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Jun 1, 2016 - We seek to explore Cuba through the eyes of the best writers, photographers ..... Twitter: @ChenLizra, Fac
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lahabana magazine

The

US - CUBA travel issue

FROM GRINGO TO GUEST

JUN

JUN 2016 INCLUDING GUIDE TO THE BEST PLACES TO EAT, DRINK, DANCE AND STAY IN HAVANA

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LA HABANA.COM is an independent platform, which seeks to showcase the best in Cuba arts & culture, life-style, sport, travel and much more... We seek to explore Cuba through the eyes of the best writers, photographers and filmmakers, both Cuban and international, who live work, travel and play in Cuba. Beautiful pictures, great videos, opinionated reviews, insightful articles and inside tips.

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HAVANA GUIDE The ultimate guide to Havana with detailed reviews of where to eat, drink, dance, shop, visit and play. Unique insights to the place that a gregarious, passionate and proud people call home.

HAVANA LISTINGS

MAY 2016

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newest Master Class Chivas Champion; and a cultural project that embodies the Golden Age of Cuban music: the Tradicionales de los 50.

E D I TO R I A L Any US citizen can come to Cuba…just don’t sit on the beach! There’s no question about it: Cuba has bewitched Americans. The Island is crawling with American visitors taking advantage of the relaxation of US travel restrictions. Following the historic joint decision by President Barack Obama and President Raúl Castro on December 17, 2014 to reestablish diplomatic relations between Cuba and the US, many things have happened, and increased travel has been one of them. Gaining permission from the government once required preapproval from OFAC as well as a detailed itinerary of the group you were traveling with. Now Americans wishing to travel to Cuba need only check the right box on a visa form at the airport and can travel solo. The figures speak for themselves: the arrival of American visitors to Cuba showed a growth of 94% in the first quarter of 2016 alone. So, in keeping with our June US Travel to Cuba issue, Jauretsi gives us her impression in Seeing Cuba through the Eyes of an American as well as her Top 5 Things to Do in Havana. Another group of US travelers tells of their experiences in Cuba and how they have gotten hooked on this “exotic, frozen-in-time” island. Read about who is the most famous American to have visited Cuba, Americans in Cuba throughout history and how the word “Yuma” came to be synonymous with “American”. Elsewhere, learn about AM-PM 2016, a project that is driving Cuba’s musical scene; a bit of history on the only open-air cabaret in the world: the famous Tropicana; the

The official proclamation of Havana as one of the Seven Wonder Cities of the Modern World will take place June 7 at La Punta Fortress at 7:30pm. Then walk down to Plaza Vieja for a riot of cultural activities that will take off at 9pm, and be sure not to miss the closing ceremony on the corner of Prado and Neptuno, across Parque Central, with the performance of one of Cuba’s oldest and most famous popular music bands, the Orquesta Aragón. Other events include the IV Encuentro de Jóvenes Pianistas (June 2-29) with a Cuban and international lineup, Festival Internacional Boleros de Oro (June 22-26), and AM-PM (América x su Música) 2016 (June 13-19) And for fishing aficionados, start getting your gear ready for the 66th Hemingway International Billfishing Tournament (June 13-18) which promises to break attendance record. Abrazos! The LaHabana.com Team About our new look This month we have introduced a new design and feel to La Habana Magazine. We hope you like it – your feedback is appreciated. In the coming months, we will bring online weekly updates on what to see and do in… La Habana. JUN 2016

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Cuba Travel Network: Definitely Different Come and experience Cuba with a company that’s passionate about the magical island. Our on the ground team in Cuba is the first to know about the country’s developments—from new hotels and tour possibilities to ever-changing travel regulations, and we love to show our beautiful home to the world. With Cuba Travel Network, experience Cuba as a traveler, not a tourist.

Why travel with Cuba Travel Network? • CTN is the premier travel service provider for the individual traveler planning trips to Cuba, handling accommodation, all domestic flights and excursions. • On-the-ground assistance from expert concierge representatives throughout the island. • Choose from fully guided, flexible and special interest tours. • Real-time availability and immediate booking confirmation for 220+ hotels and 50+ rental car locations. • Secure online payment; Visa & MasterCard accepted.

US - [email protected] | 1 800 282 2468 (Toll Free) Europe - [email protected] | +31 (0)20 794 7962 Asia - [email protected] | 1800 198 150 (Toll Free) Rest of the world - [email protected] | +53 (0)7 214 0090

CubaTravelNetwork.com JUN 2016

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CONTENTS JUN 2016

US Travelers to Cuba An American gets swept off her feet My top 5 things to do in Havana

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Until Next Time Havana

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Aplatanado in Havana

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Taxi

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Old Havana: Mojitos and music still the strongest beat

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Seeing Cuba through the Eyes of an American

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The Adonia: Blazing the trail

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American visitors galore

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Papa Hemingway

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Leaving for Yuma Tropicana: So many yumas can’t be wrong

AM-PM 2016 Driving Cuba’s Musical Scene

Tradicionales de los 50: Embodying the Golden Age of Cuban Music

Reynier Rodríguez: Master Class Chivas Havana 2016 Champion

Havana Listings VISUAL ARTS PHOTOGRAPHY DANCE MUSIC THEATRE FOR KIDS EVENTS

Havana Guide FEATURES RESTAURANTS BARS & CLUBS LIVE MUSIC HOTELS PRIVATE ACCOMMODATION JUN 2016

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By Katherine Dobbs

AN AMERICAN

A new outlook on life, a few serious sunburns, a Cuban boyfriend and hundreds of mojitos later (don’t judge!), I am back in my home base of classy Charleston, South Carolina, USA, alive and well but with an unquenchable thirst for a return trip to Cuba.

BY CUBA

I cannot even begin to tell you the fullfrontal sensory experience that Cuba has to offer: experiencing the strength and revolutionary spirit of the Cuban people, eating heaping piles of savory rice and black beans for almost every meal, dancing to reggaeton and sipping on sweet and flavorful Cuba Libres (Rum and Coke mixed drinks!), swimming in brilliant turquoise oceans, feeling the beat deep in your chest of the pulsing music and sound that comes out of the city from every corner, and cat calls from every guy over the age of 10—Cuba took me by surprise and left me wanting more.

GETS SWEPT OFF HER FEET

photos by Huberto Valera Jr.

It is a beautiful place—hauntingly so. Never one to stick to the main tourist traps, I immediately found my happy place in the back streets of Old Havana and nestled myself into the daily life of this incredible city. I lived for the smells of street food, the sounds of the bustling city life, dodging out of the way of the constantly whizzing-by like it’s the Autobahn vintage Chevrolets, and the warmth of the Cuban people that greeted me at every turn. The buildings are crumbling—or at least the ones on back streets out of the main sight of tourists, and they are decorated with Che murals, JUN 2016

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revolutionary quotes, and Hasta la victoria siempre (Victory forever) in as many bare spots as the city’s muralists can find. Many of the main buildings, El Capitolio (the Capitol) for instance, and the beautiful colonial architecture lining the worldfamous walkway along Havana’s shores, the Malecón, have been gorgeously preserved and renovated. However, there is another side to the infrastructure there in Cuba, but it is a side that seemed to connect with me in a very personal and beautiful way. I found myself imagining the stories of all who had walked through those chipped doors, stood on the balconies seemingly perched by a few bricks. Looking at the architecture of Havana is like being on a treasure hunt: you honestly could never imagine what you will uncover while exploring. That being said, I came to love that city with all my heart. I was visiting Havana on a study abroad trip: yes, twelve college-age Americans studying abroad and roaming the streets of Havana. We quickly became like family with our Cuban professor and his neighbors, friends, and family. College students in Cuba are exactly like my friends at home—they love music, parties, and hanging out with friends. I hate to admit it, but my new friends probably were more well versed in American pop culture than I was! After classes were done for the day, we would all meet up with our new friends, and that is when the real experience began. Six or seven of us would climb into a máquina, aka almendrón (the private taxis of Cuba: vintage Chevrolets, Fords, driving at the speed of light and no seatbelts included!), piling on top of each other, laughing, singing, and excited to begin our

adventures. After haggling with the stubborn Cuban driver to charge us the Cuban and not tourist price, we finally would be on our way. A few things were always necessary to begin the night. Now, Havana Club Rum is the best, most incredible rum you can buy. And we were able to buy bottles upon bottles for a ridiculously cheap cost, as most things in Cuba were not very expensive. Less than ten bucks later, my friends and I were well outfitted with our provisions for the night: rum, TuKola (Cuban version of Coke) and cups. Flash forward about fifteen minutes of a fun, blurred taxi ride and we are being scooped out of a taxi at the Malecón walkway, ocean waves spraying over the sea wall and welcoming us to the city’s nightly party. The Malecón pulses with sound and people JUN 2016

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after nightfall—it becomes a living, breathing entity that could very well sum up the spirit of Cuba. Young and old, friends and family, all gather here to meet, greet, drink, and socialize. It is a beautiful, beautiful party, night after night, requiring no RSVP or invitation, but welcomes all with open arms and a rebel spirit. After the Malecón nights, we would go salsa dancing, plain and simple. There really was no other option—salsa is a way of life in Cuba. So…if anyone who knows me, knows me well, they know that I was absolutely hopeless at dancing—and scared to death of it. After several soul-crushing middle school dance experiences, I gave up my hopes and dreams of being a gorgeous ballerina. However, a very special person was able to transform this girl right here into a regular dancing queen. This brings me to my novio cubano—my Cuban boyfriend. He is a green-eyed, beautiful, and wonderful Cuban student who I met only a week after being in Havana. My life would never be the same. I won’t bore you with the long details, but let’s just say I fell in love with him, and I think there’s a good chance it’s leading towards a happily ever after. He taught me to salsa, taught me to vanish my fears, and most of all taught me how to be myself in a world where so often you are forced to be someone else. It may sound exaggerated, but there is no other explanation for how I felt by the time I left this beautiful country. I feel like in this day and age, surrounded by politics, chaos, and who knows what else, we are all just looking for a little bit of happilyever-after in our lives. Therefore, if I know anything for certain, it is this: when life hands you something good, you take it. This was my experience in Cuba. I was presented with a constantly moving, beautifully chaotic, yet peaceful and honest life there, and I decided it was something worth having. I plan to return to beautiful Havana soon, to learn more and more about the amazing and strong people of Cuba and to continue my happily-ever-after, all with a mojito in one hand and a genuine, true smile on my face.

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TOP 5 STREETS TO WALK DOWN MALECÓN - The iconic seaside street is probably one of the most photographed streets of Cuba. Driving by is not enough. Make a note of sitting on the Malecón wall with a bottle of rum at least once before leaving Cuba. 

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PASEO DEL PRADO - Probably one of the most beautiful treelined promenade streets in the world. The Prado was home to the recent Chanel Fashion show which took place in May 2016. The calm breezes, exquisite marble benches, and deco theaters are reminiscent of the old-world Bohemian culture that once inhabited this street in the early 1900s.

O’REILLY - Most guide books will recommend walking down Obispo Street; however, I believe the adjacent O’Reilly is the true beauty walk, and just off the tourist path. At the tip of the street sits one of Cuba’s young sexy bars called, you guessed it, O’Reilly. At the end of your walk, visit them for one of Cuba’s best Passion Fruit Daiquiris. 

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5 AVENUE - Yes, Cuba has its own 5th Avenue. Unlike New York’s 5th Avenue, this street is lined with international embassies and impressive homes. It also acts as a spinal cord of roads that leads one from Miramar to Playa to Siboney. It’s a feast for the eyes and stroll through various neighborhoods. TH

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NEPTUNO - Tucked between Habana Vieja and Vedado districts is an area called Centro Habana. Neptuno street is a vein of a street that allows a sightseeing traveler to melt into the neighborhood. For the vinyl junkies, make a stop at Neptuno No. 408 (at San Nicolás Street) to pick up some rare albums pressed by Egrem records (the Motown of Cuba).  JUN 2016 10

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“PEOPLE-WATCHING” PLACES 1. PLAZA VIEJA 2.COPPELIA One of Cuba’s biggest traditions is waiting in line for ice-cream in the historic Coppelia ice cream parlour located on 23rd street, in front of the classic Yara deco theater. The circular spaceship structure is a must visit for architecture lovers too.

4. 3.BOSQUE de LA HAVANA Lush little forest oasis tucked inside the middle of the city. The Bosque is a quiet and sacred spot overseen by large soulful Banyan trees. When visiting, its possible you will encounter locals giving an offering to the river under the Santeria practice.

There is a myriad of activity in this town square. Sit at one of the many cafes or coffee shops in the area and relax into the view. 

FLEA MARKET - Cuba’s Flea Market offers up a selection of gifts to bring home — revolutionary posters, vintage timepieces, antique jewelry, rare books, cuban vinyl, and more. The Plaza de Armas is also a good place to sit, breathe, and take on all the visual activity of a bustling market. 

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FABRICA DE ARTE - The Fabrica de Arte has made Cuba cool once again to the Millenial mindset. In fact, all walks of life and age groups take in the city’s best curated cultural programming of the city — from concerts to art shows to fashion — Fábrica is “the New Cuba” incarnate. 

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PLACES TO CHECK WIFI AND WHY?

5. HABANA LIBRE 3. PARQUE CENTRAL 1. HOTEL NACIONAL is 2. HABANA RIVIERA considered a ground zero of sorts today. Located in El vedado, it is a place to take a meeting in the breezy courtyard as the local peacock strolls by. You can check your emails, order a sandwich, change dollars into CUCs, all while overlooking the Malecón. 

- Once known as Meyer Lanky’s hotel/casino. Order a drink in the Lobby bar and take in the stunning view facing the Malecón. This venue allows login through $2 Nauta Cards. Located on Paseo y Malecón.

- Conveniently located in the heart of Habvana Vieja, the Parque Central has a very happening lobby, full of New York or Los Angelinos visiting Cuba for the week. Its a nice break from the outside hustle of Habvana Vieja if you desire to sit at the bar and log into Wifi for just a few minutes. Note, this bar is 24 hours. 

4. SARATOGA -

Saratoga is the Four Seasons of Cuba. It is a hotel that offers 5-star service with a virile wifi signal to boot. If its good enough for Jay Z and Karl Lagerfeld, it should be good enough for you. The Saratoga is also located conveniently in Habana Vieja and is another fun meeting place to rub elbows with the fabulous in town. 

- The hotel that once existed as tThe Hilton of Cuba pre-Revolution, this building is an architectural dream, and is positioned perfectly on 23rd Street (one of Cuba’s main arteries of transportation). The cafeteria downstairs makes a perfect place to check your Wifi in comfortable setting while sitting down at a table, ordering fresh juices, and “people-watching” through the open glasses corner of the block.  JUN 2016

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SUNSET VIEWS 1.

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MALECÓN - Sitting on the Malecón wall is about as magical as it gets. Bring a portable speaker and music for full effect.

MAGIC FLUTE - the rooftop bar overlooks the US embassy during the golden hour.

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SARATOGA - The best birdeye view of the city as the sun sets. Rooftop includes poolside activity as well. 

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7 DÍAS CAFE - Located on a quiet seaside in the Miramar district, this space was featured in the Cuban film “7 Days in Havana”.

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CRISTO DE LA HABANA - Take a ferry ride to the other side of the bay, to Regla. Visit Casablanca and ultimately the Jesus Statue to behold one of the most breathtaking views of the city.

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UNTIL NEXT TIME, HAVANA From My Seductive Cuba by Chen Lizra photos by Ana Lorena

On the afternoon of the last day of my last two-month visit to Cuba, I found myself in Centro Habana, walking back to my hotel following dance classes. To my right were kids playing with an old ball that hardly had any air. It didn’t matter; they were having fun. A mom appeared on the balcony and called her daughter in. I kept walking; Cuban men were coming on to me saying sweet things as usual. Nowadays, kids play Nintendo or sit and chat on Skype or MSN. If your mom needs you, she’ll call your cellphone. The world has changed a lot, but is it better? I don’t know. We’ve lost so much of our simplicity for the

sake of comfort and technology. They should come hand in hand, but in reality one seems to come at the expense of the other. Why is it that we want everything to be so new when the old is so charming? I wondered if they’d get rid of the old cars when Cuba changes. I used to come here and be fascinated with every car. They have so much character. Now it’s just part of the landscape. It seems silly to take pictures of them all the time. But without them, it would feel like something’s missing. Another thing I love about Cuba is that no one ever asks how old you are and classifies you according to your answer. You just live and enjoy the moment.

