Los Muñequitos de Matanzas keep rumba flame alive

<p style="text-align: justify;">Chuy Varela, Special to The Chronicle. San Francisco Chronicle April 1, 2011 04:00 AM. Los Munequitos Once an all-male ensemble, Los Muñequitos de Matanzas now.On their last visit to San Francisco, in 1992, Cuban folkloric troupe Los Muñequitos de Matanzas did a rumba version of Scott McKenzie's "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)." At the standing-room-only show at Mission High School, it brought the house down."This music has a spiritual element that creates unity, peace and tranquillity," says Diosdado Ramos Cruz, director of Los Muñequitos de Matanzas. Read More

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Travel columnist explores Cuba

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Janice Law. Contributor. Published April 3, 2011. HAVANA — As evening pedestrians, we stepped cautiously around and into alarmingly large holes packing nearly ink-black downtown streets, lit only every other block or so with the dimmest of lights.As night bus passengers, we marveled how our driver navigated the same areas where vehicles, bikes and human shapes, indistinct in the darkened roadways, converged.We traveled to Cuba on a charter flight from Miami as U.S.-sanctioned delegates from the American Association of Museums with a mission to meet for six days with Cuban museum personnel on issues of mutual concern. Read More

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Cultivate Cuba for peace

<p style="text-align: justify;">3 April 2011, Cuba has been an issue of US conscience. Washington’s desire to see democracy take roots in its backyard communist nation-state had come at a cost for the islanders. Trade and travel embargoes, coupled with political discord of the highest order, had only bred discontent.This is what former US president and mentor of human rights doctrine Jimmy Carter said when he toured Cuba. He said the decades-long trade embargo and travel ban have damaged the Cuban people and hindered rather than help reform Read More

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Cuba’s Most Longevous Flutist Passed Away

<p style="text-align: justify;">CIENFUEGOS, Cuba, Apr 2 (acn) Efrain Loyola, Cuba’s most longevous flutist, died on Friday in this city, at the age of 94.Born on December 18, 1916, in Cienfuegos, he grew up as a poor black child who loved music, so his passion for playing an instrument accompanied his work as a shoeshine boy and a baker.Loyola was part of important groups, among them the Conjunto Tradicional de Sones Los Naranjos, the Ritmica 39 –the embryo of the Aragon Orchestra- and the centenarian Municipal Concert Band of Cienfuegos, in which he performed since 1937. He also founded his own group, called The Efrain Loyola Orchestra. Read More

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Price of cooking oil rises, without warning

<p style="text-align: justify;">One quart could cost 10% of a worker's salary. Cooking oil became more expensive on Saturday, the Agence France-Presse has learned.A tour by AFP of&nbsp; state-run markets in Havana revealed that the price of one liter (almost one quart) of soy oil rose from US$1.10 to $1.15, a 5% increase. One liter of Cuban-made sunflower-seed oil rose from $2.15 to $2.40 (up 11.6%), and one liter of imported oil went from $2.40 to $2.60 (up 8.3%). Read More

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All Revolutions Have Conflicts, Ruptures, and Contradictions

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Rafael González, Encontrarte, Venezuelanalysis.com, April 2nd 2011. Rafael González (1950 - ) was born in Ranchuelo, Villa Clara province, Cuba. Since 1977 he has helped to consolidate Cuba’s Teatro Escambray, serving as the theater group’s theatrical advisor, chief of socio-cultural investigations, author of many performances, and since 1995 is the group’s general director. Since 2001 he has served as professor of dramaturgy at the Villa Clara School of Art Teachers. He holds medals of distinction for his participation in Cuba’s historic literacy campaign and for his service in the Cuban armed forces, and he is an active member in the Cuban Union of Writers and Artists (UNEAC) and the Cuban Communist Party (PCC). Read More

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Seattle Beat the Drum for Afro-Cuban Bands

<p style="text-align: justify;">2011.04.01 - 19:06:33 / radiorebelde.icrt.cu. Los Muñequitos de Matanzas. Havana, Cuba.- Two of the best Cuban folkloric bands — Los Muñequitos de Matanzas and Juan de Marcos and the Afro-Cuban All Stars — will perform in Seattle within the next few days.The 59-year-old Cuba-based Muñequitos’s concert is scheduled for Sunday at the Meany Theater, University of Washington, while the Afro-Cuban All Stars’ performances are scheduled from Thursday through Tuesday at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley. Read More

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Havana’s Revolution Square Gets Ready for April 16

<p style="text-align: justify;">2011.04.02 / radiorebelde.icrt.cu. Havana’s Revolution Square Gets Ready for April 16. Havana, Cuba.- Workers from various sectors give the finishing touches to preparations at Havana’s Revolution Square, where a military and popular parade will take place on April 16 to mark the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of the socialist nature of the Revolution and the Bay of Pigs victory.Along with the asphalting of streets –like Paseo Avenue and others leading to the square- and their corresponding signposting, works are being carried out for the setting up of audio equipment and the fitting out of the stage, the Granma newspaper reported. Read More

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Daiquiri - Irrigation Solenoid Valves Manufacturer - China 24v Dc Solenoid Valve

<p style="text-align: justify;">By: uyuykm. The name Daiquir is also the name of a beach near Santiago, Cuba, and an iron mine in that area, and it is a word of Tano origin. The cocktail was supposedly invented about 1800 in a bar named Venus in Santiago, about 23 miles east of the mine, by a group of American mining engineers. Originally the drink was served in a tall glass packed with cracked ice. A teaspoon of sugar was poured over the ice and the juice of one or two limes was squeezed over the sugar. Two or three ounces of rum completed the mixture. Read More

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Cuba celebrates 50 years of electroacoustic music

<p style="text-align: justify;">Havana, April 1 : Cuba is all set to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the composition of the first piece of electroacoustic music by a national artiste.Beginning April 27, Cuba's current musical generation will pay its tribute to Juan Blanco, who began composing electroacoustic music pieces 50 years ago, Prensa Latina news agency reported.Exponents of this genre such as DJ Ivan Lejardi, who combines techno, deep house and trip hop, jazz musician Yasek Manzano and rocker Ernesto Blanco, will open the series of tributes that would run till March 2012. Read More

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