diff --git "a/Cuba/2017/news_2017_05.json" "b/Cuba/2017/news_2017_05.json" new file mode 100644--- /dev/null +++ "b/Cuba/2017/news_2017_05.json" @@ -0,0 +1,4608 @@ +{ + "title": "News for Cuba from 2017-05-01 to 2017-05-31", + "totalResults": 100, + "headlines": [ + "Explainer: Cuba-Russia Ties Get a Tune-Up - AS/COA", + "Cuba's Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade receives prestigious award - Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)", + "Representations of Black Women in Cuba - African American Intellectual History Society", + "Kayaking through Cuba - Southern Boating & Yachting", + "Latino doctor finds path to clinica via Cuba - El Tecolote", + "The Ultimate Guide to Drinking Your Way Through Cuba - Thrillist", + "Cuba, where LGBTQ means lesbians, gays, bi, trans, questioning: repression or openness? - Philadelphia Gay News", + "I went to Cuba, met gracious people and realized how pretentious we can be - Axios", + "Cuba 2017: Tales of a Musack Missionary - Relix", + "The Success of Literacy Education in Cuba - BORGEN Magazine", + "How Technology is Changing Cuba - National Geographic", + "This US Traveler\u2019s Glimpse of Cuba - Havana Times", + "Everything You Need to Know About Planning a Trip to Cuba - GQ", + "What Life Is Like for Jews in Cuba - Tikvah Ideas", + "1968: the liberation of Cuba as seen through the Luc\u00eda Triptych - Festival de Cannes", + "Margarita de Sa\u00e1 White, Cuban Ballerina and Beloved Ballet Teacher, Dies at 77 - Dance Magazine", + "In a first, Cuba loses patience with Trump\u2019s \u201cridiculous\u201d statements - EL PA\u00cdS English", + "Cuba unplugged: Just 90 miles from Florida, another world awaits - Steamboat Pilot", + "Cuban-Canadian Grammy winner Alex Cuba sparks the heart with his new, crazy good album - NBC News", + "Senior thesis deepens the understanding of an architectural icon in Cuba - Princeton University", + "Cuba: From Threat to Partner? - War on the Rocks", + "Communist-Ruled Cuba Hosts First Transgender Religious Ceremony - NBC News", + "Trump weighs shift on Cuba - The Hill", + "Frumpy Mom: We\u2019re back from Cuba, but not entirely - Orange County Register", + "This Day in History: Castro Bans Elections, Declares Cuba Socialist Country - VOA - Voice of America English News", + "Raul Castro's Daughter Says Would Not Want to Be Cuban President - VOA - Voice of America English News", + "Melissa Etheridge Plans a Cuban Trip With a Musical Theme (Published 2017) - The New York Times", + "Photos: When crabs cover Cuba, what to do in a pinch - PBS", + "Bay of Pigs: A Case Study in Strategic Leadership and Failed Assumptions - The Strategy Bridge", + "How African med students created a new genre of Cuban music - The Outline", + "You can buy a $10,000 watch in Havana? Cuba opens first luxury mall - NBC News", + "Postcard from Havana: A Lack of Childcare Leaves Cuban Women in Quandary - Council on Foreign Relations", + "Five Things to Know About the Cuba U-17 MNT - US Soccer", + "Cuba\u2019s New Luxury Hotels Look to Lure Waves of U.S. Tourists (Published 2017) - The New York Times", + "How Cuba's growing internet is fuelling new businesses - BBC", + "Corruption in Cuba: an External Curse or Inherent to the System? - Havana Times", + "Raul\u2019s Story and Prostitution in Cuba - Havana Times", + "Jazz and culture bring New Orleans and Cuba together - Cubadiplom\u00e1tica", + "The Ghost Towns Left Behind by Cuba\u2019s Shuttered Sugar Mills - Global Voices", + "Time to Lift the Embargo, Cuban Diplomat Tells Pardee Audience - Boston University", + "Eli\u00e1n, son of Cuba, among history\u2019s most famous 5-year-olds - People's World", + "Inside Cuba\u2019s secretive underground gamer network - Polygon.com", + "Travel to Cuba more than cigars, rum and beaches - Statesman Journal", + "Cuba Remembers Chris Cornell as a \u2018Rock Hero\u2019 After Historic 2005 