Later in the evening I went with Orly—my talented French-Israeli singer friend who lives between Paris and Havana—to grab a bite and share some deep conversation. She walked me back to my hotel after dinner. It was really hard to say goodbye. So many hugs. I just couldn’t let go, so we just stood there. I looked at her and said, “Orly, where am I going? I live here, no?” and I laughed. It did feel strange to leave, like leaving home. I love Cuba. It’s always so hard for me to leave it. Meeting Orly on that trip made it even harder, because we became so close and shared such a deep friendship, like two sisters. JUN 2016 14

lahabana. com Eventually my eyes were shutting down. We squeezed each other one last time and I was off to bed. I lay there, eyes shut, trying to fall asleep. Around 1 a.m., I heard an SMS come in and had the feeling I knew who it was from. I opened my eyes, rolled over heavily, and read it. It was Orly saying one last goodbye and how much all of this meant to her. I sent her a text message back saying the same. My eyes were all watery, the best kind, when you love people. I flipped over and fell asleep immediately. In the morning I woke up way too early. I was too emotional to sleep. The Malecón was so calm at dawn and the colors were so pretty. I’m never awake at this time. Car headlights and street lamps reflected in the water, yet there was already enough light to distinguish the sea with its unique colors. So calm, so peaceful. There’s never a reason to rush anywhere in Cuba. Where to? What for? That’s part of the beauty of this place. I packed my things and went to say goodbye to Melba and Alberto, my friends who own a beautiful casa particular. It was time.

situations. For example, taxis don’t always stop for me because they assume I don’t have money. This time around, while at the airport getting my bags scanned, an official asked to see my passport. When he saw I was Canadian, he said, “Parece una cubana” [You look like a Cuban]. I replied, “Casi cubana después de cinco años, pero no” [Almost Cuban after five years, but no]. He laughed with me. I realized that as a Cuban it must have seemed strange that I had so much electronic equipment and videotapes with me—I filmed all my dance classes—but for a foreigner it made complete sense.

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I sat at the airport waiting for my flight, this little airport that feels as if you landed in a little village, and you’d get off the plane and walk straight to the local mama’s house for a delicious meal. I sat there working on my computer. Every once in a while, some foreigner would come up to me and ask, “Do you have an Internet connection here? How?” And I’d reply, “WiFi at José Martí Airport? Maybe in 10 or 20 years. I am just working on my laptop,” and I’d smile from ear to ear.

Then I took a taxi to the airport. When I asked the driver to turn on the airconditioning, he laughed and said, “You are getting ready for the change in climate?” Yes, I said, laughing back. It was the first time I had ever ridden anywhere in Cuba and the driver (after that sole question) did not exchange even one word with me. I wondered if he was trying to give me the space he thought foreigners needed. At that moment, it felt like I was about to leave; things were already changing back to foreign mode. Cubans often get confused when I look Cuban; sometimes it creates the strangest JUN 2016 15

lahabana. com “Things are a changing” In July 2015, ETECSA, Cuba’s state telephone company, rolled out 35 wifi hotspots in Cuba. As at May 2016, there are 20 public hotspots in Havana and an average of five in the rest of the provinces. All hotels have wi-fi as well as the airport.

The Cuban men working at the airport were being typical cubanos, checking me out wherever I walked—to the restrooms, to get some food, even just to stretch. Yes, I for sure will miss this place, my great friends, the dance classes, the seduction, Havana nightlife, the charming messiness, everything. I got on the plane, and as we took off, the air-conditioning system tried to moisturize the cabin, and it looked like smoke. The pilot told us not to worry. I was certainly leaving, I thought to myself. No one bothered announcing anything on the domestic flight from Havana to Santiago de Cuba when that plane became filled with smoke. But that’s how things work in Cuba; you just figure things out on the fly. There’s something really charming about constantly living the moment, and it’s a nice break from the fast world out there. My flight to Toronto took three and a half hours, and the flight attendants were so nice and formal. I just kept wishing things would be a little less formal and a little warmer and more personal like in Cuba. But that didn’t happen. Step by step, I was leaving Cuba and its warmth, and landing in another more detached world.

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sounds strange, but after so long without tomatoes, I had to have tomatoes. The guy at reception, seeing my reaction to everything, said to me, “You’re in culture shock.” I smiled. I must have looked disoriented. Everything was so efficient and perfect. Too perfect. I felt no real connection with anyone; I could not even feel the heart of one person. In my room, the toilet paper was soft and there was hot water. I stood under the spray for 20 minutes, not believing there was real pressure. My hotel bed was so comfortable that I felt uncomfortable. It was too quiet. I had a very hard time falling asleep—no music on the Malecón, no crowds outside. It felt lifeless. Some people might not see anything wrong with this picture, but after two months in Cuba, it all felt wrong. The receptionist was right: I was in complete culture shock. After a few days, I returned to Vancouver. I managed to fill my refrigerator with just about every kind of food possible. I kept opening the fridge staring at the food and not believing the variety. Going to the supermarket was like going to Disneyland. There were so many options. I was slowly adjusting back to Canadian life and

After going through passport control in Toronto, I went to get my suitcase. While waiting at the baggage carousel, I felt like I was being bombarded with a million sales pitches. It’s shocking to see advertising all around you after two months without it. I got my suitcase and went to find the shuttle to my hotel. Everything was smooth. It felt so strange. The first thing I did upon arriving at the hotel was order a plate of tomatoes. It JUN 2016 16

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thinking how much I would have loved to have this comfort combined with Cuba’s strong sense of community. But it seems that the price we pay for perfection is a loss of connection to the moment and to other people. Yes, Cuba has many problems. It’s not an easy place to live in, and some things need to change. But as a good friend once told me, “The good and the bad about something always come from the same place.” In fact, the very things we feel must change in Cuba are precisely the things we love so much about the island. Cuba truly has something special to offer that no other place I know even comes close to. Returning from Cuba after two magical months showed me how much we take things for granted. Every year, I let Cuba inspire my heart and remind me to not take things for granted. By the time I start to forget, I go back and let Cuba inspire me all over again. I miss Cuba whenever I’m not there, like home. And as soon as I set foot on Cuban soil again, it feels as if I never left. But don’t worry—I’ll be back soon. Chen Lizra, an Israeli-Canadian dancer, TED speaker and entrepreneur, is the best-selling author of My Seductive Cuba, an award-winning unique travel guide that mixes her personal anecdotes with practical travel advice. Imagine “Eat, Pray, Love” meets the “Lonely Planet!” Chen has been leading boutique tours for only ten people inside authentic Cuba since 2008. Her connection to the arts scene through years of dance training gives her an interesting angle on the island and an interesting network. www.myseductivecuba.com/cuban-tours Twitter: @ChenLizra, Facebook + Instagram: clizra. JUN 2016

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APLATANADO IN HAVANA by Georgia Schrubbe

Photos by Alex mene and Ana Lorena JUN 2016 18

lahabana. com “How many Americans do you know that have gone to Spain or Italy or France?” Chrissy Hefron, sophomore geology major at the College of Charleston, asks. “Now think how many you know that have gone to Cuba—for me, that number was zero.” Hefron decided to be the first member of her family to travel to Cuba, spending three months there as part of CofC’s annual La Habana study abroad trip.

for educational, journalistic, or religious purposes, and each traveler is only allowed to spend a certain amount of money in Cuba per diem.

“For me, Cuba seemed like the ultimate adventure. Traveling inside one of the last hard-line communist countries during a period in history in which Fidel Castro is still alive? I had no idea what I was getting into, and therefore I was immediately attracted to the idea and simultaneously terrified,” Hefron said.

Despite the growing interconnectedness of today’s society, few Americans know much about Cuba. Hefron bemoans most Americans lack of education about their neighbor in the Western Hemisphere and considers herself lucky to have been exposed to so much in a short amount of time.

Long gone are the days of our grandparents, when Havana was a honeymoon hotspot and Americans were able to travel to the Las Vegas of the Caribbean for a quick pleasure trip. Now, traveling to Cuba is not just a simple matter of buying a plane ticket and jetting off the coast of Florida. Travel to Cuba must be authorized by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, usually

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Maybe these difficulties, and the mystery and misinformation that Cuba is shrouded in, is why students participating in the CofC study abroad program jump at the chance to spend time there learning some of the insand-outs of Havana life.

“[I knew] that Fidel controlled it, they had communism and cigars, and about the Cuban missile crisis,” Hefron said, “So I knew nothing.”

“Things are a changing” As of January 2015, the Obama administration put all 12 categories of travel under a general license, meaning that visitors no longer have to ask OFAC for permission before going, and there is no specific dollar limit on authorized expenses. In addition, travelers are authorized to acquire in Cuba merchandise with a value up to $400 per person, of which no more than $100 may be alcohol or tobacco products. On March 16, 2016, solo travel has been permitted by President Obama. JUN 2016 19

lahabana. com The CofC program educates students about all facets of life in Cuba, from the history of the Cuban Revolution and its aftermath to how to successfully navigate Cuban food markets and butcher stands. The program is the brainchild of CofC’s Dr. Douglas Friedman, director of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies and International Studies programs, and Dr. Humberto Miranda, a researcher at Havana’s Institute of Philosophy. The two are the “principals” of the program and also fast friends, successfully running the program without interruption since 2000.] After President Bush passed legislation in 2004 making travel to Cuba for educational programs more difficult, many universities’ Cuba programs were discontinued, but Miranda and Friedman managed to keep theirs going, earning CofC’s status as one of a handful of Cuba study-abroad programs in the United States for several years. The Cuba program is a reason that some students choose the College over other universities. Class of 2012 graduate Ross Kressel rejected acceptances to several universities, including the University of Massachusetts and Ohio’s Miami University, to study political science at CofC and have the opportunity to spend a semester in Cuba. “I wanted to go to Cuba before I even set foot on the campus,” Kressel said. “It is somewhere that nobody else I really knew could go, and it was a really unique place to be able to study politics.”

Trovador, Frank Delgado

Besides getting an up-close look at a government that the United States has fiercely embargoed for over 50 years, Kressel also had a chance to indulge his passion for baseball.

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“Being able to see where some of my favorite players have come from was cool to me,” Kressel said. He was able to see Havana’s Industriales team play in their home stadium, where instead of an organ player plunking “Take me out to the ball game,” there was an eightpiece rumba group drumming out beats that sounded more like they were accompanying a run through the jungle than of around bases. The program allowed Kressel and Hefron and the 10 other students on this year’s trip to swim in the Bay of Pigs, follow in the footsteps of famous revolutionaries but also face the realities of living in a country where shortages of supplies are common and the people joke that their three biggest problems are “breakfast, lunch and dinner.” Aplatanar is a word used in Cuba that means to make like a plantain and put down roots. Hefron recalls one of the nights that she felt most aplatanada and at home in Cuba, an evening where the entire group (plus new Cuban friends) went to one of their favorite spots to hear Cuban trovador Frank Delgado play for the umpteenth time. “How safe and in love we felt—with the people, the scent, the music and the entire Habana life with all its frustrations and hardships,” Hefron said. The College of Charleston program is firmly aplatanado in Cuba, and Cuba has become firmly fixed in the hearts of all students who have an opportunity to study there.

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TAXI!

Photos by Alex mene and Ana Lorena JUN 2016

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There’s only one way to get around the big easy that is La Habana—in a vintage Chevy, an almendrón. At 50 cents a ride you can’t go far wrong, or at least that’s the theory. It brings to mind the quip that “when is a taxi not a taxi”? The time: nine o’clock on a Tuesday night. The place: a corner by a gas station in Havana, Cuba. The players: A handful of college students, elegantly dressed and waiting to hail a cab to a classy jazz club. A sky-blue vintage Chevy pulls up and the students ask, in Spanish, if the driver can take them to an intersection about five straight miles down the road. He assents and they pile in and take off, the tropical early spring breeze blowing through the Chevy’s open windows. Unexpectedly, the driver takes a right. Half a block down the road, he pulls a u-turn and keeps driving straight. The students raise their eyebrows to one another, knowing full well that there are no turns on the way to their intersection. The driver pulls into a parking lot outside of a poorly-lit hotel. The students are convinced that their lives will be over after two short decades at the hands of a Cuban taxi driver. Instead, the driver asks for directions. The students are completely bewildered. Their destination is a well-known intersection in Havana. And the man supposedly drives the streets of Havana in his taxi for a living. After a few more stops and requests for directions, the taxi driver finally found the JUN 2016 22

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right intersection and the students pile out. Such is a night in Cuba riding around in an almendrón. Let me explain about these taxis. When you see a vintage American car with a taxi sticker in the window, the first thing that comes to mind is probably not a tasty and nutrition nut. But for whatever reason in Cuba those taxis are called máquinas, which means machines, or almendrones, which means almond. Like almonds for a mid-afternoon snack, the almendrones are usually incredibly convenient. And luckily, unlike almonds, almendrones are cheap. They run all over Havana on different routes, which are indicated by different hand signals that might be mistaken for gang signs. If you don’t know the hand signals, the driver will just ask you where you’re trying to go and if it’s on his route, you jump in. Depending on the destination, you pay 10 or 20 national pesos. Just for reference, there are 24 national pesos to one Cuban convertible peso (CUC). One CUC is approximately equivalent to one dollar. So, for less than one dollar, you can more or less get all over Havana. Granted, you might have to walk a little bit once you hop out of the almendrón, but far worse disasters have occurred. The cars are a vintage car collector’s Christmas morning—a stream of 40s and 50s-era American clunkers that, if properly restored, would probably sell for more than four years of tuition at an Ivy League school.

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lahabana. com But note the above-mentioned “if restored.” The interior of the cars is like a pathetic set of bumper cars at a state fair where all the carnies are probably escaped convicts. The floor is steel and the seats ripped leather. The cars were made before suspension was invented. The engine is being held together by duct tape and wishful thinking and probably runs on rum and governmentrationed coffee. The drivers have to put the force of their whole body into shifting gears and a stalled or broken-down almendrón is

as common as a white girl in a Whole Foods. The breaks squeal louder than teens at a Justin Bieber concert and the cars slowly putter backwards when stopped at a light. Once when riding in an almendrón, I saw spray-painted on a wall “Vivan los almendrones.” Despite my experience with an incompetent almond driver, I wouldn’t trade those little suckers for anything. Long live the almond.

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Georgia is a Charleston, S.C.-based freelance writer, social media coordinator, yoga teacher and professional dancer with a penchant for traveling, gourmet popsicle-making, and finding a story in everything. She recently published her first ebook,  “There is a live wire in the shower and other concerns about life in Cuba.”  She writes a brilliant blog, Jamming with GA (http://georgiaschrubbe.com/category/cuba/).

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By Jill Worrall Jewels of moisture are sliding down the sides of my mojito glass and less elegant sweat is beading on my forehead—it’s a sultry afternoon in Havana. The setting, especially if one is unprepared for Cuba’s Caribbean-style communism, is slightly discombobulating. There’s lobster on the menu, white linen napkins and supercilious waiters equal to any you’ll find in the capitalist west. But not even a snooty waiter can detract from the vibrancy and splendor that surrounds our group of diners.

OLD HAVANA MOJITOS AND MUSIC still the strongest beat

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of Moorish Spain... with an overlay of Cuban joie de vivre. The palacio restaurant is known for some of the best mojitos in Cuba. A mojito is a simple combination of Cuban white rum, chopped ice, lime juice, sparkling mineral water, sugar syrup and a crushed stem of mint. It’s the perfect pick-me-up up on a tropically humid day and deceptively easy to drink but even in socialist Cuba not all mojitos are created equal. From my seat I have a view of the entire plaza. Tourism outside Cuba’s beach resorts is relatively low-key but this time of day counts as prime visitor hours so there is plenty going on. Two Cuban ladies in multicolored full skirts, low-cut blouses and clutching baskets of flowers and fruit are also surveying the square. As a small group of tourists—I’m guessing off a cruise ship—pause at the entrance to the square, the ladies quickly whip out lipsticks of eye-popping brightness and apply them lavishly. Then they set off across the square towards the unsuspecting men in the group. Two of the latter, engrossed in framing photos of the cathedral that dominates one side of the square are thus caught unawares as the two ladies throw their arms around them and plant perfect rosebud kisses on their cheeks. Of course, there’s a small price to pay for such warm affection—an entrepreneurial photo-op venture in a country where private business (even in kisses) is a relatively new phenomenon.

We are sitting on the terrace of the Palacio de los Marqueses de Aguas Claras, a 17th-century palace that forms one side of Plaza de la Catedral. With its ceramic wall tiles, central courtyard with a gently splashing fountain and archways framing the plaza, it’s a touch

photos by Huberto Valera Jr.

