After more than 50 years studying Cuba with meticulous detail, the dean of Cuban studies is retiring.
Carmelo Mesa-Lago, author of more than 30 books and founder of numerous research groups, said that at age 78, he no longer has the stamina to keep up his disciplined analysis of Cuba’s social economy.
Featured in Culture & Arts
Santiago de Cuba: One of island’s most crucial provinces
By Armando H. Portela
The province of Santiago de Cuba was created in 1976, when the government redrew all of Cuba’s internal boundaries, dividing the former province of Oriente into five new jurisdictions.
Located on the island’s southeastern end, Santiago de Cuba covers 6,227.8 sq km (2,404 sq miles), or nearly 5.7% of Cuba’s territory. But its cultural, historic, demographic and economic influence over the rest of the island is much greater than those numbers would suggest
Charity to restore Havana ballet school
By Vito Echevarria
On Sep. 19, a group of high-profile British and foreign donors staged a dinner and ballet performance at London’s Royal Opera House benefit Havana’s School of Ballet, designed by Italian architect Vittorio Garatti.
Unfinished Spaces’: From luxury golf course to art school
By Vito Echevarria
Film tells how a Cuban golf course became an art school
Cuba’s Science Ministry rolls out online geography journal
By Armando H. Portela
The journal, accessible for free at www.geotech.cu/revista/index.html, will focus on publicizing geographic research in Cuba, thereby opening up a space for discussion of fresh ideas on geography and development. Until now, much of this research has been kept quiet, precisely because of the lack of publishing outlets.
Ryerson students sharpen filmmaking techniques in Cuba
By Vito Echevarria
Toronto-based Ryerson University will hold a four-week course in Havana this summer on documentary filmmaking in Cuba. Up to eight Ryerson students will attend the course, which runs from June 18 to July 13, along with another eight British students from University College London.
Documentary explores daily life in historic Baracoa
By Doreen Hemlock
Five hundred years after Spanish explorers founded Baracoa as their first settlement in Cuba, some aspects of daily life remain unchanged: Women wash clothes in nearby rivers, and men transport goods on rafts made of narrow logs paddling near coconut palms and a table-topped mountain.
Pinar del Río, Cuba’s westernmost province, stands apart
By Armando H. Portela
With the Gulf of Mexico to its north and the Caribbean Sea to its south, Pinar del Río is the westernmost and the fourth-largest province in Cuba, covering 8,884 sq km (3,430 sq miles). That’s equivalent to 8.1% of Cuba’s total land area.
Filmmaker Almirante plans movie on Cuban dance scene
By Vito Echevarria
Cuban filmmaker Rolando Almirante recently visited Berlin to seek German financing for a dance-driven film titled “Daniel’s Saga” which is scheduled for production in Havana next year.
Lonely Isla de la Juventud: Cuba’s least crowded province
By Armando H. Portela
Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth) — known until 1978 as Isla de Pinos (Isle of Pines) — is the largest of all the islands and islets within Cuban territory. Sizewise, its 2,204 square kilometers (851 square miles) make it the sixth-largest island in the Caribbean, outranking all of the Lesser Antilles except for Trinidad. It is separated from the main island of Cuba by the shallow waters of the Gulf of Batabanó.
Jorge Duany named chief of FIU’s Cuban Research Institute
By Larry Luxner
Cuban-born Jorge Duany, who was raised in Puerto Rico and appears frequently in the pages of CubaNews, has joined Florida International University as the new director of FIU’s Cuban Research Institute.
ASCE’s new president: Ted Henken
By Doreen Hemlock
He’s the first president of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy who is neither Cuban-American nor an economist. How did sociologist and blogger Ted Henken pull that off?
Cholera outbreak fails to scare tourists away
By Vito Echevarria
Travel providers that handle U.S. and foreign tours to Cuba are furious over attempts by at least one Washington law-makerto use Cuba’s ongoing cholera epidemic as a tactic to keep tourists away.
From the Culture & Arts Archives
‘Chico and Rita’ not yet a box-office hit
Last February’s Academy Awards had a surprise nomination connected to Cuba: “Chico and Rita” competed for best animated feature film, losing to the Johnny Deppvoiced movie “Rango.”
Prieto quits as culture minister, becomes advisor to Raúl
Cuba announced Mar. 6 that Culture Minister Abel Prieto will be replaced by his first vice-minister, Rafael Bernal Alemany, who has worked with Prieto for the last 15 years. Prieto, meanwhile, will become an advisor to President Raúl Castro.
Argentine chef brings Cuban cuisine to 4 U.S. restaurants
Washington’s most popular Cuban restaurant is owned by two Jews from Philly and managed by an Israeli who’s never been to the island. Its chef is an Argentine whose sole connection to Cuba is his wife — a distant relative of the island’s third president.
Habanos Festival attracts cigar-smoking big shots to Cuba
ProCigar, a trade show held in Santiago de los Caballeros every February for Dominican producers of fine hand-rolled cigars, attracts fans worldwide.
