Tony Avila will present his CD Timbiriche next October 30 at 7 pm, at the ALBA Cultural House . "We chose this place because it is an open space, and more people can go , they will not have to pay a cover , and then the money they save on this they can spend it on the record." This Havana man told us, but for journalists like me born in Matanzas, is a pleasure and an honor that his first songs made their debut there. Timbiriche is a concept. What feeds, in terms of music, this album? This album follows in the footsteps of the phonogram En Tierra, based on the variety, the diversity of genres and themes of the songs. In this sense we can say that we did some market case, we cannot forget that in the end there is a destination. It's an album that like in my songs generally feeds on the daily experiences of Cubans. From concepts like existentialism, humanism, philosophical concepts, like life and death and the fact of being in society. It's a record with fifteen songs that travels somewhat by issues that deal most directly with me. It begins with Birth...

One climbs the stairs in front of the Sala Avellaneda with the sound of drums between the temples and turns in front of the Café Cantante and goes through the offices of the National Theatre to get to the lockers. Above them daily works a dance company. The sounds of the bata drum come from there, from the second floor. From the third come the classic notes of a piano drowning between the bars and the linoleum. They will not disturb the folklore emanating from sweaty bodies even if they wanted to. A black teacher teaches a very correct contraction and then opens his arms and moves them in waves, at the rhythm of the music, along with the shoulders and torso. The look, undaunted. The musicians sing Oya , but I think the black is a follower of ​​Yemaya . Or it could be Obbatalá . I never hit on those things. Other dancers imitate him, but the black has the rumba stuck in the bones and abandons and forsakes them until the music stops. A score of dumbfounded Californians attended the class. A few seconds of silence after the drums indicate that the class is over. And then...

Since The Mégano (1955) burst onto the scene of Cuban films, the contradiction between the incredible natural landscapes and the difficult life of the inhabitants of the Zapata Swamp, is presented as a discovery that seems to have no end. Cenagueros (swamp people), not farmers, the locals of the largest wetland in the Caribbean are once again the protagonists in the documentary short film Cocodrilo’s Men. Under the leadership of director Livan A. Magdaleno Cruzata, the swamp and its inhabitants put their demons in this material, which is applying to participate in the next edition of the Havana Festival of New Latin American Cinema and was the winner of the scholarship of creation, The kingdom of this world, of the Hermanos Saiz Association. On Cocodrilo’s Men Livan spoke with OnCuba How was the research for the documentary? This documentary was based on the original idea of ​​Francisco Delgado. I always had been motivated to shoot in a remote area of the country where I could find interesting stories, as in some festivals we find inner-city stories and themes that are sometimes repeated, and the public may be a little tired of them. The idea has its precedent in an anthropological...

October came and the baseball world is already placed in orbit with its star time: the playoffs in the MLB (Major League Baseball). It's time to take off for the Fall Classic, and all eyes are ready to enjoy the dramatic road to the conquest of the World Series. Oncuba, not the exception, proposes a wide coverage from our Facebook page, of all that happens in this 2013postseason. A special reason motivates us to undertake this arduous endeavor. As luxury close to a historic performance of Cuban baseball players in the major leagues allowed some of them to be present in the final battle for the coveted rings. For several decades the Cuban presence was not felt so strong in the highest level of American professional circuit. Over twenty players had recently concluded action during the regular stage, a few occupying everyday roles in their respective teams. Yoenis Cespedes gave us a spectacular victory in the home run derby of the all-star game. Meanwhile, Yasiel Puig, José Fernández and "Candelita" Iglesias had dream numbers on their debut in the major, which places them as serious candidates for rookie of the year. These three examples are enough to confirm the relevance...

Within the broad process of economic changes, agriculture remains a priority sector , which requires the implementation of all possible modifications to make it work and meet the food needs of the population by replacing imports. Despite the provisions of the measures implemented from 2007 to the 2011 guidelines, Dr. Armando Nova González warns of the persistence of not a few obstacles that “hinder the scope of planned production levels and the finding of solutions." (1). The author identifies the following strategies: - The consolidation of perishables and production goods market, where the producer can go (according to the purchasing power generated by his production results) to acquire what he requires, at the right time and at prices that correspond to the prices received by the finished production. - Creating the environment conducive to the producer to be able to decide according to market behavior and social requirements, what he will produce, to whom and where to sell. - Diversification of forms of marketing as an alternative to monopolistic and / or oligopolistic forms: - Creating and organizing second degree marketing cooperatives. Taking its scope to the central markets, direct sales to resorts, restaurant, industrial processing, delivery to exportation and...

