The National Ballet of Cuba (BNC by its Spanish acronym), some of its key figures, captured headlines in South Africa from June 28th and for a week. According to reports from various digital media, its presentation caused amazement, preceded by its fame, and the public crowded the Montecasino Theatre in Johannesburg. Several state figures and even the Vice President of the Republic attended the performances of artists like Viengsay Valdes, Anette Delgado, Sadaise Arencibia, Dani Hernández, José Losada andArian Molina, who offered a tribute to Alicia Alonso to celebrate the seventieth anniversary of the prima ballerina assoluta in the role of Giselle. The BNC presented a repertoire consisting , among others, in memorable pieces as the pas de deux of Don Quixote, The Nutcracker, and Swan Lake and shared the stage with representatives of several companies. ....................... José Kozer, very valuable Cuban poet, won the Pablo Neruda Ibero-American Poetry Award, granted by the National Council of Culture and Arts of Chile. According to Roberto Ampuero, Chilean Minister of Culture, Kozer is "an extraordinary poet, with a very prolix and internationally recognized work, solid and innovative", a man who from 1960 lived in the United States, and has published over fifty titles and is son of Jewish Poles and Czechs emigrants. Precisely this powerful combination makes his poetry a sui generis corpus and indispensable within the national lyric tradition. Professor of Hispanic Literature for thirty years at New York’s Queens College, he currently resides in Florida. His most famous works are ¨Este judío entre números y letras, ¨ and ¨Y así tomaron posesión en las ciudades.¨ The Pablo Neruda Award is granted annually to prestigious figures of Spanish language as Mexican Jose Emilio Pacheco , Chilean Nicanor Parra and Cuban Fina García Marruz. ................................   The 33rd Caribe Festival, one of the most prestigious in the region, concluded last Tuesday in Santiago de Cuba, with a massive tour of the city, known as Fire Parade -carried out by the people and the artistic delegations. Researchers, academics and folklorists converged in the city since July 3 rd, who confirmed the prestige and convening power of the event, which...

According to the Cuban National Housing Institute, only 61% of the country's housing stock, ie three million households, is in good condition , the rest is in regular or poor shape. The housing phenomenon is one of the key points and never resolved within Cuban society. From weather impacts in the last ten years, and the direct involvement of a million homes, the Cuban Government developed and promoted a new strategy: self-made construction. This was implemented through grants, credits and other individual facilities replacing the presence of companies or mediators. On December 2011, it was approved up to eighty thousand Cuban pesos (CUP) per house. We speak of a basic cell of about twenty-five square meters, with bathroom and kitchen. This included also credits between 5 000 and 10 000 CUP for minor construction activities. Now, with the approval of the Agreement 7837th of the Council of Ministers , in June, the amounts increased and paying ability was facilitated. One of the significant novelties is the inclusion of state house tenants and those who dwell in citadels. Previously, only homeowners could apply for loans. .......................................................................................................... Since early July, 124 cooperatives belonging to various sectors stormed into the Cuban economic scenario....

The Cuban baseball team participating in the Rotterdam tournament defeated the Netherlands 5-0 in the final, and won its fifth title in these contests. The Cuban lefty Wilber Perez achieved h is second win against Europeans through an impeccable work for five and a third innings, in which he only conceded two hits and three walks,. Then, in the sixth, he was relieved by Raicel Iglesias, who had no problems during his performance, based mostly on his fastball. The most outstanding Cuban batters were Alexander Malleta, with two doubles and as many RBIs in four at-bats, Andy Ibanez (3 for 5) and Yadiel Hernandez and Jose Miguel Fernandez, who both hit 2 for 4. Dutch right-hander Rob Cordemans, who had defeated the Cuban national team in the qualifying round, took the loss this time. ************************ Iran defeated twice the Cuban squad at Havana’s Sports City Coliseum, during the last weekend of the World Volleyball League, so the team coached by Orlando Samuels finished in the bottom of the table of group B. However, this result, in one way or another, was expected. The young Cuban team, most of its players are still at youth level, accuses a remarkable lack of...

