In such a masterful way towards his entry into the dramaturgy of our country, a voice with an artistic scope similar to that of a contemporary Lope de Vega, due to his eminently popular character and his extensive literary production to help us clarify, from the scene, in depth, the passions, crossroads and dreams of a large significant portion of our society.

But not satisfied with this, his career also, time and time again, touched the audience’s Diana with shows under his leadership such as “Odebí el Cazador”, where the magic of our cultural syncretism reached a dazzling expressive height that won us all. spectators and the collective of the National Folkloric Ensemble of Cuba and the author himself.

But it was not enough and with an unusual vigor and a protean and desecrated vision of our contemporary reality he masterfully played in the Diana, with critical success on our daily life at that time in “Calixta Comité”. The most honest, brilliant and controversial text that has risen to the stage in our theatrical panorama, in a long time.

No to the saga he knew how to delight us with texts like “My partner Manolo”, “Emelina Cundiamor”, “High risk”, “Lagarto Pisabonito”, “El Venerable”, “La Raft”, “Eclíptica, what’s wrong with that woman ” and “Aedes aegypti”. And with the expression of some of his texts and film scripts, which clearly speak of the transcendence of this predestined man who will continue to be for us our Big Brother, Papi, better known as Eugenio Hernández Espinosa.

The actress Penélope Cruz received this Saturday the National Cinematography Award from the Spanish Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta. She was very moved, she dedicated the award to her family and announced that she will allocate the award for social purposes.

“The adventure of this long journey to Ithaca is proving to be much more exciting than I ever could have dreamed of from the living room of my parents’ house,” she said.

The jury of the prize, endowed with 30,000 euros, unanimously awarded the award to the actress, born in Alcobendas (Madrid), “for the successes achieved in 2021, which join all those collected in an exceptional career”.

According to Cruz, the amount of the prize will be allocated, divided into three parts, to the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages, to the Cris unit against cancer of advanced therapies of the Hospital la Paz in Madrid, and to the assistance fund created by Pilar Bardem in Aisge to give shelter to film professionals who “are having difficulties.”

The event, held in Tabakalera within the framework of the 70th San Sebastian Film Festival, was attended by institutional representatives such as the Vice President of the Government, Nadia Calviño, the Government delegate in the Basque Country, Denis Itxaso, as well as municipal representatives, among others, and the world of cinema. Her sister, Mónica Cruz, and the mother of the Madrid interpreter have also accompanied her at the ceremony.

The actress Goya Toledo and the actor Luis Tosar, friends of Penélope Cruz, were in charge of introducing the Award with speeches in which they praised the “human category” of the actress.

For his part, Miquel Iceta addressed words of congratulations to the award-winning artist, stating that “giving her this award in San Sebastian, in the largest of Spanish festivals, is also a recognition of her international projection, her role as ambassador, a thank you to the way in which Spanish culture travels with it, with its richness and diversity, its professionals and creatives”.

Penélope Cruz expressed that it is “an honor to receive the National Film Award because cinema “has been and is my passion since I was a child” when “I dreamed from my parents’ living room of worlds to explore beyond my neighborhood.”

In this way, he thanked his parents for having the “immense generosity of supporting me on a path that a priori was so alien to them”, and his “teachers” in interpretation Cristina Rota and Juan Carlos Coraza, who put him “on the path of the constant search for truth and authenticity at work”. “Although it is not always achieved, the most important thing for me as an actress is to continue searching for that truth from curiosity and from humility,” she assured.

In his cinematographic career, he wanted to make special mentions of Bigas Luna and Fernando Trueba who “opened the doors of a world for me that thanks to them I continue to travel today” and Pedro Almodóvar, “the director with whom I have worked the most times, I hope that many more and one of the people who has best narrated our country, an essential figure to understand cinema in general”.

“I owe Pedro a lot not only for the work we have done together, but also because he takes you to such a demanding level that in that search I have always ended up discovering something new about myself,” she asserted.

Finally, she dedicated the award to her husband Javier Bardem and her family, and especially to her son and her daughter, who “are the most wonderful thing in this world.”

(With information from Europe Press)

He began his narrative work with En las oscuras manos del olvido (1942), when he was already a member of the famous staff at the magazine Orígenes, led by its most outstanding figure, José Lezama Lima, who saluted the book for its pristine, orderly prose, of real beauty, typical of the man who would offer, only a few years later in his biological youth, an essential work of Cuban poetry: En la Calzada de Jesús del Monte (1949), which continues to delight and teach. It is a pleasure to begin with the syllables of the first verse: “On the rather enormous road of Jesus del Monte ….” As if we are being introduced to a fairy tale, to continue: “Where too much light forms other walls with the dust, tires my principal habit of remembering a name…” This book became legendary. One of the streets of Havana, today called 10 de Octubre, earned the privilege of an ode, an anthem to its populous existence.

