In Cuba, day by day it is possible to perceive how formerly empty spaces on the streets and doorways have been swamped with neon signs announcing boutiques, print services, cell “clinics”, and so many small businesses that were considered illegal economic activities just three years ago. We are witnessing how new behaviors are emerging from the basis of society as the State’s functions are being decentralized in order to revive this sector of economy, small and medium businesses. Not going through the legislation prior to the triumph of the Revolution in 1959 (the Constitutions of 1901 and 1940), which constitutionally outlined prerogatives granted to the private sector in the country as the predominant economic source, the first trace of small businesses in Cuba can be found in the introduction of the Nationalization Law 980 of October 13th, 1960, where it the revolutionary reality established in Cuba with the existence of capitalism was declared incompatible and just left margin for medium and small enterprises. The nationalization process did not imply the immediate or total liquidation of the small and medium capitalist sector; their presence was necessary and feasible. Yet, during early 1968, with the Revolutionary Offensive approximately 58 000 businesses by...

 Before the curious eyes of the inhabitants of this city, a new construction called: the unusual house begins to take shape, where visitors could see extravagant phenomena that defy the laws of gravity. The strange way in which the building stands announces some of the oddities its five inner chambers will have, including the tilted pool table, water rising by its own weight, the wave that never falls, pendulums resting inclined and a seat from which the visitor can not get up without help. The project does not use the latest technology but is based on nifty application of physical experiments to create optical illusions and others, Domingo Alás, architect in charge of designing the building, said. To shape the unusual property, Alás consulted several experts of the territory and Cuba and left open the possibility to include other artifacts and scientific tests that might suggest visitors and even students from Luis Urquiza pre-college, near the place. The project includes a space for presentations of companies and performers of magic, a manifestation of the performing arts which, in November each year, Las Tunas province summons its most important event in the country, the Amphora Festival. Nothing that happens in the...

The Literature Nobel Prize-winning, Gabriel García Márquez, will be honored at a cultural activity that will take place on November 14 and 15 in Havana's Casa de las Americas, Gustavo Adolfo Bell, ambassador of Colombia in Cuba, said. This new tribute is due to all that the Caribbean, and especially Cuba, has meant in the life and work of Gabo, "who taught Colombians to rediscover ourselves in a more Caribbean dimension," he stated. Bell announced that the attendees could enjoy a series of panels that collect passages which demonstrate the presence of the region in García Márquez´s universe, while it will also be exhibitedillustrations of his literary work as part of a contest involving some 300 artists. We will also make a workshop on his work, which will be attended by the renowned Colombian intellectual Conrado Zuluaga, one of the greatest experts on GarcíaMárquez, and will project all the documentaries that have been made on Gabo, he added. He also noted that the actress Laura Garcia, the first that brought to theather ¨Diatriba de amor contra un hombre sentado,¨ the only theater text written by the author of Love in the Time of Cholera, will make a dramatic reading during the event. It will be a tribute in the Casa de las Americas that will be covered with yellow butterflies that presaged the arrival of Mauricio Babilonia, in which has become his masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude.

It seems fiction but it is true. Havana, that city that is falling to pieces, that is full of wastes and ancient bumps, that stands out restoration and conservation in its Historic Center and constructions subsidized or carried out by the “efforts” of its inhabitants trying to avoid the passing of time and reinventing modern urban architecture, qualified among 28 finalist cities in the virtual contest to compete for a place among “the 7 world wonders”. By 1982, UNESCO had already included Havana’s System of Colonial Fortresses and Old Havana in the list of Cultural Heritage, a well-deserved recognition to the constructions and history that enriches our patrimony. Nonetheless, Havana is a city with no much more than two million inhabitants and a long history of five centuries that turned this rich mixture of Spanish, French, English, and American architectures that used to have in a hybrid of bad taste and scarcity, along with bad management (or lack of control) by notorious entities like the “Housing” and Physical Planning offices. Let´s say that in our real and wonderful city aesthetics has for a long time ceased to be an important issue and we have bet on the most irresistible combinations of colors,...

