It is usually thought that the coveted daiquiri, one of Cuba’s emblematic cocktails, was born at El Floridita, Havana’s most famous bar. Its paternity has been attributed, indistinctively, to the well-known bartender Maragato (Emilio González) or to his famous heir Constante (Constantino Ribalaigua). But the truth is as different as distant. Its origin is located 1,000 kilometers from the Cuban capital, in the eastern region of the island. And although an exact date does not exist, its birth occurred during the post-Independence War stage, in 1899 or 1900. Daiquiri is the name of a beach located more than 30 kilometers east of Santiago de Cuba. The U.S. Army landed through this place in 1898 to interfere in the war between the Cuban independence fighters and the Spanish troops. In addition, since the decade before, U.S. corporations were exploiting the iron mines close to the surface next to the riverside. Jennings S. Cox, general manager of the Spanish-American Iron Company was one of the U.S. engineers in that colony, in the late 19th century. At that time, U.S. soldiers, merchants and tourists were regulars in the bars of the island, and Cox was among the devotees of drinks. Moreover, as...

A Cuban who affirms being the father of a newborn, whose mother died during childbirth in a Miami hospital last March 2, is claiming the custody of the baby that a cousin of the deceased in the U.S. city is also disputing, in a case that recalls that of Elián González. The deceased mother, Yarisleidi Rodríguez, arrived in Florida last October 6 in the last months of her pregnancy, with the intention of giving birth to her baby in the United States, but she died during childbirth in Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, local sources reported. The young Cuban woman never gave the hospital the name of the father, which is why, according to the medical center’s administration, it was obligated to accept her cousin, Nairobis Pacheco, as the person responsible for the temporary custody of the baby girl, according to a document obtained by the Univisión 23 channel. The hospital alleges that a judge decided that the temporary custody of the newborn be granted to Pacheco. But Yoelvis Gattorno, who lives in Cuba, affirms he is the father of the baby, which is hospitalized in intensive care, and is claiming her custody. According to El Nuevo Herald, Gattorno explained...

The general electoral process has had a culminating point in Cuba with the March 11 elections. The final objective will be to constitute the Provincial Assemblies of People’s Power and their Administrative Councils and the National Assembly with its Council of State. The Cuban press, especially television, no longer hides the problems of the electoral system and in many cases they called “deputies” those who until the day of the election were just candidates; perhaps because it knows that this election was much more a confirmation than a selection. The 605 candidates have been elected and will make up, seat by seat, the National Assembly roll call. The Candidacy Commissions made up their lists and the Municipal Assemblies recognized them because they are the ones that really nominate. We don’t know if there were cases of candidates vetoed by the Assemblies or of candidates who emerged from the very local Assemblies at the time of the final nomination. In Cuba not even the wisest can explain why the people can nominate directly in the neighborhood meetings, with so much responsibility, at the start of the partial process, and they can’t do the same to propose candidate to the provincial and...

We start this week with the sounds of Havana. We will cover you with this city’s sounds, with its nights. It’s really tempting the offer for Fridays in the Iberostar Hotel Parque Central, so you can’t scape from it. If you want good Cuban music, if you want the show, that’s the place. Run to it. In Music this and more: Trova en Santiago, Sabina and Cuban Trapton in Miami. In Visual Arts we have a peculiar expo in La Marca because they really want to mark you. In Dance, the presentation of the Cuba Spanish Ballet and Transitos Habana. In Theater, there’s a bit for all ages. In Literature, the presentation in USA of a Daina Chaviano’s classic. In Cinema, a film you can’t miss. And in FAC, everything, as always. You already know the signs. The only thing left is to choose and go out. Don’t miss the sounds of this Island. See you around!   Sounding like Havana Iberostar Hotel Parque Central invites to a new experience with the show Sonidos de Ciudad, every Friday from 8 pm ‘til midnight. Some of the performing artists will be Anais Abreu, Alisbeth Reyes and Christopher Simpson, the Aquatic Ballet...