The company Esencia Hotels and Resorts, from the UK, and the Cuban Palmares SA, signed a partnership for the creation of centers of world-class golf in Cuba, with an investment of 350 million dollars. The project The Carbonera Golf & Country Club is the first and most important investment of a British company in the Cuban tourism, and has been valued as a symbol of the opportunities offered by Cuba for foreign investment . This company will be responsible for the construction of an exclusive community of 650 apartments for tourism with high purchasing power . The project’s website remembers its positioning puts Cuba only 90 miles south of Florida in the United States. The project suggestive slogan is "Same Cuba. New Passion ". A dispatch from the Italian ANSA news agency states that Essence must be followed by others, since it is expected the approval of another proposal with Chinese capital, later this year, and moreover propositions are analyzed from Spanish, Vietnamese and Russian companies. Cuba is in talks with more than 10 foreign firms and some of them " have been signed or are concluding letters of intent for possible developments in various cities and tourist destinations," Minister of...

Terror of the dentist is like an epidemic, one that infects most men. When facing the dentist’s chair, even heroes lose their badge of courage. Legs shake, jaws chatter. Any brave soul with more medals than Marshal Zhukov will try to postpone his appointment, explaining that he has an urgent work-related matter to attend to that afternoon; in fact, he has to make a speech. Why don’t we just solve it with a Band-Aid, and “we’ll see you next week, Doc.” But if next week comes and the pain has by some chance subsided, then the appointment is postponed until next month. Or next year. The furniture in a dentist’s office is apparently designed to inspire fear. Nobody has come up with new designs for inspiring confidence and security. It’s probably because their designers are influenced by those alien contraptions we see in Hollywood movies, with those mechanical arms that end in pincers to penetrate the noses, eyes and mouths of their earthling prisoners and extract their brains. The chair and the dentist himself, whose face reminds you of a Luis XVI-era executioner, are not the only scary elements in a dentist’s office. Their needles are totally unlike the ones...

This issue of OnCuba is a gift for beginning a vacation that you don’t want to forget. This month, our features include a look at Varadero, which is not just the most beautiful beach in the world; an encounter with Cuban musician Arsenio Rodríguez, “the Wonderful Blind Man”; the anniversary of the famous El Floridita, Hemingway’s bar...

As a child, I would hear the elderly members of my family talk about him. Years later, when I made my first music documentary, Jazz de Cuba, I included him consciously in my imagination after I heard a delicious anecdote from the celebrated musician Chucho Valdés, when he referred somewhat ironically to certain journalists who held him responsible, instead of Arsenio, for composing “El guayo de Catalina.” Ignacio Arsenio Travieso Scull, better known as Arsenio Rodrí-guez, was born in Güira de Macurijes, a little town in Matanzas province, on Aug. 30, 1911. He was known as the “The Wonderful Blind Man” (“El Ciego Maravilloso”) because of his uncommon talent for playing the tres, and he has gone down in history as one of the most relevant Cuban musicians of all time. Not just because of the dozens of songs that he wrote in the bolero, guaracha and son genres, but also because he structurally innovated the so-called conjunto, or ensemble, by adding the tumbadora, or conga drum. After Arsenio, nobody has been able to do it differently. Many exponents of this genre view him as the “Father of Salsa.” I think that is not just because of his tireless zeal...

The latest edition of the Espacio Laical magazine brings us a panel of diverse voices of the Cuban "intelligentsia", faced with the task of comment on the ongoing process of reforms that the government of President Raul Castro in Cuba has been promoting and that has as articulating principle an "upgrade economic model".OnCuba suggests reading what this panel discussed. It was made up by the writer and playwright Arturo Arango, anthropologist and social activist Dmitri Prieto, philosopher Jorge Luis Acanda, researcher and political scientist Hiram Hernandez and National Literature Prize Leonardo Padura. This will undoubtedly be an interesting way to look out and gauge the flow of ideas in Cuba today, increasingly diverse and plentiful. Espacio Laical introduces this dossier by reflecting this: "If anything characterizes our present is the increased public debate, especially from areas located within the civil society. The changes in Cuban society in recent years and the expansion of cyberspace in urban centers and their peripheries have promoted a better flow of ideas within the island Amid this context Cuban intellectuals have accompanied, creatively, the reform process taking place in the country. Espacio laical has convened a group of them to discuss the progress of the...

