C U L T U R E

• The immense privilege of living in the times of Fidel
December 23.08
THE Pabellón Cuba on Havana’s La Rampa boulevard yesterday was filled with people anxious to buy the first copies of the book Así es Fidel (That’s Fidel), in which writer and journalist Luis Baez has collected more than 400 testimonies of the political and human aspects of the leader of the Revolution.

• Medium shot of the 30th Havana Film Festival
December 11.08
AT film events, we must accustom ourselves to their language. That’s why this is a good time to take a medium shot of this film called the 30th International Festival of New Latin American Cinema.

• Jose Villa beyond chisel carvings
December 4.08
THE great sculptor Constantin Brancusi once said that one reaches simplicity as one approaches the real meaning of things. Today, I am taking his words for my own on referring to the work of the most recent winner of our National Visual Arts Prize: José Villa Soberón.

• Misleading information uncovered
December 4.08
"PEOPLE are so sick of the lies of large media companies that they no longer believe in them," said well-known Chilean journalist Ernesto Carmona, during the launch of the Spanish version of the book Project Censored 2009 at the José Martí International Journalism Institute.

• 30TH FESTIVAL OF NEW LATIN AMERICAN CINEMA INAUGURATED
Renovation and commitment from the new generations
December 3.08
THERE is no ultimate image, but there is one image that come close, and that is the one being constructed by the hundreds of young filmmakers who are visiting us, Alfredo Guevara said on Tuesday at the inauguration of the 30th International Festival of New Latin American Cinema at the Karl Marx Theater.
- First look at the 30th Havana Film Festival
- Cuban cinematography competing strongly

• Launch of Peace in Colombia, an essential reference book
November 13.08
CULTURE Minister Abel Prieto described La paz en Colombia (Peace in Colombia) by leader of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro Ruz, launched yesterday at Havana’s International Conference Center, as a essential reference book for all authentic left-wing intellectuals and those involved in social movements in Latin America and other regions.

• Star moments of the 21st Ballet Festival
November 6.08
GISELLE is a ballet that every ballerina aspires to interpret. It is said that this is the ballet that makes or breaks a star. Among its many festivities, the 21st Havana Ballet Festival has one that will make it memorable, the celebration of the sublime Alicia Alonso’s debut in that work, the peak of romanticism.

• HAVANA BALLET FESTIVAL
Revival of Sleeping Beauty
October 30.08
LAST night’s restaging of The Sleeping Beauty, choreography by Alicia Alonso based on the original by Marius Petipa, was a peak moment on the second day of the 21st Havana Ballet Festival.

• Raúl attends opening of Havana Ballet Festival
October 29.08
PRESIDENT Raúl Castro attended the opening Gala of the 21st Havana Ballet Festival in the García Lorca Hall of Havana’s Grand Theater. He was accompanied by Ricardo Alarcón, president of the National Assembly; the culture ministers of Cuba and Venezuela, Abel Prieto and Héctor Soto, respectively; and Aurora Bosch, one of the "Four Jewels" of Cuban ballet.
- Letter from Fidel to Alicia Alonso

• 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE NATIONAL BALLET OF CUBA
Visual arts and dance in dialogue
October 24.08
IN his dramatic poem Faust, one of the master works of universal literature, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) asks: "Instant, be eternal, you are so beautiful."

• Music in Cuban culture
October 20.08
CUBAN music has been a decisive factor in the national identity since colonial times, even in the midst of the Wars of Independence. When the blood of the Mambí Army fighters was being shed in torrents, almost all of the trova singers were joining the battle.

• A film of love and war
October.17.08
THE much-awaited film Kangamba by director Rogelio París, one of the most ambitious and complex productions in recent Cuban filmmaking, premiered at the Cuban Film Institute’s (ICAIC) Chaplin Theater.

• LA COLMENITA CHILDREN’S THEATER
For children to dream again
October.6.08
LA Colmenita has once again confirmed why it is an exceptional children’s group, "that is more than artistic, that has a spiritual aspect," as Culture Minister Abel Prieto put it.

• Solás, again
October.6.08
IN 2005, having just come out of the jury meeting chaired by Jaime Sarusky that unhesitatingly awarded Humberto Solás the prize by unanimous vote, I wrote in these same pages, "Today, lovers of film and culture in general, which means our life as a whole, should be delighted with the National Film Prize that is being awarded to Humberto.

• Human beings are the most important elements
September.26.08
A nation’s heritage not only includes objects and buildings, but also so-called natural monuments and the most authentic and popular values that denote each community.

