“The beginning was a bit difficult but everything is ok now. We went through a lot of work to prepare the soil for the plantations and harvest… At some point we had a shortage of seeds and organic material but that has been solved already. Now we are a profitable unit”, says Antonio Ocaña, land owner of the new Pedregal. I recall once I was showing around some places to a group of Chinese students they told me: “Why is there so much idle land when you can get profits from them?” I came up with a clever strategic explanation; but the truth is that I totally agreed with them. By rightly exploiting the land we have we could substitute imports and that’s not just the work of large agricultural companies, but it is also the work of small farmers. The Pedregal, in a neighborhood called Camilo Cienfuegos in the municipality of Habana del Este, is a clear example of that. It began as a Basic Unit of Cooperative Production (UBPC by its acronym in Spanish) and went through several stages before becoming a private alternative: “It used to be a state-owned unit, and the country implemented a strategy… As it...

The relations among American countries are present in different spheres, but culture has been a space of exceptional confluence. In Cuba several cultural centers favor these links and one of the most important places is Casa de las Americas where different cultural figures coincide. As a result of the management of its specialists and the will to cooperate of many artists, this center owns a wide collection of visual arts representative of the Latin American countries. Arts and culture from Chile has lead several events held at Casa de las Americas and it is very well represented in the collection Arte de NuestraAméricaHaydeeSantamaría. For that reason, Mr. Rolando Drago Rodriguez –Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Chile to Cuba—requested collaboration from this institution for coordinating an exhibit on Chilean arts in Cuba, with the participation of curators Wendy Amigó, Susana Mohammad and RomyMartínez, specialists from the Department of Plastic Arts. For the exhibit they chose two cultural centers, whose collections gather renowned Chilean pieces that stand out for the quality of its authors and works, that is, the National Museum of Fine Arts and Casa de las Americas itself. For the exhibit Chilean Arts in Cuban Collections.National Museum of Fine Arts...

Spinet player Kathleen McIntosh comments OnCuba about her participation at the 10th Esteban Salas Early Music Festival. Her music takes us back to the European baroque period and at the same time it brings us back again with an exquisite performance. Her smile shows a happy woman; her hair reveals a woman of old age. And Havana is pleased to welcome back North American spinet player Kathleen McIntosh. She, who has become a regular guest for the Esteban Salas Early Music Festival, arrived for the 10th edition of this event to offer workshops and concerts on instrumental music of the European courts from the 17th and 18th centuries, as usual. Perhaps her presence at this event has to do with her opinion of the festival: “Through the years the festival has increasingly improved and today it stands in a high position internationally, it is winning spaces in the world… I am always surprised to see how much it has progressed.” “Old music has developed in Latin America and particularly in Cuba. At present, there are seeds spread everywhere, there are lots of groups not just in Havana but also in Bayamo and Santa Clara. In Europe there are musicians playing...

It was around 11 p.m. We had been walking for more than five hours through that city of cobblestone streets; I had lost—literally—the sole of one of my shoes, and Yoha and Natasha, my two expedition buddies, were dreaming out loud of a nice basin of warm water to soak their feet. Alain, our photography director and the only man along on this adventure, was carrying all of his equipment, which weighs some 24 pounds, as he well knows. For a shorter way home—you can call it that in just a few hours—we decided to be innovative, and wandered down a number of dimly-lit little streets. Alain was the only one who protested: the street was dark, something might happen to us, we should take the main road, he’d heard some stories…. A roar of laughter broke the silence. We screamed and jumped, and after a few seconds we were able to identify the source of that surprise. The sound had come out of a classic Trinidad window where an elderly woman, having fun at our expense, informed us: “Listen, you Havana people, you can walk along fearlessly without looking over your shoulder. This is the most peaceful city in...

Traveling to Trinidad, the third city founded by Spanish colonists in Cuba, is a trip through Cuban history and the country’s present-day reality. The first thing you sense is a city that is prospering. Its inhabitants are constantly involved in something productive.  The city’s enchantment has facilitated the development of its tourist industry, and private initiative is in the lead: taxis, horseback rides, accommodations, diving, restaurants…. The city is being restored and construction is underway everywhere. Every corner is used to the maximum and terraza fever has invaded the new architecture. There are many customers and many more options.  Carlos Hugo Mata Pichs Piro Guinart (Boca) no. 367 e/ Juan Manuel Márquezy Fernando Hernández Echarri, Trinidad / Tel: +5341994380; +5352955952; email: carlosmata53@hero.cult.cu The Painter of the Night is the nickname that has been given to this visual artist, who graduated from the National School of Visual Arts in 1974. He is a recent winner of the Extraordinary Arts Prize, during the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Trinidad. His paintings capture the magic of his surroundings; when you approach them, you can smell the early morning and the aroma of coffee, and hear the crickets chirping. Knock on his door...