Meanwhile one of my Kiwi ladies is being homed in upon by an elderly man who has gone for a fetching fusion of Ernest JUN 2016 25

lahabana. com Hemingway and Fidel Castro—there’s a profusion of beard and moustache, a giant cigar and, just to add to the iconic imagery, he’s wearing a Che Guevara beret. By now a plate of fat Caribbean shrimps has arrived in front of me and when I look up again Margaret is wearing the beret, has a cigar clamped in her mouth and FidelChe-Ernest’s arm is draped around her shoulder while a fellow traveler obliges with a photograph. The other two sides of the plaza are filled by two more palaces and a mansion that is now the Colonial Museum Havana’s architectural heritage is breathtaking—16th-century Colonial, Cuban Baroque, neo-Classical, neo-Moorish, art nouveaux and art deco. While some has been painstakingly restored, much of Havana (and elsewhere on the island) is slowly crumbling. Havana, indeed much of Cuba, has been quietly decaying ever since the United States imposed an embargo on what is now the only Communist nation in the western hemisphere, back in 1961. It’s been something of a two-edged sword— undeniably Cubans have suffered as a result of the severe restraints on imports and exports but at the same time, lack of economic growth is one reason so much of the country’s architectural heritage has not been swept away. Ironically, the embargo and the “special period”—an economic crisis precipitated by the collapse of the Soviet Union—has also meant Cuba is more resilient in terms of self-sufficiency than many of its richer neighbors.

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In a country where horse-power often means just that, its people are also much more capable of surviving in a world of soaring oil prices and reduced supplies. In Cuba there’s a soundtrack to almost everything you do. Eat lunch, sip a cocktail, or pause on a cobbled street and wait for the ripple of fingers on guitar strings, the scratching sound of a güiro (an open-ended gourd stroked with a stick), a resonant tap on a bongo. From behind a rank of potted palms, or inside a doorway, will flow the music of Cuba—rumba and son, salsa and jazz, mambo and chachacha. The rhythms are compulsive, even if it’s yet another version of the ubiquitous Guantanamera. The musicians can be 80 and bewhiskered, sexy and sinuous, sultry and serious—the common denominator is everyone has musical talent in abundance. Dancing comes naturally to everyone— Cubans don’t need to be taught how to sway their hips; they really do dance in the streets; men in shiny nylon shirts, women in lycra leopard-print leggings and skintight boob tubes; schoolgirls in miniscule skirts that would have given my old headmistress apoplexy. After lunch we wander down a side street from the plaza to the Bodeguita del Medio, one of Nobel-prizewinning author Ernest Hemingway’s favorite watering holes. Hemingway lived in Cuba for nearly 20 years, during which time he sank an impressive number of mojitos and daiquiris. It’s a tiny restaurant-bar, crammed photos

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of famous visitors, including singer Nat King Cole as well as Papa Hemingway. In the other direction is the Malecón, a seven-kilometer seaside promenade, which, depending on the mood of the Caribbean, is either lapped gently or deluged by huge plumes of seawater It’s in a peaceful mood today, however, which is just as well, as there are five of Cuba’s treasured 50s American automobiles lined up by the seawall for us. There’s a Ford Fairlane, two Dodges (one a white convertible with red leather upholstery), a Chevrolet Impala and another Chevy, this one candy pink. I find myself in the yellow Dodge. While some of the autos now have Japanese engines, the Dodge still has its original motor, but also seems to have a hole in the exhaust. We rumble through Havana pulling away from traffic lights with a guttural roar, shattering the peace in residential streets where kids are kicking soccer balls in the middle of the road and adults gossip on their stoops. The driver puts his foot down just behind a group of tourists in the Plaza de la Revolución who are photographing the famous wire sculpture of revolutionary Che Guevara. They jump, satisfyingly, with fright. Beneath Che’s image is one his most famous quotes: Hasta la Victoria Siempre—keep striving for victory. It is in this square that Fidel Castro has held most of the rallies following the success of the Revolution in 1959 against the hated Batista dictatorship. The cars take us home to another landmark, the Hotel Nacional, an Art Deco masterpiece built in 1930. The hotel’s gardens sweep down to the Malecón from a deep veranda filled with cane armchairs and sofas. There’s a soft breeze blowing from the Caribbean. Waiters sail past with trays of drinks and boxes of fat, aromatic Cuban cigars and in the corner a trio of beautiful singers in short black dresses and homburgs on jaunty angles begin a bracket of salsa numbers. Hasta La Mojito.

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SEEING CUBA THROUGH THE EYES OF AN AMERICAN

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by Jauretsi Cuba. Its one of those places that sounds like a sexy novel to most Americans. It brings to mind a forbidden land with 1950’s cars, simple rustic living, and salsa dancing on the corner This is the script one gobbles until you finally arrive into Cuba. Then you realize its a barrage of many more things. Part simple indeed, yet part highly complex. Part Rustic. Part Luxury. Part Salsa. Part EDM. Its a city of contradictions, with a reggaeton soundtrack blaring in the back. Once you realize this, it’s an invitation to transcend all the clichés and immerse yourself in the pros and cons of this bare-boned living. Not for the faint of heart, Cuba’s idiosyncrasies make it either a challenge, an opportunity, or a headache to mastermind. Case in point. As an American, there is the dubious effort of surviving on cash only. Due to the American embargo, nothing issued by a US bank can be used in Cuba. That means no credit cards, no ATMs, and no checks. What do I hate about this? The obvious: inconvenience. What do I love about it? Since I have moved here, I have noticed a shift in my spending. Just a few months ago, in my native New York existence, I was the queen of swiping credit cards. The coffee shop. Swipe. At the nail salon. Swipe. At dinner. Swipe. By the end of the month, I would see my bank statements shrink and realize that this disassociated action ripped a hole through my bank account. Somehow the money doesn’t feel real when hidden in plastic. During my stay in Cuba, I find myself carrying wads of cash, mostly wads of 20s and smaller bills. With every purchase, I have JUN 2016 28

lahabana. com to thumb through bills manually, pull out the exact change, and be conscious of when its time to “replenish” from the master stash. To put it mildly, money just seems precious all over again. Spending in Cuba has made me conscious of the value of a dollar spent. And then there’s the Internet. For those who have never been to Cuba, it is important to note that Wifi signals don’t exist in cell phones. In fact, the act of checking emails requires first buying 1hr login card from either your hotel (or local phone company), then scheduling a firm break in your day that includes visiting a nearby Hotel lobby or public park designated to receive this login card. As a New Yorker with eternal web signals in the palm of my hand, surviving Cuba’s technological landscapes is an

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exercise in zen patience. Apparently the government feels the same way as illustrated on the phone company’s wifi cards (a woman sitting in yoga position praying for patience). The average tourist will never deal with waiting in long lines at the local phone company. Instead, their hotel will most likely charge a higher rate with a special code to log online. The principle is the same. Each tourist will experience the act of living offline, off the grid, and be faced with only their fellow travelers. This means being more present, more eye to eye conversations, and more real experiences, if only just for a few days. Just like its residents have learned, Cuba is about making lemonade out of lemons. On a good day, I am reminded how little I check social media. I am given

the opportunity to stay offline during a dinner. This means no Instagram, no Twitter, no Facebook while dining with your friend. On a bad day, I’m pulling my hairs out, driving around town chasing wifi. Until the day I am graced with constant wifi signals, I choose to live like a local, and absorb all the philosophical lessons it brings me. What is the New Cuba? As a writer living in the most transformative era in 57 years, the truth is I don’t have any clear answers. This isn’t a binary conversation falling under good or bad. Instead, it’s a constant evolution of forces coming together. It’s the excitement of the flourishing

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“cuentapropistas” (Cuba’s new private sector), it’s the new foodie culture that is blossoming, it’s the wildly confusing twotier economy which is clashing and coming to a head. It’s the locals hustling on the street for a dollar to help you with anything and everything. It is also sprinkled with Major Lazer and Chanel. Some outsiders complain about the mega production Fast & Furious filming in town. The fear is that these projects will somehow ruin Cuba’s soul. Most foreigners don’t realize that the film production renovated and repaved several of Cuba’s most important streets in desperate need of repair. Perhaps this new era of reconciliation is not what we imagined it would look like. As more American productions visit Cuba, the money trickles into the hands of the people and small businesses. All of Havana’s 1950s cars never saw a better payday since Fast & Furious and Chanel both came to town and rented vehicles galore for each production. Entrepreneurship is on the rise. In terms of Cuba’s soul, rest assured, that is not going anywhere. The people have a deeply embedded “cubaneo” that manifests in their music, jokes, dancing, and swagger. Our only mission as outsiders is to foster this new change and perhaps build better sustainable trade and commerce. It is up to the Cuban people to maintain their identity which I have utter faith will never be crushed. The rest of us need to keep our minds open to this unpredictable journey. Onwards and upwards.

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THE ADONIA

BLAZING THE TRAIL by Victoria Alcalá

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who was excited to set foot on his native soil, which he left when he was only nine months.

Many people might wonder why all the fuss by the arrival of the Adonia at Havana Harbor, on May 1, 2016. After all, the arrival of cruise ships is nothing new in the Cuban capital (in 2015 alone, European cruises brought approximately 20,000 passengers). But the answer is very simple: it is the first one to come from the United States after more than half a century. Word says that it will come on a biweekly basis and this seems to be yet another sign that the detente announced by President Obama is possible. This, of course, fed the usual curiosity of Habaneros. Fathom, the newest brand of Carnival Corp, the world’s largest cruise ship operator, first had to overcome the hurdle of a Cuban rule prohibiting Cubans born on the Island to enter the country aboard American ships (as a precaution against terrorist actions, which at one time were very frequent). But as a sign that the “times they are a-changin” also on the insular side of the old conflict, the Cuban authorities repealed the provision and 18 passengers born on Cuban soil arrived in Havana aboard the Adonia, including Carnival legal advisor Arnie Pérez

The enthusiastic passengers seemed to confirm the prediction that soon the United States will become the second largest source of visitors to Cuba after Canada. An unprecedented 200,000 US visitors came to Cuba in the first quarter of 2016 (2015 had been the best year with just over 500,000 visitors). And US laws still do not allow tourism as a reason for their citizens to travel to the neighboring island. If tourism were allowed, around three million visitors are estimated to arrive from the United States. If that would happen, they would have to bring tents because the current installed state and private hotel capacity is not enough. However, I do know that new hotels are being planned and built right now. Meanwhile, the future avalanche of cruise ships would give back to Havana (one of its main destinations) its status as a seafaring city, which over the centuries conditioned its image, the character of its inhabitants and even its music. As Cuban anthropologist, ethnomusicologist and scholar of AfroCuban culture Don Fernando Ortiz (18811969) wrote in his essays, the claves, an inevitable instrument to make Son and Guaguancó, were made since early days with wood from the then famous Havana shipyards. And the parentage of the music genre known as filin includes 1940s and 50s jazz, which Cuban composers of the genre came to know thanks to African American sailors arriving in the Cuban capital’s harbor. The 561 people on board the Adonia were welcomed with Cuba Libres, the famous

cocktail made with white rum, coke and a few drops of lemon (ironically, the invention of the cocktail is attributed to members of the US army of occupation on the island, from 1898 to 1902), effusive handshakes, and female dancers in leotards bearing the Cuban flag and performing a “very typical” choreography to the rhythm of “very typical” music—the only thing missing in the caricature were American cars popularly known as almendrones. To me it all seemed like a scene from Luis García Berlanga’s famous movie Welcome, Mr. Marshall! This unforgettable film tells the story of a small Spanish town that hears of the visit of American diplomats and begins preparations to impress the American visitors in the hopes of benefitting under the Marshall Plan. See what I mean when I say the reception reminded me of the movie? Luckily, just a few meters from the harbor, the real Cuba awaited them—with its poverty, but also with its dignified and carefree hospitality, its splendid culture, its unique religiosity, its beautiful heritage cities, its bustle, warmth and light. JUN 2016 32

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AMERICAN VISITORS

galore

By Victoria Alcalá Cuba, and especially Havana, was visited by countless early travelers, whether for business, family relationships, scientific research or simple curiosity. And although until the eighteenth century the publication of the testimonies of those visits corresponded to the Europeans—Spaniards, Dutch, English, French, Italian—by the nineteenth century, Americans began to gain supremacy over the others. Several texts written by citizens from the north, such as Abiel Abbot or Samuel Hazard, have become essential referents for the study of that era on the island. Guides for excursionists and travel books, almost always illustrated, abounded, while the farsighted William J. Clark published in 1898 a detailed volume of 514 pages, including maps and illustrations, aimed at JUN 2016 33

lahabana. com entrepreneurs: Commercial Cuba. A Book for Business Men. Publications in the twentieth century did not differ much, and reveals at least one area of the interests of American travelers: potential investments, finding a friendly climate (the word winter appears repeatedly in the titles), interest for “exotic” customs... Other motivations such as abundant rum in times of Prohibition, easy sex or the practice of abortion, were left for discrete personal comments. During the nineteenth century, there is hardly news of Americans celebrities traveling to the island, because the tourism boom, worldwide, began precisely at the end of that century. In contrast, the twentieth century exhibits an impressive list of famous visitors. Until 1958, the

streets of Havana were filled with likes of actors like Johnny Weissmuller, winner of five Olympic medals in swimming, but remembered above all for his role as Tarzan in more than 10 films; the great star of silent westerns, Tom Mix, and another idol of silent films, comedian Buster Keaton; tough guy John Wayne, compelling leading men like Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Gary Cooper, Tyrone Power or the incomparable Marlon Brando, who at the peak of his talent and sex appeal relished Havana night life to the limit, sex symbols like Rita Hayworth and Ava Gardner; Oscar champion Walt Disney; and dancer, choreographer, singer, musician and actor, the great Fred Astaire. But not only film stars were curious about Cuba: Havana residents enjoyed the performances of the great Josephine Baker, the unforgettable Nat King Cole and The Voice, Frank Sinatra. Nelson

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Rockefeller displayed his fluent Spanish, and another famous millionaire, Irénée du Pont, whose family was one of the richest and most prominent families in the 19th and 20th centuries, had a mansion built for him in Varadero. This house, which he named Xanadu, is considered one of the wonders of Cuban architecture. Just like most of his compatriots having the same pedigree, the idol of the New York Yankees, Mickey Mantle, and one of the great heavyweights in boxing history, Jack Dempsey, stayed at the legendary Hotel Nacional, which closed its doors in December 1946 for a major meeting of the heads of the major crime families, including Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, Albert Anastasia, Santos Trafficante and Vito Genovese. So significant was this conference that in The Godfather II, Michael Corleone travels to Havana for a mobsters’ meeting. But the most beloved of all the Americans who came to Cuba in the first half of the twentieth century was undoubtedly Ernest Hemingway, who wrote, drank mojitos and daiquiris, fished and chased German submarines out of Havana. Contrary to what one might think, due to the rupture of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States and the very tense relations that have marked almost six decades, many American celebrities looked out to the neighboring island, sometimes openly, sometimes with the utmost discretion. Again, the film industry beats all: Oscar winners like Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, Robert de Niro, Ed Harris, Michael Douglas, Kevin Costner and Kevin Spacey, and Academy nominees Annette Bening, James Caan and Johnny Depp, who came to the Caribbean, but not as a pirate; other Oscar winners like Robert Duvall JUN 2016 34

lahabana. com and Leonardo di Caprio; the always supportive Harry Belafonte and Danny Glover; Arnold Schwarzenegger, the “Governator”; Peter Coyote; Billy Zane and Jennifer Lopez, among others. To this incomplete list, you would need to add directors competing in fame with the actors listed above: Steven Spielberg, who was welcomed with the exhibition of his films in the best cinemas in Havana; Roman Polanski; Francis Ford Coppola; Oliver Stone, who made the Comandante, a documentary film on Fidel Castro; the controversial Michael Moore; Michael Mann; Steven Soderbergh, who put the figure of Ernesto Che Guevara on screen, and many more. Given the undisputed musical power of Cuba, many musicians have made it a point to know the island “up close and personal”: Billy Joel, Kris Kristofferson, Rita Coolidge, Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, Herbie Hancock, Peter Frampton, Gladys Knight, Backstreet Boys,

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Fleetwood Mac, Beyonce and Jay Z, Kool & the Gang… in other areas, star baseball players like Wade Boggs and Stan Musial have also visited the Island, the brilliant and eccentric chess player Bobby Fischer, the legendary heavyweight Muhammad Ali and prominent scientists and Nobel laureates David Gross (Physics) and Peter Agre (Chemistry). American writers have not been regulars to the Island, but William Kennedy, author of the well-known novel Ironweed, and writer of the screenplay of the film of the same name as well as Cotton Club; Gore Vidal, a critic of US foreign policy in Cuba; sociologist James Petras; and playwright Arthur Miller. Pop art icon, Robert Rauschenberg also landed in Cuba. The famous journalist Barbara Walters interviewed Fidel; social activist Angela Davis, who introduced the afro hairstyle on the island, was received with honors; ex-president James Carter awakened much sympathy, and more recently in March 2016, President Barack, who announced on December 17, 2014, simultaneously with his counterpart President Raul Castro, the decision to restore diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States. The public announcement of the reestablishment of relations between Cuba and the US and the opening of embassies (the Havana embassy in the presence of Secretary of State John Kerry) seems to have changed the dynamics of the arrival of American visitors to the Island. Politicians, businesspeople, intellectuals, artists and onlookers have JUN 2016 35

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invaded the streets of many Cuban cities (and also the beaches, although tourism in Cuba is not authorized by the US government) with different motivations. Some come to explore possible investment trying to preempt an imagined avalanche; some say that others come to enjoy the country before it is filled with McDonald’s and other like symbols. Of course, many are avid to have a taste of the until recently “forbidden fruit” while others hope to see the last days of the “communist stronghold in the West,” whose collapse they have spent more than 50 years prophesying to no avail. For one reason or another, after December 17, 2014, many others have visited the island: ZZ Top; Major Lasser; Katy Perry, Usher, Ludacris, Jimmy Buffett; Conan O’Brien, who taped a special Conan in Cuba in March 2015; Rihanna who came with celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz for a photo shoot in Havana; the best professional boxer in the world in the last decade, Floyd Mayweather; the eternal heartthrob Richard Gere; Paris Hilton; Naomi Campbell; Spike Lee; the fabulous soprano Barbara Hendricks; the Fast and Furious stars and crew, as well as The Transformers; and the most recent visit in May, 2016 of Kanye West and the Kardashian clan. And last but least, the ineffable Simpsons have announced they will be coming in October this year. Homer will bring his father Abe to see Cuban doctors to cure the WWII veteran.

