[Cubart] CUBARTE Newsletter
Resumen del Portal de la Cultura Cubana en Inglés
cubart en listas.cult.cu
Jue Nov 23 15:54:45 AST 2006
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
- Havana Turns 487
- Cuba calls for International Arts Encounter
- 18 First Works to Cuba Film Festival
- Sociocultural community project Guerrilla de Teatreros will perform at the Cauto river
- Cuban Artists Promote Project of Prevention against Sexual Transmission Diseases
- From Italy to Havana
- Cuban Librarians Recognized by UNICEF
- Hemingway´s Cuban house undergoes extensive restoration
- Italian Musicians to Remember Buena Vista Legend Compay Segundo
- Eros, history, identity… and Marta Rojas!
- Artist Hugo de Soto in Havana
- A CD on Cuban writer Jose Soler Puig presented in Santiago de Cuba
- The International Film and Television School celebrates its 20th anniversary
CUBA IN THE WORLD
- Sosabravo´s arts exhibition at the heart of Rome
- Cuban Ballet Back to Brazil Stages
- Poetry is still a weapon loaded with future
- US Artist Calls for Solidarity with the Cuban Five
- Cuba and Venezuela Arts Integration on the Rise
- Thousand Figures to Celebrate Fidel 80th Birthday
- Cuba stands out at the piano contest held in Costa Rica
- National Music Label Wins Legal Battle Against US Firm
CUBARTE PORTAL SUGGESTS YOU
- Alejandro Moya: My Life is Bound to the Audiovisual
- Current tendencies in technological change
- Reggaeton Fever
- I am just José Manuel Carreño
- The Works of Marquis de Sade: Depravity as a Path to Light
- Small Asian Encyclopedia 1. Oriental Cultural Roots: India (First Chapter)
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Havana Turns 487
Havana, (PL).- After 487 years of founding, Havana currently has interesting spaces, lives a constant renovation and enjoys love by inhabitants and travelers throughout the world.
Founded on November 16th, 1519 at the shadow of a leafy tree, a Ceiba, Havana or the Villa of San Cristobal de La Habana became a cosmopolitan city, full of travelers from all parts of the world eager of learning it.
In 1982, the Old Havana historic quarter was declared World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO, preserving its cultural-historic tourism.
Its harbor turned into point of meeting of all Spanish fleets to the capital, charging America´s wealth, guarded by warships and under constant pressure from pirates.
As a province, Havana has 15 municipalities, nine of them totally urban. Of that territory, approximately 2 square miles correspond to the Old Havana.
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Cuba calls for International Arts Encounter
Havana, (Cubarte).- The Cuban Higher Institute of Arts (ISA, in Spanish) calls for the International Arts Encounter, that will take place from December 12th-15th. Those days the Institute will also be celebrating its 30th Anniversary.
The works that will be presented are based on the specialists´ experiences during the Arts teaching process.
The participants will be artists and specialists whose work is related to the teaching and the promotion of Arts. Among the program activities are paper discussions, panels, desserts, public presentations, installations, exhibitions, performances, recitals, concerts and audiovisual exhibitions. The public may also take part in the discussion.
On September 1st, 1976, the first Cuban University of Arts (ISA) was inaugurated, at the same place where used to be the exclusive Country Club of the bourgeoisie.
One of its founders was the Prima Ballerina Assoluta Alicia Alonso. From its classrooms have arisen outstanding artists of the Cuban Culture, like the pianist Hernan Lopez Nussa, and the Plastic artists Roberto Fabelo, Zaida del Rio and Belkis Ayon.
Translation: Roxana Marquez Herrera (Cubarte)
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18 First Works to Cuba Film Festival
Havana, (PL).- In an attempt to retain its primacy, Argentina is entering the Havana New Latin American Film Festival with two first works and another two as co-producer, the organizing committee revealed this week.
With a crop of new young directors in the region, intended to succeed with independent productions, "A proposito de Buenos Aires", an experimental essay played by 11 newcomers, is probably the most illustrative example.
The film proposes that city s best known places filtered through 11 views, well mixing the visual and literary elements, texts written by Macedonio Fernandez and other outstanding authors.
Argentina will also compete with "Visperas" by Daniel Goggi which together with Buenos Aires constitute the only ones entirely produced in that South American nation.
In the cases of "Hamaca Paraguaya" by Paz Encina and "La Perrera" by Uruguayan Manuel Nieto, the Argentine hand is just an ally.
Once again the intent is to boost the seventh art and continue with a tradition independent of the existing economic restrictions.
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Sociocultural community project Guerrilla de Teatreros will perform at the Cauto river
Granma, (AIN).-Famous by his tours to Sierra Maestra -the highest mountainous region of Cuba-, the sociocultural itinerant community project Guerrilla de Teatreros will perform this month at the plains next to El Cauto, the country´s longest river.
René Reyes, director and founder of the troupe, announced to AIN –the Cuban News Agency- they will be making several performances, from November 17th-26th, at twelve communities of El Cauto river, a Granma´s municipality, as they have been doing since 2004, bringing joy and happiness to its neighbors.
