From cubart en listas.cult.cu Wed Aug 2 05:39:41 2006
From: cubart en listas.cult.cu (=?iso-8859-1?q?Resumen_del_Portal_de_la_Cultura_Cubana__en_Ingl=E9s?=)
Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2006 09:39:41 +0100
Subject: [Cubart] We Shall Meet Fidel Next December
Message-ID: <010201c6b60f$32c258c0$4e01a8c0@anayansi>
We Shall Meet Fidel Next December
August 01, 2006
August 1st, 2006
Message of the Guayasamín Foundation to the participants in the event for the 80 birthday of Fidel.
Friends:
You should have known about the "Proclamation to the Cuban People" made public by Fidel a few hours ago. In that text, he refers to the event that the Foundation promoted with your support in the following terms: "The 80 anniversary of my birthday, that thousands of personalities so generously decided to celebrate next August 13th, I ask them to postpone it for the December 2nd of the present year, 50 anniversary of the disembark of the Granma yacht."
We must pay attention to the request of this dearest friend of Guayasamín and of the world with all our love and therefore we will meet in Havana next December 2nd to pay our tribute to whom deserves universal affection and admiration.
The news we have received are encouraging and we have no doubts about his recovery. We must continue to work so our event will have even greater success in that historical date the Commander Fidel has suggested.
Alfredo Vera
General Coordinator
Source: Fundación Guayasamín
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From cubart en listas.cult.cu Thu Aug 3 15:24:28 2006
From: cubart en listas.cult.cu (=?iso-8859-1?q?Resumen_del_Portal_de_la_Cultura_Cubana__en_Ingl=E9s?=)
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2006 14:24:28 -0400 (CDT)
Subject: [Cubart] CUBARTE Newsletter
Message-ID: <200608031824.k73IOS1O075833@portal.cult.cu>
CUBART NEWSLETTER
CUBART Newsletter is a specialized weekly news service from the Portal of Cuban Culture. In our pages you will find the most outstanding aspects from national culture ongoing and its worldwide reflection, as well as opinion sections dealing with themes which today worry intellectuals.
AROUND CUBA
- We Shall Meet Fidel Next December
- Dance Dream Comes True in Havana
- Intellectuals Denounce Aggression against Lebanon and Palestine
- Commendable Work of Cultural Promoters in Granma
- Camagüey Readying for the Theater Festival
- Great Vocational Workshops to Open to Theater in Havana.
- Rock in Havana
- Juan Marinello Special Essay Prize Back in 2006
- The New Passion for the Conga
- Benny More Film Worthy of Him
- Jose Marti Center of Studies Awarded Cuban President and Intellectuals
- Cuban Divas Honor Adolfo Guzmán
- Cuban Cinema: The Take Off
CUBA IN THE WORLD
- Latin American Leaders Pay Homage to Ernesto Che Guevara
- Equis Alfonso: “I Am a Revolutionary of My Work and My Music”
- La Colmenita Children Arts Troupe Touches German Hearts
- Omara Portuondo, Roman Music Academy Flooded with Cuban Identity
- Documentary Criticizing US Cuba Sanctions Screened in Miami
CUBARTE PORTAL SUGGESTS YOU
- Open the Schools to the Cultural Diversity.
- The Cuban People, the United States and the Republic
- I Do Not Want To See It (1)
- Leo Brower’s Innovations and Decisions
- African Mythologies
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We Shall Meet Fidel Next December
August 1st, 2006
Message of the Guayasamín Foundation to the participants in the event for the 80 birthday of Fidel.
Friends:
You should have known about the "Proclamation to the Cuban People" made public by Fidel a few hours ago. In that text, he refers to the event that the Foundation promoted with your support in the following terms: "The 80 anniversary of my birthday, that thousands of personalities so generously decided to celebrate next August 13th, I ask them to postpone it for the December 2nd of the present year, 50 anniversary of the disembark of the Granma yacht."
We must pay attention to the request of this dearest friend of Guayasamín and of the world with all our love and therefore we will meet in Havana next December 2nd to pay our tribute to whom deserves universal affection and admiration.
The news we have received are encouraging and we have no doubts about his recovery. We must continue to work so our event will have even greater success in that historical date the Commander Fidel has suggested.
Alfredo Vera
General Coordinator
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Dance Dream Comes True in Havana
Havana, (Granma).- Dance performers and enthusiasts in the Cuban capital saw one of their dreams come true over the weekend with the opening of the new Havana Dance Center, in a ceremony led by Minister of Culture Abel Prieto and famous dancer-teacher Santiago Alfonso.