Indeed, to our neighbors up north, it seems that Cuba has never gone out of fashion.

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PAPA HEMINGWAY! by Victoria Alcalá A dear friend who once in a while likes to throw me difficult challenges, recently asked me who was the most famous American who had visited Cuba. Because of the proximity of events, I was tempted to say President Barack Obama, the first US president of African descent who resumed relations with Cuba after more than half a century of rupture, which is enough to go down in history. But I remembered a joke I heard on a visit I made to Moscow in 1987. The joke goes like this: In 2017, one Russian asks another who Leonid Brezhnev was, and after a great effort of memory, the guy answered that he was a politician in singer Alla Pugachova’s time. Considering the factor of posterity, and the risk that before a similar question made 20150 someone might answer that Obama was a politician in Beyonce’s time, I rejected the idea of naming the 44th President as the most famous American who has ever visited Cuba. And because historians still haven’t made up their minds on whether George Washington visited Havana or not, I relinquished the thorny sphere of politics.

Papa Hemingway immortalized in bronze at the Floridita Restaurant in Old Havana

Immediately came to mind the name of Brooklyn native Henry Reeve, nicknamed “The Little Englishman,” who reached the rank of Brigadier General in Cuba’s Liberation Army fighting Spanish colonialism. Although Reeve is an example of the best virtues of his countrymen, unfortunately he is not known outside the Island. I also recalled Irene Aloha Wright, author of three essential titles to decipher a period that has not been studied and documented enough: the first three centuries after the Spanish conquest, and especially the history of Havana: The Early History of Cuba, 14921854, Documented History of San Cristobal de La Habana in the 16th Century Based on Existing Original Documents in the General JUN 2016 37

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Archive of the Indies in Seville and Documented History of San Cristobal de La Habana in the First Half of the 17th Century, published in 1916, 1927 and 1930, respectively. These books are constantly consulted by historians and other specialists, which circumscribes Wright’s “fame” to an exclusive and reduced sector. Given that sports glory is usually fairly brief, I performed a cursory exploration of the arts: only one great American painter seems to have set foot on Cuban soil: Robert Rauschenberg, who presented a much discussed and controversial exhibition of his work; some musicians of popular genres; great actors (ah, Brando!) and great directors. Perhaps the name that I needed was in that group, but I was still uneasy about the fact that the bonds of such creators with Cuba had been circumstantial, and, therefore, ephemeral. I do not believe that they had left a profound mark on national culture or in the popular imaginary.

Hemmingway Museum ¨La Vigia¨

Therefore, even if a common place, I simply had to go to the Ambos Mundos Hotel, have a daiquiri at the Floridita and a mojito in the Bodeguita del Medio, and travel all the way down to Finca Vigía in the outskirts of Havana to pay tribute to the Bronze God of American Literature, Ernest Hemingway, Papa, like many of his Cuban friends called him. Hemingway, who is not among my specially favorite authors (although I have reread some of his stories, Islands in the Gulf and Moveable Feast), he has been revered by some of the best Cuban writers, and one of them, Norberto Fuentes, published an excellent book about his presence on the island. Hemingway wrote a significant portion of his work in Havana, between the Ambos Mundos Hotel and his home Finca Vigía, including The Old Man and the Sea; he established a close relationship with many common Cubans, his fishing and drinking buddies. And 55 years after he took his life, he remains a rare presence in the city, as if refusing to abandon it altogether. He is, for me, the most famous American who has ever been in Cuba, and Cuba contributed to that reputation. Restaurant ¨Floridita¨

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LEAVING FOR YUMA! by Andreas Clarck In the mid-seventies, the Centro Habana municipality (which was not falling apart yet) enjoyed the privilege of having more than a dozen movie houses. Spacious, comfortable, more often than not ventilated by ceiling fans (the air-conditioners were almost always, and have been since then, broken) whose huge blades could have lifted a Russian helicopter filled with Siberian bears. The programming of those neighborhood movie theaters basically offered two types of films: Soviet war films and American westerns. Both types of films featured a lot of shooting, but while in the Westerns shots were fired one at a time, the shooting in the Russian war films came from bursts of machine fire, salvos of rockets from the Katyushas, plummeting planes and invincible tanks.

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And these movies were never new releases, although the scenes that were painted on the theater’s glass doors (which were then still intact) would announce them as first showings. Perhaps they were premieres in Cuba, or at that particular movie theater whether they had been filmed two decades or two days earlier. So, one day, when I was still a kid, I went to see a film which no one in Havana, or anywhere in Cuba for that matter, really remembers a single word of the plot. Yet the old western (remade in 2007) became memorable in our country not for the story it told, or by the actors who starred in it (Glenn Ford and Van Heflin), or for the title song (composed by George Duning). It has gone down in history among habaneros for a single word. And this was not a word uttered by either the hero or the outlaws, who never did much talking anyway. The word in question was the one that lit up the sidewalk in front of the theater, exhibiting a perfect and playful typography chosen by the artist who had painted the title of the film on the theater’s glass doors. There, in brilliant red italics and a canary-yellow edging viewers could read: 3:10 to Yuma.

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I was completely unawares that on that day the word “yuma” would forever enter my life and the lives of all other Cubans for good. Gradually and since then—nobody knows how and why, although there are philosophical, etymological, sociological and anthropological speculations galore— people started to designate the US and all its inhabitants with the word yuma. The term “gringo” never took root with Cubans and “Yankee” had a pejorative, even contemptuous, and ideologically charged meaning. Yuma, on the other hand, was good and appealing. It was not only used to describe the name of a place or a people, it was also an adjective denoting positive qualities: something yuma is, in general, a very good thing. And that something can be yuma even though it was made in China. A couple of years later, the word accomplished what few can: it took a leap from street language to popular music, which enshrines for eternity whoever or whatever achieves the feat. And yuma did just that, although indirectly and where no one would have expected it—in a song by The Jacksons, released in the winter of 1978, written by Randy and Michael Jackson, featuring Michael on lead vocals. The song was “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)” which arrived in Havana’s Malecón thanks to shortwave radios tuned in by an

photos by Huberto Valera Jr.

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infinite number of listeners at sunset. The song was catchy and quickly put the Cubans to dance and shake their bodies properly, like only Cubans can. The problem at the time was that Cubans knew how to dance, but weren’t too strong on English. So what happened was that when it came time for the chorus, people would improvise and sing anything except the original lyrics, which was almost Greek to them. So one night, at a neighborhood party celebrating an anniversary of the attack on the Moncada Barracks over twenty years ago, while The Jacksons thundered from the loudspeakers “let’s dance/let’s shout/shake your body down to the ground,” the residents of my block improvised: “the train is leaving/ leaving for Yuma/the train is leaving...” I have to admit that the Cubanised, street version of the song had a somewhat adverse effect, especially when a few months later the Mariel boatlift was taking place. “Shake Your Body” would be the last song performed live by The Jacksons during a concert at Madison Square Garden in September 2001. I can’t say for sure, but maybe, just maybe, some Cubans in the audience that day sang what they had learned back home: the train is leaving/leaving for Yuma…

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SO MANY YUMAS CAN’T BE WRONG

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TROPICANA

by Mathias Finnes If there is one willful sin that Victor Correa committed—which he must be making penance for wherever he may be—it was not to have been the principal person accountable for the existence of the world famous Tropicana Cabaret, but to have built it where he did. With its original show of dancers dressed almost like God brought them to this valley of tears, a wide and exquisite selection of drinks and a gambling room open till dawn, ideally, it should have been located far from the madding crowd, hidden somewhere in the outskirts. And that he tried to do, in his own way. Actually, it was distant from the city center, except that there was one little thing in which he failed: that “little thing” was the size of a cathedral. Tropicana was built next to the Belén Jesuit School, separated only by a small street that just takes a few steps to cross. The school had been on that corner since 1925, fourteen years before the opening of the “Paradise Under the Stars.”

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Our Man in Havana, starring Alec Guinness, Maureen O’Hara and Noel Coward. The film is adapted from Graham Greene’s novel. Just 20 years away from Tropicana’s first opening, Fidel Castro’s Revolution triumphed in 1959. The young Comandante had been one of the most outstanding students of the Jesuit school. Shortly after, the Jesuits left the school and the country and in 1967, the Revolutionary Government turned the school into the José Martí Technical Military Institute, an engineering school for the armed forces. So, Tropicana is not only the sole open-air cabaret in the world, it is perhaps also the only one that has had to survive, first, being located next to a highly prestigious religious institution and, then, hear bugle calls at reveilles and taps coming from the military academy. If this is not a Guinness record, it sure looks like it. In any case, Martin Fox appeared on the scene in the 1950s. He renewed and gave Tropicana its final defining features in 1952 by hiring the great Rodeiro Neyra, known thereafter as Rodney. Having begun at the cabaret as choreographer, his vision, however, changed the whole concept of the night show, and his spirit is still present in the mix of cabaret and circus, ballet and carnival, modernity and folklore, rhythm and color, and the unique beauty and grace of the dancers that make up the Tropicana show. Politicians, businessmen and celebrities of the arts rubbed shoulders at Tropicana with American mobsters, US marines and Hollywood stars who used to escape to Havana, just for one night, to touch the heavens with their hands. It was around this time that the cabaret was immortalized on film, when in 1958, filmmaker Carol Reed moved its entire staff to Havana to shoot parts of

The entrance to the cabaret is through a lush garden where the mythical Fountain of the Muses by Italian sculptor Aldo Gamba stands out. The sculpture and the artist both deserve a closer look. It seems that the sculpture—originally located at the entrance of the National Casino in Cubanacán under another name: The Dance of the Hours— had been born for vice. Indeed, it had been conceived from prison, where Gamba had been sent after shooting his girlfriend and then trying to kill himself. There are other works by the Italian sculptor in Havana, of no less gruesome history, such as the monument to General Máximo Gómez of Cuba’s independence wars at the entrance of the bay. The monument suffered numerous interruptions in its execution requiring the intervention of Benito Mussolini himself for the sculpture to be completed. Heavy weight musicians have performed at Tropicana, like Libertad Lamarque, Josephine Baker, Bola de Nieve, Nat King Cole, Rita Montaner, Celia Cruz and Frank Sinatra. No wonder it has always been the most expensive cabaret in the city, with 60 showgirls , 40 models, a dozen singers every night and a live band of 20 plus musicians. The two-hour show, ranges from bolero to danzón, from salsa to Afro-Cuban rhythms, from filin to cha-cha-cha. After the show, you can go the Arcos de Cristal Room for some dancing. Over 150,000 tourists to Havana each year visit Tropicana. As Bertolt Brecht would have said if he had come to Havana: so many yumas can’t be wrong. JUN 2016 43

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AM-PM 2016 DRIVING CUBA’S MUSICAL SCENE Focusing on music journalism and the use of new technologies MUSIC AND CRITICS

by Adela López www.americaporsumusica.com

“Cuba is in fashion” is a phrase frequently heard nowadays. The visit of an American president, concerts by stellar bands and the arrival of ocean liners are signaling to Cubans that our environment is changing rapidly. But how can we turn these changes in our favor? Culture-wise, new ways to create and consume emerge quickly and are not always visible to the naked eye. The possibility of introducing our artistic products on the international market poses questions to experts and artists alike. After being away from the game where “anything goes” for decades, the comeback seems uncertain to many. In such a complex context, AM-PM “América por su Música” [America for its Music] has emerged as a meeting of professionals that stands out for its intention to strengthen the Cuban music industry from its various professions.

“By music industry I mean all the people who need to be in sync for a musician to be able reach their audience, from stagehand to managers to producers to critics. Cuba has turned its back on the music market, and this has hindered the growth of these professions on the Island. In fact, there have been times—luckily overcome—when they have been demonized,” said Darsy Fernández, member of the organizing committee of the event, in an exclusive interview for Lahabana.com. The cultural project led by X Alfonso known as Fábrica de Arte Cubano (F.A.C.) has announced this year’s event, which in its first edition focused on the music managment and booking. In 2016, the center of attention will rest on the music journalism and content curation in music, and Fernández released that the musical production will be the focal point in 2017. “Choosing where to put the focus each year is very much related to the issues we think are not working right.” From June 13 to 19, Cuban journalists will be able to discuss their concerns with foreign workshop participants, who will comment on their professional JUN 2016 44

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experiences. AM-PM aims to create the necessary links for Cuban communicators to interact with members of the Ibero-American Network of Music Journalism. “Our goal is to create a Cuban chapter of this organization and that our critics become a part of it.” In this regard, Fernández, who has been in the music biz for almost 25 years, notes that there isn’t a single magazine in Cuba that is entirely devoted to music. “Neither Vistar Magazine, nor Clave, nor Boletín Música takes this approach. And I don’t think we need to sit and wait for “Rolling Stones Cuba” to be created. Instead, there should be a Cuban publication written by Cuban journalists. Critics are essential in developing a music scene in any nation. We have good critics here, but we feel that they have been isolated, that they do not use all the tools at their disposal, perhaps due to difficulties to access communication channels.”

“We are not interested in Sony or Universal—companies with highly efficient marketing mechanisms— coming here. Instead, we need a different kind of players. I think there is an independent music scene that is pretty solid, with networks in which Cuba can find a place”

In addition, the event will focus on musical curatorship, which encompasses areas other than journalism. Such is the case of radio and TV programmers, consultants, writers, directors, and hosts. “In Cuba, the repertoire performer for recorded music played a very important role, but it has disappeared. This is why you run into albums whose songs lack consistency and character.” Another topic the AM-PM organizers plan to discuss is the importance of content lists. “Radio shows are inviting artists to suggest the music they like. It would be interesting for the audience to know what kind of music Silvio Rodríguez or Descemer Bueno listens to, for instance. The contents curator would be the person in charge of choosing the content on a concept basis as opposed to randomly.” JUN 2016 45

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“We would like that the next time the Rolling Stones play in Havana, they come under the guiding hand of Cuban producers; or that the next Buena Vista Social Club project be discovered by someone in our own music industry”

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Brainstorming: MUSIC & TECH AM-PM has its sights set on the emerging alternative music movement in Latin America. “We are not interested in Sony or Universal—companies with highly efficient marketing mechanisms—coming here. Instead, we need a different kind of players. I think there is an independent music scene that is pretty solid, with networks in which Cuba can find a place,” said journalist Rafa G. Escalona, a member of the organizing committee. “Much of the strengthening of the alternative musical movement is due to the use of new technologies, of which we are bereft of here due to economic and connectivity problems. With the realization of this brainstorming, we first want to raise a discussion and create synergies between the music and the technological sectors. By asking key questions, such as ‘What do I need?’ and ‘What are my needs as a musician?’ web developers could create apps that would provide solutions to the problems of artists,” said Escalona, creator of the blog The microwave. The people we interviewed confirmed that the developers of projects such as Isladata. com, App Guiarte, App Knales, GUTL (Grupo de Usuarios de Tecnologías Libres), INGENIUS (Soluciones Informáticas y Electrónicas), Ke hay pa Hoy, Kewuelta…, will attend the second AM-PM. The meetings will include a pitch where entrepreneurs will show their works to attendants. This way, communication professionals will note how useful these applications can be for their work.

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“Much to our surprise, technology entrepreneurs are participating with great interest in the discussion. So far, all those who have been interested in music in Cuba have confined themselves to creating promotion guides alone. This may be somehow related to the pattern of cultural consumption, but technology for production and mediation is also necessary. We need to see music as a process instead of a product that will only be consumed. Additionally, musicians can’t continue working as if they will never have access to the Internet. When we finally get online easily, which will inevitably happen, we need to be prepared to make use of these technologies,” said Fernández. The Foro Cantar y Decir [Sing and Say Forum] will complement the busy schedule of AM-PM 2016. Media professionals will discuss the use of music as a tool to prevent violence against women. Casa de las Américas, the second venue of the event, will host an exchange led by singer and activist Rochy Ameneiro. Also, the opening of exhibitions (caricature and photography) on Cuban music will take place. “We would like that the next time the Rolling Stones play in Havana, they come under the guiding hand of Cuban producers; or that the next Buena Vista Social Club project be discovered by someone in our own music industry. If this is complemented by the State’s goodwill, I believe the Cuban music industry could explode all around the world, and all the talent we have here could finally become very visible,” said Fernández.

