise its limited authority so as to preserve the integrity of the immigration system and not encourage foreigners to enter the United States illegally. Maria Elena Upson, an official at the USCIS Public Affairs Office, confirmed to OnCuba that "all remaining parole programs by category remain under review." However, Upson avoided commenting on alternatives to a resumption of processes for Cubans or their total closure. A note from USCIS explained that the decision responds to an extensive review to better ensure that the authority to grant temporary residence permits under the Immigration and Nationality Act is exercised according to each individual case when there is a significant public benefit or urgent humanitarian reasons. Both the Haitian and Filipino programs―like the Cuban one―grant temporary residence permits by category, and people who have approved family-based immigrant petitions have been authorized to enter and work in the United States...

Cuban artist Jessica Angel was in charge of photographing the dance with an almost dreamlike interpretation, where the fixed photo support did not prevent reflecting the undulating and unpredictable movement of the rumba. Liquid Heat: La Rumba Llama is an international public art project that brings together photography, dance and education to celebrate the Afro-Cuban rumba in Harlem, its creators explain. The exhibition will be open until Friday, September 23 at Harlem Hospital, as part of Harlem Week. Photo: Courtesy of the interviewee. Jessica Angel has worked with renowned Afro-Cuban dancers and in the Pogolotti community, the famous Havana neighborhood, to create a series of life-size photographs that "capture the energy and passion of the rumba," the presentation to the event announces. While viewing the photos (never before on display), the public can listen to a soundtrack with rumba percussion that includes the reading of poems by Nicolás Guillén, Cuba’s National Poet. Photo: Courtesy of the interviewee. Jessica Angel talked with OnCuba about this cultural exchange that takes the rhythms of Havana to New York. How did the idea of photographing Cuban rumba dancers come about? Why was this important to you? I started dancing about 25 years ago when...

Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy for the State of Vermont argued that "it is indefensible that the federal government restricts American citizens and legal residents from traveling to a tiny country 90 miles away that poses no threat to us." This is what he said in his official statement after presenting the bill for the Freedom for Americans to Travel to Cuba Act of 2019. https://twitter.com/SenatorLeahy/status/1156242504146149382?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1156242504146149382&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Foncubanews.com%2Fcuba-ee-uu%2Fsenador-patrick-leahy-si-pudiesemos-votar-seria-ley-que-los-estadounidenses-viajaran-libremente-a-cuba%2F Although the bill is bipartisan, that is, both Democratic and Republican representatives sponsor it, there are still several unknown factors to consider before a possible approval. For example, that the Republicans currently control the Senate, and the presidents of the Republican committees are responsible for setting their committees’ agendas. That means that only those Republicans decide if this bill is important enough to take it to debate and then to vote. This is why 46 cosponsors of both parties met to present the bill not only in the Senate but also in the United States Congress. The House is now controlled by the Democrats, and the equivalent bill (exactly the same) was introduced by Congressman Jim McGovern last week. https://oncubanews.com/en/cuba-usa/u-s-senators-and-representatives-present-bill-to-lift-travel-to-cuba-restrictions/ Leahy also published an official statement on Monday about the bill where he presents the...

The Canadian Embassy in Havana will reestablish some visa and biometric services starting August 1, according to a story published by the Canadian CBC News website. According to this media, Cuban residents could once again obtain the fingerprints and photos necessary for the applications at the embassy, ​​as well as leave passports and collect visas in the building located in Havana. In early May, Ottawa suspended services such as visa and permanent residence processing in Havana and announced that the Canadian embassy in Mexico would assume most of these services. For this reason, Cuban applicants for permanent residence in Canada will still have to travel outside Cuba for any required medical checkup or interview. The staff at the Canadian embassy in Cuba was also drastically reduced since January this year, after several officials presented symptoms such as dizziness, nausea and headaches, as a result of the mysterious incidents that have also affected U.S. diplomats and that the Trump administration has described as "attacks." https://oncubanews.com/mundo/canada/cubanos-en-canada-piden-a-trudeau-reconsiderar-visados-en-la-habana/ According to CBC News, not all restricted services are being reestablished, but an effort is being made for the processes to be faster, easier and less expensive for applicants. Canadian Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen has said...

