José Martí Revolution Square is becoming 50 years old

<p style="text-align: justify;">By: Angel Rodríguez. 07/26/2011. The idea of building a square to pay tribute to our national hero, Jose Marti, goes back to 1935. However, it was only in the beginning of the 40’s that people started to work in its conception and was defined where would it placed: the Catalanes Hill.The project was taken to competition and was won by the sculptor Juan Jose Sucre and the architect Aquiles Maza, who had finished in the third place. The government of Fulgencio Batista ordered the public employees to give to working days and was held a postage stamp emission with obliged contribution, with which were collected millions of pesos, a good part of them, however, were misappropriate. Read More

---

Cuba cigar factory 'readers' keep oral tradition smoking

<p style="text-align: justify;">AFP. Tue Jul 26 2011. Cuba: Perched on a wooden dais in front of 600 workers rolling Cuba's legendary cigars, Grisel reads aloud -- poems, novels and even sex tips from the newspaper -- keeping workers entertained, their attention rapt, just the way it has been done for 150 years.Grisel, 55, a petite former teacher who wears reading glasses she adjusts frequently, may have a job that predates electricity.But nobody in Cuba seems to have any interest in replacing her with a transistor radio or TV. Read More

---

Cuba remembers start of revolution amid economic changes

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Shasta Darlington, CNN. July 26, 2011 -- Updated 1610 GMT (0010 HKT) Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- Cuba marked the 58th anniversary of the start of Fidel Castro's revolution Tuesday, without a speech from his younger brother, current President Raul Castro. Instead, Cuba's vice president took the podium to talk about economic challenges ahead but did not reveal any new details about reforms under way to allow more private enterprises and shrink the role of the state. Read More

---