Around 30 professional artists will be singing and acting out at several towns such as Guamo, Viejo Guamo, El Mango, Camagüeycito, Cayamas, Cauto Embarcadero, Vado del Yeso, El Jardin, and Santa Rosa -Reyes highlighted.
He also pointed out that the program will include a clowns´ show, a story entitled El Hambre – Hunger, written by Onelio Jorge Cardoso-, as well as performances of Cimas quartet and the Comunitarios del Son sextet, both members of the project.
Since its creation, in 1992, the Guerrilla de Teatreros makes a two-month trip yearly by the intricate places of Sierra Maestra. In 2003, this troupe received the international award Somos Patrimonio, from the Cultural Center Andrés Bello.
Last February, they performed together with Canadians friends of Cuba. The tour lasted 11 days.
The visitors could know first-hand the reality of our country, as well as the changes that suffered the Cuban Rebellious Army, during its last years, at the war scenarios. Besides this, they learnt dances and other cultural expressions of the mountaineers.
After the revolutionary triumph, in 1959, the government of the biggest Caribbean island brought free education, arts, sports and recreation to all the provinces, and only seven years ago, it began the modernization and consolidation of these services.
Translation: Roxana Marquez Herrera (Cubarte)
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Cuban Artists Promote Project of Prevention against Sexual Transmission Diseases
Glocalia, España.- Young artists from the province of Guantanamo are consolidating a communitarian project promoting preventive messages against the sexual transmission infections and the HIV AIDS in the different municipalities of the Cuban east.
The initiative came up last year in that territory and it is supported by a dozen of musicians, fine artists and cultural promoters encouraged by the commendable purpose of boosting a responsible and healthy sexual behavior.
Popularly known as Center Point, the experience is also supported by different institutions like the Municipal Center of Hygiene and Epidemiology, the Center for Health Education and Promotion, the Rubén López Sabariego Communitarian Culture House and the Clinic for HIV Infected People.
Art is our mediator and through it we intend to approach the communities with messages contributing to reduce the infection index in the province and encourage the affected people, declared Javier Leonardo Trutié, founder of the project.
The prophylactic work includes exhibits, talks and conferences and it is conceived to join people with visual and hearing problems. So we have self-supplied with knowledge about the Braille system and the sign language as well.
We are a group of volunteers, he said, most of us workers, who have decided to assume this social commitment.
The immediate task is to continue joining people, no matter if they are artists or not, but that are interested in contributing with this project of life and which we expect to extend to the entire country, he concluded.
Translation: Ivette Semanat Negret (Cubarte)
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>From Italy to Havana
Havana, (Habana Radio). - With a concert by the pianist Fran Paredes in the Basílica Menor de San Francisco de Asís (Least Basilic from Saint Francis of Assisi), last November 20th was inaugurated the 9th Week of Italian Culture in Cuba, organized by the Ministry for Culture, the Office of the Historian of the City, the Cuban Committee of the Dante Alighieri Society and the Italian Embassy. Several institutions from the Historical Center took in proposals from the event that covered different cultural manifestations.
As part of this Italian week, from November 21st - 23rd, the Public Library Rubén Martínez Villena served as the venue for reading and conference sessions on topics that range from the work of Dante, cinema, history up to the Venetian carnival. There were also presentations of the plays El vientre de Nápoles (Naples’s Belly), by Matilde Serao; La siembra secreta del alma (The Secret Sowing of the Soul), by Giovanni Pascoli; and the colection Una mar de sueños (A Sea of Dreams) and Elogio de Marco Polo (A Praiso to Marco Polo), by Félix Pita Rodríguez. On this same institution, the photographic show El Carnaval de Venecia (The Venice Carnival), by Mimmo Fabrizi, was inaugurated.
Another one of the proposals of the 9th Week of Italian Culture in Cuba was the Round Table about the Emigration and the Italian Presence in Cuba, which in its sixth edition will include the presence of Professor Domenico Capolongo, Pedro Cosme Baños, Ramón Suárez Polcari, Clara Díaz Pérez, Mario Darias Mérida, Carlos Bauta Martín, Oscar Zanetti Lecuona, Gregorio Delgado García and Emanuela Favoino. Among the topics that wil be discussed November 24th, at two thirty in the afternoon, there are Italianos en Cuba en los siglos XVII y XVIII (Italians in Cuba during the 17th and 18th Centuries), Italianos en Regla (Italians in Regla), Sacerdotes de origen italiano en Cuba (Priests of Italian origin in Cuba), La presencia italiana en Cuba entre el 1854 y 1868 (Italian presence in Cuba between 1854 and 1868), La música italiana en Cuba (Italian music in Cuba) and Presencia italiana en la necrópolis de Colón (Italian precense in the Colon cemetery), just to name a few.