The distances between Moscow and Varadero will be shortened through the start of the TTOO Pegas Turistik flight, belonging to Orenair airline, starting this October 25th at "Juan Gualberto Gómez"International Airport, executives of the Ministry of Tourism ( MINTUR by its Spanish acronym) in the province of Matanzas said. This flight will remain for the winter season or tourism increase in the country, every fortnight. It will boost Russian tourism increase in the resort, which is together to Havana, the places of major interest to exploit the tourism industry on the island. A Boeing 777 of 364 seats will make the maiden flight, in which is expected to come 30 travel agents who are part of a group of familiarity, in order to know in detail the Cuban tourist product to supportCuba destination marketing in Russia. Its operation is ruled by Cubanacan Travel Agency , which ratifies itself as recipient leader in Cuba of Russian market by the substantial increase in assisted clients during the period between January and September 2013. Pegas Turistik tour operator will manage the travels to be carried out between Russia and Cuba. Russian airline Orenair, also known as Orenburg Airlines, was founded in 1992. Its main base is in the Orenburg Tsentralny Airport, located in that Eurasian country. Since its founding, it performsdomestic flights in the Russian Federation and charter tours. Velio Barrero, commercial director of Cubanacan Travel Agency in Varadero, said that the Russian market remains as one of the main tourist emitter to Cuba and especially to Varadero. MINTUR official data suggest that in 2012 more than 86 000 Russian passengers arrived in Cuba, an annual record figure of tourists from that country. However, expectations promise, because Cubahopes to receive 200 000 Russian tourists in 2016, so that strategic work lines are being already planned.

The Council of Ministers of Cuba put into effect on schedule to unify the two currencies and two rates. An official note published by Granma newspaper explains that the issue of the elimination of the dual currency was discussed at the monthly meeting of the government of the island, on Saturday, October 19, 2013. The measures should lead to "restore the value of the Cuban peso and functions as money, i.e. as unit, means of payment and of value.” The schedule dates or periods of unification have not been published. There is no announcement of a change in exchange rates either. The first step is “the development of proposed legal rules, the design of the changes in the computer systems responsible for the accounting records and adjustments in accounting standards" This phase of the process will include “training also people who should undertake the execution of the various transformations. " Changes will occur initially in the area of legal persons (business) , "in order to create the conditions for increased efficiency, better measurement of economic events and encouraging the sectors that produce goods and services for export and import substitution ." It seems that bank account holders should not fear...

For decades, agricultural production chain has suffered from the wear of their distribution and marketing chains. The state collection system does not have all the sympathy of the farmers, who suffer excessive centralization and bureaucracy of this intermediary, which many will blame of the unilateral pricing, delinquencies in payment and collection, handling and transportation of the product inefficiencies that sometimes leads to the regrettable waste of food. Professor Armando Nova discusses in his article the production and marketing chain in the agricultural sector in Cuba, recurrent changes in these areas before and during the revolutionary process, which has led to periods of estrangement between the farmer and the market. A critical point in these relationships was experienced in late 2008. The state regulated the agricultural supply and imposed fixed prices to achieve a more or less equitable distribution of food following the ravages of three hurricanes. The move caused a shutdown of the productive forces, which at this point of the road is trying to reverse. This requires a dynamic management of the production process. In the guidelines we can read the need to draw guidelines for the collection system transformation and agricultural marketing through flexible mechanisms that simplify the...

Since 2011, Cuba is betting on an economic revitalization as a lifeline against global complexity. A financial thinking has come to meet the social determinism of yesteryear, to the injunctions and laws of the times. The government has labeled its experiment with the headband “updating the economic model” and the countryside is one of the main objects of these rescue formulas. French journalist and political scientist, Salim Lamrani has demonstrated the essence socialist deeply involved in this set of guidelines and identifies a number of obstacles in its realization: in the external order points to the U.S. blockade, and the internal order, to some system cleavages, such as bureaucracy and corruption. It might be added, also, a final hurdle in this long distance race: the impossibility of achieving food self-sufficiency. “If reform fails in agriculture, the whole reform fails," researcher Pavel Vidal, from the Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy, told Catholic magazine Espacio Laical. Paradoxically, Cuba imports wheat, corn, soybean meal and oil, rice, grains, meats and milk powder. The countryside has become a governance equation, in a matrix system. No wonder Cuban President Raul Castro has raised it to the “national security issue " category. As...