Audioslave Concert in Havana - Billboard", + "Cuban Medical Diplomacy: A Developmental Paradox - coha.org", + "While tourists drink water out of a bottle, Cubans ration and boil a limited supply - Miami Herald", + "Cuba's first luxury hotel opens in Havana - dw.com", + "Mrs. Shirley Gooding And Family Note Regarding Harlem\u2019s Late Great Cuba Gooding Sr. - Harlem World Magazine", + "Rocker Tanya Returns to the Cuban Music Scene - Havana Times", + "Discovering A Secret Piece Of Myself In Cuba - Refinery29", + "Cuba Libre by the Bay - Boston Magazine", + "Ibeyi\u2019s Home - The Fader", + "Cuba\u2019s crazy used-car market - The Economist", + "The night in Havana I wasn\u2019t expecting: When I shook Fidel Castro\u2019s hand - The Palm Beach Post", + "Cuba\u2019s piracy-fueled love affair with gaming, pop culture - Polygon.com", + "Bunny Rabbits and Havana Rum - Roads & Kingdoms", + "Cuba\u2019s Proxy War in Venezuela - WSJ", + "On the hunt for Cuba\u2019s underground arcades - Polygon.com", + "Cuba Wins NCAA Singles Title, Cuba & de Quant Claim Doubles Crown - Middlebury College - Official Athletics Website", + "OPEN SKIES TO CUBA - Keys Weekly Newspapers", + "Cuban man carrying U.S. flag rewrote monotonous script of Havana\u2019s annual celebration - Miami Herald", + "What Could a Mysterious U.S. Spy Know About the JFK Assassination? - Politico", + "Norwegian Cruise Line Makes Inaugural Call in Cuba - TravelPulse", + "U.S. lawmakers reintroduce bill to end restrictions on Cuba travel - Reuters", + "Cuban lung cancer drug gives some U.S. patients hope - PBS", + "Empress of the Seas Expands Cuba Sailings for 2018-2019 Season - Travel Agent Central", + "Travel: The last days of Cuba - Gentleman's Journal", + "Cuba Surf Spots - Surfertoday", + "Ambassador of Cuba to the United States visits Tampa Bay Area - Cubadiplom\u00e1tica", + "Wendy Guerra Stays in Cuba and Writes Banned Novels - Havana Times", + "Havana Now Has A Luxury Mall. But Who Can Afford To Shop There? - KPBS", + "A Saudi Hand Guides Quiet Rise Of Islam In Cuba - Worldcrunch", + "Peek inside the cruise ship that just began weekly Cuba trips - USA Today", + "Brewers sign Cuban prospect Martinez Jr. - MLB.com", + "New luxury mall in socialist Cuba pits state consumerism against the poor - The Guardian", + "Collecting games in Cuba, when new releases cost a month's salary - Polygon.com", + "Royal Caribbean Pegs Empress Of The Seas For More Cuba Sailings - Travel Market Report", + "Major Lazer\u2019s Cuba Documentary Isn\u2019t Another \u201cGringo on Vacation\u201d Film - VICE", + "Photo London: Nicola Lo Calzo on the Afro-Cuban legacy - British Journal of Photography", + "Samsung Opens its First Store in Cuba - Havana Times", + "71 UNGA: Cuba at the Forum on Financing for Development under the auspices of ECOSOC. - Cubadiplom\u00e1tica", + "Talking about Santeria in Cuba - Havana Times", + "In New Orleans, a Festival Defies Trends and Welcomes Cuba (Published 2017) - The New York Times", + "Your Travel Guide to Old Havana, The Can't-Miss Neighborhood of Cuba's Capital - GQ", + "Cuba gets its first luxury mall - South China Morning Post", + "Jimmy's world shines light on Afro-Cuban culture of Matanzas - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette", + "On the Eve of Mother\u2019s Day in Cuba - Havana Times", + "Protests mark decade of LGBT activism in Cuba - dw.com", + "No more Cuban rafters, Coast Guard says - Miami Herald", + "5 things to love about Norwegian Cruise Line's new Cuba voyages - USA Today", + "Review: Eli\u00e1n - Slant Magazine", + "Cuba Imports First Russian Crude Since Collapse Of Soviet Union - Crude Oil Prices Today | OilPrice.com", + "Cuban Documentary \"Between Changes\" - Havana Times", + "The Graffiti Lover's Tour Of Havana: Cuba In A Day - Culture Trip", + "'Freak': Meet Cuba's Last Self-Infected HIV Punk Rebel - NDTV", + "Number of Illegal Cuban