The Humor Promotion Center , a Cuban institution belonging to the National Council of Performing Arts (CNAE by its Spanish acronym) of the Ministry of Culture, is experiencing a business transformation. Cuban comedians who are currently part of that institution's staff work as members of a cultural cooperative. After being subsidized with a special treatment which allocated a considerable part of the gains to CNAE, the Center claims to be a pioneer, in the cultural sector, in the implementation of the philosophy: to each according to his work. "The remuneration from personal income makes us a new type of enterprise, comedian Luis Enrique" Kike "Quinones, director of the institution, said and added this is a task that does not seem a joke. "We operate as a sort of cooperative from a catalog of 115 artists, who are chosen by the Centre. Previously, a project was delivered, then it was evaluated by a board made ​​ up by prestigious art people, and finally was assumed to be performed. In the new scenario, contracts have a time frame, which promotes creation, encourages artistic development and raises the quality of humor. The Centre was not created as a collection company, but with the...

The Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba SA (ETECSA) informs users of cell phones and alternative landlines (TFA), that starting October 15 the dialing mode from mobile phones to landlines will change. In a statement released by the company this Thursday on Granma newspaper, it reports that from that date it will remove the 0 in front of the number when dialing a landline while the remaining digits will be kept. Etecsa added that more information users can call 118 or contact them via their website at http://www.etecsa.cu/ Source: AIN

Silvio Rodriguez seems to have put an end to the controversy generated by the jazzman Roberto Carcasses. In a post written on his blog, Segunda Cita, the Cuban singer reported that the Ministry of Culture had "rescinded" the penalty imposed against the director of the Interactivo band. Carcasses seemed to top the list of artists banned in Cuba, after seeking political change in a live televised concert. The musician and his accompanying group were one of the last to play after midnight, which is why the exact content of their statements was not common knowledge until they appeared in YouTube videos with their words. The punishment didn’t take long in coming. According to the own Carcasses, they had been banned from all institutions governed by the Ministry of Culture, the sanction applied indefinitely, to make statements that "didn’t get along with the line of the Cuban revolution (sic). He had received the news on Friday, September 13 from an official of that entity that had called him. Cuban authorities were monitoring what was published on the internet regarding this issue and should be well aware of the debate in the blogosphere that emerged locally, especially among those who defended the...

The proliferation of debates on sexual diversity in Cuba is a reality, Mariela Castro, director of the National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX) said at a press conference on Monday. The institution, which currently leads the actions for the recognition of the rights of the LGBT community in the country, aspires that adolescents and youth are also on the climate of discussion and they have announced some concrete actions. Among the most immediate is holding between September 20 and 21 of the World Sexual Health Day, with community activities throughout the country and conducting a scientific event, a popular fair, the screening and discussion of an audiovisual material and a mega concert in Havana. With this the Center that the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro directs, seeks to generate more opportunities for exchange with adolescents and young people, which so far had not been the aim of such an encompassing action especially from the perspective of sexuality. Probably the youth situation is also the subject analysis of an international symposium which will be held in November at the CENESEX focused on prostitution, sex tourism and trafficking, to which have confirmed their involvement researchers from Argentina, Sweden and Belgium. Mariela...

From Wednesday September 18 through 20 LABIOFAM Business Group specialists will hold an international symposium at the Hotel Nacional in Havana to show the results achieved in the implementation of antitumor recombinant peptides. Undoubtedly, it will be a step forward in a race to stop the high mortality the disease causes. With the event they will try to get funding for the development of peptide in foreign countries. On the opening day, they will show all the technology and development achieved in this research to fight cancer, because this is an active principle, ready to make a final product. During the next day they will present the results of applying the natural peptide in brain tumors. José A. Fraga Castro, director of LABIOFAM, in a meeting with the press months ago, said, "This is a product whose active ingredient has a high selectivity and destructive capacity of the malignant cell. It is possible to engage two mechanisms of action: apoptosis and selective necrosis, leading to the destruction and disappearance of the tumor. " The studies were carried out on white mice (known as naked, since they lack hairs). Once they  implant in rodents human cancer cells they then deposit in...

For days I am about to write this article, and like the most demanding job I have written it more than a thousand times in my head, trying to find the exact words, without fear of equivocation, just trying not to hurt unnecessarily, and more transcendental being objective from my point of view. And this is where the wave breaks, with healthy and necessary openness, objectivity in the exercise of criticism is a rather questionable, matter at least for me. Much has been said and will continue to be, about Cuban music and its marriage?? with the media in our country. And I wonder do our media reflect, at least the most popular (radio and TV) the greatness of the music that unites us? My answer is no, without hesitation, but I have not been the discoverer of the phenomenon in question, beyond one, two or even three guilty ones, it would be worthwhile to rethink if what we are validating today, won’t become in the future the fatal boomerang, culturally speaking. A few days ago, I ran through a friend and Argentine artist, into the justice and customs laws in Argentina, which governs the taking out of their most...