The low food productivity is one of the most critical problems that the current government of President Raul Castro inherits. Three years after the first rescue measures, the Cuban countryside remains paralyzed without much hope. In a Caribbean archipelago without much industrial fuss, agriculture should work towards self-sufficiency. But, paradoxically, a country of 11 million 167 thousand inhabitants, imports 80 percent of what is consumed. So what comes to the table if the everyday Cuban ? Under what conditions our food industry survives? By 2013, the Minister of Economy and Planning , Adel Yzquierdo , announced to Parliament an estimate of expenditure of nearly two billion dollars in the purchase of food , figure " significantly higher than the previous year " , in which they planned a purchase of about 1.7 billion dollars. For his part, Ag Minister, Gustavo Rodriguez Rollero notified the country’s top legislature of an increase of two percent in 2012, reporting that, according to the National Bureau of Statistics and Information, includes heavy casualties in the cultivation of potatoes and cassava, a rotten tomato harvest resulted in plans of vegetables to be lower than expected, and deficiencies in the crops of rice, corn, beans, tobacco,...

Since his alliance with Pitbull in Rain over Me Marc Anthony was not so frequently heard on the radio. That ephemeral nature of popular music, which comes and goes, he has returned to stick with another song that was number-one for 10 consecutive weeks in the top spot on the Hot Latin Songs of the Billboard magazine. His album 3.0 has made Cubans captive, devoted to foreign cultural industry. Perhaps that was also because in his usual sound, the idol of the Bronx included an estimable version of Flor Palida of late Cuban star Polo Montanez. Regarding Vivir mi vida, never was more on time the presentation of Puerto Rican criticism - based in the U.S., Frances Aparicio , in the II International Colloquium Latino Studies in the northern country , a treat of knowledge hosted by the Casa de las Americas. Professor at Northwestern University, she is the author of the first major scholarly book in English which put salsa in the spotlight. Since then she has become a reference when speaking of this rhythm. Aparicio did not hesitate to share with Oncuba her readings on this hymn of celebration, which gives the romantic salsa a role beyond mere...

The Jose Marti International Airport’s terminal number two, in Havana, will temporarily welcome four European airlines, while modernization construction work are carried out in terminal three. The decision was taken in order to better assimilate into the upcoming peak tourist season in Cuba. Reason for which it was decided to relocate the companies AirEuropa, Italy’s Air Italy and Neos, and Germany’s Condor, which will allow continuing the capital repair of the terminal where they operated normally. In statements to CAN, Juan Carlos Quintana Gorina, general manager of Jose Marti International Airport, said that since last September 10, the airline Interjet from Mexico and Lan Peru, from that nation, also operate at terminal number two, while from September 16, the group Avianca Taca carries out its work in the number five. On the actions of remodeling in Terminal number three, the manager said in recent days to Cuban media that to date the plan is on schedule and they are making advances in the assembly of new mats and check-in desks. The extension of the portal for accompanying public stay, which access is not allowed inside the building due to the repairing works, is also being completed, the airport's general manager...

In the midst of the changes taking place in the Cuban economic model one of the most anticipated and controversial issue is linked to the treatment of foreign investment. With previous experience really questionable on policies and results, the necessary changes to the process must be really important if Cuba wants to achieve effects and positive contributions to national development. Internationally, foreign direct investment is the basic way to capture international funding since the late eighties of the last century, after the crisis caused by the breakdown of the process of debt in the year 82 . Thereafter this instrument, its methods of raising and consequences has been the subject of many debates and changes in the legal and institutional environment of different countries aspiring to become more attractive receptors . The process of attracting foreign investment and its integration into national development plans is complex and requires a multi-factor and systemic analysis, which makes it one of the most important challenges in economic policy for the designers and public policy makers. Investment flows are considered the most viable option to access fresh capital, technology, export markets and other generators of an important set of potential positive synergies linked to...

