Cuban dancer and choreographer Lizt Alfonso has been included on the BBC Women 2018 list of inspiring and influential women worldwide made every year since 2013 by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Alfonso, 51, created in 1990 an internationally recognized fusion dance company which has performed in hundreds of cities across the world as ambassador of Cuban culture. This is the first time that a Cuban woman appears on this list, where until now another 11 Latin Americans have been included. The BBC press release says that Lizt Alfonso is proud to be part of that group that reflects trailblazing women who use passion and indignation to provoke a real change in the world that surrounds them. “Don’t tell me to give up, I’m not going to stop,” says the first verse of a song especially written by Lizt Alfonso for a video clip about the company she has led for almost 30 years. “You have to be prepared for when the opportunity comes and, if possible, go out and find the opportunity. Don’t wait for it to come to you,” she said to OnCuba when her project was turning 25. https://youtu.be/qCK5EaLc6O4 “I tell my dancers to not be satisfied with...

The first coproduction between Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba (LADC) and the Panama National Ballet returns to the Great Theater of Havana, where it was premiered in April 2017. Latido, an hour-long performance, will show one more time the LADC fusion with elements from flamenco, ballet, contemporary dance, folklore and different popular dances. That’s how we start today, dancing. Also, the Cuban National Ballet will be closing the Cuban Arts Festival in Washington, and the Camaguey folklore ballet will have a season in Mella theater. In Theater, women proposals. In Visual Arts, there will be video screenings, Cuban film posters and photographs. In Cinema, the European Cinema Festival in Cuba for the third time. In Music, Alberto Lescay will be releasing his first solo work, in case you love jazz. And in Comedy, the show Sonando en Cuba: La historia no contada. Here you have a little bit of everything so you can choose. See you around!   Lizt Alfonso’s Latidos From June 1st to 10th comes back Latido to the Great Theater of Havana. This is the first Lizt Alfonso coproduction with a foreign company, the Panama National Ballet. With original idea, directed and choreograph by Lizt Alfonso, music by...

The Institute of Forensic Medicine reported that the victims that remained from among those who died in the plane crash of last May 18 had been identified. A bit over a week after the accident, a stage of mourning has started to close for the relatives, friends, colleagues as well as Cuban and foreign observers who have been paying attention to the events. The director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Sergio Rabell, accompanied by the head of the Ministry of the Interior’s Criminal Department, Colonel Antonio Mesa, gave a press conference in which he reported that the Institute finished the identification of the victims of the plane crash. Photo: Ernesto Mastrascusa / EFE. Sergio Rabell, director of the Cuban Institute of Forensic Medicine, explained during a press conference today Sunday that the participation of the relatives was decisive due to the contribution of fundamental identity data, as well as photos and documents that together with the recognition of garments and other components of the wardrobes were able to guide the physicians in the identification process. The analysis of a video at the moment of boarding the plane, images that were recovered from some of the passengers’ cell phones and...

A modest bunch of flowers cut from a garden and a lit candle were her offering to Our Lady of Charity. Kneeling at her feet and with her eyes full of tears, she asked for the eternal rest of the victims and prayed for the comfort of those who today are crying over the loss of a son or daughter, brother or sister, a friend, after the disastrous takeoff of May 18. The image is repeated once and again in Holguín’s San Isidro Cathedral, where on the night of Tuesday the 22nd a mass was given to pay homage to the deceased and to pray for the health and recovery of Maylén Díaz Almaguer and Emiley Sánchez De La O, Holguín survivors of the disaster. The mass was presided over by Monsignor Emilio Aranguren, president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba and Bishop of Holguín, the city of origin of 67 of the victims. The wakes have been massive. Photo: Alejandro Ernesto / EFE. “There is a beautiful text in a document of the Second Vatican Council that says that men’s joys are the Church’s joys, and in the same way men’s sorrows and sadness are also the...

