Perhaps this month OnCuba will be part of that time that you give yourself, and that’s why we would like to propose an especially useful and pleasant issue. This month we bring you the secrets of El Aljibe, the restaurant where the chicken and black beans seem to have been made by grandma; artistic projects by enterprising young people devoted to “putting on a good party”; José Manuel Carreño, the Cuban ballet dancer who has been named artistic director of a U.S. ballet company; the incredible city of Bayamo, and women of that city, as it approaches its 500th anniversary; the unmistakable work of Mendive, a Cuban artist with deep African roots; an analysis of the revival of the sugar industry in Cuba; Elpidio Valdés! the favorite cartoon of several generations of Cubans; an interview with Fernando Rojas, Cuba’s vice minister of culture, who agreed to chat with us about the main lines of work followed by the Ministry of Culture in the context of changes to the Cuban economy.