In terms of international tourism, Cuba is here to stay. If in 1990 the island was ranked 23 as a tourist destination throughout the hemisphere, by the end of that decade stood in eighth place. This impressive development determined, as noted by the M.Sc. Ivis Gutierrez and Dr. Orlando Gutierrez in their work “marketing strategy of tourism products for the market segment of Cubans living abroad”, that Cuba was considered the "star of the Caribbean" in the 90s. Responding to priorities of the Ministry of Tourism, among which is the development of other modalities in Cuba destination in order to show it as a product that goes beyond the traditional sun and beach, the key to the Gulf, as has been announced, released in November its first hotel that specializes in music: The Blue Salsa Club, with the help of the Spanish hotel chain "Blue Bay" and with the support of the Paradiso Agency for Cultural Tourism. This new hotel project, designed by Santiago Alfonso, National Dance Award, reinvents the BelleVue Palma Real to promote genres, variants and Cuban musical styles through their decor, atmosphere, lighting, music, food, cocktails, clothing of employees, specialized animation, etc... The BelleVue Hotels offer the...

The one-to-last functions of the V Leo Brouwer Festival of Chamber Music, paid tribute to the popular Cuban singer Benny Moré, to mark the 50th anniversary of his death. During the concert, which took place at the Sala Avellaneda National Theatre, some of the most infectious melodies of "King of Rhythm"were sung. Songs like Que bueno baila usted, Dolor y perdón, Hoy como ayer, Devuélveme el coco, Que me hace daño y Se te cayó el tabaco, were heard, from versions by the group Vocal Sampling and the outstanding musician X Alfonso . For the main course, the program of the meeting was also attended by renowned Venezuelan group Ensamble Gurrufío, which performed with masterly virtuosity, diverse musical styles like Venezuelan merengue and Joropo.  Photos: Roberto Ruiz Ensemble Garrufío      

¨Progreso Semanal¨ recently published an interview with Dr. Beatriz Marcheco Teruel, a specialist in Clinical Genetics of the National Center of Medical Genetics following her research: Genetic identity of Cuban population, which offers details of who Cubans are in biological terms. It is an interesting look that we wanted to share with the readers of OnCuba. What were the expectations of the research on the genetic identity of Cuban people?Since the late 90s of last century, genetics researchers developed a new method to locate genes associated with the origin of diseases, this method was called " miscegenation mapping". This type of study is particularly applied to populations that have been originated from the mixture of different ethnic groups in the recent past (no more than about 15 generations ago). Our geographic region provides an ideal setting to study miscegenation present in the DNA, as it has a population in which the mixture of different human groups - Native Americans, Europeans, Asians and Africans-took place in the relatively recent past. This makes possible its present generation to have regions in the genome where genetic information is conserved in a way that the percentage of genes belonging to the group or ethnic...

Cuba is back in the news in the world of tourism. The largest island of the Antilles was declared by the online travel agency Loveholidays as the first tourist destination in the Caribbean, to be the site with the largest number of reservations to vacations in 2014. The British company revealed that Cuba accounts for 70 % of total bookings made bound to the region for the next year, which is evident inclination tourism in the country to enjoy the Cuban facilities. According to Jonny Marsh, executive at Loveholidays, the British preference for Cuba is based on the excellent value offered by Cuba tourism products and services, mainly in the form of All Inclusive. This type of payment package has taken Cuba in the central flow of tourism in the area, because its offer in Five Star facilities makes easier the stay of the vacationers, thus avoiding uncomfortable cash payment in hotels, and lowering costs trip. The British agency ensures that the inclusion of All Inclusive packages within reservations has been the key to place Cuba on top of the travel market in Britain. In the same study, made by Love holidays for the tourist market of the European Union,...

A new album from the renowned Anacaona group will be released next month in Havana. According to statements by its lead singer Eilen Ordaz , the disc is a compilation of hits from the group to which they added new themes . We are very happy with this production we did with the Colibri label, she told OnCuba . It includes voices like Xiomara Laugart , Maico D' Alma , Argelia Fragoso ... among others, and the songs that we retook have arrangements commensurate with the new sound of the group. We always try to stay in the public tast , to renew and continue to set the pace , she added . On his personal projects the singer explained that soon she will begin her solo career, working alongside the Anacaona. Si te vas, authored by Dayron Rodriguez, guitarist of Buena Fe will be the first song of the artist without the company of her colleagues. Regarding Si te vas is currently on the radio throughout and soon the television program Lucas released its video clip, directed by Edgar Basulto. It's a beautiful ballad, she said, I hope it enjoys the public preference.