On Monday May 21 I went to the Hotel Tulipán in Havana to visit the parents of a friend, almost a brother, who died in the May 18 plane crash. For whom are you coming? I was asked at the entrance by a woman. There are 67 Holguín residents among the 111 victims. There’s a representation of 67 families in this hotel. In the midst of the confusion I saw my friend’s father; I thanked the lady who received me, and I entered. I spoke with the family, gave them my support more with my presence than with a phrase because there’s nothing to say. Hotel Tulipán, where the relatives and close friends of the victims are staying. Photo: EFE. My visit coincided with the moment in which the Institute of Forensic Medicine was going to report on the identified bodies. They all entered the room, I preferred to stay outside, by the door. They started coming out some minutes later. Those who had identified a relative, those who had been summoned to identify objects, or those who still hadn’t received news…. They were all crying. Three more bodies had been identified, and a group of relatives was asked to...

What we recommend this week are screenings, debates and analysis around the Cuban and contemporary video creation. Muestra ON/OFF, in Casa Victor Hugo, promises to get us closer to the Cuban and French films. Though this is not the whole program, so if you want to know more you’re in the right place. In Visual Arts there’s more, just keep looking. In Dance, we have the presentations of the Cuban National Ballet in the Kennedy Center, Washington, and the Cuban School of Ballet in the Great Theater of Havana. In Music, a lot of concerts this week. In Cinema, another invitation under the stars. In Literature, the book presentation with La caricia del latigo. Rufo Caballero, un idolo imposible, in Miami. Follow us daily in Facebook so you don’t miss anything. See you around.   Contemporary video in Havana Muestra ON/OFF proposes, in its second edition, a new theme selection of video collection La Maison Europeenne de Photographie (MEP). Next Thursday 31st, in Casa Victor Hugo (O’Reilly 313), at 6 pm, will be the inauguration of this event. It will last for a week and will have a lot of collateral activities. It will present a space for screenings, debates...

One of the two survivors of the flight that crashed a week ago in Havana, Cuban Emiley Sánchez, 40 years old, died in the early morning hours of Friday May 25, raising the number of victims of the disaster to 112, Cubadebate reported. Sánchez died at 1:45 am in Havana’s Calixto García Hospital, where she was hospitalized since the day of the accident as a consequence of the “serious traumatic lesions and burns” suffered, indicated a communique of the Ministry of Public Health published in the state-run media. Also hospitalized in that same center and in critical condition, is the young 19-year-old Cuban Maylén Díaz, who is now the only survivor of the Cubana de Aviación flight DMJ-972 which on May 18 crashed a short while after taking off from the Havana airport with 113 persons on board, among them five children. “Her condition was extremely critical with an unfavorable prognosis, with a progressive deterioration, which was impossible to reverse due to the appearance of complications, despite the effort of the multidisciplinary team responsible for her medical attention during six days of intensive care,” the official note said. Sánchez, like more than half of those who died in the accident,...

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel doesn’t believe the U.S. government’s current position toward Cuba will go on forever, and said that there are still “points of contact” and the “will” to continue advancing in relations based on respect and equality. Díaz-Canel made these reflections this Thursday during a meeting in Havana with some of the artists who participated this month in the Artes de Cuba: From the Island to the World Festival held in Washington and where according to the president it was demonstrated how art can build bridges between the two countries, the state-run media reported this Thursday. Miguel Díaz-Canel with Minister of Culture Abel Prieto during a meeting with Cuban artists who represented the island in the Washington DC Kennedy Center. Photo: Ariel Ley Royero / ACN. “I don’t believe the position that exists now will be forever and things like the ones you did in Washington…can clear the path,” said the president, who highlighted that in addition to talent and commitment the artists demonstrated “that Cuba has to be respected.” In the meeting Díaz-Canel recalled that the Donald Trump administration “is making an effort to roll back the process of reestablishment with which we wanted to advance toward...