Last Friday, President Barack Obama made a historical phone call to President Hassan Rouhani of the Islamic Republic of Iran. For millions of Americans and Iranians this conversation of minutes offers an opportunity to think on past decades of confrontations and a hope for less antagonistic relationships in the future.

An Angolan delegation headed by Alfonso Pedro Canga, Minister of Agriculture, gave Cuba a group of agricultural machinery, destined to boost food production. A total of 112 tractors, 24 seeders, 15 trailers, 10 tankers and their accessories were officially received during a ceremony held at this capital’s Agricultural and Livestock Engineering Research Institute (IAGRI) on Tuesday. Canga said that the two nations have always been united in difficult moments of their history, but also in happy ones. We acknowledge the support we’re receiving from the Cuban government and people for the economic and social development of Angola, mainly in the spheres of education, health, agriculture y la construction, he specified. Cuban Agriculture Minister Gustavo Rodriguez expressed his gratitude for the gesture and pointed out that this equipment will contribute to the development of prioritized programs of this sector. The equipment were assigned to state enterprises, which offer their services to cooperatives and farmers devoted mainly to the production if corn, beans, sorghum and rice. IAGRI specialists highlighted the technological advantages of this machinery that will contribute to better yields in the Cuban countryside.

La familia Gourriel se ha mudado a La Habana, donde aspiran a reinstaurar su dinastía, ahora vistiendo la franela de Industriales, la escuadra insignia del béisbol cubano. OnCuba conversará con los hermanos Yulieski, Yunieski y Lourdes Júnior, así como con sus padres, para develar las verdades ocultas de su permuta a la capital y los retos futuros en la nueva aventura. Deja aquí tus preguntas para toda la familia, ellos se han comprometido a descubrir su historia. Foto: de internet

The Gourriel family has moved in Havana, where they aspire to reinstate their dynasty, now wearing the Industriales jersey, the most famous Cuban baseball team. OnCuba will speak to the three brothers: Yulieski, Yunieski and Lourdes Jr, as well as with their parents to reveal the hidden truths of their swap to the capital and the coming challenges in their adventure Leave here all questions you want to make them; they promised to tell the true story      

The latest edition of the forum for debate "Dialogue, dialogue", brings a panel of two experts of the Cuban economy and a journalist specializing in the subject, that joined forces to lay some important points about the process called updating, its dynamics, new rules, the unresolved issues, among others. OnCuba recommends reading interventions in this panel by Juan Triana Cordoví, Doctor of Economics, Professor and Researcher at the Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy, Oscar Fernandez Estrada, Doctor of Economics, Professor at the University of Havana, and Ariel Terrero Escalante, journalist specialized in economic, unprofessional member of the national leadership of UPEC, with moderation by historian Elier Ramirez. The views expressed in the exchange, belong to authorized criteria, and allow recreating a picture of the current state of the economic transformation process, from some of its precedents and future projection on the short and medium term. OnCuba presents, divided by topics, an extensive summary that focuses aspects that contribute with information and provocative ideas to reflect: New roles, new rules Oscar Fernandez The current transformation process didn’t begin with the Sixth Party Congress, but has a history in the 1990s and even further back. But this specific step,...

Mephisto Theatre has not been a troupe of great successes in the Cuban scene, maybe because Tony Diaz fails to resign himself to the decline of the Cuban musical theater as a genre, and strives for taking to the stage major hits such as Chicago and Cabaret with very few resources. The result is sometimes disastrous and others, inconsequential. But occasionally , Mephisto discards musical and takes into scene other works. ¨Muerte en el bosque¨ ( Death in the forest) is the most recent, the version that Tony Diaz wrote on the novel ¨Mascras¨ (Masks), by Leonardo Padura Fuentes, which was premiered in 1999 along with Rita Montaner Company. Mephisto struck three times to see the death of a young man dressed in Electra Garrigo in Havana Forest. On a chessboard, that misses the point after the first scenes, the research is developed and conducted by Mario Conde and his assistant Manolo under Alberto Marques´ information, a parameterized homosexual playwright in the '70s, who lived with the already deceased Alexis Arayan. Thereafter, the researcher will also unwittingly delve into the dark past of the Gray Quinquennium of the Cuban art movement and the grotesque world of transvestites in Havana ,...