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TRADICIONALES DE LOS 50 Embodying the Golden Age of Cuban music by Ricardo Alberto Pérez Among the many surprises and satisfactions that the Havana night generally offers both visitors and nationals, the Tradicionales de los 50 (1950s Traditionals) show occupies a privileged place. The show takes off every evening at Sociedad Rosalía de Castro at 9:30pm and lasts two hours. Centrally located on Egido 504 entre Monte and Dragones, just a couple of blocks from the Capitolio Nacional and the Saratoga Hotel in the fringes of Old Havana, the Rosalía de Castro Society has become since late 2012 the home of this project, which is a valuable part of the Cuban musical heritage. I am convinced that if you want to have a clearer and more accurate picture of how Cubans feel things and how we express our passions and joys, this show, besides entertaining, speaks very clearly of our nature and our sense of hospitality. The JUN 2016 48

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de los 50 have always had guest musicians from Buena Vista Social Club and AfroCuban All Stars. Around 2008, the group began to offer performances at the Rum Museum located on the Avenida del Puerto. Here, they remained for several years, helping to boost the growth of tourism in this institution and its surroundings. They also offered their music at the Santo Angel Restaurant, situated on one corner of Plaza Vieja, before coming to their current venue.

project is linked to a golden age of our music, which then grew and became more universal. In the fifteen years that have passed since the project was launched, it has woven a beautiful story, whose protagonists speak about with both pride and emotion. What is considered today by many as the best product of Cuban popular music offered in Havana, took off in 2001 under the guidance and enthusiasm of José Roberto Rodríguez Alpízar, who brought together the artists that give meaning to this beautiful and enduring idea. Although the show had performed previously at the Hotel Nacional and the Salón Rojo of the Capri Hotel, its entry into the Old Havana circuit takes place at the Amigos del Beny café-tavern, located on the corner of Mercaderes and Teniente Rey streets in 2001. In their first performances, the singers were accompanied by Barbarito Torres (Buena Vista Social Club tres player) and his group. We need to point out that Tradicionales

Bands that have accompanied the Tradicionales de los 50 after Barbarito Torres, include Charanga Rubalcaba, Septeto Matamoros, Grupo de Pío Leyva, Caña Santa, Conjunto de Roberto Faz and currently Gloria Matancera. The latter, founded in 1927, is one of the oldest popular music bands in Cuba, a true relic of our musical history. Important singers and musicians have performed with the Tradicionales, like Omara Portuondo, the Buena Vista Social Club Diva; Guajiro Mirabal; the Buena Vista “Fab Four”; Yanko Díaz; Osdalgia, Rolo Martínez; Emilio Morales; Julio Alberto Fernández; Sierra Maestra; El Muso and Ela Calvo, just to name a few. I would like to especially mention an exceptional figure of Cuban entertainment: Juana Bacallao, and Tradicionales de los 50 feel that it’s a privilege to be able to enjoy her presence every evening in every show. Juana exudes joy, fun and lots of spark that she passes on freely. The Tradicionales show is a true reflection of Cuba. Visitors to the Rosalía de Castro Society will have the chance to enjoy legendary songs like “Dos Gardenias,” sung by Mundito González; “El Carnaval” and JUN 2016 49

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“Kimbara,” both sung by Raquel Hernandez; “Silencio,” a song that becomes larger than life in the powerful voices of Pablo Santamaría and Migdalia Echevarría; “Dame un traguito” by Juan Almeida, sung by Muso; “El Cuarto de Tula,” by Arango; and “Lola,” sung by one of the bolero greats in Cuba, Orestes Macías, becomes a milestone. The singing is complemented by Tradicionales del son, a couple who dance to genuine, 1950s Cuban rhythms. The show ranges from Compay Segundo’s famous “ChanChan” to Joseíto Fernández’s “Guantanamera,” and takes a side tour round “Melao de caña,” “El Feo” and “La Mujer de Antonio.” A guaguancó, which combines percussion, singing and dancing, is an essential part of the program and one that visitors will always remember. Each and every one of the performances is an exhibition of the Golden Age of Cuban music. To be able to take in all this energy and memories, as well as having spent two hours filled with genuine Cuban music made by popular performers means that visitors will be taking back home a unique gift from this island.

CONTACT DETAILS Address: Sociedad Rosalía de Castro, Egido 504 entre Monte y Dragones, La Habana Vieja, Cuba OPEN: DAILY FROM 9:30 TO 11:30PM Telephone: +53 52705271 www.tradicionalesdelos50musicacubana.com

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by Mathias Finnes

REYNIER RODRÍGUEZ Master Class CHIVAS HAVANA 2016 Champion

Any Cuban will tell you right away that using whiskey to make a cocktail is virtually a mortal sin, that that’s what the white rums without aging of any kind are for. So incredible as it may seem, the Chivas Master Class Competition 2016 has just been held in Havana. Contestants created exotic blends that, even without tasting them, looked paradisiacal. The bartenders’ creations were to be inspired by the presence of Chivas Regal in extremes so far and yet so close at the same time, like the classic New York cocktails, the most successful bars in Shanghai, and other that evoked Cuba with its aroma and freshness. And all this was to be accomplished in under 15 minutes. The finalists were Fabian Ramos of the Divino Restaurant, Alain Rodriguez and Mario L. Acosta of the Waoo!!! Restaurant, Reynier Rodríguez of the Meliá Cohíba, and representing Cuban women, Barbara Betancourt of the Café Concert Gato Tuerto. Many guests at the event thought, wanted and voiced that she would be the winner after witnessing the passion, grace and magnetism that flowed from Barbara behind the bar. And when she was proclaimed winner—only—of the People’s Choice, many hearts sank. It was the very young bartender Reynier who pulled it off being proclaimed Master Class Chivas Havana 2016 Champion by a jury of experts. Now the Meliá Cohíba bartender has a huge challenge ahead: for five days he will be representing the Island in the Master Class Global Competition to be held in Shanghai. JUN 2016 51

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There he will have to face challenges, such as attend master classes and workshops conducted by the best specialists in the industry and, especially, demonstrate his ability to lead, mentor and inspire a team before the keen eyes of the industry’s top experts who will be evaluating him. The motivations of the Havana event focused on promoting the latest techniques and updating bartenders with the latest international trends in preparing cocktail. International Brand Ambassador for Chivas Regal Whiskey, Max Warner, present at the “Antiguo Almacén de la Madera y el Tabaco” Brewery in Old Havana, where the competition took place, pointed out that the brand, renowned for its style, content and exclusivity, is the first luxury whiskey in the world, distributed in more than 150 countries.

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HAVANA LISTINGS VISUAL ARTS PHOTOGRAPHY DANCE MUSIC THEATRE FOR KIDS EVENTS

HAVANA GUIDE FEATURES RESTAURANTS BARS & CLUBS LIVE MUSIC HOTELS PRIVATE ACCOMMODATION

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VISUAL ARTS MUSEO NACIONAL DE BELLAS ARTES. EDIFICIO DE ARTE CUBANO

THROUGH JUNE 19

Los rostros de la modernidad. The entry of Cuban visual arts in the modernity of the avant-garde and its various trends can be seen in 45 photos made from 1925 to 1957 by 15 important photographers, including Jorge Arche, Arístides Fernández, Víctor Manuel, Wifredo Lam, Amelia Peláez and Mariano Rodríguez. THROUGH AUGUST 19

Cardinales is a group of paintings in which Cuban artist Carlos Alberto García used a mixed technique on cloth. The medium- and full-scale pictures were created especially for this occasion. The artist has defined his work as “very much connected to early 20th-century avant-gardes, especially Expressionism.

CENTRO HISPANO AMERICANO DE CULTURA

THROUGHOUT JUNE

The Seattle-La Habana-Tehran Poster Show, exhibition of posters made by designers from these three cities, that reveal common aspoects shared by their respective cities. Seattle: David Gallo, Carlos Ruiz, Vittorio Castarella, Shay Roth, Jeff Kleinsmith, Ames Bros, Jesse LeDoux, Chad Lundberg, Jan Smith, David Bratlon, Seab Waple, Shogo Ofa, Darib Shuler, Kelsey Gallo, Devon Varmega, Joanna Wecht, Andrew Crawshaw, Adam Vick and Chelsea Wirtz. Havana: Darwin Fornés, Edel Rodríguez (Mola), Darién Sánchez, Idania del Río, Raúl González (Raupa), Robertiko Ramos, Fabián Muñoz, Michelle Miyares, Eric Silva, Giselle Monzón, Nelson Ponce, Lily Díaz, Laura Llópiz, Pepe Menéndez and Carlos Zamora. Teheran: Shahrzad Changalvaee, Reza Abedini, Reza Babajani, Mojtaba Adibi, Aliagha Hasseinpour, Homa Delavaray, Mehdi Fatehi, Farhad Fozouni, Iman Raad, Babak Safari, Masoud Morgan, Morleza Mahallati, Alireza Askarifa, Mohammadreza Abdalali, Erfan Jamshida, Mohammad Khodashenas and Naghi Vaseiy. EDIFICIO DE ARTE UNIVERSAL. MUSEO NACIONAL DE BELLAS ARTES

THROUGH Relatos de una negociación, by BelgianSEPTEMBER Mexican artist Francis Alÿs, exhibits paintings, 12

drawings, sculptures, videos, documents, objects and actions that reflect critically on contemporary society.

FACTORÍA HABANA

THROUGHOUT JUNE

CENTRO DE DESARROLLO DE LAS ARTES VISUALES

THROUGH JUNE 16

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Clara Porset…... el eterno retorno vindicates an artist who is considered one of the most important designers of the 20th century.

Las esquinas, group show. FUNDACIÓN LUDWIG

Nuevos medios, group show.

THROUGH JUNE 11

Inventario, graphic design by Annelis Noriega.

GALERÍA ALTERNATIVA DE LUZ Y OFICIOS

THROUGH JUNE 11

Partitura en rojo, group show organized by Casa Yeti, Casa Museo Antonia Eiriz and the Centro Provincial de Artes Plásticas.

photos by Alex Mene Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. Edificio de Arte Cubano

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CENTRO DE ARTE CONTEMPORÁNEO WIFREDO LAM

THROUGH JUNE 18

THROUGH JUNE 20

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Desde el sonido, solo show by Ricardo Martínez that links sound to the visual through installations and objects that activate both possibilities. Voces indígenas, sound installation that includes 12 indigenous languages of Latin America, some of which are endangered. The artists in the project (Paulo Nazareth, Gustavo Tabares, Priscilla Monge, Sandra Monterroso, Sofia Medici, Jose Huaman, Ellen Slegers, Mauricio Kabistan, Erika y Javier, Sonia Falcone) determined the language, the topic and the type of text (fiction, fable, prayer...) they were going to use, which, all together, form an indefinite murmur that becomes precise when the viewer approaches each loudspeaker. Ni sagrado ni secular, show by Henry Erick Hernández and Canadian artist Marysse Goudreau that explores the relationship between History and Power, which almost always are detrimental to the participation of the common man, and how, just like past events affect the present, other contemporary events become part of history.

THROUGH JUNE 27

Cool War, project by Rachel Price on technologies with the participation of Cuban and international artists, which recalls the Manichaeism and military technologies that structure video games, while pointing out the many possibilities of the genre.

THROUGH JUNE 30

Si las paredes hablaran, The interactive installation by Colombian artist Lina Leal uses various procedures and resources, such as anthropological research, oral testimony, writing and technology of augmented reality, in the construction of a wall/file that creates, through an apparently contradictory action, devices that facilitate the movement of information from the private to the public.

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lahabana. com GALERÍA COLLAGE HABANA

THROUGH JUNE 17

The Merger, sculptures, objects and installations, and the works that constitute the project of these sculptures and installations on canvas and bristol, belonging to the creative group The Merger, made up by Alain Pino, Mario Miguel González (Mayito) and Niels Moleiro.

GALERÍA HABANA

THROUGH JULY 8

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GALERÍA SERVANDO

THROUGH JUNE 17

Autofagia, personal exhibition by Osvaldo Gonzalez, who insists on the theme of everyday space and objects associated with it, and one of the issues that have always interested the artist: the character of abstract painting itself.

GALERÍA VILLA MANUELA

Jerarquías negadas, personal exhibition of ex Carpintero Alexander Arrechea, who has investigated repeatedly in “surveillance mechanisms and control driven from power.”

THROUGH JUNE 13

Bio-Circuito, by Héctor Remedios, is his diploma thesis of the University of the Arts (ISA).

GALERÍA VILLENA CASA DE LAS AMÉRICAS

THROUGHOUT JUNIO

deunosyotros, exhibition based on the poster collection of Casa de las Américas. Works by Fernando Pimienta, Santiago Pol, Lorenzo Homar, Ñiko and Alfredo Rostgaard, among others.

THROUGHOUT JUNE

Story de mi vida, exhibition by designer Raúl Valdés (Raupa), exhibition by designer Raul Valdes (Raupa), who has brought together original pieces, which like a storyboard, tell stories that reflect personal experiences

PABELLÓN CUBA CASA OSWALDO GUAYASAMÍN

OPENS JUNE 3

Con Musashy en Viñales, by Eddy Maikel Sotomayor, focuses on landscape with an introspective character, the inner landscape, which allows the artist to recognize himself as a thinking being.

THROUGHOUT JUNE

GALERÍA LA ACACIA

THROUGH JULY

Nexo Mixto Expo, erotic-themed group show group show erotic theme, with new works from the avant-garde to the most contemporary Cuban art

SALA ABELARDO ESTORINO. MINISTERIO DE CULTURA

GALERÍA MARIANO

THROUGHOUT JUNE

Fuerza y sangre. Imaginarios de la bandera en el arte cubano is a collection of 160 pieces by 124 Cuban artists of different trends, esthetics, manifestations (painting, sculpture, installation, printmaking, drawing, photography, etc.), who have repeatedly or occasionally included the Cuban flag in their work. Veteran artists like Raúl Martínez, Nelson Domínguez, Roberto Fabelo, Manuel Mendive, René Francisco, Raúl Corrales or Osvaldo Salas join younger artists representative of the Cuban artistic vanguard in this singular homage to the Cuban flag.

El dibujo en la cerámica mexicana exhibits a collection of vessels from different areas in Mexico that show the wealth and importance of drawing as a decorative element in the folk art of that region.

THROUGH JUNE 11

Cosas de mujeres, group show by Jacqueline Brito, Flora Fong, Alicia Leal, Julia Valdés and Lesbia Vent Dumois.

SALA MANUEL GALICH. CASA DE LAS AMÉRICAS GALERÍA RAÚL OLIVA. CENTRO CULTURAL BERTOLT BRECHT

THROUGH JUNE 18

Wake Up!, clothes design exhibition.

THROUGHOUT JUNE

Caricaturas de Brady Izquierdo, caricatures on topics realted to music.

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FOTOTECA DE CUBA THROUGH JUNE 18

La ciudad infinita, with pictures taken by Jennifer Jiménez Rico, prizewinner of the Alfredo Sarabia Biennial in Pinar del Río. THROUGH JUNE 20

Algunas imágenes de la colección, exhibition from the collection of the Fototeca de Cuba.

CASA DE LAS AMÉRICAS THROUGHOUT JUNE

Pares y nones, contemporary photography from Haiti and Dominican Republic.

photos by Huberto Valera Jr.

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DANCE TALLER “DANZA, DE ESO SE ESCRIBE” WEDNESDAYS, 2PM CENTRO HISPANO AMERICANO DE CULTURA Workshop organized by journalist and cultural critic Mayté Madruga Hernández, who through videos and practical exercises seeks to create audiences that can consciously appreciate and enjoy dance as a form of language.

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The contemporary fusion and electronic music scene has expanded recently as new bars and clubs have opened party promoters have organized events in parks and public spaces. Good live music venues include Bertolt Brecht (Wed: Interactivo, Sunday: Déjá-vu) and El Sauce (check out the Sunday afternoon Máquina de la Melancolía) as well as the newly opened Fábrica de Arte Cubano which has concerts most nights Thursday through Sunday as well as impromptu smaller performances inside. In Havana’s burgeoning entertainment district along First Avenue from the Karl Marx theatre to the aquarium you are spoilt for choice with the always popular Don Cangreco featuring good live music (Kelvis Ochoas and David Torrens alternate Fridays), Las Piedras (insanely busy from 3am) and El Palio and Melem bar—both featuring different singers and acts in smaller more intimate venues. BALNEARIO UNIVERSITARIO EL CORAL

FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS / 1PM-1AM Electronic music with rapping, DJing, Vjing, Dj-producers, breakdancing and graffiti writing, among other urban art expressions. CAFÉ CONCERT EL SAUCE

SUNDAYS / 5PM

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MUSIC CONTEMPORARY FUSION

CAFÉ CANTANTE, TEATRO NACIONAL

WEDNESDAYS / 5PM Qva Libre CASA DE LA AMISTAD

SUNDAYS / 5PM Rock ’n’ Roll with Vieja Escuela.