When referring the elite of Cuba’s athletes, a space should be reserved for Yarisley Silva, who through hard work and sacrifice has leapt to the top of the world’s best pole vaulters, in a sport that has never been very popular or developed on the island. Her athletic career began at a very early age, in mixed track-and-field events, where Yarisley stood out for her speed. At the age of 13, she began practicing the pole vault under the experienced eye of coach Nilo in her hometown of Pinar del Río, and won a gold medal and then a silver in two separate national school competitions. In 2002, at the age of 15, she was picked for the national track-and-field team’s pre-selection, coached by Ángel García and Alexander Navas, the latter of whom is her current coach. In 2013, and now 26 years old, Yarisley achieved three of the best vaults of the season (4.90, 4.85, and 4.82 meters). No other pole vaulter surpassed the 4.7-meter barrier on 15 occasions; much less go over 4.8 meters seven times or set six national records and several other Central American and Caribbean records. Her marks placed her among the three best women...

Before its narrow cobblestone streets opened unabashedly to the world, even before the first lost strangers began to arrive, shouldering their rucksacks, the city of Trinidad was like an island within an island; its only channels of communication were by sea. Until public railway services were belatedly established in 1919 and roads were built to connect the city to Cienfuegos and Sancti Spíritus in the 1950s, Trinidad, the third Spanish colonial city built in Cuba, sleepily remained in the golden age of sugar. With its 19th century features practically unaltered, the region has held a mystical fascination for decades. As folklorist Lydia Cabrera (1900-1991) used to say, beyond any archeological interest in its buildings, this was due more to “the persistence of the past, which lives on there in an intensely human way, not just in a single neighborhood, but meandering throughout its beautifully-named streets—Half Moon, White Lily, Disappointment—where autos seem ridiculous; not just in its peaceful little squares, but throughout the city, which speaks an old-fashioned language, and moves only to the rhythm of yesteryear. In Trinidad, the dead always have the floor.” And that poetic memory has been held onto by successive generations of trinitarios, as the people...

After being released in the early hours of Thursday, Fernando González arrived in Cuba at noon today. He was received at the José Martí airport by President Raul Castro, his mother and his wife Magalis Llort and Rosa Aurora Fraijanes, respectively, among other relatives. Also present was René González, the first of The Five that was released, who, contrary to Fernando, was not allowed to return to the island immediately. In his first statement to the press, González, who was granted the status of Hero of the Republic of Cuba, said, "happiness is great but lacks a bit because my brothers Gerardo, Ramon and Tony aren’t here yet, when they pass through this time and we all meet, then happiness will be complete.” To his comrades, still serving time, went the first message of thanks from Fernando: " They do not know how hard and how much energy we got to see the attitude with which they faced these facts, and after learning how they faced it individually in prison " . At the same time he took the opportunity to apologize to all those who sent cards and messages of support during his imprisonment , mainly children and young...

“The great pinch of the guitar of Paco de Lucía fell silent. The flamenco performer has died in Mexico at age 66 , according to sources of his entourage and the City of Algeciras (Cádiz ) , his hometown and whose port profile will be forever associated with his inimitable sound with the six strings . De Lucia was playing with his grandchildren on a beach in Tulum, where he owned a house, when suddenly felt unwell, according to a close friend of the musician, Victorian Mera . The artist died of a heart attack on the way to the hospital, “El País newspaper this reported morning. Paco lived for years in Palma de Mallorca, after passing through places like the Yucatan or Toledo, where he was seldom seen with an irresistible mix of bonhomie and imprisonment. Those who knew him in Mallorca remember him with a certain allergy to the guitar, which he stopped playing for a while, wanting to share time with ordinary people, out of the artistic and intellectual coteries and dedicated to his two young children. After 26 years without visiting Cuba, Paco de Lucia had come last October to Havana as a guest at the...