The Cuban actor Jorge Perugorría ends this week the filming of his new movie project, entitled Fatima of the Fraternity Park, based on the short story by the same name and Juan Rulfo Prize, by the prominent writer and ethnologist Miguel Barnet. On this occasion, Perugorría aims to move away from his previous work and engage in only as a filmmaker in a complex and human story that speaks of the life of  Manuel Garcia, also Fatima, a transvestite of almost natural lineage, whose devotion to the Virgin of Fatima and the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre is a constant that distinguishes her. Placed in Havana, Cuba, 2013, in the harshness of the life of Fatima is the main conflict of the film story, which features a cast of renowned and experienced Cuban actors: Mirta Ibarra, Broselianda Hernandez, Nestor Jimenez, Patrick Wood , Thomas Cao and young actor Carlos Enrique Almirante as Fatima. A film that is essentially based on the acting, according to its director in statements made to ONCUBA. For this occasion, the Diego from Strawberry and Chocolate, is accompanied by a staff of stars in Cuban cinema: art direction by Erick Grass, the photograph of Ernesto...

This Friday night, thousands of fans on the island of singer Descemer Well, enjoyed his music in the famous Havana’s Salón Rosado Benny Moré, in La Tropical grounds. Popular songs along newer ones were interpreted by the composer with renowned artists of Cuban music scene as Alain Daniel, Arlenys Rodriguez, Baby Lores, Leoni Torres, Luna Manzanares,  Gente de Zona, among others, some of whom worked in “Bueno”, the latest album from the former Yerba Buena band member. That was the last presentation in Cuba of the bassist, drummer and music producer before starting on Monday a European tour. Photo: Roberto Ruiz

I have to confess that when I took the last monologue I wrote for ¨Antigonon, un Contingente Épico¨ to the rehearsals of that play and Linnett Hernández read it while still stood on the stage, I was stunned. I've never seen an actress defending, with such truth, a text of mine so fast. I had previously shared with her rum, Spanish limes, the suicide sight of her apartment and I was aware of the strength and great energy she had as human being and as actress, but when she put the bush woman heels on and pronounced that text, I knew she would leave a huge mark on me and on everyone who would listen to her. Linnett is a black woman with lots of luck and too much work. She lives between Paris and Havana and now is in a magnificent moment of her career. So I wanted to share with her, because Linnett loves sharing. She says "Good night" in a very special tone as if saying "I swept", "May I?", "Pardon me", "I love you". And suddenly Linnett introduces herself to me: I studied gymnastics but in high school, a teacher, Barbara, took me to the theater...

New pharmaceutical markets in America and Europe are open to the drug Heberprot-P, Cuban patent used in the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers, as announced during the XXIV International Congress of Orthopedics and Traumatology trade fair, held at the Frank País International Orthopedic Science Complex in Havana Maylyn Palmero, product developer, said that in countries such as Brazil and Peru they are negotiating the terms of their marketing, supported by the international experience of the drug, as this has already been used in 125,000patients outside Cuba, out of which 100,000 are Venezuelans. Meanwhile, the specialist said that in Europe is performing clinical trials in order to enroll in the health record. In this respect Spain has already reached stage two of the trials with very favorable results, which mean a major endorsement and the gateway to the European Union. Palmero told Cuban News Agency that Russia is very interested in this drug, which has no competition in the market because it is the only thing keeping the partial or total amputation of the affected area, since ulcer penetrates and gets the reconstitution of tissues from the inside out. Currently in the world all treatments for this condition are topical in...

Lightning and thunders always caused some fascination. Rather, I perceived them as the legends of the land of our greatest storyteller Onelio Jorge Cardoso. Folk stories of the Cuban countryside, with a little fiction. Of course, without ignoring the inescapable laws of physics. But the storms of these days in Havana made me face reality. A few days ago Ernesto, an Eduardo Saborit Stadium guard in Playa municipality, confirmed me that on a recent Sunday, around 4 pm, a lightning bolt took the life of a young football player who disregarded his advice and went to play as a goalkeeper under a torrential downpour, while going for a friendly match between the youth who usually attend every afternoon the west Havana sports facility. Denis, 17, only child, raised his arm to call for the ball and received a lightning that penetrated his wet body and left through the feet. A white and fast bolt. This was how Ernesto perceived it: "it raised him about a meter off the ground ... It seems that the water served as conductor of lightning and all players were shot down like a bowling pin. The goalkeeper was on the floor without moving. The others...

