The Cuban cast of Chico and Rita, an animated feature-length film directed by Spanish director Fernando Trueba, celebrated with joy the Oscar nomination for this work, in which the filmmaker pays tribute to the music of the island.
The actress Blanca Rosa Blanco, who lent her voice to a character, she thanked the Director for paying homage to Cuban culture.
Blanco recalled those days when Trueba invited her to join the cast, which is also made up of other Cuban actors such as Limara Meneses, Eman Xor Ona, Mario Guerra and Reni Arozarena, among others.
More than 70 artists and musicians of various generations are involved in this film, among whom are Rolando Luna, Rodney Barreto, Carlos Sarduy and Dafnis Prieto, Horacio "el Negro Hernandez," Amadito Valdes, Idania Valdes and Pedrito Martinez, among others.
As Trueba said in December 2010, during its premiere at the film festival in Havana, Chico and Rita is a romantic story, a bolero.
Chico and Rita, which was also directed by Trueba's brother Tono Errando and designer and artist Javier Mariscal, had the support of the students of the International School of Film and Television of San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba.
Sexo, amor y Erotismo, palabras que provocan (Sex, love and eroticism, provocative words) is a book designed for teenagers and young adults, but that can also be useful to parents and teachers, said its author, the Cuban journalist Aloyma Ravelo. "Adolescence is a complex stage, well known throughout the world, for the teens, the family, and the experts on the subject, as it is a time of life filled with new experiences, when the body and the psyche suffer too many changes, and we have so much to learn," said Ravelo.The need for proximity of the opposite or the same sex is settled, and sometimes they do not know how to negotiate, what to do with the sudden discovery of love and eroticism, and how to turn them into something rewarding."I wrote this book to help with suggestions, ideas, clarification of these issues, in which many letters also appear and may serve to illustrate things," Ravelo said. The book, published by the women-oriented publishing house, will be launched at the 21st International Book Fair of Havana, to be held from February 9 to 19.
Aloyma Ravelo works in various print and digital publications, is a writer of radio and television programs and has written other popular books such as "Enigmas de la Sexualidad Femenina" (Enigmas of Female Sexuality), in two editions (2008 and 2010), "40 Preguntas sobre Sexo" (40 Questions about Sex), (2009), "Como Educar a los Hijos sin Equivocarse Tanto" (How to Educate Children without Making Too Much Mistakes) (2010), among others.
A new museum will be opened in the archaeological site called Los Buchillones, considered the largest in Cuba and the Caribbean islands, because of the number of wooden pieces found, among them nearly entire houses.
The unit was built close to the Center of Archaeological Investigations located in the same area where the discoveries were made, in the northern coast of the central province of Ciego de Avila.
In Los Buchillones were found more than 1,500 pieces, 1,000 wooden and the rest carved in bones, stone, ceramic and shells, belonging to a group that lived here between 1220 and 1620.
Adrian Garcia, director of the Office of Monuments and Historical Places in the territory, specified that the area, located in the town of Punta Alegre, was discovered in 1940, but it was not until the 1980s that the first scientific investigations were carried out.
Garcia added that the results of the studies indicated that the community settled in the place survived the impact of the conquest and colonization, a new finding for national history that has assumed the quick and almost total disappearance of the indigenous presence in Cuba.
Some of the discovered objects seem to have been made at a time when the natives were thought to have been extinguished already, and other objects present distinctive features of the Hispanic culture, according to the specialist.
The museum has a large exhibit room to preserve the archaeological heritage, because of the significance that the evidence has for local and national culture and its impact on the level of the population's knowledge, Garcia said.
"For the first time in Cuba, a great collection of original wooden objects and remains of houses contributing to the new knowledge of the Cuban native culture, is put to the disposition of investigators and the public in general," specified Lisandra Martinez, a specialist in Museology.
Los Buchillones was declared a National Monument because of its relevance for the cultural and historical patrimony of the island, and for preserving exceptional values highlighting it as the most important native area in the Caribbean islands.
Cuban filmmaker Ian Padron said it was an honor to receive the Glauber 
Rocha 2011 award, which carries the name, he said, of one of the filmmakers he admires the most.
Rocha was one of the most important Latin American filmmakers, and the father of the new Latin American cinema. "The award also has a special meaning for me. I was born the same day of the creator of Entranced Earth and God and the Devil in the Land of the Sun," said Padron.
The Cuban filmmaker received the award on Saturday, which is sponsored by Prensa Latina and granted by the foreign press accredited at the Havana festival, which distinguished his film Habanastation by consensus.