La Máquina de la Melancolía, with Frank Delgado and Luis Alberto García CENTRO CULTURAL BERTOLT BRECHT

WEDNESDAYS / 11PM Interactivo CENTRO CULTURAL FRESA Y CHOCOLATE

FRIDAYS / 9PM Pura Birria DIABLO TUN TUN

SATURDAYS / 11PM Gens

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EN GUAYABERA

SUNDAYS / 6PM

MUSIC CONTEMPORARY FUSION

Discotemba HAVANA HARD ROCK

EVERY OTHER FRIDAY / 6PM Soul Train, a show of soul music SATURDAYS & SUNDAYS / 6PM Rock cover bands HOTEL CHATEAU MIRAMAR

JUNE 3 / 10PM Qva Libre y Sarao MUSEO NACIONAL DE BELLAS ARTES. EDIFICIO DE ARTE CUBANO

JUNE 16 / 6PM Electro-acoustic Music Lab with the performances of US composers Jeffrey Gerald Roden and Stephen Vitiello. SALÓN ROSADO DE LA TROPICAL

FRIDAYS / 9PM Electronic music with Sarao SUBMARINO AMARILLO

MONDAYS / 9PM Miel con Limón TERCERA Y 8

MONDAYS / 11PM Baby Lores

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CASA DE LA MÚSICA DE MIRAMAR

CASA DE LA MÚSICA HABANA

ALL DAYS 5 PM 11 PM

Popular dance music

ALL DAYS 5 PM 11 PM

Popular dance music

MONDAYS 11 PM

Sur Caribe

WEDNESDAYS 5 PM

Casino

FRIDAYS 11 PM

NG La Banda

WEDNESDAYS 11 PM

NG La Banda

SATURDAYS Lazarito Valdés y 5 PM

Bamboleo

CABARET PICO BLANCO. HOTEL SAINT JOHN’S

WEDNESDAYS / 10PM Popular dance music (Vacilón) CAFÉ CANTANTE. TEATRO NACIONAL

MONDAYS / 11PM Manana Club (dance music) WEDNESDAYS / 5PM Qva Libre CASA DE 18

FRIDAYS / 8:30PM Iván y Fiebre Latina SATURDAYS / 8PM Ahí Namá

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SALSA TIMBA TERCERA Y 8

WEDNESDAYS / 11PM Alain Daniel DIABLO TUNTÚN

THURSDAYS / 11PM Popular dance music (NG La Banda) SATURDAYS / 9PM Popular dance music (Manana Club) JARDINES DEL 1830

FRIDAYS / 10PM Azúcar Negra SUNDAYS / 10PM Grupo Moncada JUN 2016 61

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MUSIC

Jazz Café

Café Jazz Miramar

Mellow, sophisticated and freezing due to extreme air conditioning, the Jazz Café is not only an excellent place to hear some of Cuba’s top jazz musicians, but the open-plan design also provides for a good bar atmosphere if you want to chat. Less intimate than La Zorra y el Cuervo – located opposite Melia Cohiba Hotel.

SHOWS: 11 PM - 2AM

UNEAC JUNE 9 5 PM

La Esquina del Jazz, hosted by showman Bobby Carcassés

magazine

This new jazz club has quickly established itself as one of the very best places to hear some of Cuba’s best musicians jamming. Forget about smoke filled lounges, this is clean, bright—take the fags outside. While it is difficult to get the exact schedule and in any case expect a high level of improvisation when it is good it is very good. A full house is something of a mixed house since on occasion you will feel like holding up your own silence please sign! Nonetheless it gets the thumbs up from us.

CAFÉ MIRAMAR MONDAYS 4 PM

Lunes de la Juventud

WEDNESDAYS 10 PM

Reinier Mariño

SATURDAYS 10:30 PM

César López (saxophonist) and Havana Ensemble

JARDINES DEL TEATRO MELLA WEDNESDAY 8 PM

JAZZ

Zule Guerra (singer) & Blues D’ La Habana

CASA DEL ALBA CULTURAL JUNE 11 8 PM

Ruy López-Nussa y La Academia

MUSEO NACIONAL DE BELLAS ARTES. EDIFICIO DE ARTE CUBANO JUNE 18 7 PM

Yadasny Portillo (pianist) and his group

JUNE 23 3 PM

Grupo Obsesión

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MUSIC SON TROVA BOLER0 FOLKLOR Haydée Milanés in Concert accompanied by Pablo Milanés ASOCIACIÓN YORUBA DE CUBA

FRIDAYS / 8:30PM Obbiní Batá (folkloric group) BARBARAM PEPITO’S BAR

SATURDAYS / 6PM Yaima Sáez CABARET EL TURQUINO. HOTEL HABANA LIBRE

FRIDAYS / 11PM Mónica Mesa

JUNE 11, 8:30 PM, TEATRO KARL MARX

Father and daughter will sing songs from their new album Amor and other essential songs of Pablo’s long and fruitful career. With this concert, Haydée will honor the work of her dad, teacher and source of inspiration, who is one of the founders of the Nueva Trova Cubana movement. Awarded an honorary Latin Grammy in 2015, Pablo Milanés is the author of beautiful, unforgettable songs like “El breve espacio en que no estás,” “Yolanda” “Para vivir” “De que callada manera.” Meanwhile, Haydée has conquered both Cuban and international audiences thanks to the freshness and sensuality of her voice when singing songs composed by her and by local composers, like Descemer Bueno. JUN 2016 63

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MUSIC SON

EL JELENGUE DE AREÍTO

TUESDAYS / 5PM Conjunto Chappottín

TROVA BOLER0 FOLKLOR

CASA DE 18

CENTRO IBEROAMERICANO DE LA DÉCIMA

WEDNESDAYS / 8PM

Héctor Téllez

THURSDAYS / 8PM

José Valladares

FRIDAYS / 8PM

Leidis Díaz

SUNDAYS / 4PM

Georgeana

CASA DE LAS AMÉRICAS

JUNE 10 / 7PM Ariel Díaz, Diego Cano and Karel García CASA MEMORIAL SALVADOR ALLENDE

JUNE 24 / 6PM Ángel Quintero and guests CASONA DE LÍNEA

SUNDAYS / 8PM Trova DOS GARDENIAS

WEDNESDAYS / 10PM

JUNE 4 / 3PM

Ad Libitum Duet

JUNE 26 / 5PM

El Jardín de la Gorda with trovadors from every generation

CLUB AMANECER

Conjunto de Arsenio Rodríguez DELIRIO HABANERO

FRIDAYS / 10PM

Son en Klab

SATURDAYS / 10PM

Sonyku

SATURDAYS / 9PM Bolero Night

THURSDAYS / 5PM

Conjunto Arsenio Rodríguez

FRIDAYS / 5PM

Rumberos de Cuba

SUNDAYS / 5PM

Rumba

GATO TUERTO

FRIDAYS / 5PM

La Hora Infiel, with music, visual arts, literature and more.

FRIDAYS / 9PM

Osdalgia

DAILY / 8PM

Gato Tuerto Nights, hosted by Julio Acanda

HOTEL TELÉGRAFO

Proyecto Lírico

FRIDAYS / 9:30PMPM

SATURDAYS / 5PM

Ivette Cepeda

Waldo Mendoza

THURSDAYS / 4PM

Trova with Frank Martínez

SUNDAYS / 6PM

Singer Leidis Díaz

MUSEO NACIONAL DE BELLAS ARTES. EDIFICIO DE ARTE CUBANO

JUNE 11 / 7PM

Obini Batá (Folkloric group)

JUNE 25 / 7PM

Alina Torres and guests

Trova with Ray Fernández HURÓN AZUL, UNEAC

Trova

MONDAYS / 5PM

DIABLO TUN TUN

THURSDAYS / 5PM

WEDNESDAYS / 5PM

CAFÉ CANTANTE, TEATRO NACIONAL

CENTRO CULTURAL FRESA Y CHOCOLATE

FRIDAYS / 5PM

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SOCIEDAD ROSALÍA DE CASTRO

MONDAY THRU SUNDAY / 9:30PM

Tradicionales de los 50

CAFÉ TEATRO BERTOLT BRECHT

JUNE 25 / 3PM Rafael Espín and guests CASA DE ÁFRICA

JUNE 4 / 4PM

Síntesis

JUNE 11 / 3PM

Cheketé, with the folkloric group Obiní Batá Rumba Morena

JUNE 24 / 3PM PABELLÓN CUBA

FRIDAYS / 4PM Tres Tazas with trovador Silvio Alejandro

Haila María Mompié JUN 2016 64

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CLASSICAL MUSIC ORATORIO SAN FELIPE NERI JUNE 4, 4PM

Concert by Mayté Aboy and Paula Suárez (piano), Maray Viyella (clarinet), Abraham del Castillo (bassoon), Jenny Peña (violin) and Susana Venereo (horn), with works by Wolfgang A. Mozart, Karl Goepfart, Franz Schubert and Johannes Brahms.

JUNE 6, 10AM Performance by the Vivace clarinet quartet. JUNE 10, 7PM The University of the Arts Symphony Orchetra will play

works by Brahms and Ravel. JUNE 16, 7PM Recital by soprano Johana Simón with guetss Analiette

Presno (oboe), Olivia Rodríguez (double bass) and Lianne Vega (piano) with a program made up of pieces by Antonio Vivaldi, Nicolo Porpora, Riccardo Broschi, Antonio Salieri and Georg Friedrich Händel. JUNE 18, 4PM Concert in honor of Cuban horn player Fernando Bencomo,

with musicians Susana Venereo Martín (French horn), Pedro Luis González, Moisés Hernández and Dania Pérez (horn), Maité Aboy (piano) and Jenny Peña (violin).

BIBLIOTECA NACIONAL JOSÉ MARTÍ SATURDAYS 4PM

Concerts by chamber soloists and ensembles.

CASA VICTOR HUGO 24 DE JUNIO 5PM

Duo Cáliz, made up by Luis Manuel Molina (guitar) and Vicente Monterry (clarinet).

CENTRO HISPANO AMERICANO DE CULTURA 11 DE JUNIO 5PM

Concert by soprano Ivette Betancourt, accompanied on the piano by Vilma Garriga, with works by Franz Schubert.

IGLESIA DE PAULA JUNE 3 3PM

Concert Voces del siglo xviii y xix (Voices of the 18th and 19th centuries), by the Schola Cantorum Coralina Choir, conducted by Alina Orraca, and guests organist Moisés Santiesteban and the Ventus Habana wind quintet.

PARROQUIA DEL SAGRADO CORAZÓN DE JESÚS JUNE 26 7PM

Conciertos solidarios: Solidarity concerts, organized by Leo Brouwer, designed to benefit the most vulnerable individuals and groups in Cuban society (toys, medicines, staples or cash donations are appreciated).

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THEATRE Diez millones SALA ARGOS TEATRO ARGOS TEATRO / PRODUCTION: CARLOS CELDRÁN, THROUGH MAY 8, FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS, 8:30PM; SUNDAYS, 5PM .

This play by Carlos Celdrán explores the emotional education of a child and teenager in the past decades in Cuba, his relationship with his parents, History and the events that shaped his life.

Eclipse CENTRO HISPANO AMERICANO DE CULTURA THURSDAYS, 6PM

Based on Strindberg’s Miss Julia, the play is about a love triangle seen and judged through the spectators, who are imaginary participants of Eclipse, a coexistence program. Therefore, the outcome changes with each performance.

Éxtasis: un homenaje a la madre Teresa de Ávila TEATRO BUENDÍA / PRODUCTION: FLORA LAUTEN Y EDUARDO MANET FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS, 8:30PM; SUNDAYS, 5PM

For the always lucid Norge Espinosa, “Teresa of Avila, obsessed with the idea of founding monasteries, temples, places of worship, is the central po int of the entire production, which has been conceived through writings by Raquel Carrió, Eduardo Manet and Flora Lauten....This is a play that erases any idea of a biography of a saint and we find in her delusions, fears, hopes and battles that unveil her as a woman whose only weapon is faith.” JUN 2016 66

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FOR KIDS Había una vez... un circo CARPA TROMPOLOCO SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS, 3PM Y 8PM,

Circus with magic acts, trapeze, juggling, acrobatics, clowns and more. Reservations on-line: www.circonacionaldecuba.cu

Fabulando y cantando JUNE 4, 11AM

CENTRO HISPANOAMERICANO DE CULTURA Fables and tales by the Para Contarte Mejor Group.

Fantasías SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS, 3PM

CINE YARA

Circus show with magic, pole dance, aerial ribbons, lassos, whips, acrobatics, hula hoop, juggling, clowns and much more.

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes SUNDAYS, 11AM

Clowns, music and other attractions.

photos by Huberto Valera Jr.

JUN 2016 67

EVENTS IN HAVANA

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66TH HEMINGWAY INTERNATIONAL BILLFISHING TOURNAMENT JUNE 13-18 MARINA ERNEST HEMINGWAY, HAVANA The Hemingway Tournament is one of the three oldest tournaments of its kind in the world. It hosts fishermen from around the world in pursuit of marlin and other large deep sea fish, including tuna and wahoo, using 80-pound fishing line. Over the last decade, the competition has attracted crews from more than 30 countries. This year’s edition promises to break attendance records. Dozens of requests for participation have been received from around the world, particularly from the US nautical community. As part of Stuart Sailfish Club’s 75th anniversary, members of the club have been invited to fish the tournament in Cuba. Prizes First, second and third prizes consisting of medals for each team member and trophy for the team and. Prize to the first capture and prize to the biggest dolphin. Tournament rules and regulations Rules according to IGFA, Tag and Release method. Four lines in the water per team. Lines up to 36 kg (80 pounds). JUN 2016 68

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About the tournament Back in May 26, 1950, thirty-six of the best sports yachts from Havana’s yacht clubs sailed past the narrow inlet at the Morro Castle located at the entrance of Havana Bay and out into the Gulf Stream. One of the boats was the “Pilar” owned by Ernest Hemingway, who competed in the first billfishing tournament representing the International Nautical Club of Havana. A few years later, a group of fishermen suggested that the tournament be named after the famous writer because of his love and passion for the sport. Hemingway not only accepted, he donated the cups won by him during the first three tournaments and continued to take first place from 1953 to 1955. In 1959, Hemingway moved to Idaho, US, but came back to Cuba in 1960 for the awarding of the cups at the 11th Hemingway International Tournament. There, he met the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro. This was the year when Marina Hemingway became the tournament’s headquarters.

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SCHEDULE: JUNE 13: REGISTRATION AND ACCREDITATION. 6PM: CAPTAINS’ MEETING AND WELCOME COCKTAILS JUNE 14: FIRST FISHING DAY JUNE 15: SECOND FISHING DAY JUNE 16: DAY OFF JUNE 17: THIRD FISHING DAY JUNE 18: FOURTH AND LAST FISHING DAY. CLOSING AND AWARD CEREMONY

No tournaments were held in 1961 and 1962 but were resumed in 1963 with a national scope until 1977, regaining its international status in 1978. The creation in 1992 of the Hemingway International Yacht Club of Cuba, (CNIH) gave the Hemingway tournaments a new life based on friendly relations with fishing clubs, specialized publications and fishermen. In 1997, with the help of the Billfish Foundation and the direct assistance of Mr. Ralph “Agie” Vicente, Representative of the Billfish Foundation for the Caribbean, HIYC Commodore José Miguel Díaz Escrich introduced the method of catch and release in the Hemingway Tournament. This is one of the oldest fishing tournaments in the world, preceded only by the Nova Scotia International Tuna Tournament and the Tarpon Fishing Tournament in Mexico.