Every day in Cuba four people end their lives by committing suicide, according to Cuban official records. In 2016 the number of death due to this cause was 1429, according to the National Office of Statistics and Information of Cuba (ONEI, in Spanish) and the Anuario Estadistico del Ministerio de Salud de Cuba in 2016 (Statistic Yearbook of Cuban Health Ministery). If you google "suicide" and "Cuba" the main articles are about the son of the deceased Cuban leader Fidel Castro Ruz, named Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart. In February,  Castro Diaz-Balart committed suicide in La Habana, as the official press published. That brought to the public agenda once again the sensitive topic of mental health issues and suicide in the island. For several decades, suicide has been included in the 10 first main causes of death in Cuba, with almost the same number of death than the ones caused by cirrhosis. Main causes of death in Cuba Infogram To understand the real dimension of the numbers we need to compare them with other countries. In America and the Carribean, Cuba is the 8th country with the higher rate of suicides, only preceded by Argentina, United States of America, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Bolivia, Suriname and...

In the first part of this text I presented a brief outlook of the history of Cuban governance in the Constitutions of 1901 and 1940, and also a short outline of the discussion between the parliamentary and the presidential systems. After this, I’ll stop now on the current governance, under which the new Cuban president will be regulated. In short, what will be the powers of the new president of the Councils of State and of Ministers who will be elected next April? In Cuba, the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP) is defined as the “supreme organ of State power.” At the same time it has executive, legislative and constituent powers. The functions of the State and government are separated at the higher institutional level, where there is the Council of State (elected state organ) and the Council of Ministers (appointed government organ). In the provinces and municipalities the constitutional regulation does not make a difference and establishes that the respective assemblies exercise at the same time the functions of State and government, the latter through the Administration Councils. In this way the president of the Provincial or Municipal Assembly is in turn president of the respective Administration Council....

Next April 19, if what was announced by President Raúl Castro is confirmed – to not continue holding the topmost post on the island -, Cuba will have a new head of State. This will give rise to several analyses and a certain international attention about the “transfer.” However, the event in itself doesn’t have to cause great changes in the nation, if it is taken into account that the power structures and cultures are related, but are not reduced, to its institutional composition. Even so, it will be a singular experience. Since 1959 until today – almost 60 years -, Cuban institutional history has officially known only four presidents: Manuel Urrutia Lleó (1959), Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado (1959-1976), Fidel Castro Ruz (1976-2006) and Raúl Castro Ruz (2008-to date). Two data are relevant in the upcoming process: the new president will have a different surname, and his/her functions will be defined by the Constitution in force, in the face that the 2011 official promise of drawing up a new magna carta might seem abandoned, for the time being. In this article I am not interested in the futurology of who will be the new president – it is probable that the...

  In the context of the 2018 Habanos Festival, Havana Club International S.A. will present Tributo 2018, the most recent rum of that company’s Iconic Collection. Barely some 2,500 bottles, each one numbered as pieces of a limited and exclusive edition, will be marketed in the world. Compared to the collection’s previous alcoholic beverages, in Tributo 2018 the smoked flavor predominates, a result of a complex process of combinations and natural aging in the Havana Club warehouses inside white oak barrels, specifically of the San José rum factory. All the rums of Havana Club Tributo, as its name indicates, pay a tribute. They distinguish traditions established in the knowledge of Cuban Rum Maestros, a Cultural Heritage of the Nation. The one from 2016 to the Rum Maestros; the one from 2017 to spirits made from sugarcane; and this one to aging, especially to the barrel. The natural aging is a more than 150-year-old practice. Photo courtesy of Havana Club Rum Maestro Asbel Morales, whose signature is stamped on the bottle, insists that it isn’t the work of a single man but rather a legacy passed on from generation to generation. The bottle is the color of the white oak, the...