Our music will be again in the Latin Grammy, now with more than a dozen nominations among which stand out Border-free by the maestro Chucho Valdés, La Cancion Cubana by Miriam Ramos, Vamos pa´ la fiesta , by the Septeto Santiaguero, and La Habana tiene su son by the Septeto Nacional Ignacio Piñeiro. Also competing are the great trumpeter Arturo Sandoval with Un siglo de pasión, Albita Rodriguez with Una mujer que canta, and Paquito D'Rivera competes with Dances From The New World. Those chosen to opt for the award in different categories were announced by the Latin Recording Academy. Chucho Valdes and his Afro-Cuban Messengers are competing for the Grammy in the category of Best Latin Jazz Album with their latest album, produced by the Jazz Village / Comanche Music label. Chuchito Valdés competes in Best folk album, with Chuchito Valdes y Eddy Navia, and will face his father in Latin Jazz, with Grand Piano Live. The singer Miriam Ramos, one of the most remarkable voices of Cuban song, do it for the category of Best Traditional Tropical Album with her triptych La Canción, produced by the Colibri label, CUBADISCO Grand Prize winner in 2013 where the singer gathers...

Some 182,799 trips abroad Cubans have made after the implementation of immigration reform issued on January 14, 2013, it was announced a few days ago in a report on the state television. On the news it was reported that the application of new immigration measures are being carried out "in an atmosphere of normality and internal acceptance", and further stated that the average stay outside Cuba of travelers was one month. The implementation eight months of the migration legislation, with great impact on the island, led to the elimination of the bad seen exit permit and requirement of a letter of invitation, reducing the handling process for Cubans to obtain a passport and buy an airline ticket. The report also revealed that more than 1,900 Cuban emigrants have called up residence again in Cuba. EFE news agency notes that the second head of Immigration Office of the Ministry of Interior, Lamberto Fraga said on television that migrants returning to the island "have the ability to reside in Cuba, continue to reside in the country where they were or just stay and live in their country of origin and travel with the conditions of Cubans residing in the country.” Similarly the...

For the first time Leo Brouwer Festival of Chamber Music comes to eastern Cuba. Today, in the Dolores Hall - one of the best acoustic venues in Cuba- the V edition of this event was inaugurated by the Cello Plus concert by the duo Cello Capriccioso, made up of Cuban Douglas Vistel and German Almuth Krausser in which participate Eastern Symphony Orchestra as one of the host institutions. More than three hundred artists and musicians from eleven countries with a vast repertoire of works and genres will participate in this year's Festival that will be divided between Santiago de Cuba (from 24 to 26), Pinar del Rio (27) and Havana (from September 28 to October 13). In addition in Santiago there will be theoretical debates, in this case with the premiere of works by Laureano Fuentes and Cratilio Guerra two nineteenth-century Cuban composers with a strong legacy in sacred and scene music, which has not been sufficiently heard, according to the researcher Miriam Escudero. Before arriving in Havana, the festival will dedicate a concert to half a century of the death of Ernesto Lecuona, with interpretation in Pinar del Rio of The coffee plantation. The event is intended as a...

According to official media reported from the island, the terminal will begin operations with a first phase in January 2014. The news published today in the Official Gazette of Cuba of a new decree regulating Mariel area and opens the door to foreign investment in the sectors of storage, exports and imports with contracts up to 50 years (renewable), brings us closer to the idea that in large measure the economic development of the island may have on this new port, one of its greatest strengths. This project started in 2010 developed by a joint venture between Odebrecht Group, the largest engineering and Construction Company in Brazil, and the investor Cuban Mariel Comprehensive Development Zone to build a special development area of about 465 square kilometers. Initially have a   700 meter long dock (765 yards anchor) that allows it to receive up two large merchant ships. The project area includes containers, warehouses, cold storage, fuel supply, food distribution and other shipping services. Cuba aims to become a regional logistics center of goods. In the future it may receive large vessels with goods for consumption in Cuba and transshipment to other ports in the Caribbean and America. Mariel is a port...

