During his childhood, sometimes in the early morning hours Jessie Valdés got up and found his father working. “I would see him with a candle, writing scores for saxophone, for piano….” He started hearing Irakere with his sister Leyanis when he was still a small child. “We used to go to the Pedro Marrero Stadium, which was where my dad usually rehearsed. We used to see him studying 24 hours a day. When he was at home he used to listen to the music of Oscar Peterson and my grandfather Bebo,” she says. They are Chucho Valdés’ children. Jessie, the youngest, is a drummer. Leyanis graduated from classical music and has followed the route undertaken by her father when defending the essence of Latin jazz. Jessie is more attached to the sound of traditional Cuban music: son montuno, danzón, cha-cha, rumba, Afro-Cuban rhythms, which he fuses with electronic elements, tones and effects. Leyanis, did you study piano based on a personal decision or because you wanted to follow your father’s footsteps? It was a very personal decision. I always liked the piano. I would see it as a toy. I approached the instrument on my own. My dad taught me...

The daughter of drummer Bernardo García –one of the founders of the popular band Irakere– Yissy Garcia was destined to be a drummer. She grew up in Cayo Hueso, a neighbourhood in Havana considered the cradle of the feeling genre, a place of bohemian jams, a place to play and dance rumba. “I used to live across from the Trillo Park, which is a very musical place. Near our house was the Hamel’s Alley, and my neighbors were always playing music on wooden boxes with spoons as sticks, and I used to join them with my sticks and some of my grandma’s pans,” said the young drummer, who is now the leader of BandAncha (Broad Brand), an alternative music project. How much of an influence was that environment of your childhood? I think that was the biggest influence I had. When I was a kid, I would see my dad rehearsing and studying at home. That was very important for me. My dad and his friends used to get together at the house, watch videos, and listen to music. All of that caught my attention, but that was information I had in my genes anyways. I was destined to be...

Seeing Holguin’s Venecia Feria Borja performing at the same time several characters and transit through dissimilar nuances in the scene is a true delight. Talented actress, her greatest virtue is the versatility with which she assumes roles ranging from a child to an old lady. In the 18th National Festival of Humor, Aquelarre 2012, she received many laurels, including the one for best female performance, and since then her name is heard in the Cuban scenic landscape. She recently won the Caricato award for best female performance in humor, by her character in the play Sobras Escogidas. When did you come to the world of humor? I studied acting at the National School of Art in the affiliate of Granma province. Upon completion of studies I returned to Holguin to make the Social Service. There I met the boys of Etcetera Group and they invited me to make sporadic appearances with them, some sketches where they needed a woman. In 2012 I asked Eider Pérez, director of the group, to write me a text, a bit more serious and thought where I could work more the humor. He writes me the monologue 120 enterabay, with which I debuted as an...

At the corner of L and 13 of Vedado, a sui generis building that bears some similarities to the New York Empire State draws people´s attention. I am talking about the Lopez Serrano building built in 1932 by the Watch and Rosich firm, with a total of 78 apartments. The younger brother of the Empire State, closely resembles him in his design, but only has ten floors and four more in the tower. It is one of the buildings representative of Art Deco in Cuba. As in recent decades has not undergone any renovation, the passage of time begins to become apparent in him. Even from afar, which was considered for a while as the tallest building in the country, it retains its image of excellence with its steel structure, just do a close up with to appreciate the destruction of some of its decorative elements as well as the state found in windows and balconies. Under the name López Serrano Salvarte ... people have been working since October 2014 on a project of cultural socio-economic rehabilitation, with citizen participation in this residential building of high heritage value. This proposal, currently under development, was presented as class work by a...

In the cities there are buildings that have an autobiographical value because even when they are no longer present they survive in the collective memory. And there are works that without possessing great architectural values, eventually come to acquire a cultural value. Such is the case of the building Alaska-bound to further development of the Havana´s La Rampa - built in 1922 and demolished just over a decade ago. About this building the architects Isabel Rigol and Angela Rojas refer in the article La Rampa. Nostalgia and rescue: "This was no reference to modern buildings, and if analyzed with classical aesthetic categories or of rationalism, left much to be desired volumetrically. Its greatest value lay in the testimonial character, though it were a work of the twentieth century, and on top, out of fashion, but the story of what La Rampa would be started there because it was all that remained of previous image ". About the Alaska building nestled in the corner of 23 and M, said his neighbors, half joking, half serious, that was not falling in pieces but chunks. I lived in it my first five years and then, during adolescence, my mother and I spent several...