For several minutes, dim light, whitish, accurate, you don’t hear another sound than the nearly naked bodies in motion. Until Bebe Reasons emerge from the throat of one of the dancers and lights and bodies raze and start a duo at times desperate, sometimes contained, where free passion and desire rule. So does nudity, I infer. Hence the need to look and smell and taste. Then Martica uses Carlos Luis and Carlos Luis hugs her and walk together as well, clinging to the other's back, out of sight. Demo-N/Crazy is a work with no ties, no laws. In regard to its content, of course. With choreography of Spanish Rafael Bonachela, Demo-N/Crazy transits from the appalling loneliness to the deafening crowd of images and sounds that continue to communicate. It is a set of relationships between individuals, and is one of the works that will start the tour of Danza Contemporanea de Cuba for several provinces, starting next September 19. The shows will be integrated well by Mambo ¹ 3XXI and Identity by Cuban George Céspedes, who delves into the roots and feeds the vernacular to reform and deform at will. Cuban rhythms become more electronic and the dancers do not...

OnCuba Briefly, a bag can be used to carry things. But let’s not repair in the simplicity of that statement. Being Cuban you feel the huge need to carry things, therefore, to carry bags. Note that I say being Cuban and not just Cuban. Perhaps that serves to establish my starting point. An empty bag is a body with a void soul. Be known that the bag also embodies symbolic prosperity, even real, while it may represent the opposite. This point depends on the filling level of the bag or bags. To explain better: A person with an overflowing bag will wake the envy of his observers, whereas the empty bag will not encourage anything but disdain. I want to clarify that the above symbolic or real prosperity also depends on the cost in money of the contents of the bag, that is, one who possesses a bag heaping of trifles bought at a self-employed stand will be a laughingstock if stand next to him who has in his possession a bag half full of goodies bought in the convertible pesos market, yet the first being a knight from head to toe and the second a full jerk, even being...

In these months of rain, in which the threat of tropical cyclones over the island is imminent, the dilemma between an umbrella and a pair of oars is practically inevitable...

The news, for their relevance and their possible implications for the immediate future of Cuban volleyball, it is socializing at remarkable speed. As is discussed all over the web, and in unison is unavoidable topic of conversation in public and private spaces of the island. Months ago it was hinted as a possibility and from Tuesday transcends as undeniable reality. The talks between officials of the national federation of the sport and players who for various reasons had left the national teams have started. This was confirmed on Tuesday to the digital site Radio Havana Cuba by Fernando Hernandez, who was the outside hitter in the team that won a silver medal at the 2010 World Cup. In his statement he said, among other details, that these initial approaches had included the auxiliary setter Raidel Hierrezuelo and Osmany Juantorena, and expressed his willingness to return to the Cuban team in May 2014 once he completes his professional season in Japan. He further added that the federation did not include in their interest to call athletes who had "defected". Coinciding in time with this news, but not in the same levels of socialization achieved, other scoops related to our volleyball will...

I just talk-without much ado, or deification, with one of the charms of Cuban and international music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This Cuban, natural, frank and cordial, gave us more than an hour of his precious time. His name: Juan Climaco, but he is not known like that, it is simpler still: Juan, Formell to be exact. The interview took place at his home, a residence very close to Fifth Avenue in western Havana. Once I crossed the threshold of the house his wife received me, and he didn’t keep me waiting; he appeared smiling, friendly, impeccably dressed and next to me sat the Cuban musician, the leader of the Rolling Stones of Cuba or Cuban Music Train, the father of the orchestra Los Van Van. Grateful and amazed is Juan Formell, National Music Award, by the constant calls and congratulatory messages received from around the world on the news that the Latin Academy of Arts and Recording Sciences will confer him the Excellence Award for his outstanding creative artistic significance to the world of recording. You see, he told me-that now highlighted by the popular Latin Recording Academy was criticized a lot, a lot at first. But...