Eliseo never stopped writing excellent prose, full of surprises in every exact brushstroke, like his poetry. Divertimentos (1946) was his second book of short stories, as were Versiones (poetic prose) (1970) and Noticias de la Quimera) (1975), to once again seduce us with his expressive grace. But poetry was his most royal preserve, with unique resonances. A poet of detail, his work is naming things according to their intimacies, with the meticulous intention of bringing things to life in his verses. Eliseo Diego is the greatest minimalist poet in Cuba, capable of stopping at the minimum to appreciate the immensity of the universe.

The sequence of his books of poetry show implicit poetics that take into account levity, life and death, the urban landscape, the deep sense of Cuban identity, the homeland, love, family and faith. They are: Por los extraños pueblos (1958), El oscuro esplendor (1966), Muestrario del mundo o Libro de las maravillas de Boloña (1967), Los días de tu vida (1977), A través de mi espejo (1981), Inventario de asombros (1982), Cuatro de Oros (1990). He published all of these works during his lifetime, along with his volume of essays Libro de quizás y de quién sabe (1989). Appearing after his death in 1994, under the loving care of his daughter Josefina de Diego, were En otro reino frágil (1999), Aquí he vivido (2000) and Poemas al margen (2000), among others.

Cuatro de oros seems to play with a deck of cards, or perhaps evoke his wife and three children: this is Eliseo’s poetry, subtle, with double readings suggested amid games of images. His work never becomes inaccessible, and, as he often referred to reminiscences of his childhood, it was not unusual for him to publish Soñar despierto (1988), illustrated by his son Rapi Diego, in which he reminds us, among other poems for children, of the playful experiences of happy years: “You alone and the wind of strange whistles, such are the games of hide-and-seek.” Eliseo knew how to show us the transcendent value of what seems ephemeral and the human need for poetry.

As a poet from Orígenes, he shared with his fellow writers there many points of poetic perception, such as viewing the countryside from historical and urban points of view, the static nature of parks and small towns, the idea of a Cuban tradition that starts with household customs, meals, family conversations, childish whispers, rooms. It is an intimacy that emerges from this domestic setting to define the life of a community through what we call “lo cubano”. There is his closeness to the master José Lezama Lima, not in the extravagance of baroque language, but in the essence of capturing the peculiarity of being Cuban, the popular vision of Fina García Marruz, or the parks of Cleva Solís. He shares the subtle view of a Cintio Vitier and the cultured reach of a Gaston Baquero, but also the splendor of the insular nature, so evident in Samuel Feijóo’s work.

Eliseo Diego, alive is in his work, is not a solitary poet. He participates in an ensemble, a generational one that observed objective reality and from it extracted subjectivity in pristine poetry, delicate and at the same time resistant: resistance to time, that which in his poem Testamento he left us as an inheritance: “I leave you time, all time.” If I were to recommend to readers a brief selection of his poems, among them would be: El primer discurso, Voy a nombrar las cosas, Lamentaciones, En el pueblo perdido, Con un gesto, Entre las aguas, La noche, Oro, Oda a la joven luz, Cristóbal Colón inventa el Nuevo Mundo, Pequeña historia de Cuba, titles from the best Cuban poetry of all time.

Eliseo Diego was a great connoisseur of English-language literary works, from which he translated several texts, especially poetry, but he was also attentive to literature for children. After the triumph of the Revolution, he worked continuously on various tasks of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, as one of its founders. In 1986 he received the National Prize for Literature and in 1993 the Juan Rulfo International Prize for Latin American and Caribbean Literature. He won many other awards and published his Prosas escogidas in 1983.

The great poet has now reached his centenary. As a matter of honor, Cuba cannot let the date pass without the necessary tribute to someone who honors us with the quality of his work, for someone who with his keen eye told us: “Light, in my country resists memory, as gold resists the sweat of greed, endures within itself, ignores us, in its indifferent being, its transparency.”

(Source: Granma)

It is therefore the researcher’s job to revive this legacy and organize it in such a way as to help one understand the scope of a figure, and the historic moment they were destined to live.

This is precisely what researcher and essayist Abel González Santamaría has done in his book Raúl Castro y Nuestra América. 86 discursos, intervenciones y declaraciones (Raúl Castro and Our America. 86 speeches, remarks and statements) which was presented in the Nicolás Guillén at Havana’s Cabaña Fortress on February 7, as part of activities during the latest edition of Cuba’s International Book Fair.

González Santamaría’s new book is more than a simple historical account, instead offering us Raúl the statesman, whose work – defined by over half a century of revolutionary efforts – stands firm.

With Raúl Castro y Nuestra América the Cuban researcher leaves a tool for present and future generations to continue the journey initiated over 200 years ago toward achieving the unity and integration of Our America.