By: Pavel Vidal The Cuban economy saw 2.7 percent growth in 2013, a figure that confirmed a tendency towards stagnation that has continued since 2009. Despite the reform process now underway, this tendency has remained. From 2008—the year that Raúl Castro became president and the first changes to agriculture began to be made—to today, average annual GDP growth has been precisely 2.7 percent. From 2011—the year that the so-called Guidelines (Lineamientos) began to be implemented—to 2013, annual average GDP growth has been 2.8 percent. These figures have been far lower than the government’s goal for average growth through 2016, which was initially set at 5.1 percent and then adjusted to 4.4 percent. For 2014, the government is anticipating worse stagnation, principally because of the unfavorable situation with international export prices. The official forecast is that the GDP will grow by just 2.2 percent. It would be second worst year for the economy since the reform began, surpassed only by the year 2009, when the economy grew by just 1.4 percent. Several years of economic transformations have gone by, and in just two years it will be 2016. At this point, and given the speed of these changes, it is possible...

We should talk of the time that we don’t see pass. Patrick Chamoiseau , “Texaco” Wendy tells me, when I 'm already leaving , to please ask Darsi Fernández her words with which minutes before she had presented her latest novel , “Posar desnuda en la Habana. Diario Apócrifo de Anaïs Nin” (posing naked in Havana, apocryphal diary of Anais Nin)(Letras Cubanas, 2014 ) to put them in my work. I know she tries to circumvent the performative quality ... the transience of words that are difficult to know if they were not recorded. I know she wants the text I publish to be a revolutionary discourse that perpetuates the original sense of the term. Wendy Guerra is interested in Darsi Fernández speech that does not speak of her many awards nor sells her new novel for possible structural or aesthetic values. Neither anticipates feminist criticism that place in a tradition of storytellers legitimized in the Western canon. Wendy wants a professed for years friendship to be made public. And to talk about her love for Cuba, her insurmountable will of being more than those who leave. Her obsession, her island, which keeps her most intimate memories, and which she...

ANTONIO "TONY" CASTRO is quick to point out that he is a man without a title. One of nine confirmed children of Fidel, the Cuban revolutionary and former president, he holds no official government office and treads lightly on the Castro name. A practicing orthopedic surgeon in Havana, Castro, 43, typically responds to political questions about his father by politely steering the conversation in a different direction -- usually to baseball. As a vice president of the International Baseball Federation, a position he has held since 2009, Castro has been a fierce and outspoken proponent of a distinctly antisocialist concept: Cuban players' right to play professionally, earning money both in Cuba and abroad. At home, he uses what clout he has to grease the wheels of a hard-line sports bureaucracy that oversees the Cuban national team, which is facing financial hardship, equipment shortages and a rising number of player defections. And there are signs that his voice is being heard. In the fall, the Council of Ministers, which is headed by Castro's uncle Raul, approved a new rule that allows Cuban baseball players to play in professional leagues outside Cuba and earn a salary. The move is widely seen as...

During the inaugural Press Conference of the XVI International Habano Festival, Jorge Luis Fernández Maikel, Commercial Vice President of Habanos SA, told reporters that the company grew 8% in 2013 over the previous year. With a sale of 447 million dollars last year, Habanos SA, "is a leader company in the Premium cigars (hand-made) in the world market," Javier Terres Ercilla, Vice President of Development of Habanos SA stated These results have been achieved despite the global economic crisis and that Cuba cannot enter the largest market in the world of Premium: United States, since the laws of the blockade on Cuba forbid it. Considered the best handmade cigars in the world, Habanos remains an authentic Cuban cultural product winning admirers all over the world. The vice presidents also revealed that economic growth of the company, which this year celebrates 20 years has been due to the good performance of traditional markets such as Germany , Switzerland and Canada and growth in emerging markets such as Asia Pacific, Middle East and Latin America. For Habanos SA its main markets are Spain, France, China, Germany, Switzerland, Cuba, Lebanon and the UAE, in that order. The XVI International Habano Festival takes place...

With a cultural reference anchored in the lands of North America and under some European influence on the ways of making, the Cuban project ¨Caminos de Palabras¨ comes to introduce us in an original way and with a Caribbean twist on the still little known world of Spoken Word or Spoken Poetry. Although this artistic expression emerged decades ago in the New York neighborhood of Harlem and has expanded across continents, it has failed to significantly enter in Cuba and show its potential. That is why this project, recently emerged from the initiative of Cuban poets, pursues joining forces to this type of poetry to permeate Cuban society today and may become a way to channel concerns, reflect mood and help, from art, to find solutions to various problems that surround us. With a style similar to rap, spoken poetry is executed by artists with a fine sense of aesthetics and has a very peculiar form of manifestation; it aims to reach the public of through an intense and original way, emphasizing the narrative, rather than the rhythms. The secret is on the successful execution of the word. Speaking to OnCuba, Elier Alvarez (The wizard), director of Caminos de Palabras,...