Again maestro Leo Brouwer’s music played in flamenco style conquered Havana audiences in a new presentation of the concert led by Cuban guitarist Joshua Tacoronte, apropos of V Leo Brouwer Festival of Chamber Music. Dedicated this year to honor the centennial of the National Museum of Fine Arts, Tacoronte was accompanied this time by Arnulfo War on bass, Ruy Adrián López-Nussa, percussion, Niurka Gonzalez, flute; Silfredo Perez, guitar and Eduardo Bethencourt , sing and drum; dancers Thais Doimeadiós and Irene Rodriguez, the last director of the homonymous dancing company. Among the pieces performed were Elogio de la Danza, Nuevos estudios sencillos, Un día de noviembre, Música incidental campesina, Drume Negrita and Metáfora del amor. Brouwer Flamenco, flamenco version of the works by this universal Cuban composer was fully heard in Cuba before, in the month of May, when the phonogram by that name was awarded in the last edition of Cubadisco 2013.

OnCuba team met Wednesday with a group of Cuban and foreign entrepreneurs in the Bar Restaurant Espacios (Spaces). The meeting was chaired by Hugo Cancio Morúa, founder and editor in chief and ArtOnCuba and OnCuba Magazine, and Tahimi Arboleya Delgado, editorial director of the project and permanent correspondent in Cuba, who explained the achievements of the company since its founding in March 2012. Also professors from the School of Communication at the University of Havana: Yadir González Hernández and Beatriz Pérez Alonso participated and gave talks on comprehensive advertisement communication models. During the meeting they presented the newest OnCuba project in the works: transmedia series Havana All Nigth . Designed in eleven episodes, each 4-5 minutes long, Havana All Nigth intends to answer questions every traveler has when he gets to an unknown place: where to eat, drink, dance, listen to music, socialize or appreciate art. Karla Maria Venereo , general producer of the project, and Luis Alejandro Yero , director, explained that the video transmedia series occupy the core of the product, which will be enriched with the use of collaborative mapping , feedback with users through social networks and encouragement of interactions between communities that will be addressed...

As part of the celebration of its 100th anniversary, the National Fine Arts Museum pays tribute to Mario Carreño (Havana, 1913 - Santiago de Chile, 1999), another centenarian who - by luck or chance – was born in the same year the institution in which opened. The exhibition Donde empieza la luz, organized by Roberto Cobas opened on October 4 at the Cuban Art Building and is preceded by another which in 1993 was organized to mark the 80th anniversary of the painter, who was living in Chile since 1957. Belonging to the so-called Second Vanguard Generation that started in the 40s, Carreño , along with Amelia Pelaez , Cundo Bermúdez , Mariano Rodríguez , René Portocarrero and Wifredo Lam, he got inserted with his works in what could be defined as the project of Latin American modernity : the search for identity among the technical and stylistic developments in Europe and the finding of the customs, local themes and characters . The work of each of the creators mentioned could exemplify this emancipation project that not only toured the manifestations of culture, but is rooted in the deepest sensitivity of time - assuming that there is something so like...

How to speak about Havana’s seawall without it? We should ask Juanito Delgado, curator of Behind the Wall, exhibition opened in late September in the galleries of Donald Rubin Foundation. The fact is that the curator of this sample, which was exhibited as ¨Detras del muro¨, in the 11th Biennial of Havana, has taken the new Cuban art to the universal contemporary art house: New York, nothing more and nothing less than the city of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) or the Guggenheim NY. And apparently it has had quite success, when the media has echoed the presence of Cuban artists such as Fabelo (father and son), Aimee Garcia, Alejandro Gonzalez , Alexandre Arrechea , Arles del Rio and Carlos Martiel Delgado. Also the young Carlos Montes de Oca and Donis Dayan, Elizabeth Cervino, Esterio Segura, Florencio Gelabert, Humberto Diaz, Inti Hernandez, Jorge Wellesley, Mary Magdaena Campos Pons, Marianela Orozco, Rafael Domenech and Reinier Leyva. Behind the wall, colossal intervention of Havana’s seawall in 2012, and major hit of last year Biennial, has now reached the vicinity of Manhattan and Central Park with 22 of the 25 original artists, whom with sculptures, interventions , installations and performances try to...