The choreographer said that the Center is opening at a time when the city has over 40 troupes ranging in diverse forms of dance from romantic ballet to folklore and Spanish dance to hip-hop.
Also attending the dance center’s opening was Havana City Historian Eusebio Leal who acknowledged the efforts of construction workers involved in the project as well as others that helped make it possible.
The Havana Dance Center is located on several floors of a restored building on Prado between Ingenio and Refugio in Old Havana.
Olga Torres, director of the center, told Granma that the investment is well placed since half of the country’s dance troupes are based in the capital. She noted that three companies —directed by Rosario Cardenas, Santiago Alfonso and Guido Gali— will have their permanent headquarters at the center and a dozen other groups will make regular use of the facility.
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Intellectuals Denounce Aggression against Lebanon and Palestine
Havana, (Cubasi).- The Cuban chapter, part of the world network “In Defense of Humanity” has called on intellectuals, artists, social activists and all honest people in the world to denounce the Israeli brutal and genocide aggression against Lebanon and Palestine through all means at their reach.
We must condemn the impunity the US government guarantees to Israel as well as the European Union’s cowardice, most evident than ever before, the inertia of the UN Security Council and the complicity of the great press media.
It is an urgent need to prevent entire populations from the mass extermination supported by the White House, from the destruction of cities and from the flagrant violation of their most elemental human rights. The ideas of justice, international legality and the possibility of a peaceful coexistence between nations are in danger of disappearing because of the present barbarity.
“As well as the monstrous outlook continues to impressing us, it is not possible to accept that the world remains passively seeing the extermination of the Palestinian and Lebanese populations. Let us raise a moral barrier against insensitivity, terrorism of state and genocide.”
Translation: Ivette Semanat Negret (Cubarte)
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Commendable Work of Cultural Promoters in Granma
Granma, (ICRT).- Granma Culture Director Eddy Rodríguez confirmed local entities won the First National Place in the corresponding emulation process for the improvements on programs, implemented thanks to the commitment of cultural promoters and activists.
The province of Granma with 1,050 cultural promoters holds the highest number of graduates amid the country’s new development programs and a figure guaranteeing their presence in the different neighborhoods and communities.
According to the official, the strengthening of ties among the territory’s cultural institutions, the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists, the Hermanos Saíz Association, gathering young creators, and some other intellectuals´ organizations have contributed to the success.
He stated that 2005 and the first half of 2006 were periods of consolidation for the concert music bands, increased from three to 17, thanks to the efforts of the first Cuban Concert Music School located in that territory.
That eastern province counts on 13 municipal bands, two of them made up by children and another two by inmates, highlighted Rodríguez and added that now they are working on the extension of the esplanade located on the General Calixto García avenue, the transformation of the Bayamo Cinema into a theater and the remodeling of the Homeland Square, what will contribute special attractions to the spirituality of local citizens and visitors.
Unique in Cuba, the Homeland Square hosted the central ceremony for July 26th, Day of National Rebelliousness, and since then on it will work as a cultural complex that includes the Bayamo Theater, areas for political ceremonies and people’s celebrations and a protocol hall among other facilities.
Translation: Ivette Semanat Negret (Cubarte)
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Camagüey Readying for the Theater Festival
Havana, (Cubasi).- Between next October 12th-22nd, the most excellent of Cuban theater will get together in Camaguey and details are taken care already for the party. The city has 5 theatrical headquarters: the Teatro Principal (Main Theater), La Edad de Oro (Golden Age) ward, the Guiñol (Puppet Theatre), Tasende Ward, and Teatro del Viento (Theater of Wind), willing to open its doors to the large number of spectators that attend the appointment.
The Main Theater is majestic, with a massive pit and enough room for big shows will be the venue for the awarding ceremony of Avellaneda Awards. The Puppet Theater, as its name shows, houses the Puppet Theater of Camagüey and all the proposals involving a marionette as main character. The Golden Age, headquarters of the group of equal name, welcomes proposals for children and young. Tasende Ward is the headquarters of the Dramatic Assemble.
Theater of Wind, away from the theatrical circuit was built by the actors of the group which work there, and is one of the newest theatrical facilities, characterized for welcoming the juvenile public.
The Organizing Committee of the Cuban Theater Festival already made public the sample selected to participate in the competition that includes theater for children and young, and theater for adults. The staging of groups who have won in previous editions is expected like Charenton, from Buendía Theater; The Bronze Little Virgin, of Las Estaciones Theater, Stockman, of Argos Theater, and Puppet Theatre of Remedios, among others. It’s worth outstanding the presence of Histories on the Road, of Theater of Wind, the only proposal from Camagüey in the appointment.