Immigrants Caught by Coast Guard Drops to Zero in April - WSJ", + "Nicolas Maduro Doesn't Really Control Venezuela - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace", + "Cuba U20 - Transfermarkt", + "Remembering JFK: The Cuban Missile Crisis - WBUR", + "Here\u2019s How U.S. Law Applies To Any Company Doing Business In Cuba - Caribbean Journal" + ], + "articles": [ + { + "title": "Explainer: Cuba-Russia Ties Get a Tune-Up - AS/COA", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Explainer: Cuba-Russia Ties Get a Tune-Up - AS/COA" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMidkFVX3lxTFBWWlJkSUtuNllTWjVlLTlSc0RwQVdzQjJoVGxfcUlIWlE0WDJxdVZCV1pQN3ZxZWdic2JWbHByblBuQ19SWjhkXzlGYldBU3JMbk5SLS1NWXgwcXI4RnBJOUdCNFZubGRIYlFvQ3JsM3loYWtNZHc?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.aaihs.org/representations-of-black-women-in-cuba/", + "id": "CBMidkFVX3lxTFBWWlJkSUtuNllTWjVlLTlSc0RwQVdzQjJoVGxfcUlIWlE0WDJxdVZCV1pQN3ZxZWdic2JWbHByblBuQ19SWjhkXzlGYldBU3JMbk5SLS1NWXgwcXI4RnBJOUdCNFZubGRIYlFvQ3JsM3loYWtNZHc", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Wed, 17 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 17, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 2, + 137, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Explainer: Cuba-Russia Ties Get a Tune-Up  AS/COA", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Explainer: Cuba-Russia Ties Get a Tune-Up  AS/COA" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.as-coa.org", + "title": "AS/COA" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 0, + "response": "Error: " + }, + { + "title": "Cuba's Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade receives prestigious award - 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El Tecolote\nauthor: El Tecolote Staff\nurl: https://eltecolote.org/content/en/latino-doctor-finds-path-to-clinica-via-cuba/\nhostname: eltecolote.org\ndescription: I met Abraham Vela playing soccer at San Francisco State University. He and I were on different paths that year. I was struggling to stay in college and\nsitename: El Tecolote\ndate: 2017-05-04\ncategories: ['Voices']\ntags: ['Abraham Vela', 'Centrospective', 'Clinica Mart\u00edn Bar\u00f3', 'Cuba', 'ELAM', 'guatemala', 'Guatemalan', 'Latin American School of Medicine', 'Nestor Castillo', 'people of the Mission', 'profile']\n---\nI met Abraham Vela playing soccer at San Francisco State University. He and I were on different paths that year. I was struggling to stay in college and he was struggling to enroll in biology courses to achieve his dream of becoming a doctor. It was the late \u201800\u2019s and there was something more frightening happening than the deep v-neck trend: The CSU system was going through major budget cuts.\n\nVela had wanted to be a doctor since he was a child. In the 1980s, his father, Abraham Vela Sr., received his papers and traveled back to Guatemala to visit his mother for her birthday. He hadn\u2019t seen her since migrating to the United States in the late \u201870s.\n\nThe day before his mother\u2019s birthday, a police officer in a drunken rage began randomly shooting people in a park in the town of Morazan. Vela\u2019s cousin was shot. There was no ambulance or nearby clinic, so Abraham\u2019s father offered his truck to transport people to the hospital. But he was also shot and stopped breathing on the way.\n\n\u201cI hear that story a lot,\u201d Vela said. \u201cEvery time I\u2019m with my uncles and when I go back to Guatemala, they always talk about it\u2014always. Even though I didn\u2019t realize until later, I think that\u2019s what marked me to become a doctor.\u201d\n\nCentral Americans are all too familiar with violence. The trauma it inflicts, paralyzing us, keeping us from fully realizing ourselves. On rare occasions, perhaps as we look back upon the random accidents of our lives, violence can serve as an antecedent, providing meaning to our current circumstance.