The First Vice President of the Councils of State and Ministers and member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermúdez, paid official visits to China, Vietnam and Laos, where the respective bilateral economic issues occupied much of the agenda. In China, Diaz Canel attended with his host, Vice President Li Yuanchao, the signing of three agreements: a donation, another interest-free credit and the last credit agreement for the purchase of machinery and equipment for Cuban agriculture. Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Premier Li Keqiang also received the Cuban Vice President. During the stay in China the Cuban leader visited the company BIOTECH Pharmaceutical Co. LTD (BPL), the first joint project in the field of biotechnology, with 10 years of existence, and especially dedicated to the production of monoclonal antibody Nimotuzumab (treatment of cancer), developed by Cuba. A new plant in another joint venture (ChangHeber) was inaugurated during this official visit in Changchun, dedicated to the production of Hib vaccine against Haemophilus influenzae. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●● ● ● ● By the end of May 429 458 Cubans held self-employed licenses, which is an increase of about...

Its surprising presence caught the attention of everyone. Some asked, incredulous, what that was, others argued that was a huge fossilized egg, or a meteorite because of its dark shape. Its silhouette, almost round, reminded me of the modeling clay children at early ages play with. The solitude where it was placed became a point of meeting. Several came and looked as if it were something exotic, and it really was. Then Urbano Gonzalez Guiza came announcing, as if it were the presence of a European monarch, what that was. "In front of you there is the biggest homemade cocoa ball that has been made in Cuba ".It was true! A ball of cocoa 40 pounds! Urbano's face was happy, while the others’ were in awe. Gonzalez Guiza, told us how he came out with the idea to making such ball, in Baracoa, a town that retains its chocolate tradition 500 years after its foundation. At 60, he has dedicated many years to the study and cultivation of cocoa, Urbano, as he prefers to be called, attracted in the hallway the attention of those present briefly. With subtle humor his words were describing the importance of this seed. "Cocoa is life...

The 2012-2013 harvest that ended recently reached only 89 percent of expected sugar production, according to the president of Azcuba, Orlando Celso Garcia. These figures mean, however, 15.6 percent increase from the previous harvest. Among the causes for not achieving the plan weighed the lack of raw materials and poor industrial performance in some factories. It was pointed the lack of efficiency of previous repairs. However authorities attributed these results to "subjective factors": technical and business discipline. The truth is that they were short 192 000 tons of sugar and only three provinces met their production plans: Sancti Spiritus, Ciego de Avila and Artemisa (19 sugar mills). However, the sugar that came out this year from factories exceeded standard quality parameters and could be marketed in better condition. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●● ● ● ● The Seventh Congress of the National Association of Economists and Accountants of Cuba (ANEC) concluded in Havana. The new National Executive Council to lead this professional association of more than 80 000 members over the next five years is headed by Danilo Guzman Dovao, as president and first vice president Osvaldo Villalobos Villarejo. Comptroller Dovao Guzmán has been head of the...

The National Bureau of Statistics and Information (ONEI) just released the publication "Economic and Social. Cuba 2012 ", which is a document that anticipates the content of what the Statistical Yearbook of Cuba 2012, edition 2013 will be. This contains environmental indicators, demographic, economic and social issues involved in the behavior of the country during the year 2012 and its comparison with previous year. The ONEI warns that data reported are considered preliminary, and many of them are probably the result of the last Census of Population and Housing, not yet published in full. OnCuba suggests, in particular, the review of the 2012 Demographic indicators, which reports the trend of population decrease (11 489 less people compared to 2011), and data on gross domestic product in 2012 when the Cuban economy grew 3%. Other indicators that may be of interest are the non-sugar agriculture. Selected Productions 2012, or Information Technology and Communication 2012 where, curiously enough, there is no data on Internet access from Cuba.