With a shrunken heart but a steady hand, the tireless self-taught calligrapher Carlos Parra carefully writes the dedicatory signs on the floral wreaths that accompany the urns of those who died in the plane crash that last Friday plunged into mourning the Cuban province of Holguín, which lost 67 of its sons and daughters in the disaster. In a small room on the rooftop of Los Alamos funeral parlor, where the people of Holguín are crying the loss of their family members and close friends, Parra sits at the same cement table where the floral wreaths are made and carefully writes the dedicatory sign of “From the people of Cuba” on the ribbons. Among sunflowers, carnations, daisies and roses, almost all red, this former physics professor readies two black labeling machines and fluently writes the “orders that I would never have wanted to write.” The italic font stands out, but with no unnecessary decorations; just enough so what is special on the wreath is noticed. “When I was a professor I was always asked to personalize the students’ graduation diplomas, that’s why each time there’s a floral wreath for a martyr on a historic date, I am asked to write...

Luis Posada Carriles, charged with multiple acts of terrorism, one of the fiercest enemies of the Cuban government and an ex CIA agent, died today in Florida, the United States, at the age of 90 due a long illness, the local media reported. Posada Carriles (Cuba, 1928) died “in a Government home for veterans” located to the north of Miami in the locality of Miramar, his lawyer, Arturo Hernández, pointed out. A survivor of throat cancer, attempts on his life and a brain hemorrhage, Posada’s health had notably deteriorated after suffering several bone fractures in a car accident in 2015. In 2000, Fidel Castro denounced a plan by Posada Carriles to assassinate him in Panama, where he was attending an Iberian-America Summit. Posada Carriles was arrested for that reason in Panama, although then President Mireya Moscoso pardoned him before she left her post, after which he traveled to El Salvador and from there he illegally entered the United States in 2005, for which he had to face that country’s justice. He was absolved in 2011 of 11 charges of perjury, fraud and obstruction of justice by a Texas migration court and since then he lived retired in Miami. According to...

The young Grettel Landrove, one of the survivors of last Friday’s plane crash in Havana, passed away yesterday due to the serious wounds suffered in the disaster, increasing the total number of victims to 111, a source from the hospital where she was being treated reported to EFE. Landrove, who was 23 years old and resided in Havana – although she was a native of Holguín – died at 15.45 local time in Calixto García Hospital where she was being treated since the day of the accident with extremely critical forecasts. Cubana de Aviación flight DMJ-972 and operated with a Boeing 737 from the Mexican Global Air airline, crashed on May 18 with 113 persons on board a short while after taking off from Havana’s airport due to causes still being investigated. The young woman was rescued with life from the remains of the plane, but the doctors were concerned because of the “severe neurological damage” she presented. According to the medical report from this Monday, made known before Grettel Landrove’s death, the three survivors continued in an “extremely critical condition with possibilities of complication,” and in two of the cases with “unfavorable forecasts” due to the serious wounds. Landrove,...

After a terrible plane accident, minutes after taking off from Havana’s José Martí International Airport, Cuba is living an official mourning because of the tragedy. The Cuban flag is flying at half mast today in homage to the victims of yesterday’s plane accident in which 108 persons died. Photo: Ernesto Mastrascusa / EFE. Inés González, mother of one of the deceased in the air crash in which 108 of the 111 persons on board died yesterday in Havana (Cuba), is crying today, Saturday May 19, 2018, when leaving the Institute of Forensic Medicine where the victims are being identified. Photo: Alejandro Ernesto / EFE. Ongoing investigations Engineer Rolando Parera, general director of José Martí International Airport, told the National Telvision Newscast in its May 19 noon broadcast that they had worked “throughout the early morning hours” in the investigtion of the disaster’s causes. “No one rested and the persons who professionally carry out this type of work were doing it throughout the night…to be able to collect all the necessary evidence and arguments where the disaster occurred to be able to make progress in the investigation.” Until now no cause has been revealed. A commission, presided over by the Institute...