The U.S. government persists in recommending to its citizens that they reconsider traveling to Cuba, and keeps the island on level 3 (second to last) of its warning system. Meanwhile, U.S. visitors have their own opinions about the safety levels in Cuba. A recent survey by Cuba Educational Travel (CET) recently revealed the evident contradiction between the experiences of travelers and the warnings of the Trump administration. The survey was applied to 462 Americans who visited Cuba between 2017 and early 2018, who mainly said they felt safe and recommended traveling to the island. New Survey Finds #Cuba Among Safest Destinations in the World via @CubaEdTravel https://t.co/k0qNSGjhkH pic.twitter.com/hmsPxcpEv9 — Cuban Embassy in US (@EmbaCubaUS) 2 de marzo de 2018 After the results of the study that analyzes firsthand the particular experiences of travelers about safety in Cuba came out, Collin Laverty, CET president, said it is clear that Cuba is one of the safest countries in the world for Americans’ visits. Based on the survey, CET estimates that the island is “clearly safe” and is well prepared to respond to criminal, environmental, health and safety problems visitors can confront. Moreover, it sustains that the results must be taken into account...

  The time Nielsis Ramírez dedicates to knitting is sacred. “My husband and my son know this. I come home from work, start cooking and set to work on fraying until the Newscast begins on TV.” With almost half a century dedicated to needlework, this Trinidad woman who doesn’t have a noble ancestry affirms to the letter that the history of the township that the Spaniards founded in the center of Cuba more than 500 years ago could be written through verses and intricacies, because between the very fine threads confined in the embroidering ring lives one of the autochthonous traditions of greatest excellence in the country: lace trimming. Like the other inhabitants of the city, Nielsis learned from her grandmother, who in turn was taught by her great-grandmother, since for centuries the oral tradition was the only means of learning crafts works. These practices come from Spain. At the beginning they were only for the young ladies from the social elite; already by February 1587 a merchant called Cristóbal Martel included in his offers homemade threads and fine fabrics. The exact data, however, remains like loose threads that can’t be basted. What today is one of Trinidad’s principal credentials...

  It is said that between 60,000 and 75.000 more than 50 year-old cars circulate in Cuba, although the figure is not official. Armando’s 1956 Plymouth; Alberto’s 1957 Windsor Chrysler; and Ricardo’s lowest and refined Austin-Healey surely form part of those numbers on the means of transportation that Cubans haven’t been able to stop using. The island is a museum in motion because of the vintage cars that transport millions of Cubans and visitors every day, while in other places in the world they are exhibition pieces or luxuries for sporadic outings. Cuba is a repository of Chevrolet, Ford, Cadillac, Jaguar or Dodge cars, the previously mentioned trade names, and also some from the extinct socialist camp: Lada or Moskvitch. But American cars mark the tendency in the Cuban auto park. Cubans baptized them as Almendrones, supposedly because many of them share a certain resemblance to an almond (in Spanish almendra is an almond, thus the name of almendrón, meaning a big almond). That’s why Armando spends days fixing the faults in his 1956 Plymouth. The estimate is difficult, since just on trips to the airport the old car gobbles up thousands of kilometers a month. Repairing it, being on...

  Forget about statistics. The best way to estimate the arrival of tourists to Havana is the long line to enter La Zorra y el Cuervo. The equation? The longer it is, the bigger the crowd. That doesn’t fail. In the morning you can see small groups snooping around the week’s billboard of this theme club located on La Rampa, dedicated in body and soul to Cuban jazz for more than 20 years. Along that promenade from the 1950s that comes to an end by the sea, passersby can walk, without turning into a vandal, over a Lam, a Portocarrero, a Martínez Pedro, a Bermúdez or an Amelia Peláez. They are reproductions in granite mosaics on the sidewalks of 23rd Avenue, an artery that combines bars and ministries with no prejudices. From everywhere At night, close to 10, the line is a poor imitation of Babel; from the nearby Latin Americans to the faraway Koreans or Australians, to the inevitable Americans, Canadians and Europeans. Kim, a shortsighted Korean from Seoul wearing glasses, muttering in English that it’s his first time in Cuba, but the anxiety in his eyes calls into question Asians’ prodigal equanimity. He’s crazy about getting to know...

