Since he swept into power 50 years ago, Cuba's Fidel Castro has been honored in poems, movies and paintings and now in reggaeton, a form of music widely popular among Cuban youth but not island leaders.
The musicians in the two-time Grammy-nominated band Tiempo Libre were born, raised and classically trained at Cuban conservatories but now make their home in Miami. Focusing on timba, a sizzling combination of Latin jazz and Cuban sound, the group has been touring the U.S. to support its latest CD, "Bach in Havana." We talked to pianist and music director Jorge Gómez, 37, about touring with the band.
With little official support or air time on state-controlled radio, the songs Cuban reggaeton artists record in makeshift studios lined with egg cartons for sound insulation are mostly transmitted though homemade CDs and on computer flash memory sticks.
Some Jews in Cuba are greeting with caution the recent thaw in relations between their island nation and the United States.
Associated Press photo essay on Cuba's low infant mortality rate
Elvis Presley croons "All Shook Up" from the CD player as Florentino Marin wipes down his 1955 Buick Century sedan on a central Havana street. "It's always been said that Buicks and Cadillacs were the Kings of the Road," Marin says proudly, admiring the paint job on his two-tone, chrome-plated taxi as it glistened under a few drops of steamy morning rain.
Izet Samá has no regrets about her decision to devote every waking hour to her mission as pastor of the Presbyterian-Reformed Church, guiding a small congregation in the Cuban province of Havana.
Spanish newspaper El Pais reports on the reasons behind the purge of three senior Cuban officials earlier this year
The Cuban government's call for energy conservation appears to reflect the country's economic strategy under President Raul Castro, who assumed Cuba's leadership more than a year ago. Rather than follow the path of market-based liberalization reforms that China and Vietnam's communist governments have taken, Cuba intends to weather the crisis by slimming its bureaucracy and exhorting citizens to conserve resources and produce more.
Some U.S. port cities are putting plans in place to increase travel and trade with Cuba — just in case relations with the communist island begin to thaw.
Cuba's tourism industry will have enough capacity for the surge of American travelers expected should U.S. lawmakers lift restrictions on visits to the island, said Miguel Figueras, an adviser at Cuba's tourism ministry.
I visited Cuba a few years ago and was surprised. Everyone was smart, skilled, and seemed hungry for opportunities to improve their lives because they'd spent decades under Fidel Castro's human-rights-crushing thumb. Now that President Obama is talking about opening up trade, Cuba experts predict that the country could explode with creativity and entrepreneurial innovation.
President Barack Obama has talked about lifting this country's trade embargo with Cuba and if it happens, one company says they'll be forced to layoff more than 100 workers in the Richmond area. The cigar-maker Swedish Match has its North American headquarters in Richmond and it says opening the U.S. market to Cuban cigars may jeopardize 120 jobs unless Americans play hardball with Communist Cuba.
Cuban archaeologists are studying the strange drawings found in caves in eastern Cuba, Prensa Latina reported. The petroglyphs, discovered in the Sierra del Rosario reserve located in Pinar del Rio province, have now motivated large-scale research in the area to establish the origin of the asymmetric carvings in the stalagmites.
A push in Congress to do away with U.S. travel bans on Cuba could set off a flood of American visitors to the long-forbidden island. But many wonder if a country where foreigners have long complained about lousy food, sluggish service and iffy infrastructure is ready for an onslaught of Americans unseen since the days of Meyer Lansky and Al Capone.
Cuba is going through a “very deep and difficult” crisis due to the inefficiency of its management system, the low productivity of its workers, high unemployment among young people and the effects of global recession, economist Alfredo Jam said.
U.S. State Department's 2009 report on human trafficking includes a section on Cuba.
The Obama administration's plans to bring U.S.-Cuba relations out of the Cold War era have been tripped up twice this month by a naggingly familiar Cold War issue: espionage.
EU nations want to deepen dialogue with Cuba, despite concerns over the lack of progress on human rights, EU foreign ministers agreed Monday.
The Cuban art market is showing signs of vitality as the economic recession weakens demand for works from elsewhere in Latin America, collectors said.
Smaller bean rations and longer bus lines are among the new hardships hitting Cubans in their already difficult lives as the world economic crisis tightens its grip on the communist island
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton won a small diplomatic victory in Honduras recently. Few Americans are likely to have heard about it. The issue was Cuba, and the details were arcane.
RSS|
My Yahoo|
Newsletters|
Mobile|
Alerts|
Twitter
Terms of Service| Privacy Policy| About our ads| Copyright| About The Miami Herald| About the McClatchy Company| Corrections| Contact Us| Advertise| Work for Us
Partners: El Nuevo Herald| Newspaper in Education| WLRN | Miami Herald News| CBS4 WFOR-TV| More
Copyright 2012 Miami Herald Media Co. All rights reserved
Previous