The book, Fidel Castro y los Estados Unidos: 90 discursos, intervenciones y reflexiones(Fidel Castro and the United States: 90 speeches, remarks and reflections) was presented during the last Havana International Book Fair; while a similar compilation dedicated to Army General Raúl Castro is also being presented this year by Capitán San Luis publishers. What’s the link between the two works?
Both books share a dialectical link, because their authors, Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz and Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, are two men who share the same ideas and attitude when it comes to revolutionary theory and practice. The book Raúl Castro y Nuestra América: 86 discursos, intervenciones y declaraciones is like a second edition of Fidel Castro y los Estados Unidos: 90 discursos, intervenciones y reflexiones.

Can you describe the legacy of both leaders in regards to Latin American integration?

For over half a century of intense struggle they have shown that it was possible to integrate all the countries of our Great Homeland into one organization dedicated solely to “Our America” and without the presence of nations from outside the region. Fidel and Raúl, together with other revolutionary and progressive leaders from the continent, made a decisive contribution to the creation of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

Don’t forget that in order to do so they (regional leaders) were first obliged to unite to defeat the “Free Trade Area of the Americas” (FTAA) agreement, an imperialist initiative by the United States’ which it attempted to implement in the region in the early 21st century. This victory was decisive toward advancing integration efforts.

How important is Cuba’s role as a key promoter of ‘unity within diversity’ to progress made in regional integration efforts?

Cuba’s continuous efforts to promote unity among nations of the region for over 60 years, and its respect for the political, economic, social and cultural system of each and every country, is recognized within the region. As a nation committed to its principles Cuba was selected to host the Second CELAC Summit in 2014, during which the 33 member-states declared “Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.” This was a transcendental and historic event, and is the most important tool for nations in their struggle against constant acts of aggression and threats to peace, in a world in which the drums of war are sounding.

What role has Raúl’s thought – as presented in the book – played in these processes?

The text includes excerpts of his revolutionary work, from interviews with the press he offered in 1959 during the Meeting of Ministers of the Organization of American States (OAS), in Santiago de Chile, to his 2017 speech at the Fifth CELAC Summit in the Dominican Republic.
The Army General stands out as a statesman with an acute understanding of the social problems affecting our people; he is a tireless promoter of integrationist processes and a staunch anti-imperialist. His revolutionary thought will transcend this era and is a necessary tool to guide youth in these times.

The Cuban Revolution has been a beacon for leftist movements not only within the region but across the entire world. How can the new generation of Cubans carry on the struggle for just causes at an international level?

The best way is to continuously fulfill the concept of Revolution every day. This is the task left to us by the Comandante en Jefe of the Cuban Revolution. Remain united and set aside everything that can divide us.
We must learn from our mistakes and failures so as to prevent being misled and divided by the oligarchs. We must remain positive and believe in the betterment of humankind.
I think it’s important that Cuba continues to offer its solidarity to Third World countries, and fulfill its commitment to cooperation based on sharing the modest resources we have and not what we have to spare. We must also preserve the achievements made to date and continue with our policies of development and social inclusion in order to achieve a fairer distribution of wealth and to reduce inequality.

Are gains made by the right wing over recent years only temporary or do they mark the end of an era in the region?
There’s a debate going on about if we are witnessing the “end of the progressive era” in Latin America and the Caribbean, following the “end of history” as proclaimed by the right wing in the early 1990s – a period marked by neoliberal domination.
I’m one of those who believe that the progressive era has not come to an end despite the right wing’s obvious advances in the region, which I believe are only temporary. They are trying to return to neoliberalism and demoralize political forces and parties, social movements, and the working class.
Political processes aren’t linear, they are constantly moving and changing; they are subject to advances, stagnation, and setbacks. What has changed in recent years is that Our America has gained a new consciousness.

What’s your opinion of the Trump administration’s policy toward the region?

There’s a marked intention to return to the failed policies of the past. The new U.S. government’s attitude toward the region closest to its territory is one of disdain and disregard. Once again it is treating us like its “back yard” and vulgar criminals. This is the reality despite the damage control they try to do during their visits to Latin America and the Caribbean; and it’s obvious why – the 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru, is approaching and they need to prepare the ground if they want to achieve their geopolitical interests.

The Trump administration is obsessed with Cuba and Venezuela. There isn’t a single document or speech in which, when referring to the region, they do not mercilessly attack both nations.
At the same time, they continue to adopt more and more measures within the framework of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade to achieve a “regime change.”

Do you believe that Donald Trump’s hateful discourse toward immigrants and lack of respect for the countries of Latin America could help to unite nations of the region?

It is definitely contributing to uniting the region. His attitudes have been widely rejected and have automatically become a key motive behind protests and efforts to unite. Trump is set on implementing an anti-immigrant policy and building a wall on the border with Mexico, who he blames for some of the serious social problems within the United States. However, the wall is in fact a symbolic expression of his xenophobic and hard-line nationalist ideology toward countries south of the Río Bravo.