Mayo Teatral comes to an end. After ten days filled with pure theater in seven spaces in Havana and other provinces, this tenth season left everyone wanting for more art. If you haven’t had time, make some for what is still going on before it ends. Remember that’s what May if for: theater! In Visual Arts, we’ll begin with the expo Beyond eroticism by Rocio Garcia. If you’re in Miami, don’t miss it, it’s very well recommended. But there’s more, find and sing up for it. In Music, a lot of concerts, a lot of artists. In Cinema, the program for these days. And in Dace, another weekend with Danza Contemporanea presentations in the Great Theater of Havana. See you around!   Mayo Teatral ends, for the moment This is the last Mayo Teatral weekend for its tenth edition. Check out the program and run! You’re still on time. https://oncubanews.com/cultura/guarda-teatro-pa-mayo/ Friday 18th Adolfo Llaurado Hall 5:00 pm Cuatro, Teatro de las Estaciones (Cuba) Gallery Hayde Santamaria, Casa de las Americas 6:00 pm Histeria, Annabel Guérédrat (Martinica) Cultural Center Bertolt Brecht, Tito Junco Room, 13 and I, Vedado 7:00 p.m. El Divino Narciso, Teatro de la Rendija (México) Hubert de Blanck...

  The U.S. Carnival cruise company continues betting strong on Cuba and this week announced new itineraries to the island for 2019 and 2020. The principal novelty will be the arrival of the Carnival Sunshine, the largest cruise ship to visit Havana since the resumption of these ships’ journeys from the United States. With a capacity for more than 3,000 passengers and weighing more than 102,000 tons, the Sunshine will offer the first trip from the port of Charleston, South Carolina, to the island. This ship will depart from Charleston on November 21, 2019, for a four-day cruise that will offer its guests one whole day in Havana, according to what the company said. It will also make five-day trips with stopovers in the Cuban capital and Freeport, Bahamas, between January and April 2020. In all, Carnival’s 23 new journeys will include Havana in its itinerary for the next two years. The trips will be on board five different ships. In addition to the Sunshine from Charleston, the Carnival Triumph is programmed to leave from Fort Lauderdale, the Carnival Paradise from Tampa, and the Carnival Victory and Carnival Sensation from Miami. The president of the cruise company, Christine Duffy, commented...

  Two Cuban creators meet in the “Full of Pollen” exposition inaugurated last March 30 in the Kendall Art Center of the city of Miami. Spectators and readers will be able to approach this particular synergy until next May 25. The work of Maikel Domínguez, who studied in the Higher Institute of Art (ISA) and the Royal Institute of Art of Stockholm, Sweden, has been described as “New Painting” or “Beautiful conceptualism.” Poet Eduardo Herrera is the winner of the 2016 The World On Wings International Poetry Award, organized by the Voces de Hoy publishing house in the United States. It is the opportunity to appreciate some of the obsessions, reasons and engines that have started up not just the friendship between two creators, but also a poetic as well as virtual experiment by two Cubans on the other shore. “Full of Pollen” exposition. Photo: Elaine Vilar. Why mix poetic visions with painting? Maikel Domínguez: The idea was born from a reciprocal identity of our works. We have mainly felt a mutual identification that is not understood as chance. Although our works separately explore very particular worlds, they are based on our histories and experiences. In this sense, due to...

Danza Contemporanea de Cuba prepared a new dance performance for these days. After their last season success in the Island with Carmina Burana, they will present Consagracion. This premier is our opening today. Since we’re talking about stages... get ready because May comes very theatrical. Though there ́s much more, as usual. Following the line but in Music, we suggest another premier with Teatro Lirico Nacional and the piece Romeo and Juliette. But again, a lot of artists will perform and you can follow them all here. Have a plan! In Cinema, huge 3D screening in Chaplin. In Comedy, Robertico gets back to Miami. In Visual Arts, a Cuban artists expo over there too. Don’t miss anything. See you around!   Consagracion: world premier Danza Conatemporanea de Cuba (DCC), directed by Miguel Iglesias will premier today, at 8:30 pm, Consagracion by French Christophe Beramger and Jonathan Pranlas-Descours in the Great Theater of Havana. This will happen for two weekends from May 11th to 20th. For this season DCC will also include its last creations in a very attractive combination of programs with a broad spectrum of choreographies and visions. So you can also enjoy R=V (el criterio del camello) and...