For more information: (53) 7204-5280, 7204-6848, 7204-5088 [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] JUN 2016 69

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VII Festival de las Artes JUNE 1-5, 2016 DIFFERENT VENUES IN HAVANA Organized by Cuba’s University of the Arts (ISA), this art festival includes theater, art exhibitions, audiovisual screenings, competitions, lectures, master classes, demonstrations and workshops aimed at promoting the work of young artists; creating opportunities for a dialogue between writers and artists of different manifestations, training and origins; and showing the teaching process of students and graduates from the University of the Arts, conservatories and academies of the artistic educational system both in Cuba and in universities and art schools abroad. For complete program: https://isauniversidaddelasartes.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/programacic3b3n-vii-festivalde-las-artes.pdf Facebook.com/ISA.Universidad Twitter/@isa_Universidad Flickr.com/isa_Universidad

Festival Internacional Boleros de Oro MELLA AND AMÉRICA THEATERS, HURÓN AZUL AT UNEAC, CENTRO HISPANO AMERICANO DE CULTURA JUNE 22-26 Bolero, a musical genre which emerged in Cuba in the second half of the 19th century—the first printed notation of a bolero is Tristezas (1883), written by composer José Pepe Sánchez—is what this festival is all about. This genre has had a marked influence in other countries of the area, including places as far away as Spain and Japan, and its first festival, held in Havana in 1987, is considered the oldest of its kind in Latin America. A Havana celebration in its beginnings, other provinces would become venues in later years given that bolero is one of the most loved and performed genres in the Island. In its 26th edition, the event will be dedicated to celebrating the centenary of the birth of Puerto Rican singer and composer Daniel Santos, and will have as special guest his compatriot Andy Montañez. As usual, there will be shows, galas, informal music gatherings, dancing, the third international competition for young singers and the International Bolero Colloquium, which will bring together musicologists, academics, teachers and others.

JUN 2016 70

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AM-PM (América x su Música) 2016 CASA DE LAS AMÉRICAS, FÁBRICA DE ARTE CUBANO JUNE 13-19 The main theme of this meeting point for professionals of the Latin American music industry will be journalism, content curating, and, broadly speaking, communication about the music of the continent. The event will include professional meetings, an academic workshop by members of the Latin American Network of Music Journalists, lectures, panels and discussions between journalists and the media. Reporters who specialize in music will hail from from several countries of Latin America, Spain and the United States. The organizers have also announced a brainstorming session about the relationship between music and new technologies, audiovisual showings, a forum for non-violence against women and girls, art exhibitions, a gathering of music lovers and collectors of vinyl records, books launchings, a pitching session and performances by alternative music musicians and bands from Cuba, Argentina, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Chile and Brazil.

Festival Internacional de Coros Corhabana 2016 JUNE 28-JULY 2 DIFFERENT VENUES IN HAVANA Founded in 1999 as the Havana Choral Meeting, for three consecutive years the event was the meeting place for choruses from Cuba and the United States. In 2002, however, it became an international festival and changed its name to Corhabana. The event is presided by Digna Guerra, director of the National Choir, and one of the most prestigious Cuban choral directors in Cuba today. The festival’s opening gala will take place at the Basílica Menor de San Francisco de Asís, June 28, 6pm. The Iglesia de Paula has also programed performances on June 29 & 30, at 5pm. The Centro Hispano Americano de Cultura and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Edificio de Arte Universal will host workshops, at 9am and 3pm, respectively, conducted by the Venezuelan choir teacher Luimar Arismend, as well as lectures by Cuban teachers Carmen Collazo, Corina Campos, Leonor Suarez and Carmen Rosa Lopez.

La Habana, Ciudad Maravilla HAVANA JUNE 7-11 On June 7, Havana will be officially proclaimed as one of the Seven Wonder Cities of the Modern World. To celebrate this distinction, which was made known in December 2014, a memorial monument will be unveiled in the esplanade of the Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta, on June 7 at 7:30 pm. That same day, the inaugural gala will take place on Plaza Vieja, at 9pm. The show will include cultural activities in public places, art exhibitions, the Habana Maravilla sports festival, parades, lectures and the closing concert with the performance of the emblematic Aragón Orchestra on the corner of Prado and Neptuno, a site mentioned in one of the band’s most popular tunes. JUN 2016

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IV Encuentro de Jóvenes Pianistas TEATRO MARTÍ, SALA IGNACIO CERVANTES, BASÍLICA MENOR DE SAN FRANCISCO DE ASÍS, JUNE 2-29 The 4th Encounter of Young Pianists, directed by Cuban pianist and Professor Salomón Gadles Mikowsky of the Manhattan School of Music has scheduled 20 concerts with an attractive and varied repertoire of Cuban and international music. Renowned participants in international events as well as students of Gadles Mikowsky will attend the meeting.

TEATRO MARTÍ JUNE 2 6PM

JUNE 5 6PM

JUNE 9 6PM

JUNE 12 6PM

JUNE 23 6PM

Inaugural Gala: Adam Kent (US), Alexandre Moutouzkine (Russia), Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Cuba, conducted by Enrique Pérez Mesa Alexandra Beliakovich-Shkoda (Belarus) & Po-WeiGer (ChinaTaipei), Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Cuba conducted by Enrique Pérez Mesa Khowoon Kim (South Korea), Edward Neeman (US), Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Cuba conducted by Enrique Pérez Mesa Kyu Yeon Kim (South Korea), Aldo López-Gavilán (Cuba), Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Cuba conducted by Daiana García Yuan Sheng (China), Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Cuba conducted by Daiana García

JUNE 16 6PM

JUNE 26 6PM

JUNE 19 6PM

Ha-Eun Lee (South Korea), Patricio Malcolm (Cuba), Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional conducted by José Antonio Méndez Padrón Closing gala: Karla Martínez (Cuba), Wael Farouk (Egypt), Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional conducted by Daiana García Chun Wang, Jie Yuan (China), Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional conducted by Enrique Pérez Mesa

SALA IGNACIO CERVANTES

JUNE 17 6PM

Ahmed Alom (Cuba)

JUNE 19 11AM

Yanner Rascón (Cuba) y SiningLiu (China)

JUNE 24 6PM

Yuan Sheng (China)

JUNE 26 11AM

Yamilé Cruz (Cuba) y Mengfei Gu (China)

BASÍLICA MENOR DEL CONVENTO DE SAN FRANCISCO DE ASÍS JUNE 4 6PM

Po-WeiGer (China-Taipei)

JUNE 11 6PM

Kyu Yeon Kim (Corea del Sur)

JUNE 3 6PM

Hayk Arsenyan (Armenia)z

JUNE 18 6PM

Chun Wang (China)

JUNE 5 11AM

Lilibeth Fabelo Alfonso (Cuba) and Jiayin Li (China)

JUNE 25 6PM

JUNE 10 6PM

Lisa María Blanco (Cuba)

JUNE 12 11AM

Isabel Mesa (Cuba) y Ssu-Hsuan Li (China-Taipei)

Niurka González (flute, Cuba), Jenny Peña: (violin, Cuba), Simone Dinnerstein (piano, US), Orquesta Sinfónica de la Universidad de las Artes JUN 2016 72

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EVENTS AROUND CUBA

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Cucalambeana Country Fair 48 JORNADA CUCALAMBEANA, JUNE 25 TO JULY 1, 2016, EL CORNITO, LAS TUNAS Every year, the capital of the northeastern province of Las Tunas becomes the venue for the Jornada Cucalambeana in memory of Las Tunas native, poet Juan Cristóbal Nápoles Fajardo (aka El Cucalambé), the most important Cuban decimista (country ballad poet) in nineteenth-century Cuba.

A trip to the Cucalambeana Country Fair takes you a long way off of the regular tourist trail, but it gives you a unique opportunity to see real Cuban country folk. Whether you like the cockfighting or not, you have to admit that it plays an undeniable role in the countryside culture and history of Cuba. And that is precisely what the festival is all about: keeping alive the music and traditions of the Cuban countryside. The event lasts a whole week, beginning in late June to incorporate July 1, the birthdate of El Cucalambé. It is always held in El Cornito, the home of the poet that now serves as a hotel on the outskirts of Las Tunas. In the scenic area there are several sculptures dedicated to El Cucalambé, an open area for horseback riding, children’s playgrounds, and several small plazas. The Cucalambeana Fair includes the recital and singing of décimas, a Spanish stanza of ten octosyllabic lines created in early-modern Spain and adopted by the country folk of the Americas. Repentistas, or improvisers, come from all over the country to show their talent at this difficult art at the Justo Vega Competition while children showcase their talent at the Colorín. JUN 2016 73

lahabana. com There are also traditional country dances, which take place at El Cornito’s plazas. These dances have a twist—they are competitions between two teams: the Blue team and the Red team. In fact, all of the activities held during the festival are competitions between the Red and Blue teams, so don’t be surprised to see competitors wearing costumes, hats and kerchiefs in either one of these two colors. If cock-fighting and dancing aren’t enough for you, why not join the audience at the popular improvisation event where you can contribute to the poets’ décimas by giving them pie forzados, phrases—prompted by anyone present—that the poets must follow in order to create their poems. Experts and non-experts both agree that repentismo, or the improvisation of décimas, requires great talent and quick thinking nurtured from the cradle.

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And don’t forget the beauty pageant. Every year, a girl is chosen who best exemplifies the beauty of a typical country woman (tall, long black hair and olive-skinned). The winner is declared La Flor de Birama, or The Flower of Birama, and her entourage are her Petals. During the festival, in their roles as the Flower and the Petals, the girls attend all of the events wearing the Cuban national dress, inspiring poets and composers with their beauty. For 47 years, the Cucalambeana has celebrated peasant traditions and honored the rich culture of the Cuban countryside. El Cornito may not be near the top of many tourist agendas, but a visit to the Cucalambeana is a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience the traditional culture of the Cuban countryside in all its glory.

JUN 2016 74

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CUBAN FARM

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The Mediterráneo Havana

Restaurant

is recognized today as the first true experience of a farmto-table restaurant in Cuba. A tour of the farms allow our customers to know firsthand about the ecological agricultural system used for growing the products that they will later enjoy at our restaurant.

Calle 13 No. 406 e/ F y G, Vedado. Havana Reservations: +53 78324894 [email protected] www.medhavana.com

TO TABLE De la Granja a la Mesa JUN 2016 75

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HAVANA’S

best places to eat Los Mercaderes EL ATELIER

BELLA CIAO

CAFÉ BOHEMIA

CAFÉ LAURENT

EXPERIMENTAL FUSION

HOMELY ITALIAN

CAFÉ

SPANISH/MEDITERRANEAN

Interesting décor, interesting menu.

Great service, good prices. A real home from home.

Bohemian feel. Great sandwiches, salads & juices

Attractive penthouse restaurant with breezy terrace.

Calle 5 e/ Paseo y 2, Vedado (+53) 7-836-2025

Calle 19 y 72, Playa (+53) 7-206-1406

Calle San Ignacio #364, Habana Vieja

Calle M #257, e/ 19 y 21, Vedado (+53) 7-831-2090

LOS MERCADERES

CUBAN-CREOLE

OTRA MANERA INTERNATIONAL

Beautiful colonial house.Polpular place whit great food and good service.

Beautiful modern decor. Interesting menu and good service.

Calle Mercaderes No. 207 altos e/ Lamparilla y Amargura. H.Vieja (+53) 7861 2437

Calle #35 e/ 20 y 41, Playa. (+53) 7-203-8315

CASA MIGLIS

OTRA MANERA

EL COCINERO

CORTE PRÍNCIPE

RÍO MAR

D.EUTIMIA

SWEDISH-CUBAN FUSION

INTERNATIONAL

INTERNACIONAL

ITALIAN

INTERNATIONAL

CUBAN/CREOLE

Oasis of good food & taste in Centro Habana Lealtad #120 e/ Ánimas y Lagunas, Centro Habana (+53) 7-864-1486

Beautiful modern decor. Interesting menu and good service. Calle #35 e/ 20 y 41, Playa. (+53) 7-203-8315

Industrial chic alfresco rooftop with a buzzing atmosphere

Sergio’s place. Simple décor, spectacular food.

Calle 26, e/ 11 y 13, Vedado. (+53) 7-832-2355

Calle 9na esq. a 74, Miramar (+53) 5-255-9091

LA FONTANA

IVÁN CHEF

EL LITORAL

SANTY

INTERNACIONAL

SPANISH

INTERNATIONAL

SUSHI/ORIENTAL

Consistently good food, attentive service. Old school. Calle 46 #305 esq. a 3ra, Miramar (+53) 7-202-8337

Brilliantly creative and rich food.

Watch the world go by at the Malecón’s best restaurant.

Aguacate #9 esq. a Chacón, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-863-9697

Malecón #161 e/ K y L, Vedado (+53) 7-830-2201

Contemporary décor. Great seaview. Good food. Ave. 3raA y Final #11, La Puntilla, Miramar (+53) 7-209-4838

NAZDAROVIE SOVIET

Authentic fisherman’s shack servicing world-class sushi.

Well designed Soviet décor excellent food & service.

Calle 240A #3023 esq. a 3ra C, Jaimanitas (+53) 5-286-7039

Malecon #25, 3rd floor e Prado y Carcel, Centro Habana (+53) 7-860-2947

Absolutely charming. Excellent Cuban/creole food. Callejón del Chorro #60C, Plaza de la Catedral, Habana Vieja (+53) 7 861 1332

SAN CRISTÓBAL CUBAN/CREOLE

Deservedly popular.Consistently great food. Kitsch décor. San Rafael #469 e/ Lealtad y Campanario, Centro Habana (+53) 7-860-9109

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El Litoral

TOP PICK

magazine

Style of food: International Cost: Expensive Type of place: Private (Paladar)

Best for Quality décor, good service and great food. Best new place recently opened. Don’t Miss Drinking a cocktail at sunset watching the world go by on the Malecón Malecón #161 e/ K y L, Vedado. (+53) 7-830-2201

Style of food: Soviet Cost: Moderate Type of place: Private (Paladar)

TOP PICK

Nazdarovie

Best for Getting a flavor of Cuban-Soviet history along with babuska’s traditional dishes in a classy locale. Don’t miss Vodka sundowners on the gorgeous terrace overlooking the malecon. Malecon #25 3rd floor e/ Prado y Carcel, Centro Habana (+53) 7-860-2947

TOP PICK TOP PICK

Otra Manera

Style of food: International Cost: Moderate Type of place: Private (Paladar)

Best for Beautiful modern décor and good food. Don’t miss Pork rack of ribs in honey. Sweet & sour sauce and grilled pineapple Calle 35 #1810 e/ 20 y 41, Playa (+53) 7-203-8315 JUN 2016 77

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La Guarida

TOP PICK

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Style of food: Contemporary fusion Cost: Expensive Type of place: Private (Paladar)

Best for Authentic, charming and intimate atmosphere in Cuba’s best known restaurant. Great food, professional. Classy. Don’t Miss Uma Thurman, Beyoncé or the Queen of Spain if they happen to be dining next to you. Concordia #418 e/ Gervasio y Escobar, Centro Habana. (+53) 7-866-9047

Style of food: Traditional Cost: Moderate Type of place: Private (Paladar)

TOP PICK

Café Bohemia

Best for taking a break from long walks and seeking shelter from the stifling Cuban.. Don’t miss location in the cool inner courtyard of the colonial building. Ground floor of the Palacio de la Casa del Conde de Lombillo, Calle San Ignacio #364 (+53) 5- 403-1 568, (+53) 7-836-6567 www. havanabohemia.com

TOP PICK

Iván Chef Justo

Style of food: Spanish Cost: Expensive Type of place: Private (Paladar)

Best for Spectacular innovative food. Light and airy place where it always seems to feel like Springtime. Don’t Miss The lightly spiced grilled mahi-mahi served with organic tomato relish. Try the suckling pig and stay for the cuatro leches. Aguacate #9, Esq. Chacón, Habana Vieja. (+53) 7-863-9697 / (+53) 5-343-8540 JUN 2016 78

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Los Mercaderes Style of food Cuban creole Cost Moderate Type of place Private (Paladar)

Best for Beautiful colonial house.Polpular place whit great food and good service.

Don’t miss Wonderfull balcony view to the clasic street.

Calle Mercaderes No. 207 altos e/ Lamparilla y Amargura. Habana Vieja (+53) 7861 2437 y (+53) 5290 1531

Casa Miglis

TOP PICK

Style of food Swedish-Cuban fusion Cost Expensive Type of place Private (Paladar)

Best for The beautifully designed interior, warm ambience and Miglis’s personality create the feeling of an oasis in Central Havana. Don’t Miss Chatting with Mr Miglis. The Skaargan prawns, beef Chilli and lingonberries. Lealtad #120 e/ Ánimas y Lagunas, Centro Habana www.casamiglis.com (+53) 7-864-1486

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RESTAURANT 1800 PLAZA SAN JUAN DE DIOS CAMAGÜEY, CUBA TRADITION AND STYLE... at your taste

STYLE AND HISTORY

Contact us

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HAVANA’S best Bars & Clubs

Corner Café TRADITIONAL BARS EL FLORIDITA Hemingway’s daiquiri bar. Touristy but always full of life. Great cocktails. Obispo #557 esq. a Monserrate, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-867-1299

1950S TRADITIONALS Guest performers include BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB MEMBERS Sociedad Rosalía de Castro, Egido 504 e/ Monte y Dragones, Old Havana (+53) 5-270-5271

SLOPPY JOE’S BAR Recently (beautifully) renovated. Full of history. Popular. Lacks a little ‘grime’. Ánimas esq. a Zulueta, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-866-7157

CERVECERÍA ANTIGUO ALMACÉN DE LA MADERA Y EL TABACO

Microbrewery located overlooking the restored docks Simply brilliant. Avenida del Puerto y San Ignacio, La Habana Vieja

CONTEMPORARY BARS EL COCINERO

ESPACIOS

TABARISH

FAC

Fabulous rooftop setting, great service, cool vibe.

