Culture in Pictures: Cuba
This thread is designed to share the history and culture of Spanish-speaking countries through picture.
Each person that contributes should include a description of the picture included. Every few days I will post a new thread with a new country as the theme.
Today we will learn about Cuba.
Please remember to only include pictures that portray what is indigenous to Cuba, as each country will get it's turn! Remember to vote for your favorites...it will encourage your fellow SpanishDictians to contribute!
So here is my contribution for Cuba:
With Fidel Castro’s recent resignation announcement, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts ¡Cuba! Art and History from 1868 to Today couldn’t come at a more interesting time. The United States imposed embargo on Cuba in 1963 cut off US-Cuba political relations and strained even the ones on a more personal level. Canada has been more accepting to the Caribbean nation, and it seems that the Museum’s exhibition has managed to do with art what has been impossible in politics: bring the United States and Cuba together.
The exhibition showcases the artwork of Cuba by displaying some 400 pieces, both from Cuba and the United States. An effort is made to present not only the artistic side of the island, but also the historical and political one. Through photographs, documents, music and film excerpts we see an island nation that has experienced some of the most crucial turning points in the 20th century, from decolonization to the Cold War.
The exhibition is presented in five sections: Depicting Cuba: Finding Ways to Express a Nation (1868-1927); Arte Nuevo: The Avant-garde and the Re-creation of Identity (1927-1938); Cubanness: Affirming a Cuban Style (1938-1959); Within the Revolution, Everything, Against the Revolution, Nothing (1959-1979); The Revolution and Me: The Individual Within History (1980-2007).
Canada provides a neutral place for two sides of a politically charged relationship to come together. This collaboration between the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, the Fototeca de Cuba, the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum and many private collections features the work of over 100 artists. Beyond impressive artwork, this exhibition is a reminder that art can be an important space in which we can freely exchange ideas and sentiments.
The work behind the exhibit is equally interesting, and at the Museum’s website you can read an interview with chief curator Nathalie Bondile on how the show came about. The exhibition runs through June 8, 2008.
16 Answers
Castillo de la Real Fuerza de La Habana
El Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro, construido en 1589 en La Havana.
Gran Teatro de La Habana
Fortaleza de San Carlos de La Cabaña en La Havana
Museo de la Revolución
Cuban music!
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"La niña con la muñeca de palo", my favourite photo of a Cuban artist, Alberto Corda (September 14, 1928 in Havana, Cuba – May 25, 2001 in Paris, France). He was Castro's personal photographer and also the author of the famous Che Guevara's portrait entitled "Guerrillero Heroico"(see below).
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Porque del embargo, Cuba no ha tenido muchos coches modernos desde 1962:
A Cuban Food Recipe Red beans with Pork (or Beef)
Cook time: 2 hours Level: Easy Serving:6
½ kilogram red beans 4 cups water ¼ teaspoons ground cumin ¼ kilogram boneless pork 2 cloves of garlic 1/4 cup orange juice 1 ½ teaspoons salt ¼ teaspoons ground pepper ¼ teaspoon ground oregano 1/2 cup oil 1 large onion, chopped 1 cup tomato sauce 1 cup sweet red peppers ¼ cup dry wine
Direction:
Soak the beans in the 4 cups of water for about 3 hours (or overnight).
Chop the pork into pieces of 6 cm.
Crush the cloves of garlic with the salt, the oregano, the pepper, and the cumin; add the orange juice and coat the pork with this marinade.
After 3 hours, when beans are plump, drain and cook them in new water (3 cups) for about 45 minutes (or 20 minutes if you are using a pressure cooker).
Cook the pork with the marinade until dry.
Heat the oil and cook the onion, add the pepper; and cook for a few minutes; add the tomato sauce, the ground sweet red peppers and the dry wine.
Combine the beans, the pork and the sauce; cook over low heat covered, for about 35 minutes.
Serve this dish with white rice and accompanied by fried banana.
I really hate to be a picture hog here 
, but I just wanted to show the proximity of Cuba to the United States. From Key West, Florida to Cuba is a mere 90 miles. They are our very close neighbors. It is so sad to be shut off from this island nation.
For those unfamiliar to the area, the tip of Florida lies between the words "The" and "Caribbean" on the map below.
Pre-Castro, Cuba was a playground and vacation hot spot, especially for Americans.