The new version of ¨Delirio Habanero¨ has had great success within the segment ¨ De la buena memoria¨ which included, as part of the 15th edition of the National Theatre Festival in Camagüey, proposals that have become milestones in Cuban scene. Exclusively to OnCuba, the actor Yasel Rivero talks about his character -¨El Barbaro-, ¨in the new staging by Teatro de la Luna Group. The lights come on and a mythical character appears on stage: baton in hand, width suit, wide-brimmed hat. The representation begins and actor and character get mixed . This was the way in which the play Deliro Habanero was dreamed by the playwright Alberto Pedro, his author. "Raúl Martín made ​​me the proposal. We had talked about it several times but I was always busy until he told me we had the opportunity to present the work in Habanarte. Although I was exhausted by other theatrical processes , accepted because I love that character, "Rivero says. Yasel is young, a native of Santa Clara, but he seems to be possessed by the spirit of Bartolomé Maximiliano Moré, ¨Benny Moré. ¨He has had to embody a difficult and strenuous role, especially when facing the weight of comparison....

One of the highlights of the 13th edition of the Circus Festival for the summer, Circuba 2014, was the presence for the first time in Cuba of Spanish Javier Urbina, internationally known as The master of Bubbles, Guinness Recordfor creating the largest chain of bubbles in the world. He is a thin young man, short but charismatic. He steals the show the moment he sets foot on the stage. The name of the group he leads is quite original. It is called Made in Jabon (Made in Soap –a similar word to Japan in Spanish) because he doesn’t rely on juggling or balance acts, nor physical strength to get the public’s attention. Javier Urbina, internationally known as The master of Bubbles, performed for the first time in Cuba and the main attraction of his show is precisely bubbles: small, large, colored, in the shape of stars, etc. Those who recently visited Trompoloco’s Big Top, located in the municipality of Playa, in Havana, had the chance to enjoy a fresh and fun show spiced with a touch of humor, performance, magic and intelligence. Urbina majored from theater in Spain and won a Guinness Record for linking ten giant bubbles. Now he...

Yesterday we had the premiere in Cuba of Bent, a piece by British playwright Martin Sherman talking about repression against homosexuals in the context of Nazi Germany. On the Cuban side assumed the co-direction the young filmmaker Luis Ernesto Donas alongside English director Stephen Bayly. With high expectations people waited for the arrival in the Cuban stage of what promises will be a cultural event this summer in the Greater Antilles. The world premiere of Bent took place in 1979 with the debut of Ian Murray McKellen, British actor of stage and screen, in the role of Max. The same role was taken, also in 1979, by Richard Gere for the premiere on Broadway. Bent has performed with great success in more than 56 countries and is considered one of the classics of the contemporary theater. Sherman's piece, which will be in theaters throughout the month of August in the Tito Junco Hall Bertolt of the Brecht Cultural Complex, is set in Berlin in 1934 where after the Night of the Long Knives severe repression against homosexuals is unleashed. Exclusive to OnCuba, Luis Ernesto Donas (Villa Clara, 1984), film director and editor, talks about his first foray into theater direction...

In an exclusive interview for OnCuba, Idania Valdés, the youngest member of the Buena Vista Social Club project, noted on the significance of being part of this band, which will go on an international good-bye tour on June 20 under the title Adios Tour (Good Bye Tour). Idania is the daughter of famous percussionist Amadito Valdes, one of the founders of the Buena Vista Social Club, so music runs in her blood. Her first musical school was the bohemian environment at her home during her childhood. It can be said that, in addition to the Academy, the Buena Vista Social Club founded in 1996 by musical director Jesús ‘Aguaje’ Ramos with the participation of renowned Cuban musicians (Eliades Ochoa, El Guajiro Mirabal, Rubén González, Cachaíto López, Puntillita, El Pío, Ibrahim Ferrer, Barbarito Torres, Compay Segundo and Omara Portuondo) has also been an important school for her. She has been gifted with a warm and powerful voice. For 12 years now, she has been a member of this band. She started to collaborate with the group while she was still a choral direction student at the AmadeoRoldan Conservatory. “As a chorus girl I had the chance to participate in the recording...

In the city of Matanzas, the image of Pelusín del Monte– a puppet–is part of the collective memory. At the venue of Papalote theater company, Rene Fernandez –who participated in the workshops given by siblings Carucha and Pepe Camejo during the 60’s– treasures the original puppet, conceived out of a literary character by writer Dora Alonso. For two years ago now, a sculpture of the puppet welcomes those who participate in night activities staged in a beautiful orchard –created by designer Zenén Calero and known as Pelusin’s garden–, one of the most attractive spaces of the Cultural Center Pepe Camejo, the venue of Las Estaciones Theater Company in Matanzas province. As an initiative by Zenén Calero and Rubén Darío Salazar –director of Las Estacionesand apprentice of René Fernández- a group of craftsmen from the province, for the first time, recreated the image of Pelusín del Monte in leather designs and other useful products. A variety of products with the image of this little puppet boy are commercialized around these days, in the lobby of the Gener y del Monte Library, through the Cuban Fund of Cultural Assets (FCBC by its acronym in Spanish) The Palma group, led by Luís Octavio...