After meetings of the Council of Ministers of Cuba, led by President Raul Castro, official media announced several changes in the economic policy of the country. The first of the provisions issued is aimed at updating national drug program for the population. The meeting agreed to review and renew the National Drug Program, through a policy that "prioritizes the development of production and appropriate use of medicines." This also lead to ensure a policy of 120 days supply of medicines in the distribution centers and create a new system of management and leadership in pharmacies and optical facilities including computerization of the management and sale of drugs between 2014 and 2017 . It was also decided to repair and build more nursing homes, between 2013 and 2015, in the face of the increasing aging population on the island Although data relating to population aging has not been fully unveiled some results were known from the latest Population and Housing Census on the island, which showed that the Cuban population amounted to 11,167,325 inhabitants, 10,418 less than in the 2002 Census. Most of the population is women (50.1%) and men are for the first time ever in minority (49.9%). The meeting...

The Cuban singer-songwriter, Polito Iánñez will give a concert on September 27 in the Miami-Dade County Auditorium. Before his performance the interpreter of the so-called “newest trova”, which stands as one of the most important figures of the last generations of art, will tour the most important media of Miami, to talk about his performance on American soil. The artistic quality of this singer-songwriter has been recognized by world music stars, who have performed along Ibanez, including Sting, Pablo Milanes, Chucho Valdes, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Diego El Cigala, Joaquín Sabina, Carlos Varela, Kelvis Ochoa and Descemer Bueno. His latest album, "In Your Eyes", was released in Cuba last February, with the participation of the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of maestro Enrique Pérez Mesa and recorded at Abdala Studios of the Colibri label. In his discography highlights his album Sombras Amarillas. Some of the singles that have become Polito great songs are: Como nacen las hojas, Como a Mujeres and Ratos Para el Olvido, the latter with the help of two great musicians: Chucho Valdes and Pablo Milanes. With information published by the Blue Night Entertainment company, in charge of the Cuban singer presentations in the United States.    ...

Cuba lives substantial changes that promise good returns for the sustainability and efficiency of its economy. The update of its economic model has caused a reverberation of initiatives by developing various forms. Among them stand out with particular force the non-agricultural cooperatives. Recently in the province of Matanzas six were approved as part of the first 124 to have come into operation throughout the island.  Of those, one is engaged in domestic and international commercialization of birds, other to the rental of scaffolding and pans for construction, and a third of construction, specializing in veneers and flooring. They are named Carpintex, Sagebien and one of printing and graphic, and interior decoration, the municipality of Cardenas, that does not have a name that identifies it. It was established in the Convention Center Plaza America in Varadero, from Decree Law 305 of non-agricultural cooperatives, dated November 5, 2012 and Article 18 of Decree 309 on the regulation of first degree non-agricultural cooperatives, of November 28, 2012, with which will take into account the additional provisions, the statutes and the laws that are applicable to them. This was the second to be established in the province of Matanzas, after the act of a...

The experienced Spanish director Agusti Villaronga will make the film adaptation of the erotic novel King of Havana, by the Cuban writer Pedro Juan Gutiérrez. As noted by the website El Séptimo Arte.net, King of Havana tells the story of Reinaldo a teenage fugitive from a correctional facility, who hits the streets of Havana during the hard 1990’s years, the "special period" in Cuba. "Yearnings, disappointments, rum and good humor accompany his wandering in the neighborhood of Centro Habana. One day he meets Magda, another survivor as he and between the two emerges a story of impossible love and tragic marked by sex and tenderness. His struggle to find a place to settle and live to create a "normal" family leave raw feelings, while all around, all rumbles like an insatiable tropical hurricane that worn them and eroded  them". Agusti Villaronga has a long film history. He is the director of films like Pa Negre (Black Bread) that has become one of the great successes of 2010. With it he won numerous awards, among them nine Goyas, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. The film was also nominated to represent Spain at the Oscars. Other acclaimed titles are...

According to scholars, or the pessimists, the beginning of the digital age has brought the inevitable end of printed literature. But the text loses value by changing its platform? Is there in Cuba digital literature? While some intellectuals of the island (such as those that gathered this week in the space Motion Cycles, at the Dulce Maria Loynaz Cultural Center) are still debating the existence of a new-generation, and real- of writers in Cuba, Cuban literary productions are increasingly supporting the use of new technologies, whether to increase its value or to achieve a wider readership. A very peculiar phenomenon that indicates the birth of a brand new e-literature, and for the record, it is not the known e-books-are the digital micro stories. Following the boom that these creations have had on the Spanish-speaking world in recent times, in Cuba this year was the first competition of micro stories by SMS. That in only 60 days 255 texts by 106 authors are presented is a fact that, although it does not set consolidated reference, it shows interest in a literary renovation and expansion that we hadn’t seen before this event. The question is on the thin line between the new...