Numismatic pieces inspired in Italian literature, music and plastic arts will be part of the exhibition La cultura italiana en monedas y billetes (Italian culture in coins and bills), which will be inaugurated in the Numismatic Museum on November 24th at eleven thirty in the morning. A day later, at four in the afternoon, the Sala Teatro de la Orden Tercera (Theater Room from the Third Order) from the (Convento de San Francisco de Asís (Saint Francis of Assisi Convent)) will receive the theatrical version of the play Pinocchio, by C. Collodi, under the direction of Juan Carlos Cremata and performed by the La Colmenita company.
Translation : Karen López (Cubarte)
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Cuban Librarians Recognized by UNICEF
Havana, (Granma).- Cuban librarians have played an outstanding role within a United Nations Children´s Fund (UNICEF) project to promote the rights of children and teenagers, said Clara Martinez, representative of that organization in the western Cuban province of Matanzas.
Martinez highlighted the fact that the project is aimed at raising the public´s level of awareness and knowledge of the law the regarding the issue of children´s rights.
"It is also part of the challenge of Cuban public libraries in the third millennium to keep a systematic collection of information including specialized workshops, contests, exhibitions and publicity about this topic," said Clara Martinez, speaking to Prensa Latina news agency.
"According to the expert, the joint plan between UNICEF and the Cuban government, which Finland also financially supports, shows the interest of Cuban officials in the promotion and implementation of the laws that protect children and teenagers.
"The UNICEF representative recalled that these rights have been an objective of great importance on the island over the past four decades, as substantial efforts have been made to guarantee the conditions that ensure the health of the individual from the womb to adulthood.
"The development of social policies concretely aimed at the protection of children and teenagers is in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other documents about this theme," she said.
Martinez explained that Cuba signed the abovementioned protocol in 1990, and ratified it two years later. She noted that these policies are "applied in the country based on the principle of there being nothing more important than a child."
Blanca Patayo, an official of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), shared the opinion of the high quality of the specialized staff working in Cuban public libraries.
Patayo, who is also the director of the UNESCO Office for Communication and Information in Cuba, noted that despite economic problems on the island, its librarians are very professional and are surprisingly good promoters of spiritual development.
Both officials participated in the fifth National Meeting of UNESCO´s Associated Libraries, which gathered representatives of the twenty-six member institutions of this international organization in Cuba for two days.
The event, which ended last Wednesday, was organized by the Jose Marti National Library and the Gener y del Monte Provincial Library, in Matanzas City, one hundred kilometers east of Havana.
This meeting allowed for the exchanging of experiences and the strengthening of cultural work related to the environment, the quality of life, attention to people with disabilities, national identity and the preserving Cuban patrimony.
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Hemingway´s Cuban house undergoes extensive restoration
Havana, (EFE).- Restoring Ernest Hemingway´s old house outside this capital is a job that requires scaffolding, bricks and the indispensable mortar of anecdotes from the more than two decades during which the writer spent much of his time in Cuba.
Masons and architects are working with tremendous dedication to restore the luster to Finca Vigia, the house that Hemingway lived in between 1939 and 1960 in San Francisco de Paula, some 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) outside Havana.
The project has been challenging because of the complications caused by repairs done to the house in recent years and the fact that it also includes the restoration of the Pilar, the fishing boat owned by Hemingway and now on permanent display at the house.
Some $648,000 have been budgeted for the restoration project, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the leading preservation group in the United States, is providing technical assistance. Also taking part in the effort are non-technical people who have extensive knowledge of the property.
Pedro Francisco Buscaron, or "Pedrito" as he is better known, started working at the house when he was barely 9, running errands, taking care of the garden and looking after the nearly 60 cats owned by the author of "The Old Man and the Sea."<br> "I pretty much grew up here," the 67-year-old told Efe.
His knowledge of Finca Vigia is helping square the legend with architecture and give the old house back its character, thanks to the details he knows about Hemingway´s character and those who visited the home.
Knowing that the captain of the writer´s fishing boat was named Gregorio Fuentes is not difficult, but knowing that Hemingway called him "Simbad the sailor" and that "he used to get damned drunk," is something that only Pedrito can attest to.
His extensive knowledge of the place has been invaluable to the director of the Ernest Hemingway Museum at Finca Vigia, Ada Rosa Alfonso, who relies on Pedrito to confirm details of the layout of the house and placement of items.
Pedrito recalls that Hemingway tracked his weight regularly on the bathroom wall, with the numbers covered up by successive coats of paint over the years, and that the path coming down from the house was not tiled when the writer lived at Finca Vigia.
He said he also knows the location of the cat cemetery, a bit of information that was closely guarded by the superstitious writer, and he could have made "a few dollars" off it but never revealed it.
"One time, a guy offered me $200 for the location (of the cemetery), but I had sworn to Rene (Villarreal, the butler) that I would never tell," Pedrito, who cleaned the feline quarters, said.
Among the visitors he recalls are boxing champ Rocky Marciano, with whom Hemingway watched boxing films, Spanish bullfighters Luis Miguel Dominguin and Antonio Ordoñez, and actress Ava Gardner.