To introduce David Blanco there are more than enough elements : known is his passing through the Children's and Youth’s Symphony orchestras, by the group of singer Gerardo Alfonso , on the Moncada group ... Worthy of several prizes before and after creating his own band , it is difficult to catalog him exclusively . Trumpeter ? ? Singer? ? Keyboardist? ? Producer? ? Arranger? ? Composer? ? Cuban. I think you would feel more comfortable with that description, because "it is to be one of the facts I am proudest of." He advocates for diversity, stands for a culture of peace and the struggle for gender equality. To this end, he joined the Network of Artists UNite and developed a campaign for non-violence against women and girls, along Doctor Julio César González Pagés , coordinator of the African American Network and Masculinity ( RIAM ) . His efforts in this regard make him one of the favorites to get the recognition Men for Equality, which will be awarded soon in our country. Although many identify him by his voice and his peculiar projection on scenarios, the musician confessed to OnCuba that being a singer "was the last letter of...

In the midst of adverse economic conditions, both nationally and internationally, the dilemma of Cuban publishing industry is changing its nuances and begins to lean on finding self-financing solutions and profitability. In this process the concerns are competition in the world market, the developing new technologies that arguably do not confer immunity to literary works and the indisputable and latent internal factors. A diagnosis of the marketing possibilities of Cuban books made the young researcher Jacqueline Laguardia Martinez, in her doctoral thesis, to propose alternatives for the insertion of Cuba at fairs in Latin American countries, taking into account the characteristics of the area where we are and the current economic opening of the various actors in the field of culture. Selling to produce more and better quality requires an analysis of the risks and opportunities of the industry in its real conditions: At what point are the Cuban publishing houses ... The international context and change in public require a transformation: how is this process going? The satisfaction with the formulation of these questions is implied. What is indisputable is that positive change has begun. The approach the researcher offers us reaffirms: "The transformation can be seen especially in...

The Provincial INDER will file a claim on the measure taken against star pitcher Freddy Asiel Alvarez, who was involved in a brawl last week The Villa Clara provincial INDER, top sports authority in that central Cuban territory, in the person of Israel Perera , its director, will file a claim at the national INDER regarding the "exemplary " measure against its team’s leading pitcher Freddy Asiel Alvarez. According to the official note of the National Baseball Directorate the pitcher would be separated throughout the season due to his unsportsmanlike conduct on the night of February 17. Perera, speaking to Vanguardia newspaper, also noted that the athlete itself will appeal the decision of that Commission. For a lot of fans, the measure of the governing body of the baseball in Cuba against Asiel was exaggerated, while the aggressor Demis Valdes’s was found benevolent. It is also discussed, according to statements by the family of Ramon Lunar to the provincial media, whether or not they will start legal action against Valdes, given the severity of the beating the Villa Clara first baseman received at the hands of the above mentioned Matanzas player. On a televised game, starter Freddy Asiel Alvarez hit...

After more than a year out of the Cuban market Bavaria brewery returns to Cuba bringing with them a variety of proposals. The Dutch company, known primarily for its beer, is now in negotiations with major Cuban importers to include all its distribution lines in the country. According to its sales specialists Bavaria intends to exploit new market niches in Cuba with its other lines of production. The best-known global product is Bavaria Premium Pils lager. The brewery also makes a popular alcohol-free beer, Bavaria 0.0%, a star product for people who shouldn’t consume alcohol like pregnant or nursing women; malts are also available in apple, caramel, lemon and karkadé flavors. The main objective is to achieve a greater appeal in line with the growing needs of its customers, the challenges within the sector the competition has set and the level of information about the drinks their consumers have acquired. Regarding the proposals they bring they include the entire range of the company’s productions. Among them stand out the Bavaria Premium, and the 8.6 in different versions (Red , Gold , and Original ) and tin and bottles packaging, as well as its new malt flavors that should be closer...