\n\n\u201cThe reason why I wanted to be a doctor was to prevent things like that from happening,\u201d he said. \u201cLast time I was there [in Guatemala], still there was no clinic and this was 20 years after this had happened.\u201d\n\nBecause of its budget issues, SF State wasn\u2019t an option for Vela and in 2008 he was forced to rethink his career path. He would have to apply to \u201cpost-bac\u201d programs, meaning more money, more hurdles. (Latinos make up 38 percent of the population in California, yet are only 10.5 percent of the total of students who graduate from medical school.)\n\nThen Vela heard about the Latin American School of Medicine program (ELAM) in Cuba through his professor Felix Kury. This professor centroamericano is like a radical lefty fairy god-uncle, using his powers of mentorship to create a path towards critical consciousness. ELAM is an international program offered by the Cuban Government, where international students can become doctors, completely free. The only thing asked of students is that they make a commitment to serve their communities when they return to their home countries.\n\nWhen asked if his family had any reservations about him leaving to a socialist country, Vela said with a chuckle, \u201cA lot of people thought it was a militarized country with soldiers everywhere with tanks and stuff.\u201d After educating his family about the reality of Cuba, they supported his decision. In 2010 he left for Cuba, packing a few articles of clothing, a kettle, sunblock, a canteen, anti-diarrhea pills, and mosquito repellent.\n\n\u201cThe first week alone is the hardest,\u201d he said. \u201cYou arrive to this huge school\u2014international school. You have people of all different origins, languages, and religions, and a lot of people from these countries, you know how they feel about the U.S.\u201d As he said this, I imagined a scene from a movie: The bus pulls up to the front of the school. Students begin to gather, peering out of the windows of the buildings. Vela and the other American students step off the bus and you can hear the murmurs. Then someone yells \u201cYankee!\u201d\n\nHe admitted it was a little intimidating, but also that \u201cit was completely different, they\u2019re all friendly, most of them. And you get to express that you are from North America but that you don\u2019t represent the government, and they all understand that, especially the Cubans.\u201d\n\nI wondered what he missed most. I thought about what I would miss\u2014Internet and burritos. His response made me feel terrible. Contact with family was limited to a few minutes on the phone, which was shared between 14 people. They kept schedules designating their day and time\u2014Vela\u2019s night was Thursday. \u201cThose calls were very valuable for everybody,\u201d he said.\n\nVela returned home six months ago after completing the six-year program. \u201cThis reality is a different one than we had in Cuba,\u201d he said. \u201cDealing with the medical system here\u2014it destroys your dreams, it crumples it up and makes you feel like you can\u2019t accomplish anything.\u201d\n\nAlthough recognized globally as a doctor, in the United States he has to pass three board exams to practice. While he prepares for the third exam, he volunteers at Cl\u00ednica Mart\u00edn-Bar\u00f3, a free clinic that serves the Latino community of the Mission District. He has had opportunities to go elsewhere, he insists that his mission is the same. \u201cHealth is a right,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t know why we [the United States] can\u2019t accomplish that. [Health] and Education.\u201d\n\nHealth as a right may not be so far from reach, even as the Republicans attempt to repeal Obama Care. If passed, the proposed Healthy California Act (SB 562), would guarantee healthcare for all Californians, something Cubans have had since the revolution.