French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre and American actor Gary Cooper also visited the house, Pedrito said. "They were very polite, he and Miss Mary (Wells, Hemingway´s wife) asked for everything with a ´please´ and they didn´t have to, that was our job," he said, admitting, however, that his best times at Finca Vigia were when the Hemingways were not around.
"We had some really good times, listening to the record player and drinking beverages, very good ones, that he had," Pedrito said.
After Hemingway left the house for good in 1960, Pedrito spent 39 years working at a steel plant, retiring at the age of 60.
Pedrito said he would never forget the things that happened at the house, like the time he was carrying a tray full of refreshments to the pool and found a naked Ava Gardner there.
"What do you mean ´What did I do?´ I turned around and ran. What was I going to do?" he asked.
Hemingway´s documents in Cuba are stored at Finca Vigia, which has been turned into a museum that contains approximately 22,000 items, including some 9,000 books, more than 3,000 letters and documents, about 1,000 photographs, hunting trophies, weapons, and sports and fishing gear.
Hemingway, who first visited Cuba in April 1928, lived on and off at the 4-hectare (9.9-acre) house, which is nestled into a small hill, for about 21 years.
The house was built by Catalan architect Miguel Pascual y Baguer, who bought the land in 1887 for use as a family rest home.
In 1903, the building was sold to a Frenchman who rented it in 1939 to Martha Gelhorn, Hemingway´s third wife, for 100 pesos a month. A year later, the writer became the new owner of the property.
It was at Finca Vigia that Hemingway wrote one of his most famous novels, "The Old Man and the Sea," for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1953.
One year later, Hemingway received the Nobel Prize for Literature. In addition to having a draft of "The Old Man and the Sea" in its collection, the museum has a draft with dialogue related to World War II that Hemingway planned to use in one of his stories.
Also in the collection is an epilogue that was rejected for his classic of the Spanish Civil War, "For Whom the Bells Toll," as well as papers that provide insights into the writer´s personal life.
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Italian Musicians to Remember Buena Vista Legend Compay Segundo
Havana, (Granma).- Italian musicians will take part in the opening concert for the festivities marking the life of Compay Segundo, who would have been celebrating his 100th birthday.
Stefano Mazzoleni, director of the Veneto Philharmonic Orchestra, and other Italian musicians will take part in the opening concert to celebrate Compay Segundo’s 100 years. The celebrations will be held in 2007, year of Compay Segundo centenary.
Salvador Repilado, son of Compay and director of the group named after him, explained that, last November 18th, the Dolores Hall in Santiago de Cuba hosted the Los Muchachos de Compay and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Oriente, with Mazzoleni as guest director.
He said that he co-directed with Cuba’s Daniel Guzman, director of the Sinfónica. The orchestra has worked on the musical arrangements of Compay´s classics such as Chan Chan, Macusa, El calderito, Se secó el arroyito y Saludo a Changó, and others.
Other Italian musicians who will also take part in the concert include tenor Francesco Grollo, musician Massimo Scatolini and composer Francesco Sartoni.
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Eros, history, identity… and Marta Rojas!
Havana, (Granma).- From the shots Marta Rojas heard during the wee hours of July 26th, 1953, in Santiago de Cuba, when the noises from the carnival conga were silenced, to the publication of her fourth novel (or fifth?, if we mention her testimony The dead man´s cave), this untamable, imaginative and persevering woman has been mixing the excellences of journalism she began to cultivate 50 years ago that made her register in detail the Moncada´s trial, with the requirements of fiction prose, to such a point that her work has become an essential reference within the contemporary Cuban narrative.
The readers appreciated these qualities during the cultural activity El Sabado del Libro; (Book´s Saturday) that takes place at the Palacio Del Segundo Cabo, in Old Havana). The launching of her novel book Inglesa por un año –Being an Englishwoman by a year- , published by Letras Cubanas, and Alejo Carpentier´s novel Award, in 2006, happened there...
When commenting on the origin of her novel, Marta said: "I’ve always been curious about the behavior of the neighbors living in Havana, when this city was occupied by the British troops". I only found some popular ballads in Nicolas Guillen´s Diary, some very nice verses that mentioned this historical fact. Some time ago, there was a symposium on the seizing of Havana by the British in 1762, but almost everything dealt with the different battles and political problems. I was not yet determined to write a novel with this topic, until one day when I went by Jústiz´ alley and I happened to read a plaque located in front of Casa del Tango, in Old Havana. The plaque made reference to the first woman Cuban writer and the first slave poet that lived at this place. They were the marquise of Jústiz and Francisco Manzano."
"I focused all my attention on Doña Beatriz´ date of birth and I guessed she probably was 29 years old when the British occupied the city of Havana. All of a sudden, I started to imagine the possible details of the occupation and the people and places: masters, slaves, church, white of the flat state, militias, government and the bottom port", the writer added.
"Besides - she pointed out -, I already knew that the Marquise had written a brief to the King, criticizing to the then Governor of the Island for surrendering Havana to the British invaders. My heart started to shake. I had the bull taken by the horns (using a Cuban colloquial saying).”