The long wait came to an end. One of the giant pumpkins finally fell. Luckily there was no one below the kills. A few weeks ago we learned of giant pumpkins in a courtyard in the Cotorro municipality, Havana city, and when we arrived they told us that in a few weeks these would have grown more. A few hours ago Lilian's neighbor, the owner of the pumpkins, contacted us for us to participate in the final show: the cutting of the pumpkin. Final dimensions were, 58 pounds, 87 centimeters high, 1.14 meters from its stem to his top, stem 60 centimeters in diameter, while the waist reached 50 centimeters and the thickest part was close to 97 centimeters. The final weight is 58 pounds and not 85 as stated before, since that was carried out holding the pumpkin hanging from the stem and was not official. The weighing was done in two scales to achieve greater truthfulness and read the same amount ofpounds. But it was not over yet. Pumpkin’s owner Lilia deftly proceeded to cut it. Its interior is a bright yellow and the amount of seeds is in the hundreds. Just like that this pumpkin shows itself...

From December 1st this year, Cuban small farmers "land and beneficial owners” will be allowed to sell a wide range of products directly to the tourism sector of the country, without the mediation of a state enterprise. According to Granma newspaper on October 21 the Ministries of Agriculture, Tourism, and Finance and Prices will enforce resolutions which will expand the possibilities of direct marketing between the two sectors, a fact that could previously only be done through the Credit and Service Cooperatives (CCS by its Spanish acronym). Since December 2011, it had been authorized the direct marketing of agricultural products between the forms of production and tourism entities in the country. After a long wait, to the list of approved products two years ago -some sources consulted said-are now added fresh flowers, ornamental plants, spices and dried seasonings, chicken and quail eggs, flower arranging and gardening. According to Juventud Rebelde newspaper Cuban farmers, previously, could only market non-industrialized agricultural products, rice and charcoal. The new options, published on Monday in the Special Official Gazette no. 24, contribute to the transformation of the system of collection and marketing of agricultural production through management mechanisms increasingly agile that simplify the links between...

We often hear or read in the voice of critics and theorists of contemporary art terms such as "new media" electronic art, video art, among many others whose essential aim is to define those paths of art of recent decades-roughly speaking-take as basis and / or theme the digital media or technologies of production and reproduction of images. In our cultural space this whole phenomenon retains some flavor to "new" peripheral quality continues to define us. Although involving artistic discourses are not necessarily conditioned by the technological support. These days and until December 1, it may be interesting the exhibition "Memories of obsolescence" which gathers in the halls of the Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Center a sample of 18 works from the collection Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Foundation (CIFO), focusing this time on video. The appropriation of the space museum involves you, sound and picture together in the viewer's experience attending "Memories ..." while the progression of the path is guided by certain pieces whose sound predisposes and fosters moving from one room to another... The origin, formation and aesthetic interests of such a wide group of artists are diverse. The curatorial coincidence of these productions (by Jesus Fuenmayor) reveals conflicts, projections,...

It was the British sociologist Anthony Giddens who said that humans seem culturally drugged compelled to act from the stimulus of internalized values that regulate their activity. Precisely, entertainment derived from television consumption involves from the less educated to the more. That’s a reason to forgive us when we fall sometimes rendered, some more aware than others, at the feet of that that in the distant 1947 that theorists Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno defined as a cultural industry. The self-employed, promoted thanks to the ongoing economic restructuring in Cuba, made fashionable practically on every block the business of buying and selling discs (movies, series, cartoons, music, etc.). A “trade” that is taxed at alternative audiovisual consumption, especially in those stands that "adorn" the urban landscape is promoted what some consider the "cream" or "ultimate" of foreign cinema. The democratization of new technologies has undoubtedly facilitated the reproduction process. It's no secret that piracy in all its magnitude makes the consumption on the island, with the consequent imposition of a standard of value, questionable, and it usually doesn’t know the aesthetic and even the contents of a work. The so called combos swarm unpunished. Compressed at the expense of product...

The influence of a low pressure system at mid-level in the atmosphere, along favourable conditions, has caused heavy rains over most of Cuba in the last days. Elier Pila, from the Meteorology Institute (Insmet) explained that the rains were also due to the typical summer conditions and high humidity that favored them and that there isn’t anything wrong this time of the year. He said that, as an interested figure we could see the 88 millimeters of rain in Veguitas town in Granma province, I the east while there was a report of 35 millimeters in Havana, all the way to west. At the same time there was a strong storm in Bayamo city, in Granma, where gusts of winds blew at over 90 kilometers per hour. A report by Insmet states that September is one of the months when it rains the most in Cuba . The influence of the Atlantic Ocean anticyclone diminishes greatly considering July and August, which, along the frequent passing of waves and tropical lows, boost the occurrence of rains.  It reads that this is the time when more hurricanes are formed, though; the historical incidence over Cuba of these organisms is somehow less than...