Someone who buys Alejandra Estefanía’s art traveled to Cuba and, upon return to the United States, brought her a photo as a gift. The snapshot of a Cuban boy holding a flower inspired in Alejandra one of the paintings she’s proudest of. The painting sparked endless comments on Instagram about who the child was and who the flower was for, a story that Alejandra hopes to discover one day. Photo: Courtesy of the artist “The purpose of my art is to inspire people, that they feel powerful when they view it, no matter where they are,” said Alejandra, a 29-year-old artist based in Miami. Born in Ecuador, she grew up in North Carolina since she was four years old. Although she had never studied art before, at the age of 19 she had the feeling that her purpose was to express herself through painting, something her immigrant mother did not welcome. At 21 she decided to go to Miami, with $100 in her pocket and a huge desire to attend the art institute there. “I had to work very hard to achieve it, but doors opened because I was ready and focused on my true vocation,” says Alejandra. “When I...

"There is a basic principle that emerges from all the years of trials against the City of Miami, Miami-Dade County and the Florida Legislature when a local ordinance was passed to block contact with the people of Cuba and impose censorship on everything related to Cuba: that principle is that Miami (or Florida in general) can’t have its own foreign policy," Howard Simon, executive director of Florida’s American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from 1997 to 2018, told OnCuba. "Unless a group is denied a visa and the federal government does not allow it to enter this country, I don’t think local authorities can block their presence in our community," Simon said. However, in recent days the mayor of Miami-Dade has passed a resolution to prohibit the use of public funds for performances by "artists related to the Cuban government" and recently the mayor of Hialeah suspended the performance of reggaeton singers such as Jacob Forever and Señorita Dayana, for allegedly not having a "clear" position against the Cuban government. Even in the hypothetical case that the federal government (no longer a local authority) prohibits someone’s entry strictly because of the point of view that person expresses or represents, that can...

A bearded man in fatigues, as if he had just come down from the Sierra Maestra, serenades a young woman, while a poster of revolutionary Cuba reads: "Youth, joy and cold Coca-Cola." The unusual drawing was published in Cuba by caricaturist, illustrator and publicist Conrado W. Massaguer (1889-1965), just after the triumph of the Revolution, when advertising and business coexisted with political propaganda and nationalizations. As in the river mouths when they reach the sea, where the water is neither fresh nor salty, or both at the same time, Massaguer managed to publish a whole volume dedicated to the new times of post-1959 Cuba, before its main private publications were closed. Advertising of Coca-Cola in the post-revolutionary period. Photo: Lynton Gardiner / Courtesy of Wolfsonian Museum. "Advertising is to help Cuba," reads one of the drawings, with a bearded character reading a newspaper that advertises brands such as Cigarros Hatuey or the U.S. Jell-O. These and other works by the prolific Cuban illustrator make up the exhibition Cultura y caricatura cubanas: El arte de Massaguer at the Wolfsonian Museum in Miami Beach, Florida. Advertising in the post-revolutionary period. Photo: Lynton Gardiner / Courtesy of Wolfsonian Museum. The idea of ​​starting one...

After more than a year of demands by the Cuban-American community, U.S. Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart requested in a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the U.S. government "improve" the visa procedures and consular services in Cuba. The Republican politician praised Trump's most recent measures towards Cuba, but regretted that Cubans "are facing extreme hardships when applying for lawful U.S. entry," following the "reduction" of diplomatic and consular personnel since 2017 due to allegations of a "sonic attack" against them. Díaz-Balart gave in to the pressure of his constituents, who for months have demanded a response from their political representatives in Florida in the face of the paralyzation of the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program (CFRP). https://oncubanews.com/cuba-ee-uu/cubanos-en-miami-demandan-regreso-del-programa-de-parole/ Recently, several Cubans living in the United States, distressed by family separation, launched a campaign on Twitter and other social media to get the attention of the country's political decision-makers. The main demand of Cubans is to find a U.S. embassy in another place to start to process cases that have been completely stopped since 2017, while other types of visas continue to be processed in third countries. A few weeks ago they received a reply from the State Department, where the...

When in June 2017 President Donald Trump announced a Cuba policy change, he specified that one of his four objectives was to "empower Cubans to guarantee greater economic and political freedoms," although he did not explain how he would do it to avoid exactly the contrary. Trump then placed special emphasis on separating the profits of the Cuban military-state apparatus to "allow U.S. citizens and entities to develop economic ties with the private sector or small businesses in Cuba." In recent months, contrary to the logic of his presidential statements, the U.S. administration has strengthened its policy towards the island, with measures targeting the Cuban private sector that directly affect them, such as the elimination of the multiple entry visa, the imminent restriction of remittances, as well as the damage to tourism that could result from the application of Title III and new restrictions on U.S. travel announced in April. A recent survey by the U.S. organization Cuba Educational Travel in which more than 200 Cuban entrepreneurs participated showed a majority opinion of concern about Trump's policies towards the island and the possible restrictions on travel from that country to Cuba. "The United States should help increase Americans’ travel to...