Eros, history and identity are interwoven in the plot of Being an Englishwoman by one year, having the same intensity seen in other works like Santa Lujuria and El haren de Oviedo –Oviedo´s Harem.
According to Humberto Arenal, one of the juries of Alejo Carpentier´s Award, Marta Rojas "reveals in her narrative a research work of remarkable rigor, that depicts an epoch little dealt with Cuban Literature, and she achieves this with great verisimilitude, through her contemporary projection and an intelligent paraphrase of the language. It is an important novel that will make a remarkable contribution to the historical fiction of Cuban narrative."
In the meantime, Marta is working on a new fiction, while she attends our office day after, as a guardian angel. Her next novel? On Chinese influence in Havana. It will be a surprise…
Translation: Roxana Marquez Herrera (Cubarte)
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Artist Hugo de Soto in Havana
Havana, (PL).- Hugo de Soto´s gold is in his paintings, in the 487th Anniversary festivities of the Ville of St. Christopher of Havana, as City Historian Eusebio Leal said at the inauguration of the exhibition at the St. Francis of Assisi Convent in the old part of the city. The paintings are of exceptional value because they reveal not only creativity, discipline and skill of the artist.
Born in Cuba in 1928, Hugo de Soto´s long pilgrimage took him 50 years ago to the United States, from there to Europe and finally to Rome, where he lives at present.
The artist has projected his art "without losing the flame of infinite love for his native land," said Leal.
"This sentiment," he added, "comes from a distant past when, during the Cuban War of Independence, Antonio Maceo and his comrades in arms crossed Mariel bay in western Pinar del Rio, lead by a brave boatman named Carlos de Soto, the painter s grandfather."
That episode is revisited by de Soto in a painting that heads this show, donated by the author in 1984 and which can be found today in the City Museum. The painting is of a dark night where the siluettes of Maceo and his comrades can be distinguished together with the brave boatman.
Back in Havana, the artist will feel again that intimate emotion of returning to the source of his inspiration, said Leal.
The exhibition consists of two dozen paintings that reveal the love of the artist for architecture, seen in his work of the Florence Cathedral or Venice´s canals.
International prizes are not lacking in Hugo de Soto´s curriculum, only now he will add the admiration of his people.
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A CD on Cuban writer Jose Soler Puig presented in Santiago de Cuba
Havana, (AIN).- A CD on the life and work of Jose Soler Puig, one of the most important Cuban narrators of all times, was presented in Santiago de Cuba, on the occasion of his 90th birthday.
The activity took place at Amado Ramon´s bookshop of the eastern Cuban province, and it was attended by writers, poets, narrators and other intellectuals that participated in the 2nd Colloquium Jose Soler Puig: Memory and Word.
The disc includes Jose´s Biography, who tells by himself about different facets of his life and literary doings. Besides this, there are some statements made by his friend Jose Antonio Portuondo, who explains the support he gave to Soler during the writing of "Bertillon 166", with which Jose obtained his First Novel Award "Casa de las Americas."
The CD, made by several specialists at Soler Puig´s Promotion Literary Center, located in Santiago de Cuba, also contains some musical pieces of the famous trio Matamoros, such as El Fiel Enamorado -The Loyal Lover-, among others.
The Poet Reinaldo Garcia revealed to AIN -the Cuban News Agency- that the CD aims at promoting the work of this Cuban writer, born on November 10th, 1916, in Santiago, considered among the artists that better reflected the Ciudad Heroe de la Republica -the Cuban Heroic City -, as well as its inhabitants, traditions and history.
Reinaldo added that this disc may be used as a consulting source by literary followers, and finished by saying that it will be sent out to libraries, cultural and educational institutions.
Translation: Roxana Marquez Herrera (Cubarte)
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The International Film and Television School celebrates its 20th anniversary
Havana, (AIN).- The premiere of the documentary <strong>Za 05: the old and the new</strong>, made by Argentinian Movie Director Fernando Birri, is among the presents that the Film and Television School (EICTV, in Spanish), located at San Antonio de los Baños, will receive this year, on the occasion of its 20th anniversary. This school was inaugurated by our Commander-in-Chief, Fidel Castro, on December 15th, 1986.
Although since February of this year -1986- several international institutions, festivals and encounters remember the creation of this praiseworthy initiative, the school has graduated 500 students from 30 countries; the week from December 8th-15th will be when the celebration be reaching its peak.
The outstanding Cuban film-maker Julio Garcia Espinosa, director of the EICTV, made public that the celebration will have the launching of the books <strong>Memoria</strong> -Memory-, published by Universidad Alcala de Nares, in Spain, and <strong>El arte nunca duerme</strong> -Arts never sleeps-, published by Libreria Ocho y medio, another European publishing house.
Garcia Espinosa also announced the presentation of an emblem allegoric to this date, consisting in the projection of fiction films and documentaries made by the students during the last years, and an homage that will be paid to the town of San Antonio de los Banos, which has been the venue of this educational center for 20 years.