In these days are being received the technical specifications of the participant, with the objective of guaranteeing that each work is programmed in the most appropriate space and that the technical conditions are those needed by each montage.
It’s announced that in the opening night will go up on the stage of Main Theater the Folkloric Assemble of Camagüey, with their show María Antonia, a dance version of the homonymous tragedy of Eugenio Hernández Espinosa, with the direction of Reinaldo Echemendía.
The Theater Festival of Camagüey is the most important theater event in Cuba, the event where work approaches are exchanged and where the public welcomes with passion the proposals on stage.
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Great Vocational Workshops to Open to Theater in Havana.
Havana, (Cubarte).- As a novelty for the forthcoming school year, the gigantic Vocational Orientation Workshops towards Arts that attend 50 thousand children from every municipality of the Cuban capital city, will open to the theaters, announce to Cubarte sources from the National Ballet School.
The organizers of this contact with children and adolescents with the arts, are answering in this way to a demand of the secondary students, who are offered folklore as well as Physical preparation classes and in an optional manner choreographic composition, corporal expression, plastic arts, ballet or traditional dances such as the danzón.
Elena Cangas, sub-director of vocational workshops, from the National Ballet School, pointed out that it is all about enriching the spiritual universe of the young people, their family, and of every person involved (educational assistants, relatives, teachers, directors...)
Apart from its venue, the National Ballet School, the workshops are not designed to develop dancers, but to create a more exigent, fuller public, while they help the young people to discover themselves and the arts, explained the employee, who reminded that it is a task prioritized by the Cuban state.
Around the students demand that the workshop should open to theatrical representation, Cangas reminded that many of them, whish to continue artistic teaching as they finish their ninth grade and they choose the National Theater School, the San Alejandro Academy, the National Circus School or the one for art instructors for example. The workshops help them to discover their vocation and to ready them for their entrance exams, she pointed out.
In the case that the young person could have the right conditions to be a dancer, the professors on the workshop can orient him on how to channel on the specialized educational system, stated the employee and she added that the recruitments for the workshops are made yearly on every primary school of the Cuban capital city and are directed towards children from seven years onwards.
Translation : Karen López (Cubarte)
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Rock in Havana
Havana, (Cubarte).- Rock in Cuba resounded since the fifties. From the United States came Bill Halley’s echoes, this had nothing to do with the spatial comet. Elvis Presley with his sharp legend. In Cuba imitations and versions surged rapidly. In 1955 the Llopis Dulzaide was a band considered as the Best Band on the Show magazine survey, they were the diffusers of rock and roll in Spain and Latin America.
As it happened during the 1960’s with Spanish pop, in which that new wave reached us through the Spanish language, also during the 1950’s the Spaniards receive the North American music through second hands.
Researcher Leonardo Acosta assures than in 1957 the first purely rock and roll band was formed in Cuba, they were called the Hot Rockers, with the pianist Raúl Ondina and the singer Tony Escarpenter. People also talk about others such as Pretender and Los Jaguares, musicians such as Tony Taño, singers such as Luis Bravo (Placa de Oro 1960), Dany Puga (1962). During the 1960’s there were more than thirty bands, some of the most famous were: Los Dada, Los Barba, Los Magnéticos, Los Kents, Los Gnomos and Los Bucaneros.
On this month of July, which is almost over, there was the second edition of the Pop Rock festival in Havana, between July 18th and 22nd. « The aim – as was announced by the president of the Organizing Comittee, Carlos Carnero (director of Los Kents), - was projected with a sight that took in different tendencies, on the voices and bands. We hope to celebrate it yearly because on every festival we consider that there participate around 20 thousand participants ».
Among the bands who presented were Wena Onda, Los Kents, Hipnosis, Escape, Ánima Mundi, Trampa Explosiva, Dimensión vertical, Congregation, Tesis de Menta, Habana Blue, R-X, Clover, Trampa Explosiva, Killer the Fish, Tenaz, Clover, Fundichely y Takson, Alberto Aguilera. There was also a special presentation of Andy Gola and his band.