With this issue of OnCuba, we would like to bring you that same spirit of movement and transformation. This June we present an interview with Isaac Delgado, a Cuban musician who lives outside the country and recently performed here again after a long absence; a weekend out and about, visiting successful private businesses in Havana; the story of two professional designers who have created their own furniture factory; statements from three great Cuban Olympic and world champions who are pursuing new victories, this time as business people; the reopening of Havana’s famous Sloppy Joe’s Bar; an analysis of a prosperous cooperative urban agriculture experience, and more.    

On the corner of Zulueta and Ánimas streets, close to the Parque Central and the Paseo del Prado, Sloppy Joe’s became an obligatory stop for visitors.

Ubicado en la esquina de Zulueta y Ánimas, muy cerca del Parque Central y el Paseo del Prado, el Sloppy Joe's se convirtió, entonces, en obligatoria parada de los visitantes.

For now, and because it is a test, the devices will be delivered by payment of only 7.35 pesos (about 0.30 U.S. cents). A price in which is not contained the cost of equipment but only distribution costs and technical services.

Prominent Cuban economist Pedro Monreal González outlines the reorganization of international trade and opportunities for Cuba from what he calls the “Postpanamax era “when the new Panama canal becomes fully operational in 2015.

Since last May 20 through the 25 the 63rd Tournament Marlin Fishing "Ernest Hemingway", one of the oldest in the world, only preceded by the Tuna World Cup in New Scotland and Tarpon tournament in Mexico, is taking place in Havana. Its first edition was in 1950, when 36 of the best sports yacht clubs of Havana sailed the Morro Castle channel, located at the entrance of Havana Bay in search of the Gulf Stream. One of them was the "Pilar", owned by Ernest Hemingway, who participated as a representative of the Havana International Nautical Club. That year, a group of fishermen suggested to the famous writer to name the tournament with his name. Hemingway not only accepted, but donated the cup for the first three tournaments. With its foundation in 1992, the Hemingway International Yacht Club of Cuba, (CNIH of Cuba), Hemingway tournaments have a new life. The promotion is done on the basis of friendly relations with fishing clubs, publications and fishermen, which is achieved by encouraging the participation of those who love and defend healthy sport fishing as way to pass the time while protecting the environment and species. This year, several fishermen from different countries participate(in...

But almost all Párraga knew the history of that house where a 'half-crazy man who painted naked women “dwelt.

Cuba could be studying private contracting of internet for cell phones, according to an official at the Software Development Company, DESOFT, who says that this initiative is part of the expanding of the project services...

A few days ago the Batalla de las Guásimas sugar mill, located in Vertientes municipality- on the south of central Camaguey province, met its production plan of 66,245 tons of sugar. Although this figure does not impress, this mill founded by the Cuban Revolution in 1979, even today is the largest producer in the plains of Camagüey. Its final whistle encouraged other three mills of that province where they should produce some 167,000 tons in the current harvest. The result of this mill came thirteen days after the due date, mainly caused by difficulties with the rains, humidity in sugarcane plantations and constant failures in the supply of raw material. "They were 142 days of harvest and at the end it was difficult to get the necessary cane", Pedro González Montesinos, head of management, said. This delay made it go down from a national third to ninth place among 46 Base Business Units (UEB) in the country. "Although we kept rising manufacturing indicators of efficiency, performance and recovering, in addition to providing more than 6000 megawatts to the National Electric System (SEN), the amount of sugar cane that arrived to the mill was insufficient" relates a source from the control...

Velez acknowledged that until now " they had used procedures and methods they must change"

To all mothers (and mothers-in-law like mine) we present this edition of OnCuba. Our offerings include an up-close interview with Cuban actress Blanca Rosa Blanco; a tour of Santiago de Cuba’s Morro; the attractions of the “Art for Mom” arts and crafts fair in Havana in May; an analysis of Cubans’ divided passions for soccer and baseball; the work of visual artist Luis Enrique Camejo; and a different analysis of today’s Cuban economy based on the perspective of a young engineer who is an independent businessman.      

“I am santiaguero, I was born in Baire, but what happened in Santiago concerns me not only for being from the East but for being a Cuban..."