The Catalan legacy in Havana

<p style="text-align: justify;">2011.02.23 - 09:25:43 / radiorebelde.The Catalan legacy in Havana. Havana, Cuba. - Deep historical and family bonds unite the Cuban and Catalonian peoples. These roots merge to form only one tree and leave their “multiple and fertile” mark. Part of that material heritage is the Church of Our Lady of Montserrat. Better known as The Catalonians’ Chapel, it stands at the 8 ½ kilometer of Rancho Boyeros avenue. This church has nurtured the dreams and fantasies of thousands of people that drive along this popular artery of the Cuban capital every day. Read More

---

Arrival of Cuba offshore oil rig delayed again

<p style="text-align: justify;">HAVANA, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Delivery of a Chinese-built drilling rig that will open the first full-scale exploration for oil in Cuban waters looks unlikely until at least August in the latest delay to beset the project, sources said this week.They said an inspection of the newly-built, high-tech rig had been ordered to make sure it was in good shape after taking on water in transit from the Chinese shipyard where it was built to Singapore for completion in October. Read More

---

Cuba’s plans to drill for oil south of Florida Keys has lawmakers scrambling POLL

<p style="text-align: justify;">NAPLES — Florida was on edge last summer as oil spewed from the blown out Deepwater Horizon well in the northern Gulf of Mexico.This summer, Florida could be turning a wary eye in a different direction: south toward Cuba.That’s when Spanish oil giant Repsol could begin drilling an exploratory oil well off the northern coast of Cuba, some 20 miles north of Havana and 60 miles south of a point between Key West and the Marquesas Keys, said oil industry expert Jorge Piñon, a visiting research fellow at the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University in Miami. Read More

---

Chinese come to their Cuban comrades' rescue by lighting up cigars

<p style="text-align: justify;">Rising wealth and socialist solidarity sees China become major market for Cuban export hit by smoking bans and recession. Tuesday 22 February 2011 14.51 GMT. Cuban Cohiba Cuban cigar sales rose in 2010 as enthusiastic Chinese smokers helped to counter the effects global recession and smoking bans. Winston Churchill and Fidel Castro fed the mystique, but it is Chinese smokers who could ultimately save the Cuban cigar.Demand from China's expanding economic elite has sparked optimism in an industry that risked being extinguished by recession and anti-smoking laws around the world. Read More

---

Is Cuba ready for golf?

<p style="text-align: justify;">February 21, 2011. (CNN) --"Golf is becoming a reality in Cuba this year," Andrew MacDonald, chief executive of London-based Esencia Hotels and Resorts, told CNN."The key moment was a change in Cuban property law last August to make foreign ownership far more attractive."The Cuban government have a vision of establishing 15-16 new golf courses in the next five to seven years." Esencia is part of that vision. Its luxury Carbonera Country Club development in the beach resort of Varadero has been seven years in the making, and MacDonald hopes to start construction on the $300 million project in the next few months. Read More

---

Cuba's celebration of books draws millions

<p style="text-align: justify;">February 21, 2011, 12:26am. HAVANA (AP) – A river of people flows through the old colonial fortress, and the antics of clowns and music blasting from loudspeakers are interrupted only when an announcer summons the parents of a lost child. It's a festival all right, but a festival of books.The high walls of El Morro and La Cabana, which offer a spectacular view of Havana's bay, house a giant celebration that mingles literary chitchat with an exuberant popular fair where some 6 million visitors socialize, browse for sandwiches of sizzling pork and scramble for novels, essays and scientific tomes. Read More

---

21c Museum Presents Cuba Now, an Examination of Contemporary Cuban Art over the Last Two Decades

<p style="text-align: justify;">Louisville, KY (PRWEB) February 17, 2011. Exhibition features the work of artists living in Cuba, Cuban immigrants and first-generation Cuban Americans as well as never before exhibited works. 21c Museum will present, Cuba Now, an extensive exhibition of more than 80 works of contemporary Cuban art from the 21c collection, other institutions and private collections as well as several works loaned by the artists themselves. Read More

---

Vegetarians push soy, but Cubans prefer pork

<p style="text-align: justify;">Associated Press HAVANA (AP) — Juicy hamburgers and sandwiches stuffed thick with sausage aren't your typical vegetarian fare — but that's what is on the menu at El Carmelo, a state-run restaurant originally founded to promote healthy, meat-free eating."Meat-free" is not a phrase that goes over well in Cuba, an island where long-standing privations have forged a strong, emotional bond with food — especially cuisine.Facing the harsh reality of its tough customers, El Carmelo eventually replaced such vegetarian items as soy picadillo with greasy pork chops. Read More

---

Red tape sinks Sarasota-to-Cuba yacht regatta

<p style="text-align: justify;">Thursday, February 17, 2011. SARASOTA - The planners of the ambitious Sarasota to Havana Regatta have scrapped their plans to glide 150 boats to Cuba in May after once-optimistic talks with federal officials fell flat.Because the U.S. Treasury Department did not provide the Sarasota Yacht Club with the needed permits to travel to the embargoed nation by Tuesday's deadline, the sailors are scrambling to salvage the plans for a much smaller production. Read More

---

¡Sí Cuba!' festival set to bring two-month marathon of island arts and culture to New York

<p style="text-align: justify;">Sunday, February 13th 2011. The "¡Sí Cuba!" festival soon to arrive in New York is as unusual as it is exciting. Imagine, a two-month marathon of art and culture from the long-proscribed Communist island taking place here in our city. A rare treat, indeed."The festival will showcase the diversity of Cuban arts and culture from the traditional to the contemporary," say organizers of the event, which will kick off March 31 and run through June 16. Billed as "a New York celebration of Cuban arts and culture," ¡Sí Cuba! could never have happened under George W. Bush, but President Obama loosened some travel restrictions and restored much of the "person-to-person" policy of the Clinton era. Read More

---