  The Victory I, of the U.S. Victory Cruise Lines (VCL), last Wednesday made its first stopover in Havana after a tour of several Cuban cities on its maiden voyage to the island. VCL is the fifth U.S. shipping company operating in Cuba, after this type of journeys were reinitiated in 2016. Before docking in Havana the Victory I visited the ports of Santiago de Cuba, Trinidad and Cienfuegos as part of a 10-day programmed tour. The company’s president, Bruce Nierenberg, affirmed that since the creation of VCL in late 2015 there existed the intention of including Cuba among its destinations due to its vicinity to the United States and the ships’ characteristics, which allow for making trips along the coasts. Nierenberg explained that it is a traveling variant that makes it possible to better appreciate the island since by visiting several cities the passengers can get to know more in depth Cuban culture, history and foods. In addition, he affirmed that the greatest benefit of this type of journeys is received by the communities where the cruise ships dock. The president of VCL said that his company supports the rapprochement between Cuba and the United States, two countries that...

Cuban and Cuban-American artists and creators will perform for American people from next Tuesday in USA. The Cuban Art Festival will have more than 50 events including music, dance, theater, cinema and more. The space will be the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and will become a great party, for sure! That’s only our beginning. In Music, there will be a huge concert sponsored by BandEra Studio and we recommend it specially. In Visual Arts, you’ll find surprises. In Cinema we have different options here and there. And last, but not least, Comedy, because it heals everything. See you around!   Cuba in the Kennedy Center For two weeks the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will present “Cuban Arts: From the Island to the World”, a festival celebrating the artistic Cuban richness. This unprecedented party will show the quality of Cuban and Cuban-American artists. It will take place from May 8th until 20th in Washington DC. The event will present more than 50 performance including music, dance, theater, cinema, fashion, design and more. It will also extend beyond the stages of the performing center with free exhibitions in the halls and terraces, and 12 performances streaming online,...

  The case of Valeria finally was decided in favor of Yoelvis Gattorno, her father, who won the battle for the custody of the newborn in Miami, whose mother was Cuban and died in childbirth. A paternity test confirmed Yoelvis as the father and judge Migna Sánchez Llorens, of the Miami-Dade family court, awarded him the custody of the minor, El Nuevo Herald reported. But the ruling includes a condition that will delay the minor’s travel to the island, at least for the time being, because of her state of health. The premature birth of Valeria has caused complications and the judge ruled that she cannot leave the state of Florida until she is discharged by the doctors. The mother, Yarisleidi Rodríguez, arrived in the south of Florida last October 6 during the last months of her pregnancy with the aim of giving birth to her baby in the United States, but she died during childbirth in Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital. The young Cuban woman never gave the hospital the name of the father, which is why, according to the medical center’s administration, it had to accept her cousin, Nairobis Pacheco, as the person responsible for the temporary guardianship of...

  The Coast Guard repatriated yesterday 28 Cuban immigrants who were trying to illegally reach the country by sea and were intercepted in two different operations in waters off the Straits of Florida, the authorities reported. Last Saturday 19 Cuban citizens had set sail and were sighted by a plane of the Miami Coast Guard. One of them was transferred to the Miami-Dade police due to an arrest warrant against him for the theft of cars in that Florida county. On Monday the Coast Guard intercepted a 25-feet rustic boat with another 10 Cuban immigrants some 58 miles (94 kilometers) to the northeast of Matanzas (Cuba). Once aboard the ships all the immigrants were given food, water, shelter and medical care before being returned to Cuba. Captain Willie Carmichael, from the Seventh District of the Coast Guard, said they can’t stop emphasizing that these illegal emigration attempts are dangerous, useless and frequently promoted by rumors or deceived by criminals who will lie or exploit the emigrants. The institution pointed out that some 144 Cuban immigrants have tried to illegally enter the country since last October 1, when fiscal year 2018 began, compared to the 1,953 of fiscal year 2017. Ever...