Ernesto Lecuona was a Cuban composer and some of his compositions became quite well-known - Malagueña, Siboney, Andaluza, Siempre en mi Corazon. The one I like most is Noche Azul, which to me is music for the soul. The link below features Noche Azul, played by pianist Thomas Tirino, with pictures of Cuba.
The habanero pepper ... from "Habana" the capital of Cuba!
Roel Caboverde Yacer: Cuban artist.
Roel Caboverde Yacer, a native of Baracoa, Cuba, lived in this seaside town until he was eight. Then his family moved inland to seek work. Baracoa, and the subsequent places that he lived, impressed Caboverde and influenced his art as have his experiences as a cane cutter and a fisherman. Caboverde’s powerful paintings unequivocally portray moments in the life of the working man. His themes reflect the traditional Cuban occupations of fisherman, farmer and cane cutter, both at work and at leisure. His paintings depict not only the hard work in the cane fields, coffee plantations and fishing boats but also the leisure time activities of music, dice games and romance. Caboverde tells us that he is a man in love with life and with women.
His exuberance is reflected in his strong palette and his expressionistic figures with their drawn-out faces and exaggerated hands and feet. The strong colors add emotion and the Cubistic multiple viewpoints can be seen in his renderings of faces. Frequently, the subject’s head and hands will be the focal points and will be distorted and exaggerated, giving emotional power and presence to the work. The campesinos Caboverde portrays are strong men and women with square shoulders and powerful bodies. Their protuberant eyes and down-turned mouths evoke the daily hardship of their lives even when they are at play. Caboverde is influenced by the Ecuadorian painter Oswaldo Guayasamín. He says,” Guayasamín! Every time I see one of his pieces, I feel something incredible and I keep in memory the incredible things that he did. Those hands and feet! Of course, I try to reflect that in my own way and in every painting, I accentuate the hands and feet. For me, the hands are the symbol of Cuban identity because they have given us our freedom. If you can’t accomplish anything with your hands or through your work and your own efforts, then you’re nobody. You haven’t proved anything. Hands are fundamental to the body’s beauty.” Caboverde not only paints the common worker, the fisherman and the cane cutter, he also paints the love of a woman, a love that goes beyond any figure or geometry. He paints about romance and the enchantment that a woman provides which he feels gives him strength to live. Caboverde has three sons and a daughter who are the lights of his life. He says that his family is the most beautiful thing that he has and that without love he cannot paint. “The painter who does not have a muse can’t think of himself as a painter. These are my follies as a painter; I paint about my own life.” As with many of the Oriente artists, sugar cane plays a powerful role in Caboverde’s art. He says, “When I was fourteen, I was already cutting cane. I had to work eight to ten hours a day. Right there I learned what a cane field was all about and I learned the strength you need to get the juice out of sugarcane. There is not only beauty but also great effort in the cane cutter’s work. You have to be strong to keep going alongside the other cane cutters, striving to cut more than the other teams, even if it’s only by one pile of sugarcane. I cut cane and it made me happy because I worked for my country and my people, but when I paint the cane, I transform it; I paint it blue, red and in a thousand different ways. I paint the men in the cane fields as happy and sweaty, and I paint women and love in the cane field rows. The cane field is a world within itself; sugarcane has a beautiful poetry all its own. Anyone who hasn’t been there, who hasn’t cut cane, can’t possibly know what it’s like. This is what I try to show in my works.” Currently Caboverde, a graduate of Guantánamo’s School of Fine Art, lives in Baracoa and teaches art at the Municipal Cultural Center.
Cuban cigars are rolled from tobacco leaves found throughout the country of Cuba. The filler, binder, and wrapper may come from different portions of the island. All cigar production in Cuba is controlled by the Cuban government, and each brand may be rolled in several different factories in Cuba. Cuban cigar rollers or "torcedores" are claimed by cigar experts to be the most skilled rollers in the world. Torcedores are highly respected in Cuban society and culture and travel worldwide displaying their art of hand rolling cigars.
And speaking of cuban music - my favourite Chan Chan and Candela, Buena Vista Social Club
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Children making music on a back street.
Tropicana Cabaret is hugely popular in Havana, and it's a true taste of Havana nightlife. Cabaret show offers an unrivalled spectacle of lights, costumes and entertainment. Nightly presentations are held on an open air amphitheater, where hundreds of dancers perform exotic dance routines, other well know cabaret "Parisien" is situated in Hotel National.
nice thread
What an interesting thread, A shame some of the photos have gone :(