Representatives from more than 80 countries participated, along with artists, journalists, delegates and other figures,at the opening of the 11th edition of the International Puppets Workshop of Matanzas (TITIM by its acronym in Spanish), as a result of an invitation to the meeting of the World Council of Unima (International Puppets Association by its acronym in Spanish) and had the pleasure to attend to the first performance of the US Sandglass Theater Company in Cuba. Eric Bass, artistic director the company, who has tremendous skills for manipulating puppets, magnificently staged the piece Autumn Portraits, a theater play for adults, which was chosen for TITIM’s the official inauguration at the Velasco Movie Theater in the western province of Matanzas. Since its creation in 1980 this individual piece has won several awards for the company in Australia and Hungary; an Excellence distinction by Unima; an Excellence Diploma by Pecs, Hungary; and the First Prize of the critics for best production in the International Puppet Festival in Adelaida, Australia. Critics have described Bass as a great innovator within the art of puppetry. Since he was a student at the Middlebury College in Vermont, his teachers realized that he was very talented. And for...

The Cuban theater company Teatro del Caballero, directed by José Antonio Alonso, was invited by Juan Roca, director of the theater company Havana fama, and by Miami’s Teatro 8, to stage in Florida the plays De París un Caballero and Retrato de un hombre desnudo. “In 30 years I have been in many places of the world –first with Buendia Theater and now with Teatro del Caballero. Not everyone has the chance to do what they like and succeed. That’s not easy. There are three basic elements for happiness: a house of your own, a job you enjoy and allows you to survive, and some love. I have found those three things in Cuba.” “People ask me why Ii haven’t left from Cuba considering all the travelling opportunities I have. In my country I found the focus of my life”, says this actor and theater director José Antonio Alonso, who leads the Teatro del Caballero company with which he will perform starting on April 25 and through all the weekends of May at the Teatro 8 in the popular 8th street in Miami, Florida. José Antonio Alonso is a Smart, sensitive man who loves the theater. Ever since he founded...

Among the special guests of the first Havana World Music (HWM) is the electronic music producer known as Djoy of Cuba, one of the DJ that has contributed to the spread of this kind of music on the island and now highly acclaimed in the alternative theaters in Havana. Djoy of Cuba attended for three years the Academy of Fine Arts of San Alejandro until he was expelled for not paying attention in class. He admits that even then the music was a kind of obsession. "I was studying painting at San Alejandro but music stole me too much space in the creative side. In 1997, a year after leaving there, I organized my first party, and it seems that's how I discovered my true profession. Something told me this is the way. "I was the first DJ in Cuba. I opened the way in Havana and taught the main DJ of the Cuban scene as to how to be updated on national genres and how to respect them when making music remixes aimed at younger audiences, "he remembers. Apparently, there is a relationship between the producers of electronic music and the arts because you're not the only DJ who...

From November 15th to the 17th, as part of the celebrations for the tenth anniversary of the city of Doral, located in southern Florida, Art Fest @ Doral is taking place where for the first time there is involved a Cuban delegation, along artists from Serbia , India, Panama , Colombia , Puerto Rico , Ecuador and Peru , among other countries. Convened by the Cuban Tomas Oliva, plastic artist, who has lived for more than two decades in the United States, eleven Cuba artists were selected to integrate the payroll of the exhibition What the tide brought (Cuba) to be held in the Carlos Albizu University, Miami, venue of the Art Fest @ Doral fair. A few days before the opening of the show, Tomas Oliva came to Havana to finalize the details of this exhibition shows that had to be very quickly organized and shared with OnCuba some details of the exhibition and his future projects. "I tried to bring three generations of artists. Of the older , start with Humberto Hernández Martínez ( The Black ), followed by Mario García Portela, Zoila Iris Agüero Ortega and Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal, who belongs to my generation. "I included some...

In the Greater Antilles is officially recognized the existence of the so-called Cuban School of Animation which would not be possible without fundamental experts of this art in the island between which we cannot fail to mention the brothers Juan and Ernesto Padrón. Other authoritative voices in the field are Jorge Oliver, Tulio Raggi and Mario Rivas. And since the emergence of the Special Animation Department of the ICAIC there is a tradition of teaching and learning while at it. Today we can speak of four generations of cartoon filmmakers and an accumulated experience of over five decades. Many of the parents of Cuban animation come from the world of comics and had to take their first steps learning with trial and error between animation tables moved by hand and old cameras from the 1920s. It was the now distant 1960s and in the island they knew only traditional animation. That was done with ink, acetates, brushes, pens, and cardboard, tempera that joined the Creole inventive of using vinyl paint for walls and even children’s talc by the Bebyto brand. In those foundational times "nobody knew making impeccable cartoons. We all learned to make dolls (cartoons) with terrible, horrible, regular...