The construction of what will be the highest hotel in Havana will begin this very year and will be located on the centric 23rd Street between K and L, in El Vedado. According to what Deysi Malvares, director of development of the Almest Real Estate Company, reported to the Cuban News Agency, the building will have 42 floors and 565 rooms. The earth moving will begin in September in the so-called “hole” located in front of the Coppelia ice cream parlor. The hotel aims to be a five star and must be finished by 2022. It will be much higher than the highest in Havana, with 154 meters, higher than the Habana Libre, with 27 floors and 70 meters high. The investment comes from a 100 percent Cuban capital. Malvares said that starting September the basement and access areas will be built during 13 months. Subsequently the rest of the building will be constructed in two and a half years. The entrance and exit of vehicles, said the specialist, will be through 25 and K, and for the traffic of pedestrians the now nonexistent stretch of K Street from 25 to 23 will also be built. Founded 20 years ago,...

  A Cuban friend who lives in Paris, where she has learned among many other things the arts of good cooking, commented to me that in Cuba, however, we eat more to energize the body than to please the spirit. It’s an opinion that’s a bit absolute but that is widespread among many Cubans, especially those of us who lived the hardest years of the Special Period and are still convalescing, with an insatiable appetite and yearning for unknown delicacies. I was thinking of this when I heard of the premiere, in the Berlin International Film Festival, of an 82-minute-long rather singular documentary that awakens our palate and pleases the heart. Cuban Food Stories, produced and directed by Asori Soto, is the movie of a trip through the Cuban geography and identity in one of its less publicized aspects in recent decades: our culinary traditions. Photo by Ari Soto Asori Soto is a Cuban filmmaker who 10 years after having lived as an émigré in New York decided to undertake this return trip to his Cuba, camera in hand, to bear testimony of the less known zones of Cuban cuisine through nine chapters: stories of Cubans who maintain, in the...

We open today with Rayo Limpio and the third encounter in Chinatown. It will offer an authentic platform to have fun, connect and transform ourselves a little. Embassy Rebirth/Tercer Paraiso Cuba and the Cultural Center Arte Continua, invited a group of responsible institutions, projects and entrepreneurs to activate this space in Rayo St. Stop by and bring your crew! Another recommendation in Visual Arts is expo Apuestas by Ihos Plasencia, but there’s more. In Music we have everything, starting with Silvio Rodriguez tour over neighborhoods. Also Rolando Luna will be presenting his CD, and Athanai, Cimafunk and Kamankola will have concerts. In Havana and Miami electronic music and many parties. Besides, Comedy show in Karl Marx, and Dance with the National Prize 2018 award gala. Search and find like every week. There’s something for everybody. See you around!   #ZonaRayoActiva, again Third encounter in Rayo St, Chinatown, today, 5 pm. Its organizers and collaborators creates actions and ludic activities to bring families together, generate synergies among responsible initiatives and promote topics about sustainable development. Embassy Rebirth/Tercer Paraiso Cuba and the Cultural Center Arte Continua, invited a group of responsible institutions, projects and entrepreneurs to activate this space in Rayo St.,...

A feature article, “El papel lo aguanta todo” (Paper Puts Up with Everything), which appeared in the newspaper Invasor about the state-run enterprises of one of Cuba’s provinces with high profits, has, as always, a great many and varied readings. The first of these readings has to do with our daily planning, that same one that has already been accompanying us for several decades, which somehow has become a stone we stumble over more than once and that also has the virtue of having been able to make us like stumbling over it. It is true, 56 years ago we baptized with that name one of the years of the Cuban Revolution: 1962. Already before then, in 1960, the JECEPLAN had been created to respond to a certain extent to the influence of the ideas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), but also, and fundamentally, as a reply to the need forommecom an economy that has to be rethought from its own roots. JUCEPLAN’s mission was as follows: “to guide, supervise and coordinate the economic policy of the different State agencies and the autonomous entities so that there would exist a unified criterion and action...