A tally -he underscored- will be placed at the Central Park, where there ceremony will be held; meanwhile, there will be an academic meeting with outstanding film-makers like Jorge Sanguinetti, Costa Gravas and Fernando Pino Solanas, among others guests.
Among the most important achievements of the EICTV during these two decades, is its graduating of over 500 students who have become directors, script writers, producers, photographers, editors and sound players, to which adds its more than 3000 people participating in workshops who have taken specializing and post graduate courses. The school also has a highly qualified teachers´ staff -according to its director.
He remembered, as well, that the EICTV hoards up nearly a thousand short and intermediate-lenght films made by the students themselves. These materials have been shown at National and International Festivals, obtaining numerous awards.
Being a prodigal daughter of the New Latin American Movie Foundation that presides Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and born from the strenght provided by the Committee of Latin American Film Makers, the EICTV is undergoing a deeply changing process, which combines theory with practice, making the students be more committed to the realities of their nations
The Ibero American Federation of Audiovisual Schools, an organization with 17 years of experience and representing 30 schools of the region, presided during 4 years the Cuban International School of Film and Television, which has contributed to enhance its prestige.
Translation: Roxana Marquez Herrera (Cubarte)
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Sosabravo´s arts exhibition at the heart of Rome
Havana, (Granma).- The arts exhibition L´Epifania del Colore –The Epiphany of the Color-, by Cuban virtuoso painter Alfredo Sosabravo, can be described as a great success. The event is taking place at the Italian-Latin American Institute of Rome, located in the majestic Palazzo Santacroce´s historical center of the<em> Ciudad Eterna</em>. The exhibition was attended by a big audience, interested in knowing about work of this important Cuban artist.
The inaugural speech was pronounced by the Cuban ambassador to Italy, Rodney López Clemente, who highlighted the rigor and devotion of those who have worked with Sosabravo. At the same time, he had praising words for Sosabravo, of whom he said was a great teacher of contemporary arts where “the Cuban roots and the exquisite universality” mix up.
The exhibition includes 27 works, 15 of which are related to painting and the rest to medium- format sculptures in glass –a recent line within the wide creative work of Sosabravo, arisen from a fruitful collaboration with the Italian artists Elio Rafaelli, Roberto Cammozzo and Renzo Vianello, also great virtuosos of the glass at the Ars Murano of Venice´s workshop.
Those who attended the exhibition were greatly dazzled with the party of colors brought by Sosabravo, seen through big-format paintings, consisting of oil paintings on canvas, a canvas collage, and glass sculptures. The latter overflow the traditional ornamental effectiveness of the glass, opening it to a creative virtuosity that makes appear, with a new look, the expressive potentialities of the translucent material, considered as a novelty within the artistic tradition of Murano.
Those who have followed the Cuban virtuoso´s artistic work, can´t ignore the extraordinary vitality of this artist, born 76 years ago at the city of Sagua la Grande (also Wilfredo Lam´s birthplace, another virtuoso of universal arts), because the chromatic, almost aggressive intensity reflected in his paintings and glass sculptures, are a speech of great originality in the praxis of an artist to whom anything seems to be rare within the world of Plastics.
It is difficult to select, among the paintings, the most significant or attractive. But if I had to, I wouldn´t overlook the canvas triptych La Rueda de la Fortuna -The wheel of fortune-, El beso de la mujer araña -The kiss of the spider-woman-, and the magnificent Florero del Mago –The magician´s vase. Here the artist reflects a wide range of visual signs and colors, that represent the light and shades of our land. Also, the glass sculptures Romance –Romance-, En el parque –At the park- and El nido del gato –The cat´s nest- are able to articulate, in a cohesive way, the artist´s inexhaustible and overflowing imagination seen through the delicate transparency of Murano´s glass, in a dimension that transfers light and color towards the infinite.
As the famous arts critic Leonardo Caprile has written (his works on Contemporary Arts can be found at Il Sole 24 Ore de Milan; Il Matino of Naples and Il XIX Secolo of Genova). “If you have a look at the beautiful catalog, Sosabravo offers at the Roman exhibition two facets of his works: "the cadence of his paintings and the dreamy character of the glass. They are two compositions of the same topic that implie, as usually, an extraordinary capacity to capture people´s thoughts and lead them towards the sadness of a paradisiac lost innocence."
The exhibition will be opened at the IILA´s Arts Gallery until December 2nd. It will be a special opportunity for the Epiphany of colors that the virtuoso Sosabravo proposes, becomes a point of Cuban cultural reference for the arts´ followers living at the heart of Rome.
Translation: Roxana Marquez Herrera (Cubarte)
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Cuban Ballet Back to Brazil Stages
Rio de Janeiro, (PL).- Cuba´s National Ballet once again performed in Brazil, with a tour including theaters in Salvador de Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Curitiba, and Porto Alegre.
Performances of "Don Quixote" have been scheduled for at Rio de Janeiro´s Canecao Show Center, with the participation of a large part of the 120 members of the company.