Cuban rock exists in Cuba, since 1969 when the Grupo de Experimentación Sonora (Group of Sonorous Experimentation) from the ICAIC(GESI) was created, directed by Leo Brower, with Silvio Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés, channeled their music stimulated by rock. The recording Cuba va is considered a guideline to follow on Latin rock, as the rocker Dagoberto Pedraja tells me. During the 1980’s the band Síntesis merges rock with the Afro-Cuban rhythms, a very successful and effective style in Cuba. Our country has always been very good when merging foreign music with the popular feeling, making it a system of our own. Cuba has a very strong musical power and it turns into gold whatever it touches.
The festival was organized by the Music Provincial Center Benny Moré and the Hermanos Saíz Association. The Anti-imperialist tribune served as venue for the closing ceremony of the event.
Translation: Karen López (Cubarte)
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Juan Marinello Special Essay Prize Back in 2006
Havana, (Centro Estudios Juan Marinello).- Juan Marinello Memorial Library and the Center of Investigation and Development on Cuban Culture with the same name call for the 2006 Juan Marinello Special Essay Prize.
The objective is to deepen into the life and work of the communist intellectual and pioneer of the Cuban culture as well as into the social context he developed his fruitful career.
Works should be real essays in terms of content and form which should be in correspondence with the rules and objectives of the prize.
Rules
1. Investigators, writers, professors, cultural promoters, university graduates, students and public in general will be allowed to participate with works referred to Juan Marinello´s life, work and epoch.
2. The jury will confer a unique prize consisting of $1 000 (national currency) and a recognition diploma to the best work besides all mentions it considers necessary.
3. Works should be presented anonymously, under a pseudonym, totally or partially unpublished and they should not exceed 30 pages of be under 20.
4. Each work should contain name and surnames of the author, address, phone number, work or study center, cultural or social institutions to which he/she belongs to and a brief biography. This information should be written and sent in a well-sealed envelope and with the pseudonym in the front side.
5. Works should be presented in original and two copies typed in computer or typewriter at two spaces accompanied by a 3½ disk. Participants should send them to the Juan Marinello Memorial Library located at 684 Loma Street between Colón and Lombillo streets, Nuevo Vedado, phone number 881-0275. The admission terms expires on October 20th.
6. The prize and mentions will be given in public ceremony on date and place opportunely informed by the media in occasion of the 108 anniversary of Juan Marinello.
Translation: Ivette Semanat Negret (Cubarte)
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The New Passion for the Conga
Havana, (Cubanow).- From time to time Cuban music surprises; let’s say that it winks at us and its vibration turns into a contagious outpouring of humming sounds from which only a guru or a skilled babalawo would be able to announce what is coming next.
The truth is that the Conga cycle has returned to Cuban dancing music. Only that this time in its original expression, but adorned with symphonic elements. To be more precise, it is a chamber rumba in Mozart´s purest style stemming from Santiago de Cuba, from “Chago” as locals born amid its steep streets by habit have come to name the city, a name now gaining supporters nationwide.
This conga cycle originated on one distant afternoon late in the 19th Century, when Luís Casamitjana, a Catalonian musician, came up with the happy idea of transforming the Cocuyé Conga into a symphonic motive, while delighting in one of Santiago de Cuba’s carnival parades. By mid 1930´s, to show that a night could still be enjoyed while the great depression lasted, everybody used to danced to the Uno, dos y tres que paso más chévere el de mi conga e (One, two and three, what a cool waddle the one of my conga is!) by Rafael Ortiz; aka « One, two three… conga » The right leg was stretched out and a pelvic waddle combined with a slight jump back.
It was absolute pleasure to watch male movie stars of those times seduce the beauty of their dreams (and of our granddad’s) at the beat of this rhythm. At the end of the endless-twisting dancing line, she usually appeared in his arms and kissed under a rain of confetti and serpentines. And all this was happening while the orchestra shifted from conga to a slow rumba, as the bolero was euphemistically defined by the movie industry.
During the 1950´s this passion for the conga did not vanish; it was camouflaged by the influence of mambo, choreography of which owes a lot to this street ballet. But in addition to mambo, the conga passion continued in the carnivals, mainly in Santiago de Cuba’s. Once again there was Santiago and its congas and Federico García Lorca´s ghost wandering around its streets, subdued by the surrealist charm of this city, its people and the sound of the Chinese trumpet.
The conga has always been there. It is perhaps the most important expression of our musical identity, as important as the son itself. It is also an expression of the local chauvinism, which is typical in Cubans.
In the 1990´s, to keep its cycle, a another conga became vogue again, this time it was a motive from the central Villa Clara province; it was the ideal conga of unruly and fly-by-night men. Who does not remember..? « si tu pasas por mi casa y si ves a mi mujer tu le dices que hoy no espere, que voy para la conga, que voy a echar un pie… » (« if you pass by my house and see my wife, tell her not to wait for me today, that I’m going to conga, that I’m going to dance away… »). More than enough to justify the absence from home and money squandering.