The history of Latin America has left us with many unresolved issues at a time when solutions are desperately needed. What answers can readers find in your two latest books?

Exploring the continued relevance of their (Fidel and Raúl’s) words was precisely one of my main aims with these two books. I must admit that the years I spent revising and analyzing all the texts for the two volumes (1,546 by Fidel and 1,468 by Raúl) have been the best lesson I have ever had. Their words are an endless source of knowledge on various political, economic, social, cultural, and scientific issues, which motivate you to constantly reflect, to better understand Cuban history and discover the depth of revolutionary thought.

I recommend reading the book’s prologue, which was lovingly written by my friend and teacher Eusebio Leal Spengler, a true gem of Latin American and Caribbean historiography, and to whom the 27th Cuba International Book Fair is dedicated. Leal Spengler is a man whose loyalty and contributions to Cuban culture have seen him win the love and admiration of our people.
I invite readers to continue investigating and debating the prolific works of Fidel and Raúl, two great men, renowned worldwide, who have elevated the thought of Marti’s idea of the Great Homeland to its highest expression, in the belief that “One just principle from the depths of a cave is more powerful than an army.”

(Granma)

There are even those who argue that shadow theatre is the precursor to cinema: the first method based on the reproduction of movements and actions on a screen; of course, using different techniques.

This summer (August 4-5) the Japanese shadow theatre company Kageboushi performed for the first time in Cuba – offering two free functions to the public – sponsored by the Japanese Embassy in Havana, Japanese Foundation and National Council of Performing Arts.

During a press conference, the event organizers highlighted that the performances are part of ongoing exchanges in various spheres between the two countries which share four centuries of friendship.

The Kageboushi Company, founded 37 years ago and the largest of its kind in Japan, has presented a score of works in more than 70 cities across 24 countries, while their current tour has taken them to another seven in Central America and the Caribbean, with this stop in Havana.

In the National Theatre’s Covarrubias Hall, too small to accommodate the vast interest of Havana’s theatre loving public, Kageboushi put on an innovative show, with scenes created using a combination of silhouettes, puppets, dolls, people, lights and shadows.

The three pieces chosen from its repertory are noteworthy given that they promote values such as gratitude, sacrifice, bravery and respect for one’s elders. The didactic quality of these universal themes is concealed within the magical and beautiful works, performed with admirable skill and technical ability. The pieces demonstrate that there is no competition with the latest generation technology if an ancient art form, such as shadow theater, is performed well.

This was evident in the three works enjoyed by spectators, many of whom sat in the isles, while others stood – to the envy of those unable to enter the hall.

Before the show, the company’s director Yasuaki Yamasaki, gave an explanation of the themes of the works, performed with the use of puppets and the actors’ own shadows.

The first piece, The grateful crane, is a Japanese tale dating back to the 18th or 19th century, about the feeling of gratitude produced by doing good deeds and the custom of returning a favor. A noteworthy feature of the performance was the subtle elegance of the puppets which took the form of a beautiful bird, gliding across the entire screen.

Next to come was The mochi tree, a story popular with all Japanese children, according to Yamasaki. It tells the tale of a fearful child who lives on a mountain and in order to save his grandfather’s life, faces his fears to leave in the middle of a cold snowy night, to go and find a doctor.

The superb synchronization of light and sound in both The grateful crane and The mochi tree, astound and delight. In the third piece, Raise your hand if you want to have fun! The performers use their entire bodies to create figures or images, such as ostriches, elephants, monkeys, giraffes, an octopus, squid, crabs, even volcanoes, trees, the famous ninjas, and a ballerina, who with graceful fluid movements set to the music of Camille Saint-Sans (which would later inspire Michel Fokine’s choreography TheDying Swan for Anna Pavlova), transforms into a swan.

At the end of the one and a half hour show, the performers invited a few children to join them on stage to create shadows using their own bodies.

The cast of Kageboushi was composed of 11 artists, including two musicians, whose dynamic performances enchanted the audience with this genre of theatre.

Given the resounding success of the show, it would be a shame if these two original and extraordinary performances by the Kageboushi human shadow theatre company were the only ones to be held this summer.

(Diario Granma)

This experimental exercise is called Makuri Hirogeru (Expand, Extend, Stretch) and consists of combining Awazu’s works with the personal creations by the rest of his group.

The idea is to eliminate the limits in the field of representation, as well as classes, classifications and disparities in arts, in addition of overcoming cultural, economic and ethnic barriers.

The group is made up of guitarist Shin Sasakubo, Daisuke Auki and Tomoyuki Washio, who brought posters, impressions, images and music. They will visit the Cuban University of Arts.

(Prensa Latina)