¡Fabiana Cozza is in Havana singing Bola de Nieve! We open today with this Brazilian singer, with her voice, her melodies. We interview her about her concert in the Fine Arts Theater, about her immense art. That’s our proposal for this weekend, our start. Though we have a lot more. In Visual Arts there’s a mix of Japan and Cuba in an expo. In Cinema, a Lester Hamlet documentary will be premiered. In Theater, Farandula, the play by Jazz Vila, which is moving Havana, will be on billboard until December. And of course, FAC proposals, so you get excited. Follow our flow. See you ‘round!   Fabiana sings Bola Brazilian singer Fabiana Cozza will perform for the first time in Cuba. She’ll do it with her most recent album Ay, amor, tomorrow in the Fine Arts Museum Theater, at 7 pm. https://oncubanews.com/cultura/fabiana-cozza-las-dos-voces-bola-nieve/ Cuban piano marathon in Miami Global Cuba Fest presents “Piano Marathon Cubano”, a Tony Perez and Yusa concert in the Miami Dade County Auditorium, tomorrow, at 8 pm. (2901 W Flagler St., Miami) It will be an unforgettable marathon with music by the famous Cuban pianist Tony Perez. He will play a broad selection of genres and music styles...

When Ernest Hemingway arrived in Finca Vijía he was already well-known in Havana. The Ambos Mundos Hotel, El Floridita Bar and La Bodeguita del Medio formed part of his usual itinerary each time he arrived in Cuba. His third wife, journalist Martha Gellhorn, found the estate, located on a hill in San Francisco de Paula, on the outskirts of the city, and for Hemingway it seemed ideal for the life he wanted. The writer would justify his enchantment by saying that it was because to go into the city he only had to put on his shoes, because he could cover the telephone’s ring with paper to avoid any calls and because during the morning breeze he worked better and more comfortably than in any other place. The couple rented Finca Vigía in 1939 and a year later bought the property. Hemingway, who still hadn’t won the Pulitzer Prize or published several of his most recognized works, would turn the place into a sanctuary for his writing. Every morning, while there was silence in the entire house, he would write on his typewriter, standing up and barefoot over a rug made from the leather of a kudu hunted during a...

A few days ago Reuters published a news item about a version obtained by them of the awaited measures for self-employment; however, we continue without knowing too much. Today it is easier to find in the street a person who dares to give an answer about when the currencies will be unified than one that gives you a date for the appearance of the new rules of the game for the non-state sector. For me, the answers to those questions should go hand in hand with others: When and how will the multiple exchange rates between the CUC and the CUP start being eliminated? When will the appearance of small and mid-size private enterprises start being implemented in Cuba? It will be extremely difficult to unify the currencies and eliminate the 1:1 exchange rate in the state sector without using the controlled growth of the private/cooperative sector with a tool, among many things, to manage the imbalances that will be generated in the national economy. With this mishmash of questions in mind and with a voracious impatience, 200 days of silence gave gone by for a group of self-employed who want to participate in these analyses. A silence only broken...

  Despite the Trump administration’s measures and the mysterious plot of the sonic attacks, U.S. travel agencies and other companies linked to tourism prefer to remain in Cuba and even grow. A month ago, a group of these companies meeting in Havana launched a loud and clear message: the island continues being legal, safe and hospitable for U.S. visitors. At that time, some 20 tour operators, airlines and cruise companies were unanimous about the inconsistency of the restrictions applied by the government of Donald Trump and the importance of continuing to promote visits to Cuba. Last Tuesday, the Cuba Travel Services (CTS) agency took a step further. The California-based company announced the opening of an office in Havana next March 31, which will turn it into the first U.S. travel company with its own venue in Cuba in more than 60 years. Michael Zuccato, general manager of CTS, commented that getting the Ministry of Tourism to grant this permit to have a location in Cuba has been a victory for their organization, adding that their physical presence means that their clients will obtain a faster service and a more personalized attention directly from their personnel. He went on to say...

  The United States will maintain its embassy in Cuba with the minimum of personnel starting Sunday after the expiry of the departure status since on September 29 last year due to the alleged attacks suffered by 24 of its citizens on the island. A “new permanent staffing plan” will take effect on March 5 with which the embassy “will continue to operate with the minimum personnel necessary,” “similar to the level of emergency staffing maintained during ordered departure,” the Department of State announced today in a media note. “The embassy will operate as an unaccompanied post, defined as a post at which no family members are permitted to reside,” the note adds. The embassy in Cuba will thus operate “permanently” with the “minimum personnel necessary to perform core diplomatic and consular functions.” On September 29 last year the United States issued a warning requesting that its citizens not travel to Cuba and ordered the exit of the embassy’s non-essential personnel due to the alleged attacks suffered by its citizens on the island. “We still do not have definitive answers on the source or cause of the attacks and an investigation into the attacks is ongoing,” the Department of State...