Veteran glories of Cuban baseball played six softball games by these days against their similar from United States in an event that has been called the Friendship Games, which will develop its last matches in Havana from October 22 to 29. In Boston, Americans triumphed in the initial two games, but then Cubans grabbed four successive victories. So, Cuba leads 4-2 the match and now will try to win the series on its soil, where ​​six games will be played . The roster of the Caribbean squad includes several stellar players who made history in the national baseball championship, such as Pedro Chavez, Tony Gonzalez, Carlos Cepero and Reinaldo "Mantecao" Linares. According to The Boston Globe, Cuban players stayed there in the house of their opponents. Gary Buxton, who hosted four visitors, said that "it is a unique experience to deal with these national heroes in their country " while Gary Siegel- host of two other Cubans-noted that "We are very competitive in the field and we want to win, but after the game everything is fun. We have developed wonderful relationships. " Mike Eizenberg, tournament organizer and catcher, third baseman and center fielder for EMASS team, told the same...

Cuban musician Juan Formell will be awarded the Latin Grammy Award for Excellence 2013 along with other Hispanic renowned musicians as Oscar D'León, Palito Ortega and Miguel Ríos, it was announced today by the Latin Recording Academy (LARAS, for its acronym in English ). According to press reports by NOTIMEX Agency, the ceremony will be on November 20 in Las Vegas. Along with these and as part of a week of Latin Grammys will also be recognized Roberto Menescal, Toto la Momposina and Eddie Palmieri. Mario Kreutzberger, known as "Don Francisco”, will be recognized with the Latin Grammy of the Directing Council along the musical director Pedro Ramírez Velázquez. "Their contributions to the musical legacy of the Latin world are under our constant admiration,"   LARAS President Gabriel Abaroa said about the recipients. The renowned Cuban musician, bassist, composer and arranger Juan Formell is the true definition of an innovator and is considered an icon of Cuban popular music. He worked with the Orchestra of Carlos Faxas and created the Van Van, and won the Grammy for Best Salsa Performance. The Venezuelan musician "Oscar D'Leon is known as" The Lion of Salsa ". In 1972 he formed the group Dimension Latina,...

Arturo Arango is without doubt one of the most renowned Cuban storytellers of his generation, and an intellectual, besides his creative work as such, has always maintained an ongoing study of the reality around him. Therefore it is no coincidence that OnCuba has wanted to talk with Arango about the current status of all Cuban Literature, which is made in and outside Cuba, and the relationship between productions are born separated regarding physical space. How would you assess the present time regarding the access of the island reader to the work of Cuban writers who live abroad? I have the certainty that the Cuban reader’s access to works that are published outside of Cuba is very, very poor, and not only to the works of Cuban writers living abroad but many from within Cuba who are published by some non-Cuban publishing houses. I think it's a work our institutions have still pending. I know that currently the Dulce Maria Loynaz Center is preparing a place to buy or receive donations of books by Cuban authors who have published in foreign publishers, action that will be welcomed by many Cubans outside writers, I commented with some even they said they were...

Pablo is beautiful. He has a very special look and a mysterious aura. Perhaps for being the nephew of Ernesto Che Guevara, who above all, was a very beautiful man. But I believe also that because he was formed in a time of avant-garde theater in Cuba and in the blood he carries a time that has been left, unfortunately, far behind. Born in Buenos Aires but since childhood he studied in Havana. He graduated from ISA, and since he was acting student he joined the Buendía theater troupe, with his teacher Flora Lauten. He was in shows like Las perlas de tu boca, La vida en rosa and Otra tempestad. He also joined The Public Theater under the "fun and relaxation" of Carlos Diaz, did The Seagull, Icarus and The Madwoman of Chaillot. He participated in the film Che, by Steven Soderbergh, as accent couch to Benicio del Toro, in Oak odor , and in other international productions. He is now in Havana, shooting Horses, the debut of Fabian Suarez , an independent film in which he plays Solomon, a gay from a Cuban aristocratic family that is leaving. How do you get to Horses? I don’t have it...

U.S. swimmer Diana Nyad wants to realize her dream of uniting Cuba and Florida and for that she will start on Saturday a new attempt to swim the distance between the two shores, after failing on four previous occasions. This is my dream, my inspiration, Nyad said during a press conference at the Ernest Hemingway International Yacht Club, in the northwest of Havana, from where she will depart in the morning on Saturday, with the intention to make the journey of about 103 nautical miles in about four days, if the weather is favorable. According to the 64 years old athlete her desire is to reach the shores of Florida, to recover the desire to be alive, those she forgot for a while. When I turned 60 I wanted to get those desires and the feeling of being alive that moved me before I turned 30, and I lost for a few years, Nyad said. The veteran swimmer also said that people stop believing when they have choices and lose hope, but she still sees herself with chances of achieving her goal. To try to accomplish this feat, Nyad be assisted by a protective suit, specially prepared to prevent jellyfish...