Laid back contemporary bar with a real buzz in the back beergarden.

A comfortable place to chat / hang out with your friends. Great service.

X Alfonso’s new cultural center. Great concerts, funky young scene.

Calle 26 e/ 11 y 13, Vedado

Calle 10 #510, e/ 5ta y 31, Miramar

Calle 20 #503, e/ 5ta y 7ma.

Calle 26 e/ 11 y 13, Vedado (next to the Puente de Hierro)

(+53) 7-832-2355

(+53) 7-836-3031

(+53) 7-202-9188

(+53) 5-329-6325 www.facebook.com/fabrica.deartecubano

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CONTEMPORARY BARS/CLUBS

Sangri-La

TOP PICK

CONTEMPORARY BAR/CLUBS

Best for Hanging out with the cool kids on the Havana Farundula in the most popular bar/ club.

BOLABANA

DON CANGREJO Love it/hate it—this is the oldest Friday night party place and is still going strong. Outdoor by the sea. Ave. 1ra e/ 16 & 18, Miramar (+53) 7-204-3837

Packed night after night with a young dressed-up clientele wanting to party. Don’t go looking for Buena Vista Social Club! Calle 39 esq. 50, Playa (+53) 5 -294-3572

CORNER CAFÉ

SANGRI-LA For the cool kids. Basement bar/club which gets packed at weekends.

Great live music every day. very frequently by locals. Good tapas. Calle B e/ 1ra y 3ra. Plaza de la Revolución (+53) 7837 1220

Ave. 21 e/ 36 y 42, Miramar (+53) 7-264-8343

Don’t Miss The best gin and tonic in Havana. Ave. 21 e/ 36 y 42, Miramar (+53) 5-264-8343

GAY-FRIENDLY CABARET LAS VEGAS Can get dark and smoky but great drag show (11pm) from Divino—one of Cuba’s most accomplished drag acts. Ave. 21 e/ 36 y 42, Miramar (+53) 7-264-8343

FASHION BAR HAVANA

CAFÉ BAR MADRIGAL

A superb example of queer class meets camp, accompanied by a fantastic floor show.

Pop décor, fancy cocktails, and the staff’s supercilious attitude, this is a gathering spot for all types of folks.

San Juan de Dios, esq. a Aguacate, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-867-1676

Calle 17 #809 e/ 2 y 4, Vedado (+53) 7-831-2433

Corner Café

TOP PICK

CONTEMPORARY BAR/CLUBS

Best for Frequently by locals. Great tapas. Don’t Miss Live music every day. Calle B e/ 1ra y 3ra. Plaza de la Revolución (+53) 5-264-8343

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Espacios

TOP PICK

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CONTEMPORARY BAR/CLUBS Best for Laid back lounge atmosphere in the garden area which often has live music. Good turnover of people. Don’t Miss Ray Fernandez, Tony Avila, Yasek Mazano playing live sets in the garden. Calle 10 #510 e/ 5ta y 31, Miramar (+53) 7-202-2921

CONTEMPORARY

TOP PICK

Bolabana

Best for Trendy new location near Salón Rosado de la Tropica. Don’t Miss Hipsters meet the Havana Farándula. Calle 39 esq. 50, Playa

TOP PICK

Sloppy Joe´s Bar

BAR / TRADITIONAL Best for Immense original bar lovingly restored. Good service, History. Worst for Not quite grimy. Too clean. Ánimas, esq. Zulueta La Habana Vieja, (07) 866-7157 JUN 2016 83

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Fábrica de Arte

TOP PICK

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CONTEMPORARY BAR/CLUBS Best for X Alfonso’s superb new cultural center has something for everyone Don’t Miss Artists who exhibit work should demonstrate ongoing creativity and a commitment for social transformation. Calle 26 e/ 11 y 13, Vedado (next to the Puente de Hierro)

GAY FRIENDLY Best for A superb example of queer class meets camp, accompanied by a fantastic floor show.

TOP PICK

Fashion Bar Havana

Don’t Miss The staff performing after 11pm San Juan de Dios, esq. a Aguacate, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-867-1676

TOP PICK

Bertolt Brecht

CONTEMPORARY BAR/CLUBS

Best for Hanging out with hip & funky Cubans who like their live music. Don’t Miss Interactivo playing on a Wednesday evening. Calle 13 e/ I y J, Vedado (+53) 7-830-1354 JUN 2016 84

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HAVANA’S

best live music venues

CONCERT VENUES KARL MARX THEATRE World class musicians perform prestigious concerts in Cuba’s best equipped venue. Calle 1ra esq. a 10, Miramar (+53) 7-203-0801

BASÍLICA SAN FRANCISCO DE ASÍS A truly beautiful church, which regularly hosts fabulous classical music concerts. Oficios y Amargura, Plaza de San Francisco de Asís, Habana Vieja

FÁBRICA DE ARTE X Alfonso’s new cultural center. Great concerts inside (small and funky) and outside (large and popular!). Calle 26 e/ 11 y 13, Vedado (next to the Puente de Hierro)

SALA COVARRUBIAS TEATRO NACIONAL

Recently renovated, one of Cuba’s most prestigious venues for a multitude of events. Paseo y 39, Plaza de la Revolución.

SALSA/TIMBA CAFÉ CANTANTE MI HABANA Attracts the best Cuban musicians. Recently renovated with an excellent new sound system. Ave. Paseo esq. a 39, Plaza de la Revolución (+53) 7-878-4273

CASA DE LA MÚSICA

CASA DE LA MÚSICA

CENTRO HABANA

MIRAMAR

A little rough around the edges but spacious. For better or worse, this is ground zero for the best in Cuban salsa.

Smaller and more up-market than its newer twin in Centro Habana. An institution in the Havana salsa scene.

Galiano e/ Neptuno y Concordia, C. Habana (+53) 7-860-8296/4165

Calle 20 esq. a 35, Miramar (+53) 7-204-0447

SALÓN ROSADO DE LA TROPICAL The legendary beer garden where Arsenio tore it up. Look for a salsa/timba gig on a Sat night and a Sun matinee. Ave. 41 esq. a 46, Playa (+53) 7-203-5322

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CONTEMPORARY CAFÉ TATRO BERTOLT BRECHT

DON CANGREJO

EL SAUCE

Think MTV Unplugged when musicians play. Hip, funky and unique with an artsy Cuban crowd.

Love it/hate it—this is the oldest Friday night party place and is still going strong. Outdoor by the sea.

Great outdoor concert venue to hear the best in contemporary & Nueva Trova live in concert.

Calle 13 e/ I y J, Vedado (+53) 7-830-1354

Ave. 1ra e/ 16 y 18, Miramar (+53) 7-204-3837

Ave. 9na #12015 e/ 120 y 130, Playa (+53) 7-204-6428

TEATRO DE BELLAS ARTES Small intimate venue inside Cuba’s most prestigious arts museum. Modern. Trocadero e/ Zulueta y Monserrate, Habana Vieja.

TROVA & TRADITIONAL BARBARAM PEPITO´S BAR Some of the best Cuban Nueva Trova musicians perform in this small and intimate environment. Calle 26 esq. a Ave. del Zoológico. Nuevo Vedado (+53) 7-881-1808

GATO TUERTO Late night place to hear fabulous bolero singers. Can get smoky. Calle O entre 17 y 19, Vedado (+53) 7-833-2224

TRADICIONALES DE LOS 50 The 1950s traditionals, a project created over 10 years ago, pays tribute to the Golden Era of Cuban music: the 1950s. Sociedad Rosalia de Castro, Egido #504 e/ Monte y Dragones, Havana Vieja (+53) 7-861-7761

SALÓN 1930

COMPAY SEGUNDO

Buena Vista Social Club style set in the grand Hotel Nacional. Hotel Nacional Calle O esq. a 21, Vedado (+53) 7-835-3896

JAZZ CAFÉ JAZZ MIRAMAR Clean, modern and atmospheric. Where Cuba’s best musicians jam and improvise. Cine Teatro Miramar 10:30pm – 2am Ave. 5ta esq. a 94, Miramar

JAZZ CAFÉ A staple of Havana’s jazz scene, the best jazz players perform here. Somewhat cold atmospherewise. Galerías de Paseo Ave. 1ra e/ Paseo y A, Vedado

LA ZORRA Y EL CUERVO Intimate and atmospheric, which you enter through a red telephone box, is Cuba’s most famous. Calle 23 e/ N y O, Vedado (+53) 7-833-2402

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HAVANA’S

magazine

Hotel Nacional de Cuba

Best Hotels

SIMPLY THE BEST… IBEROSTAR PARQUE CENTRAL

Luxury hotel overlooking Parque Central Neptuno e/ Prado y Zulueta, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-860-6627

SANTA ISABEL

Luxurious historic mansion facing Plaza de Armas Narciso López, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-860-8201

SARATOGA

TERRAL

Stunning view from roof-top pool. Beautiful décor.

Wonderful ocean front location. Newly renovated.

Paseo del Prado #603 esq. a Dragones, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-860-8201

Malecón esq. a Lealtad, Centro Habana (+53) 7-862-8061

BOUTIQUE HOTELS IN OLD HAVANA FLORIDA

Beautifully restored colonial house. Obispo #252, esq. a Cuba, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-862-4127

PALACIO DEL MARQUÉS...

Cuban baroque meets modern minimalist Oficios #152 esq. a Amargura, Habana Vieja

HOSTAL VALENCIA

Immensely charming, great value. Oficios #53 esq. a Obrapía, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-867-1037

CONDE DE VILLANUEVA

Delightfully small and intimate. For cigar lovers. Mercaderes #202, Lamparilla (+53) 7-862-9293

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MELIÁ HABANA

Oasis of polished marble and professional calm.

Attractive design & extensive facilities.

Ave Paseo e/ 1ra y 3ra, Vedado (+53) 7- 833-3636

Ave. 3ra y 70, Miramar (+53) 5-204-8500

OCCIDENTAL MIRAMAR

magazine

H10 HABANA PANORAMA

Good value, large spacious modern rooms.

Cascades of glass. Good wi-fi. Modern.

Ave. 5ta. e/ 70 y 72, Miramar (+53) 7-204-3583

Ave. 3ra. y 70, Miramar (+53) 7 204-0100

FOR A SENSE OF HISTORY AMBOS MUNDOS

MERCURE SEVILLA

HOTEL NACIONAL

RIVIERA

A must for Hemingway aficionados

Stunning views from the roof garden restaurant.

Eclectic art-deco architecture. Gorgeous gardens.

Spectacular views over wavelashed Malecón

Calle Obispo #153 esq. a Mercaderes, Habana Vieja (+53) 7- 860-9529

Trocadero #55 entre Prado y Zulueta, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-860-8560

Calle O esq. a 21, Vedado (+53) 7-835 3896

Paseo y Malecón, Vedado (+53) 7-836-4051

ECONOMICAL/BUDGET HOTELS BOSQUE

DEAUVILLE

SAINT JOHN’S

VEDADO

On the banks of the Río Almendares.

Lack of pretension, great location.

Lively disco, tiny quirky pool. Popular.

Good budget option with a bit of a buzz

Calle 28-A e/ 49-A y 49-B, Reparto Kohly, Playa (+53) 7-204-9232

Galiano e/ Sán Lázaro y Malecón, Centro Habana (+53) 7-866-8812

Calle O e/ 23 y 25, Vedado (+53) 7-833-3740

Calle O e/ 23 y 25, Vedado (+53) 7-836-4072

HAVANA’S Best Hotels

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HAVANA’S

best private places to stay Sueño Cubano

MID RANGE - CASA PARTICULAR (B&B) 1932 MIRAMAR 301 LUXURY HOUSE Visually stunning, historically fascinating. Welcoming. 4 bedrooms private luxury villa Campanario #63 e/ San Lázaro y Laguna, with swimming pool Centro Habana (+53) 7-863-6203

HABANA Beautiful colonial townhouse with great location.

JULIO Y ELSA Cluttered bohemian feel. Hospitable.

Calle Habana #209, e/ Empedrado, y Tejadillo, Habana Vieja. (+53) 7-861-0253

Consulado #162 e/ Colón y Trocadero, Centro Habana ( +53) 7-861-8027

UP-SCALE B&BS (BOUTIQUE HOSTALS) SUEÑO CUBANO

Old palace carefully restored, seven rooms, suites with bathrooms and featuring 24 hour service. Calle Santa Clara número 66 entre Oficios e Inquisidor. Habana Vieja 53 78660109 39 339 1817730

CAÑAVERAL HOUSE

But undoubtedly the most beautiful about private homes in Cuba 39A street, #4402, between 44 y 46, Playa, La Habana Cuba (+53) 295-5700 http://www.cubaguesthouse.com/canaveral. home.html?lang=en

VITRALES

Hospitable, attractive and reliable boutique B&B with 9 bedrooms. Habana #106 e/ Cuarteles y Chacón, Habana Vieja (+53) 7-866-2607

CASA ESCORIAL

Attractive accomodations with a panoramic view of Plaza Vieja Mercaderes # 315 apt 3 e/ Muralla y Teniente Rey, Plaza Vieja, Habana Vieja (+53) 5-268 6881; 5-278 6148

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APARTMENT RENTALS BOHEMIA BOUTIQUE APARTMENTS

Gorgeous 1-bedroom apartment beautifully decorated apartment overlooking Plaza Vieja. San Ignacio #364 e/ Muralla y Teniente Rey, Plaza Vieja (+53) 5- 403-1 568 (+53) 7-836-6567 www.havanabohemia.com

CASA CONCORDIA

Beautifully designed and spacious 3 bedroom apartment. Spanish colonial interiors with cheerful, arty accents. Concordia #151 apto. 8 esq. a San Nicolás, Centro Habana (+53) 5-254-5240 www.casaconcordia.net

TROPICANA PENTHOUSE

A luxurious penthouse with huge roof terrace and breath-taking 360 degree views of Havana and the ocean. Galiano #60 Penthouse Apt.10 e/ San Lázaro y Trocadero

SUITE HAVANA

Elegant 2-bedroom apartment in restored colonial building. Quality loft style décor. Lamparilla #62 altos e/ Mercaderes y San Ignacio, Habana Vieja (+53) 5-829-6524

(+53) 5-254-5240 www.tropicanapenthouse.com

LUXURY HOUSES VILLASOL

CASABLANCA

Rent Room elegant and wellequipped. Beautiful wild garden and great pool.

Elegant well-equipped villa formerly owned by Fulgencio Batista. Beautiful wild garden.

Calle 17 #1101 e/ 14 y 16, Vedado

Morro-Cabaña Park. House #29

(+34) 677525361 (+53) 7-832-1927 (+53) 5-360-0456

(+53) 5-294-5397 www.havanacasablanca.com

MICHAEL AND MARÍA ELENA

This leafy oasis in western Havana has an attractive mosaic tiled pool and three modern bedrooms. Calle 66 #4507 e/ 45 y Final, Playa (+53) 7-209-0084

RESIDENCIA MARIBY

A sprawling vanilla-hued mansion with 6 rooms decorated with colonial-era lamps, tiles and Louis XV furniture Vedado. (+53) 5-370-5559

Bohemia Boutique Apartments Red

TOP PICK

Best for 3 small balconies (facing the Patio of the Palace), 1 spacious bedroom with air conditioning Don’t Miss The apartment is fully furbished, plenty of light and very well ventilated. San Ignacio #364 e/ Muralla y Teniente Rey, Plaza Vieja, Habana Vieja [email protected] (+53) 5 4031 568: (53) 7 8366 567

www.havanabohemia.com

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Bohemia Boutique Apartments Blue

TOP PICK

Best for i1 internal balcony, 1 spacious bedroom on the mezzanine with air conditioning. Don’t Miss The apartment is fully furbished, plenty of light and very well ventilated. San Ignacio #364 e/ Muralla y Teniente Rey, Plaza Vieja, Habana Vieja [email protected] (+53) 5 4031 568: (53) 7 8366 567

Sueño Cubano

TOP PICK

Best for Old palace carefully restored, seven rooms, suites with bathrooms and featuring 24 hour service. Don’t Miss Relax at any of the four terraces, feel the mellow touch of antique and original Cuban furniture. Calle Santa Clara número 66 entre Oficios e Inquisidor. Habana Vieja 53 78660109 / 39 339 1817730 WWW.SUENOCUBANO.COM

TOP PICK

Cañaveral House Best for Large elegant villa away from downtown Havana. Great for families or groups of friends. Don’t Miss Basking in the sun as you stretch out on the lawn of the beautifully kept garden. 9A street, #4402, between 44 y 46, Playa, La Habana (+53) 295-5700 http://www.cubaguesthouse.com JUN 2016 91

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THANK YOU Wishes to thank all of the following entities for their support and involvement with La Habana.com

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