Speaking about conga and chauvinism, right now early in the 21st Century one conga is making way. From my modest point of view, it’s the greatest expression of what has been called Easternship: « Passion for conga ».
Side confession: Analyzed the aforementioned issue, it results that it could not be more chauvinist, in other words: a) it was composed by a Santiago de Cuba-born citizen; b) a Santiago de Cuba orchestra plays it; c) the video clip was shot on Santiago’s streets – Where else if not there?; d) the video’s central theme is a conga from Santiago de Cuba, the one of Los Hoyos neighborhood, e) it tells the story of a woman from Santiago de Cuba, living away from her town and whose only bond with her people is the conga. More chauvinist, excuse me regionalist, it can not be. However it became an absolute national passion since the first time it was broadcast and just for one reason: beyond university titles, philosophical tendencies, emblazoned family name references, or any other blood purifying requirement, we are a culture where the conga runs in our blood like a sort of plasma.
An illustrious “Santiaguero” friend was telling me that for over a century intellectuals in that city have wasted hundreds of sheets of paper in elaborating a coherent and organic philosophy to explain the nature of Santiago de Cuba and its contributions to Cubanship. Surprisingly however, there has always been an argument or an expert placing such undertaking in crisis. And now, in just seven minutes Chaguism,( meaning everything dealing with Santiago de Cuba) has been defined, has grown deep roots and has become the central study issue. And thanks to what? To a conga !
Conclusion: The conga has defined the other Cubanship of these recent years and it has extended beyond the seas as a vicious habit. And so it has that in the sophisticated and postmodern Barcelona it became fashionable. Why? Because this new conga, the one that is starting to arouse passion has two things on its side: It is quite easy to dance. Now, marking short steps, like those taken when dancing amid a packed group in Los Hoyos neighborhood style, with a glass of rum in hand next to a neighbor or a Cuban friend.
Sur Caribe, the group promoting this conga fever, has imposed and universalized it, and rather than concealing the drums, it has exalted them in the Roldán or Caturla style. It has also conferred the conga certain dashing touch by incorporating violins. Nonetheless, both in Europe and in Cuba the substratum sound contains the beat of the drums, the African rebelliousness synthesized in this island and the seducing experience of being part of an universal ballet where all choreographies are genuine and valid, and of which critics say nothing because they too are part of it.
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Benny More Film Worthy of Him
Havana, (PL).- Benny More, one of the most outstanding Cuban musicians of all times, internationally known as El Barbaro del Ritmo, is the inspiration of a cinematographic production to be premiered next week in Havana.
For eleven years filmmaker Jorge Luis Sanchez carried out detailed and deep research into the larger than life star, including dozens of interviews and testimonies, to make this production.
I had plenty of time to think about this film, design it, and plan the photography, art direction, sound and performances, said Sanchez and confirmed the numerous rehearsals of choreographies by Renny Arozarena, in charge of revitalizing an idol deeply rooted in the island´s life.
Director Jorge Luis Sanchez is absolutely aware of the test of fire he will undergo and he accepts it. Benny More, his great intuition and the genius that made him a universal artist even though he did not study music are beloved, and almost mythical for Cubans.
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Jose Marti Center of Studies Awarded Cuban President and Intellectuals
Havana, (AIN).- The Pensar es Vivir (To Think is To Live) distinction was conferred to the Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruz, in the ceremony for the 29th anniversary of the Jose Marti Center of Studies.
Ana Sánchez Collazo, director of the center, said this recognition is conferred to those Cuban and foreign celebrities and institutions carrying out an exceptional work in the promotion of the José Marti’s life, work and thought.
Similarly, she read a declaration ratifying the principles of loyalty to the Commandant in Chief and to the Cuban Revolution on behalf of the center’s workers.
The distinction was also conferred to poet and essayer Roberto Fernández Retamar, the very first director of the Jose Marti Center of Studies (1977-1986).
Cintio Vitier, president of honor of the institution, highlighted that Fernández Retamar stands as one of the very first poets and essayists of the revolutionary Cuba with a clean and brightened lyrics and a prose characterized by its functionality and sharpness.
The occasion was also opportune to confer special recognitions to those investigators national and internationally awarded this year such as Cintio Vitier, María Caridad Pacheco, Carlos Palacio and Rodolfo Sarracino.
Translation: Ivette Semanat Negret (Cubarte)