El Museo del Ron Havana Club hosts from September 13 until November 9 an exhibition by visual artist Reynier Leyva Novo : The duty to be free. The developer proposes a rereading of the island's history and figures from the nineteenth century momentous events of our country. The exhibition presents three pieces that highlight materials such as polyester resin, velvet, wood, and the development of digital printing technique on cardboard. Some of them are made up of replicas of revolvers and machetes used by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes , José Martí , Máximo Gómez , Antonio Maceo and José Quintino Bandera Betancourt, heroes of Cuban independence wars of 1868 and 1895, and photography and puzzles that reconstruct historical sites linked to the struggles for emancipation , as the Battle of Mal Tiempo and the combat in Dos Rios. Novo (Havana, 1983) attended the Academy of Fine Arts San Alejandro. His tenure in the Department of Art Practice, directed by Tania Bruguera, was a significant step in its growth as a creator. Also knowledge acquired during his unfinished stay at the Higher Institute of Arts motivated him seeking new conceptual experiences. The piece The desire to die for others (2012) is...

Elpidio Valdés returns. Forty-three years after its creation and after making laugh several generations of Cubans, the most famous of the characters born from the imagination of artist Juan Padrón will also have its own video game. The news, announced by national media, explains that the project of bringing the character to this new platform is possible through the joint efforts of several institutions, among which the Cuban Film Institute and the Computing and Electronics Youth Club. The Cuban mambí after being a resounding success as a comic and cartoon will try soon making its way in the new digital platform. A complex challenge to the great competition he will face in the world of programming, and in which Cuba has an obvious delay with respect to the canons of video game production and marketing. This phenomenon of exporting comics and cartoons to video game platforms is widespread throughout the world, and that Cuba has a history known in the application dedicated to Capitan Plin, another Cuban child drawing character. However, this precedent was not more widely consumed by children, who are permeated by the aesthetics and approaches of similar products from abroad. Under such circumstances, the new product, to...

The V Leo Brouwer Festival of Chamber Music reaches its last days. It will be on Sunday at the conclusion of the event that each year facilitates the meeting between the Cuban public and nationally and internationally recognized musicians and artists OnCuba invites its readers to know several of the protagonists of the current edition, as well as their impressions of the Festival and its host Leo Brouwer. Enrike Solinis: For me it's an honor to play a piece by Leo Brouwer Travelling the distance between the Basque Country and Cuba, was nothing to Enrike Solinis compared to the possibility of reuniting with Leo Brouwer and play a piece with his baroque guitar. Solinis, considered one of the greatest virtuosos of his generation, will give away the Cuban public performances along with Il Delirio Fantastic from France and the Cuban Conjunto de Música Antigua Ars Longa. "Particularly , for me it means a lot that Leo invited me, because it closes a cycle - for me and for many of the professionals who are dedicated to ancient music - how is opening a new image for a new guitarist. It is a guitarist who breaks the closed circle of the...

Not 24 hours had passed since they returned to Cuba from their tour of Venezuela , promoting their latest album Dial- and you could hear the music of Buena Fe in this small island to singing as hard as if each time was the first . For about two hours the audience heard at the Havana El Sauce Cultural Center the harmony of these authors, crossing their older records ( as Corazonero , Spyglass , Pi 3.14 ... ) to the most recent songs through which they paid tribute to the Cuban radio made by the Egrem label (Dial) . We had very little time to prepare for the concert, the leader Israel Rojas said. But we have many songs, and then we will do one well, with many songs for us to sing together. It is striking how Buena Fe carries its popularity. Removing the new songs they remain the same Guantanamo boy of their first album Dejame Entrar, they continue singing to their country with a sense of belonging that leads to constructive criticism, to the provocative and intelligent dialogue. They opened the concert with a figure whose relationship with the duo is almost inevitable: the singer Frank...