The Brazilian media gave enthusiastic coverage of the ballet company´s presentations when it toured nine states in May and June.
O Globo daily published a half-page photo of a Don Quixote scene under the headline "Perfectionism Cultivated through Years of Training," thus announcing the presentation in Rio de Janeiro.
It followed that with a quote from Alicia Alonso, the director of the prestigious Cuban institution, defining her company as "daughter of the Cuban Revolution that has become a cultural heritage of the Island."
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Poetry is still a weapon loaded with future
Caracas, (Granma).- That warning verse written by Gabriel Celaya that says: "poetry is a weapon loaded with future" acquires a significant connotation nowadays, while the 2nd Venezuelan Book Fair at Parque del Este is being toured by Literature followers these days.
Cuban poets achieved a sensitive communication with the Venezuelan reader, who are very much fond of poetry, specially that one written by Jose Marti.
With Miguel Barnet, who has become one of the most famous personalities of the Cuban delegation -the Honor Guest Nation-, the poetry and criteria of Teresa Melo and Bladimir Zamora have been heard here.
Teresa Melo, originally from Santiago de Cuba, also carries on a significant editing work in the eastern city. The Venezuelan public has discovered in her deeply creative skills, that she expresses through transparent images.
Teresa has written poems like El vino del error (1988) -The wine of mistake-, Yo no queria ser reina (2001) -I didn´t want to be queen-, El mundo de Daniela (2002) -Daniela´s world-, and Las altas horas (2003)-Small hours. Besides this, she has obtained several prizes, such as the Critics Award and "Nicolas Guillen"´s National Award.
She presented here her Anthology La estrella de Cuba -The Cuban star-, based on the journey made by a group of young poets throughout Cuba three years ago, on the occasion of Jose Maria Heredia´s bicentennial.
Zamora, on the other hand, is a journalist and poet. He wrote a book entitled Sin puntos cardinales, Without compass points -; he also talked about the preserving and breaking lines seen in the young Cuban poetry. Zamora also received a warm reception for presenting, together with Fidel Diaz Castro, director of El Caiman Barbudo journal, the anthology Cualquier flor...-Any flower- , containing Cuban traditional trova verses.
Diaz Castro, who is also a troubadour, beautifully interpreted a sample of Cuban lyrical poetry, accompanied by the Venezuelan juggler Angel Balan.
The young attending the Book Fair had the opportunity to enjoy the concert offered by Gerardo Alfonso, whom they consider one of the best interpreters of the Nueva Trova. Some of Gerardo´s popular songs are song by the people here, like that one dedicated to Che Guevara.
The readers thanked the Cuban publishing houses that promote Venezuelan poetry, among them, the Anthology of contemporary authors published by Arte y Literatura and the booklet Algunas fatigas y fulgores -Some fatigues and flashes, written by Francisco Sesto and published by Ediciones Santiago,under the editorial care of Teresa Melo.
Translation: Roxana Marquez Herrera (Cubarte)
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US Artist Calls for Solidarity with the Cuban Five
Havana, (PL).- US photographer Bill Hackwell was in the eastern Cuban province of Holguin to attend an International Free the Cuban Five Forum and to talk about his fight back home to educate fellow citizens on the injustices suffered by the Five, reported national newspaper Granma.
The Cuban Five were arrested in September 1998 after uncovering terrorist plots against Cuba being planned in southern Florida. Three years later, they were tried by a biased Miami court and sentenced to harsh terms ranging from 15 years to double life imprisonment.
Hackwell said that "To achieve justice and freedom for the five Cubans, plans must be enacted aimed at creating awareness among new sectors of US society."
"We have to be creative, and not focus only on demonstrations and meetings, but new strategies such as the tour organized last month, and the study of a book on US aggressions against Cuba."
Hackwell donated pictures for an exhibition entitled Imagenes en las entrañas del monstruo (Images from the belly of the beast), which opened at the Holguin Provincial Art Centre. He said the exhibition shows a different side of US society.
Speaking about possible reprisals in the US for visiting Cuba, he said, "Personally, I´m not worried about being taken to court; all I have done is bring some pictures as part of the exchange between Cuba and the United States."
"We are in a constant struggle in the US. These images reflect the reality for all the people involved in social struggles. It is a fight against the system, against the war, for the rights of immigrants, against racism and against neoliberalism."
Bill Hackwell is a well-known contemporary photographer who lives and works in San Francisco. The bulk of his work focuses on social change among the working class and oppressed communities. He has worked as a photographer for a number of non-profit and humanitarian aid groups working in many parts of the world.
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Cuba and Venezuela Arts Integration on the Rise
Havana, (AIN).- Cuba and Venezuela recently signed an agreement on mutual representation for the collective management of royalties of writers, which was named as a very important step in the integration of the region.
The document is part of the integration mechanisms fostered by the Venezuela-led Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (ALBA), said Francisco Sesto, the culture minister in the South American country in an interview with Prensa Latina news agency.