Playwright and television director Jesus Castillo says that when he came across by chance with the official announcement of the international contest Ocean State Poets , based in Providence, USA and sponsored by some libraries in Rhode Island, there were only ten days left before the closing date for admission. Stubborn as he is, this Electrical Engineer turned into playwright, theater director, screenwriter for television and radio, was undaunted and wrote the play National Sport where he exorcises several demons that had haunted him since childhood. It was a play that he had the urge to write. "It is based on the social phenomenon produced by Victor Mesa and Matanzas players during the penultimate National Series where my province won third place," he said by way of introduction. National Sports is a work of fiction with autobiographical elements which reflects part of life of the author of more than thirty works of theater for children and adults, over 400 scripts for the television program Barquito de Papel and a dozen stories. "For me it is one of the most beautiful pieces I've written for the Cuban theater. It contains factual testimony of my reality. "As a child I was a...

From September 9 through the 13, the Havana’s Conventions Center opened its doors to world broadcasters interested in showing their products at the Expo-International Fair which was developed as part of the Cuba 2013 Radio and Television Festival. Providers and suppliers of digital technologies for television, service distributors, foreign companies and entities engaged in the production of public good contents were present at an event that in the words of Katyusha de Hombre, Director of International Relations of ICRT "aspires to become an obligatory reference in the world of visual communication. " At the end of the event Omar Olazabal, its president, announced that, in October 2014, Cuba will host the First International Convention of radio and television which will be dedicated to young artists and the defense of the identity from the media. Yoel Ortega, vice president of the Organizing Committee of the Festival and director of RTV Commercial Company, said that the event became framework for the signing of cooperation agreements, memoranda of understanding and exchange of content between Cuba and countries like Spain and Nigeria. Speaking exclusively to OnCuba, Ortega pointed out that through RTV Commercial "we are positioning ourselves in the international market which are in...

The Casa de las Americas is ready to host the 3rd Meeting of Young Artists and Writers of Latin America and the Caribbean, known as ¨Casa Tomada¨ (Taken House), an event that will take place between September 17 and 20. 58 guests - 30 Cubans and 28 foreigners-is the number of young artists and intellectuals who have confirmed their participation in an event which main theme this year will be devoted to social movements, communication, activism and creative process as well as the Latin American thought by and from young people. As explained by Caridad Tamayo, specialist of the Literary Research Center at Casa de las Americas, "young writers participation has greatly increased this year", who are interested in continuing the event that took place ​in 2009 to mark the 50th anniversary of this institution. Taken House opens its doors with the theatrical play Woyzcek by Mono theater under the direction of William Ruiz with music by Luis Alberto Marino -recent graduate of composition at the University of the Arts-and who will take academic music for the first time to this youth event. Furthermore, the climax of the meeting will be the concert ¨ Electronics for the Americas¨ by musicians...

In line with technological advances that move the television around the world, the Cuban Radio and Television Institute (ICRT by its Spanish acronym) decided since last year to gradually implement digital television in the country.

The Cuban theater, in tune with the economic transformations taking place in the island, is in the middle of a reorganization stage. On the subject OnCuba spoke with Julio Cesar Ramirez , director of the newly created Raquel Revuelta hall, one of the scenic areas that are part of the theatrical circuit of Linea Street, initiative designed to decentralize and more effectively visualize the functioning of the theater groups located in one of the most popular avenues of Havana . “We cannot be oblivious to the situation. The theater has to be the vanguard both on its topics and on the way it is conceived, "Ramirez, who has spent four decades of his life dedicated to the performing arts, said. "We are trying to survive theater and that theater people to feel better because it is an art of much sacrifice. The theater artists are always in disadvantage due to lack of promotion, management, and budgeting. Performing arts in Cuba should be more favored because having a solid theater movement as we have is a great privilege. " “We need to understand all the effort that entails making a play to create better conditions for people and thus they can...

This year the young journalist, actor and broadcaster Carlos Eduardo Maristany debuts as a director of a video clip. His latest audiovisual, made along songwriter Yoyo Ibarra, to promote the theme I Kiss You is listed at number 12 in the charts according to data released this August 26th at the Lucas Awards facebook group. What is said about this video both in social networks? (it is about to become one of the most commented 500 clips this week in the world. According to youtube inside  it ranks in the 487 position). According to Maristany you can say that there is a school of Cuban video clip: "Although I have taken many specialized courses I learned in the school of independent filmmakers that to me is the most important thing in Cuba. "I directed my first video clip in the month of November 2012. I am already in my fourth. I had a hard start. I waited almost a year and a half because it is very difficult to break the ice in a country where there is so much young talent waiting for a chance, “Maristany says. In your case you went from journalism to work as an independent...