This Friday, February 14th the exhibition Teatro grafico was inaugurated in the headquarters of the Tablas-Alarcos Publishing House, which contains some of the theater posters of the young designer Idania del Rio. The exhibition includes works posters of the plays Ayer dejé de matarme… and Perros que jamás ladraron, by playwright Rogelio Orizando; Los cubanos no le tenemos miedo al calentamiento global and I´m not old enough to love you by MCL and Medea sueña Corinto by Abelardo Estorino. The curator of Teatro grafico was Daymil Franco, with coordination by Dianelis Dieguez. Idania del Rio who was a professor at ISDI, she worked in Palermo Studio in Montevideo, and has won several awards including the CUBADISCO graphic-design and has also made the Célébrer Paris exhibitions in Paris, D'Disegno. Respuesta Cubana at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, and NORD-SUD, grafistas europeos y latinoamericanos, also in Havana. In addition, her work has toured countries such as Germany, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Chile and the United States. Parallel to the exhibition, Tablas-Alarcos Publishing House also hosts to the 2014 Havana International Book Fair, and during the following days they will present new titles like Otro Heredero. Elementos neobarrocos en los espectáculos...

The XXIII International Book Fair Cuba 2014 opens its doors today to Havana public, after being officially inagurated last night, in its traditional venue in the colonial fortress San Carlos de la Cabaña. The Fair, considered the most important cultural event held on the island, will gather representatives from 42 countries of Latin America and Europe. This time it proposes an editorial selection of over 2,000 titles with 4 million copies, and will host 153 exhibitors at La Cabaña. During the opening ceremony, the book “Ecuador: From the banana republic to the non-republic,” by Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador, Country Guest of Honor at this event, was presented. The president of the Cuban Book Institute (ICL) , Zuleika Romay said at the opening that this edition will allow Cubans to better know the literature, music and the performing and visual arts of the South American country. The Ecuadorian delegation is headed by Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño and is made up by personalities from politics, and by 47 writers, intellectuals and artists. Patiño forwarded President Correa’s apologies for not being able to come to Havana to present his book as he had announced two weeks ago when he participated in the...

The days go by ... but the bitter memory left by Villa Clara’s performance in the recent Caribbean Series still painfully persists in the minds of many baseball lovers. Undoubtedly, it was a tournament that served to show how distant Cuba is from the real world, the real baseball. However, among so many bruises and wailing, a man came to stand up for Cuba. A man who barely entered into the plans of the most knowledgeable experts, but he attended the event and when he had the opportunity, he shut up many mouths. C amagüey’s Vicyohandri Odelín, who now plays for Industriales, was the rabbit that Ramón Moré pulled out from his hat and he was the surprise of the tournament with an epic win over the Mayagüez Indios. Without showing the introverted and inaccessible character he usually has on the box, "Viyo" answered this time all questions without hesitation, leaving an air of satisfaction after each answer, as someone who has nothing to prove to anyone . In a previous interview you told me that the game of your life had been that one against Puerto Rico at the 1st WBC, does it still remains as your most memorable...

Among pigeons, fighting dogs and children living their reality, the new Cuban film “Conducta”, by filmmaker Ernesto Daranas evokes splendor and decadence of Havana traced by the margins, the Havana he lived in. Much have been said these days of the release, but few know that Carmela, the character actress Alina Rodriguez plays, is real. Carmela Martinez Echevarria , who was a long time ago, " the teacher" of Daranas 's eldest son , is the inspiration of Conducta. Now, in true classroom of the Angela Luanda school, in Old Havana , among books , desks and children looking at us puzzled , Carmela tells the joys and sorrows of a life , as the apostle said, dedicated to " make pious and useful men " . “I joined the teaching profession by a call of the Revolution in 1967. So I thought it would be a fad, and with the teaching practices, I changed my mind. When I graduated they placed me as director in a school in La Hata neighborhood in Guanabacoa municipality. It was difficult at first; they treated me like a child, because I was very skinny and young. But I won the love of the...

Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry Larkin, two former Big Leaguers of lofty path, arrived in Havana on Saturday February 8, in the afternoon, with the main objective to offer training clinics, specifically on batting, in some areas of the city, and donate some sports equipment. Upon arrival, both Griffey and Larkin agreed to answer a few brief questions to OnCuba on their stay on the island, the reasons that led them to visit, what they think of our baseball, what features they believe distinguish us, and what Cuban players in the MLB they remember more clearly. The visit will last until Thursday, but it should be noted that so far the Cuban sports authorities have not been interested in the help of two former players, and when they learned about the real possibilities of collaboration, they reacted at least with apathy. Barry Larkin, Hall of Famer since 2012, played his entire career with the Cincinnati Reds with which he won a World Series (1990), an award for Most Valuable Player (1995) and three Gold Gloves (1994-95-96), all as shortstop. In turn, Griffey Jr., one of the legendary outfielders in history, hit 630 career home runs, won seven times the Silver...