by Simons Chase The first sensation of the significance of my map coordinates (20°24”12.2’N 78°55”26.5’E) occurred while visiting the Gardens of the Queen (Jardines de la Reina), a palm-fringed national park situated along Cuba’s Caribbean coast. There sits a remote fishing and diving center, operated by Avalon, like a floating village tethered to a point … Read more
Born in Cuba in 1962, Ivonne Lamazares’ mother died when she was three, and she was raised by her grandparents in Old Havana. She emigrated to Florida at the age of fourteen and currently lives in South Miami with her husband, the poet Steve Kronen, and her daughter. Lamazares is on the faculty of Miami-Dade … Read more
Havana is filled with musical Cubans eager to delight any audience with the sounds and rhythms that make up the heartbeat of Cuba. The island nation spends 10% of its annual budget on education, compared with 4% in the United Kingdom and just 2% in the US. School attendance is compulsory from ages 6 – … Read more
Sundance Institute announced today its return to Cuba with film screenings and filmmaker discussions open to the public as part of Sundance Film Forward, July 14-16. Local artists, students, and film lovers are invited to attend public events at venues across Havana, including Cine Yara and Casa del Festival. Sundance Film Forward will host free … Read more
CubaNetwork, America’s first multi-platform network dedicated to capturing the mystique of Cuba, will launch with thousands of hours of original and exclusive programming from Havana, Cuba in both English and Spanish. The programming service will capture a love affair with classic American cars, salsa singers, inventive offerings in food, culture, night life and much, much … Read more
Young student writers have until January 15 to submit their short stories, memoirs and poems to the first ever University of Idaho Hemingway Festival High School Writing Contest. Every year, the University of Idaho’s Creative Writing Program hosts the Hemingway Festival to honor the annual Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award recipient. This year, the University of Idaho’s … Read more
Since 1961, The New York Times editorial board has consistently opposed the break in U.S.-Cuba relations, and used major historical events such as the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Mariel boatlift, and the Elian Gonzalez standoff to argue for the restoration of relations. In her meticulously researched paper, Marie Sanz tells the … Read more
by Tim Weed, Cuba Journal Contributor Each trip to Cuba is like a freeze-frame in time-lapse photo sequence, illuminating a particular moment in a long timeline of change. Lately the process seems to have accelerated. The country is like seedling whose growth used to be barely perceptible, but is now sprouting leaves and branches at … Read more
Cuba’s Christmas celebration is changing as a reflection of a broader evolution for Cuba to animate its past and invent a future. Christmas Eve remains overshadowed among Cubans by the New Years’ celebration – which happens to coincide with the day of the 1959 revolution – although many Cubans get together with their families for … Read more
Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show – A standing-room only crowd attended the Destination Cuba panel yesterday to learn about yachting to, from and around Cuba; the legal aspects and permitting requirements; how the yachting world can participate in good environmental stewardship of the island nation; and commercial opportunities available now. See link at bottom of … Read more