The agreement grants the two countries with the full authority to manage the promotion, representation and the administration of royalties of their respective writers, who will be able to become members of the Latin-American Literary Agency and its Venezuelan counterpart.
Sesto referred to the progress of the ALBA Editorial Fund, which has published 11 titles. He said Argentina, Nicaragua, Uruguay are expected to join the fund as well.
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Thousand Figures to Celebrate Fidel 80th Birthday
Havana, (PL).- Nearly thousand figures from 64 countries have confirmed their attendance to celebrations for President Fidel Castro´s 80th birthday, informed the Guayasamin Foundation in charge of the celebration.
Saskia Guayasamin, daughter of late Ecuadorian painter Oswaldo Guayasamin, said in a Cuban TV Round Table Thursday that among international figures are Ignacio Ramonet, Gianni Minna, Danielle Mitterrrand, former Ecuadorian president and writer Rodrigo Borja, Nobel Prizewinner Adolfo Perez Esquivel and famous French movie star Gerard Depardieu.
Also attending the activities for the ocassion are Cubans artists Silvio Rodriguez, Pablo Milanes, Sara Gonzalez, Gerardo Alfonso, Paulo FG and famous orchestras like Los Van Van, NG la Banda and Aragon, among others.
The Guayasamin Foundation made a call last November 6th to celebrate Cuban President Fidel Castro´s 80th birthday, which was postponed due to the statesman´s state of health.
The Foundation will compile all reflections in a book, while the volume "One Hundred Hours with Fidel," which gather an interview granted by Fidel Castro to Spanish academic Ignacio Ramonet, will be launched in a colloquium.
Fidel Castro and Guayasamin cultivated a close friendship, to the point that the president posed four times for the artist, declared Painter of Ibero-America during the 9th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and government held in Havana in 1999.
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Cuba stands out at the piano contest held in Costa Rica
Havana, (AIN).- By third time Cuba imposed its presence at the 4th piano contest “María Clara Cullell”, that took place in Costa Rica, after obtaining the first awards within the two competitive modes.
The young pianists Marcos Madrigal and Mario Orlando -El Fakih- brought home the awards for advanced and intermediate categories, respectively, and the award for best interpretation of the Costa Rican music, which demonstrates Cuba´s mastery within the musical field.
“The two young Cubans stood out by their performances, according to some critics and specialists that participated in the contest, held at the Musical Arts School of the University of Costa Rica” -Cuban teacher Teresita Junco, President of the Cuban Delegation, underlined.
The distinguished teacher made a special emphasis on the healthy atmosphere of the encounter, where the competitors didn´t have any difficulties during the rehearsals, neither of other nature, since the organizational factor of the biennial meeting, together with the quality of the competitors, were among the biggest virtues.
Madrigal, a student of Professor Teresita Junco and graduated from the Havana´s Higher Arts Institute (ISA), has recently obtained the 4th Prize at the rigorous International Contest held in Ciudad Panama, and the maximum award at the Havana´s International Contest “Ignacio Cervantes”, among others.
The other Cuban named Fakih, is a student at “Amadeo Roldan” Conservatory and a current pupil of the renowned pianist Aldo López-Gavilan Junco. Fakih had reached the second position at the Havana´s Ibero-American Contest and at the International Piano Contest held in Maracaibo, Venezuela.
This festival was organized by Maria Clara Cullell´s who devoted 30 years to piano teaching.
The event had the presence of young artists from Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Central America and the Caribbean Islands, and besides the contest, it included master lectures, workshops and lectures, which were taught by renowned international musicians.
Translattion: Roxana Marquez Herrera (Cubarte)
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National Music Label Wins Legal Battle Against US Firm
London, (Granma).- Last week in London Cuba won the legal battle it had been fighting for the past six years regarding two of its music labels. The labels were involved in a dispute over the rights of some old Cuban songs that circled the planted thanks to the success of the Buena Vista Social Club album, as per report of Agence France-Presse.
The London High Court, where the legal duel took place, delivered a decision against claims presented by the Peer International Corporation, an American company that wanted the court to declare it as sole owner of 13 songs, several of which were part of the Buena Vista Social Club.
In its petition to the London Court, Peer stated that the Cuban Government had illegally appropriated the rights of some 600 titles from the catalog of the US company. It claimed that, since the 1930´s , it had ownership over these songs including themes interpreted by legendary Cuban figures such as Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer and Ruben Gonzalez (all passed away) and Omara Portuondo and Eliades Ochoa.
On the other side, the Editora Musical de Cuba (EMC) argued that the composers never got a single cent for those songs, danced by several generations of Latin Americans and now recognized around the world.
The EMC lawyers together with those from Termidor Music Publishers —a British-German company that grants the rights to songs— sustained that the composers, under contract by Peer during the 1930´s, 1940´s and 1950´s, were paid practically nothing. Attorney Peter Prescott said that "They were paid nothing, or at most a few pesos and maybe a drink of rum."
Translation: Ivette Semanat (Cubarte)
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