Speaking about the festival jury´s decision, famous movie critic and French writer living in Spain, Sergio Berrocal, highlighted how the filmmaker used autobiographical elements to make a story that goes beyond the peculiar, and could happen anywhere in the world.
Berrocal also highlighted the universal values in the film, such as generosity and solidarity, and the capacity to achieve a direct and deep link with the audience.
The Cuban film Habanastation won five collateral awards at the 33rd International Latin American Film Festival underway in the Cuban capital, including the coveted Glauber Rocha Prize granted by the foreign press accredited to the gathering.
The work by 35 year-old director Ian Padrón was awarded the Glauber Rocha, sponsored by Cuba's 
Latin American News Agency Prensa Latina since 1985 and granted by the media accredited to the festival. The prize honors renowned Brazilian filmmaker Glauber Rocha. The jury highlighted that, with few resources, the movie shows Cuba’s social reality from a human point of view, with optimism and hope.
The film also won the United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF Award, which the UN agency described as an ode to friendship and solidarity, as humanistic, objective and full of hope, which reveals the potentials of children and adolescents to influence on the attitudes of adults to change the world. The Cuban Journalists Union UPEC film critics club also granted its prize to Habanastation in virtue of the narrative displayed in the work in defense of universal values.
More than one million movie goers have already seen the film, which has been a hit in Cuban movie theaters this year. The work won the best feature film award at the Traverse City Festival in Michigan, the United States, organized by US filmmaker Michael Moore.
Shot in a west Havana shanty town, the children’s film deals with the inequalities prevailing in Cuba through the friendly relationship between two boys of different 
social backgrounds, highlighted the validity of human values over money and material things. Along with the film A ticket to Paradise. Padrón’s movie has also been chosen to represent Cuba at the competition for the 2012 Oscar Awards nominations in the category of best foreign film. (Thanks to D. Donestevez)
Cuban solo artists and groups will give homage to deceased Cuban songwriter 
and singer Polo Montañez on November 19 with a great concert, nine years after the death of the great Cuban artist. During the activity in a theatre in Havana, songs of his first CD called "Guajiro Natural" and others written by Polo Montañez will be performed, said Amauri Romero, nephew of Polo, a man who conquered hearts in stages in America and Europe. Romero said that just like years before, friends, admirers, fans of Polo Montañez will take sones, guarachas, bachatas and other things up to the stage. 
The winner of a Golden Disc and a Platinum Disc ‘cause of his first CD, Polo died ‘cause ‘f a traffic accident in November 2002. He was the author of nearly 100 musical pieces, and some of his compositions were not recorded or performed by his own voice. Polo was known as "Guajiro Natural" and is still very beloved in Cuba, Colombia and other countries where he became an idol. "The concert will be a very nice way to remember him," said Romero, who also assured the band preserves Polo´s legacy. There are unpublished texts, still preserved in their original writings or printed in a songbook, now included in the group´s first individual CD, without the voice of Polo. 
The name chosen for the CD was Question de suerte (A Question of Luck) since uncertainty was affecting the members of the band. "In that CD, we included songs like "Con Ella no puedo estar" (I Can´t Be With Her) and "Historia Uno" (Story One), two songs written by Polo that he did not have the chance to perform himself. A second CD called "Un sueño y nada más" (A Dream and Nothing Else than That) let the group perform another good song by Polo, called "La sombra loca" (The Crazy Shadow) which was later popularized by Puerto Rican singer Gilberto Santa Rosa. Romero concluded saying "We want to keep Polo´s exclusive way to sing and recreate national musical rhythms, and that every melody, contains a message of love and peace.
The Cuban cast of Chico and Rita, an animated feature-length film directed by Spanish director Fernando Trueba, celebrated with joy the Oscar nomination for this work, in which the filmmaker pays tribute to the music of the island.
The actress Blanca Rosa Blanco, who lent her voice to a character, she thanked the Director for paying homage to Cuban culture.
Blanco recalled those days when Trueba invited her to join the cast, which is also made up of other Cuban actors such as Limara Meneses, Eman Xor Ona, Mario Guerra and Reni Arozarena, among others.
More than 70 artists and musicians of various generations are involved in this film, among whom are Rolando Luna, Rodney Barreto, Carlos Sarduy and Dafnis Prieto, Horacio "el Negro Hernandez," Amadito Valdes, Idania Valdes and Pedrito Martinez, among others.
Chico and Rita, which was also directed by Trueba's brother Tono Errando and designer and artist Javier Mariscal, had the support of the students of the International School of Film and Television of San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba.
