The festival celebrates the unity of the Caribbean peoples, their origins and history. By teleSUR — The Fire Festival is going on in Santiago de Cuba, considered “the most Caribbean city” in the island, aimed to celebrate the Caribbean people, its culture and history, and to exchange ideas and experiences. The festival is taking place between July 3 and 9 and it will include several musical and artistic events, ceremonies…
A school in Havana is offering students who pledge to practice in underserved areas a chance to pursue medicine without incurring catastrophic debt. NOTE: If it wasn’t for the close relationship that the Late Rev Lucius Walker had with Fidel Castro, it would have been very difficult for this program to come into existence. — SEA By Anakwa Dwamena, The New York Times — In the countryside of western Havana,…
HAVANA (Reuters) – A United Nations agency said on Tuesday an “unjust” U.S. financial and trade embargo on Cuba had cost the country’s economy $130 billion over nearly six decades, coming up with the same estimate as the island’s communist government. Although many U.S. allies join Washington in criticizing Cuba’s one-party system and repression of political opponents, the United States has lost nearly all international support for the embargo since…
Anti-fascist volunteer Canute Frankson explained his motivation in a letter home in 1937: “We will build us a new society—a society of peace and plenty. There will be no color line, no jim crow trains, no lynching. That is why, my dear, I’m here in Spain.” By Peter Carroll, BlackPast.org — Approximately 90 African Americans fought in Spain during the civil war that engulfed that nation between 1936 and 1939.…
By Nat Winthrop — As Cuban President Raúl Castro stepped down from office today, Cuba is expected to enter a period of dramatic change. Eager to witness the final days…
By Frances Robles and Azam Ahmeda — As the departing Cuban president, Raúl Castro, tells it, even too many of the radio and television newscasters in Cuba are white. It “was not easy” getting the few black broadcasters now on the air hired, Mr. Castro said in his retirement speech Thursday, a remarkable admission considering the state controls all the stations. So it was all the more extraordinary to see…
President Miguel Diaz-Canel said the new period would be characterized by “modernization of the economic and social model.” Cuba’s new president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, began his term on Thursday with a promise to defend the socialist revolution led by the Castro brothers since 1959, giving a sober speech that also emphasized the need to modernize the island’s economy. A stalwart of the ruling Communist Party, Diaz-Canel was sworn in to replace…
Cuban National Assembly elected Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez to succeed Raul Castro as country’s head of state. By teleSUR— The Cuban National Assembly elected Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez, a 57-year-old Cuban born two years after the island’s socialist revolution, as the country’s new head of the Council of State and therefore the president of the Caribbean country. During his speech after he was sworn-in, Diaz-Canel vowed to be faithful to the legacy of late Cuban President Fidel Castro and…
By Raul Castro — Hurricane Irma, with its destructive power, battered our island for 72 hours, beginning the morning of September 8 until this Sunday afternoon. With winds that surpassed 250 kilometers per hour on occasion, it crossed the north of the country from Baracoa – hit hard by another phenomenon of this type almost a year ago – to the outskirts of Cárdenas. However, given its immense size, practically no province was spared its effects.
By: Andrew King — After listening to President Donald Trump’s June speech on Cuba, in which he reversed all the steps that the Obama administration had made to improve relations, one might…
By Melanie Zanona HAVANA — All around Havana, local Cuban entrepreneurs refer to the day President Trump unveiled his new policy toward the country simply as “June 16.” It’s easy…