To keep the party on, we have another one for this week. A big party, a really Cuban one: Fiesta del Tambor. Gerardo Piloto and Klimax will lead this edition, dedicated to Brazil and with a lot of concerts in many places in Havana. As usual, look down. In Music, another super event, the unique Descemer Bueno concert in Karl Marx theater. But there’s even more. Visual Arts proposes a Zenit Tatto event, attention ladies! In Theater, there’re three plays you can’t miss. In Dance, an appealing presentation in Centro Hispanoamericano de Cultura; and in FAC a little bit of everything. Start now. Search first and find after. See you around!   A party for the drum The XVII Edition of the International Contest and Festival Fiesta del Tambor “Guillermo Barrera in Memoriam” will begin next March 5th until 11th. Organized by drummer Giraldo Piloto, director of the Cuban orchestra Klimax, the event wil be a tribute to Brazil and its main locations will be Mella Theater (principal concerts), Gardens of Mella Theater, Casa de la Musica de Plaza and Salon Rosado de la Tropical. Full program here. Will participate important Cuban and international musicians and percussionists, the main Cuban...

The Habanos Festival is paradise for lovers of the best tobacco. The aroma of the world’s most famous Premium cigar surrounds the days of an event in which manufacturers, distributors and smokers come together to pay tribute to one of Cuba’s iconic products. The festival is celebrating its 20th edition with eloquent numbers. More than 2,000 participants from some 70 countries are meeting in the Havana Convention Center, while 184 exhibitors from 14 countries are livening up the Commercial Fair with the greatest foreign participation of recent years. Two of the paradigmatic brands of Habanos: Cohiba and Partagás, were the protagonists in the festival’s most awaited launchings: the 2014 Reserva Cosecha of the Cohiba Robustos vitola, with a unique and exclusive production of 5,000 numbered boxes, and two new vitolas – the numbers 2 and 3 – of the Partagás Maduro Line. In addition, new vitolas of the Hoyo de Monterrey and Vegueros brands will also be presented, as well as limited editions of Bolívar, H.Upmann and Romeo y Julieta, of which the Humidor Grand Churchills will also be launched, a veritable jewel created by craftsman Jean-Philippe Martin in Elie Bleu workshop in Paris. During the event’s days there will...

  When Mabel Poblet was barely a child and walked through the streets of her native Cienfuegos, she dreamed about being a ballerina, but she lacked the necessary physical aptitudes: her mother, an architect, and her father, a renowned children’s theater company director, encouraged her to find herself. She started weighing her options in a school in the locality which did not give courses on engraving, the specialty she was interested in. That’s why she arrived in Havana when she was just 16 years old and was able to enroll in San Alejandro, the prestigious arts academy from which she graduated in 2007. Definitively in the capital, Mabel discovered her “way of communicating” and her “life’s passion”: visual arts. Considered one of the most outstanding emerging artists in the Cuban contemporary context, she forms part of the 2000 generation with an aesthetics that is her very own. Her themes have to do with the family, love, friendship, intercontinental relations: “everything that is part of life flows in my work,” she says in an exclusive interview for OnCuba. ---------------------- The year 2017 was one of great creative intensity for Mabel Poblet and for the materialization of dreams: she participated in the...

Bulevar Cubano was born as a shop window of products “Made in Cuba,” the first online shop focused on consumers on the island that offers products and services designed by entrepreneurs, like T-shirts, jewelry, leather handbags and home-made soaps. Yunier Soler, Yoslandy Lopez and Gerardo Rodríguez are the three young Cuban computer scientists who are behind this project, which in just one week after coming out has already made four sales when it is still making itself known. In their effort to find technological solutions to the difficulties present in Cuba, it was Soler who proposed the idea to his two friends, who were excited with this pioneer initiative on the island, where Internet did not start spreading until 2015 but which already has 4.5 million users in a population of a bit over 11 million. In two and a half years, Cuba has gone from being practically disconnected to having more than 500 Wi-Fi public zones – a dollar per hour – where there are an average of 250,000 daily connections, allowing Internet in homes and planning to offer this year cell phone connection to the web. “The aim of Bulevar Cubano is to function like an online shop...