• Against imperialist hostility
Cuba defended in the world
September.24.08
THE hypocrisy of imperialist rhetoric which, in response to the devastation wreaked by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, attempted to cover up the hostility of U.S. authorities toward Cuba, has been exposed by 5,200-plus intellectuals from 73 countries whom in the last week have adhered to a declaration called "With Cuba Today."

• Intellectuals in 30 countries demand an end to the blockade on Cuba
September.18.08
HAVANA, September 17 —In less than 24 hours more than 1,000 intellectuals from Latin America, the United States, Europe and Africa have signed an appeal circulated by their Cuban colleagues, expressing solidarity and demanding an end to the U.S. blockade of Cuba.

• To end the blockade and for solidarity with Cuba
Cuban artists and intellectuals appeal to their colleagues worldwide
September.17.08
NOTABLE figures in the Cuban arts announced a call appealing to the sensitivity of their colleagues all over the world "to demand the immediate end of the criminal U.S. blockade and to promote actions of solidarity and help for our people."

• 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE NATIONAL BALLET OF CUBA
The keys of a designer
August 1.08
IN the repertoires, season announcements, programs and anthologies of the National Ballet of Cuba (BNC), there are numerous credits for the set designs, costumes – and sometimes both – of Ricardo Reymena.

• Esteban Lazo praises work of Union of Writers and Artists
June 9.08
HAVANA .— Vice President Esteban Lazo yesterday praised the work of the National Council of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) over the last three months, following the organization’s 7th Congress.

• PABLO DE LA TORRIENTE BRAU CULTURAL CENTER
Cultural consistency and a shared vision
June 6.08
THE pretext for visiting the Pablo de la Torriente Brau Cultural Center on the historic Muralla Street in Old Havana, was the awarding of the CUBADISCO Prize of Honor to its director, the poet Víctor Casaus.

• New web site dedicated to Che Guevara
June 6.08
"I can’t imagine a Che aged 80," says one of the posters designed for the 80th anniversary of the birth of the heroic guerrilla Che Guevara, at the Havana launch of the web site www.che80.co.cu,, to be inaugurated on June 14.

• International fever over cha-cha-cha, 55 years ago
June 6.08
THE cha-cha-cha invaded the world 55 years ago, before Elvis Presley’s rock-and-roll. World War II had ended, the great times of the 20th century had begun, and the talk all over the world was of the cha-cha-cha, a "matchless dance," created in Cuba by Enrique Jorrín with the help of the Orquesta América.

• MOZART IN HAVANA
May 22.08
ULISES Hernández, pianist, professor, producer and great cultural presenter, is also seeking a pretext for making something interesting. His latest undertaking, the Mozart in Havana DVD (Colibrí Productions) has won four awards in Cubadisco 2008: the Grand Prize, Concert Soloist, DVD Show and Best producer.

• 2008 CUBADISCO AWARDS
May 22.08
Cubadisco 2008 set out to multiply, and its Grand Prize was shared by Clásicos de Cuba, by César López y Habana Ensemble (BIS Music), and Mozart en la Habana (Colibrí).

• The Rumba Palace in Havana’s Playa de Marianao
May 22.08
THE Rumba Palace was a grand cabaret in Playa de Marianao, famous for the authentic music that was played there, as were the Pennsylvania, La Choricera, El Niche, and Los Tres Hermanos…

• The world’s longest rumba ends in Havana opening Cubadisco 2008
May 19.08
The culmination in Havana of the world’s longest rumba which included tens of thousands of participants, for more than 300 consecutive hours, over the length and breadth of the island, opened Cubadisco 2008, the grand celebration of Cuban music which this Saturday held its awards ceremony honoring the year’s best recordings and, yesterday, its inaugural gala at the Amadeo Roldán Theater.

• Casa de las Americas exhibition by Guatemalan painter Abel López
May 15.08
THE exhibition Zona de Asalto, (Assault Zone) by the Guatemalan visual artist Abel López, has been warmly received at the Casa de las Americas Latin American Gallery.

• Kelvis Ochoa, a modern-day minstrel
May 15.08
KELVIS Ochoa "danced the rumba" at the Karl Marx Theater in a concert that could be described as one of the most resounding of the year. The bard even sang the legendary "La Mateodora": "Where is the Mateodora? / Dancing in the rumba."

• Tourism agencies to promote artistic events
May 9.08
THE island’s main artistic festivals are to be especially promoted by national tourism agencies as part of moves to promote Cuba’s image as a distinctive cultural destination at global level within the so-called leisure industry.

• Let culture make the difference
May 6.08
CULTURE can and should be the distinctive feature of Cuba’s options for vistors, stated Deputy Tourism Minister María Elena López Monday, May 5, during a press conference held prior to the opening of the Cuba 2008 International Tourism Fair.

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