• Submitted by: admin
• Arts and Culture
• Caribbean
• culture an traditions
• Destinations
• history
• national
• Pinar del Río
• Business and Economy
• 02 / 25 / 2009

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Entitled ‘Excursión a Vueltabajo’ (´Tour to Vueltabajo´) (slated for June) the colonial-styled festivals will again reappear, marked by Chinese, African and Spanish influences.

Named after the famous 19th century Cuban literary gem, the festival will celebrate all the different ethnic groups and nationalities that characterize this particular Cuban region and its traditional crops: sugar cane and tobacco.

The city’s José Martí Avenue will serve as the main venue of music, dance, stage presentations, fine arts exhibits and other artistic expressions, reports the weekly Guerrillero.

The program also includes colloquiums on local history from the time of the city’s founding to the present, along with literary gatherings centering on the latest works by local writers in Pinar del Río.

In its debut, the festival will be dedicated to tobacco grower Alejandro Robaina, considered an ambassador of Habano cigars with over a seventy-year long experience as a farm worker.

Robaina, who is about to turn 90, is the key figure at the Cuchillas de Barbacoa farm, which was built by his ancestors from the Canary Islands one hundred years ago in the municipality of San Luis.

Sponsored by a number of local institutions, ´Excursión a Vueltabajo’ is inspired by the famous text, a two-part travel narrative with the same name by renowned Cuban writer Cirilo Villaverde. It will offer local residents and visitors from other Cuban regions and abroad alike an inside look at life in Pinar del Río, sprinkled with features of the modern age and cross-cultural influences.

(Cubarte)