“That all the friends share, that the rumor gets out, that the world finds out about the Smart-T-Shirt,” is what a 28-year-old Cuban wants today. He lives in China, from where his grandfather got to the island many years ago, like any other emigrant, to pave the way. Today it is the grandson, Juan Pablo Fung, who has sought an economically more prosperous environment and from where he has been able to imagine and make come true a business that is, above all, a great incentive for the imagination. “I had this idea three years ago; to create my own brand of smart clothes. To give human beings one more tool to express themselves. I’ve worked and suffered a great deal to be able to make it come to fruition. It’s not easy to be an entrepreneur; it’s absolutely not easy to be a Cuban entrepreneur.” This is how Fung presented the leader product of his Dirstuff enterprise: a T-shirt that each one can personalize by attaching letters on it, making their chest (or back) a tailor-made space to proclaim their own messages. Let’s start by breaking down that phrase “first smart T-shirt made by Cubans” which appears in the...

  The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) of New York is announcing the exhibition of a program of Cuban films that have been censored on the island. From March 9 to 11, 10 films, between shorts and feature-length documentaries and fiction films, will be screened in the halls of that important artistic institution. The exhibit, titled Cuban Cinema Under Censorship, aims to be an anthology of more than half a century of vetoed films. It is collateral to the installation Untitled (Havana, 2000), by Cuban artist Tania Brugueras, being displayed there since early February, and which will be closed with this film exhibit. The selection of films, curated by Cuban critic Dean Luis Reyes, is headed by the one that continues being the foundational moment of the interdiction from power of Cuban filmmakers: PM (Orlando Jiménez Leal and Sabá Cabrera Infante, 1961). The censorship of this short by the Cuban Film Institute gave rise to the first definition of the cultural policy of the nascent socialist Revolution led by Fidel Castro, who thus left defined the margins of the admissible within culture and art in Cuba. PM was never publicly exhibited on the island (after 1961) until 1994. During the...

Embassy Rebirth/Tercer Paraiso Cuba and Arte Continua are calling so this is how we start. Once again, several projects get together in a Rayo Active Zone to invite you to stop by Chinatown in Havana. That way you can witness this third encounter take place in some kind of dumpster in Rayo street. Can’t miss this Rayo-activity. Also in Visual Arts it will be launched a new Catalogue of painting and performances by Collage Ediciones. In Music, the recommendation is the 90th Silvio Rodriguez concert in the neighborhood, as well as the free presentation of Joan Manuel Serrat in concert in Buenos Aires. In Dance, two proposals: one of them comes with the company Dance and Music from the Middle East Cuban Soho, and the other one comes with the Cuban National Ballet in Havana and Unite States. In Cinema, MuestraPlus Film invites to a selection of Czech animation, and El Ciervo Encantado will screen in its headquarter the documentary “Severo secreto”. There is also Literature and of course the Art Factory program for the weekend. Here we are, energetic and Rayo-actives. So put on your batteries and choose. See you around!   Bring your people Tomorrow, at 4 pm,...

Donna Marie Factor defines herself as an American who is very Cuban. A professor of Spanish in El Camino College, California, she feels joined to Cuba since two decades ago she discovered the virtues of the island’s music. Ever since she was a child Donna fell in love with the flute and the guitar, but she understood that living off of music in the United States could be difficult. That’s why she decided to devote herself professionally to teaching Spanish in her country’s university institutions. That’s how she found the road that brought her to Cuba. “On one occasion one of my students from the California State University invited me to a nightclub in Los Angeles called El Floridita, and there I saw a band playing Cuban music,” she tells OnCuba. Until then my knowledge of Cuban art was very limited, but when I heard that I was completely fascinated,” she confesses. “There was a detail that greatly caught my attention: the band’s director was not Cuban but rather an American. I realized then that I didn’t have to be Cuban to play that music, which seemed very good to me. I approached her and was her student for several...