Cuba’s rich cultural mix combined with the government’s enthusiastic dedication to the arts makes for a truly amazing variety of artistic genres, particularly in the field of popular music. Standards are extraordinarily high and Cuban artists have achieved international fame. The most user friendly way to find out what’s on are in
Cuba Absolutely’s regularly updated cultural listings:
www.cubaabsolutely.com. You can buy tickets for all events directly at the box office.
Trova, from the Spanish
for troubadour, is ballad-style singing to guitar accompaniment. Most towns have at least one
Casa de la Trova, where anybody who can play a musical instrument can happily pass the evening participating in an impromptu jam session.
Nueva trova is the musical movement featuring socially and politically relevant lyrics spearheaded by Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanes, Noel Nicola and others and kept current by the likes of Santiago Feliú, Frank Delgado and Inti Santana.
Guajira is country-style music - you’ve likely heard its most famous song, the ubiquitous
Guantanamera. Above all
salsa, with its mesmerizing rhythms, has taken the world by storm. Cuba has become internationally renowned for other well-known rhythms, such as the
rumba, a combination of Afro-Cuban music for voice and percussion, which is now accompanied by a passionate dance. The
cha-cha-cha, originally popularized between the 1930s and 50s, is still popular. In the field of contemporary music, names to watch for include Interactivo, Yusa, Carlos Varela, Kelvis Ochoa, Aldo López Gavilán, Harold López-Nussa and Elmer Ferrer.
Music: Groups such as
Los Van Van and
The Buena Vista Social Club have long been established in Cuba, but now their reputation has spread worldwide and both frequently tour internationally. They perform regularly in different venues around the city, such as
Salón 1930, Hotel Nacional, Calle O y 21, Vedado (tel: (7) 873 3564). Classical music is performed by the
National Symphony Orchestra, which plays on Sunday afternoons at
Teatro Amadeo Roldán, Calzada and Calle D, Vedado (tel: (7) 832 4521).
The Recordings and Musical Editions Company (
EGREM)
, Calle 3ra 1008 between 10 y 18, Miramar (tel: (7) 209 0688), is one of Cuba’s most famous recording studios and record labels with a network of specialized stores, with a wide selection of CDs and some musical instruments.
Theater: The standard of theater in Havana is high, with regular performances of local, modern plays and international classics (in Spanish). Top theater venues include the
Gran Teatro de La Habana, corner of Paseo del Prado and Calle San Rafael, Centro Habana (tel: (7) 861 3077
or 5873), the
Teatro Nacional de Cuba, Paseo and Calle 39, Plaza de la Revolución, Vedado (tel: (7) 879 3558
or 6011), and
Teatro Trianon, Línea 706 between Paseo and Calle A, Vedado (tel: (7) 830 9648).
Dance: The
National Ballet of Cuba (
www.balletcuba.cult.cu) has gained international fame thanks to its founder Alicia Alonso and the Cuban system of ballet training that regularly cranks out world-class dancers. Ballet performances take place at the
Gran Teatro (see above). Cuba’s modern dance company,
Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, puts on electric performances at the
Teatro Mella, Línea between Paseo and Calle A (tel: (7) 833 8696), that are not to be missed. Every night the two
Casa de la Música pulsate to the sound of salsa with some exciting performances by local bands, though the atmosphere can be aggressive and off putting. Contact
Casa de la Música de Miramar (tel: (7) 202 6147) and
Casa de la Música de Centro Habana (tel: (7) 862 4165) for more information.
Film: Cinema is huge in Cuba, with a historically robust domestic film industry that has groomed generations of filmmakers and movie buffs. So educated is the audience, foreign-language films are usually subtitled since Cubans don’t generally tolerate dubbing. Havana’s international film festival, held each December, is a particularly fun and fertile time for movie fans to be in Cuba. Havana boasts dozens of cinemas, including:
Payret, opposite the Capitolio on Paseo de Martí (tel: (7) 863 3163),
Yara, opposite Coppelia, Calle L & 23, Vedado (tel: (7) 832 9430), and
Charles Chaplin, Calle 23 between Calles 10 and 12, Vedado (tel: (7) 831 1101). Citywide movie schedules are posted near the box office of every cinema.
The internationally acclaimed
Fresa y Chocolate (
Strawberry and Chocolate), directed by one of Cuba’s most renowned filmmakers, Tómas Gutierrez Alea, and set near the Coppelia ice cream parlour in Havana, was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film in 1994. Other filmmakers to watch for include Fernando Pérez (
Suite Habana,
Madagascar) and Juan Carlos Cremata (
Viva Cuba,
Nada).
Buena Vista Social Club (1999), directed by Wim Wenders, is a documentary that chronicles the collaboration of Ry Cooder with these legendary Cuban musicians.
Literary Notes: Havana’s mystery and allure have made it an attractive setting for many works of fiction by both Cuban and international writers. The most famous foreign book featuring Havana as a backdrop has to be Graham Greene’s classic 1958 novel,
Our Man in Havana. A vacuum cleaner salesman in Havana joins the British secret service, but sends in bogus reports and photographs of vacuum parts as supposed secret weapons and recruits imaginary agents. His description of the Tropicana will be familiar to visitors today: ’Stage and dance-floor were open to the sky. Chorus-girls paraded 20 feet up among the great palm-trees, while pink and mauve searchlights swept the floor. A man in bright blue evening clothes sang in Anglo-American about Paree. Then the piano was wheeled away into the undergrowth, and the dancers stepped down like awkward birds from among the branches.’
Ernest Hemingway’s 1952 novel,
The Old Man and the Sea, won him the Nobel Prize for Literature (the medal for which he gifted to Cuba) for his simple tale of an old Cuban fisherman’s fight with a big fish. Modern Cuba is depicted in Pico Iyer’s
Cuba and the Night (1995), an in-depth, rather cynical, description of a Cuban woman’s relationship with an ex-pat. Cristina Garcia’s moving novel
Dreaming in Cuban (1992) explores a family divided by the revolution, looking from both sides - the exiles in America and those who stayed behind in Cuba. Home-grown authors who are more like heroes for their insightful poetry and prose include José Martí (Cuba’s ’apostle’), Nicolás Guillén revered for his courage to take on racial themes, and the world famous novelist Alejo Carpentier.
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The Columbus World Travel Guide has been published for 26 years and is sold in over 90 countries worldwide.
Word Travels is a comprehensive travel guide covering hundreds of cities and holiday resorts in more than 125 countries.
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