\n\nVela straddles multiple worlds\u2014the Bay Area, Guatemala, Cuba, but his eyes look forward. Alongside his ELAM classmates, he hopes to establish a network of clinics to serve migrants as they migrate north. I get the sense that he will accomplish this and hopefully his story will inspire other centroamericanos, highlighting our ongoing legacy." + }, + { + "title": "Cuba, where LGBTQ means lesbians, gays, bi, trans, questioning: repression or openness? - Philadelphia Gay News", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba, where LGBTQ means lesbians, gays, bi, trans, questioning: repression or openness? - Philadelphia Gay News" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMirgFBVV95cUxQdmZvWXFIeVF2MjVkb0pWVDE2VDljWUMyZy1UYTJnSHZ5TzgzeXBqTkZtOFhESUtyR0ZzWDJtLTk5X3NWOW9aVDVleEx4d0MzNGoxYWR5NDBEZmdTMlQtUHZNTmpJdTlBUVdTN0ZRbDd3OVpfVzNBaHp5REdUTUZlVXFBQTdYejE2UHZHTXMyVmNuZkpoZWNJRmpMdzhtZTVaSGMtWFNvdDF1cVFSOWc?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.thrillist.com/culture/guide-cuban-drinks-culture", + "id": "CBMirgFBVV95cUxQdmZvWXFIeVF2MjVkb0pWVDE2VDljWUMyZy1UYTJnSHZ5TzgzeXBqTkZtOFhESUtyR0ZzWDJtLTk5X3NWOW9aVDVleEx4d0MzNGoxYWR5NDBEZmdTMlQtUHZNTmpJdTlBUVdTN0ZRbDd3OVpfVzNBaHp5REdUTUZlVXFBQTdYejE2UHZHTXMyVmNuZkpoZWNJRmpMdzhtZTVaSGMtWFNvdDF1cVFSOWc", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Wed, 17 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 17, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 2, + 137, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Cuba, where LGBTQ means lesbians, gays, bi, trans, questioning: repression or openness?  Philadelphia Gay News", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba, where LGBTQ means lesbians, gays, bi, trans, questioning: repression or openness?  Philadelphia Gay News" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://epgn.com", + "title": "Philadelphia Gay News" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: The Ultimate Guide to Drinking Your Way Through Cuba\nauthor: Sam Meyer\nurl: https://www.thrillist.com/culture/guide-cuban-drinks-culture\nhostname: thrillist.com\ndescription: Mojito? Si, por favor.\nsitename: Thrillist\ndate: 2017-05-16\ntags: ['thrillist editorial, sam meyer, standard, drink, alcohol, beer type, ale, brandy, brandy type, american, gin, gin brands, plymouth, culture, cocktail, gin cocktails, rum cocktails, cuba libre, daiquiri, el presidente, mojito, vodka cocktails, bloody mary, whisky cocktails, old fashioned, difficulty, easy, hard, flavor, dry, sour, sweet, local drinks, city, recipe type, classic, collins, food, context, dinner, lunch, cuisine, dishes, sandwiches, history, events, award specials, may, october, diageo holiday, music film entertainment culture, other, sports specials, tech innovation, occasions, party, club, meal time, pre-dinner, social, negroni, social media, facebook, venue, bar, restaurant, distillery, gin type, plymouth gin, liqueur, cherry liqueur, mixer, rum, rum brands, havana club, caribbean rum, cuban rum, rum type, dark, light, martell, creation, sparkling, vermouth, vermouth type, dry vermouth, scotch, blended, wine type, home, tools, garnishes, pilsner, juice, white, maraschino', 'Supercall,Supercall']\n---\n# The Ultimate Guide to Drinking Your Way Through Havana\n\nThe U.S. embargo against Cuba is still in place, but with the relaxation of license requirements and the resumption of scheduled air service between the countries, it\u2019s currently easier than ever to visit the once-forbidden Caribbean island. Pick one of the 12 general licenses applicable to American travelers\u2014you\u2019re going as an educational opportunity, right? To have contact with the Cuban people? That qualifies\u2014and you\u2019re set to immerse yourself in Cuban culture.\n\nI recently had the chance to visit Havana. I\u2019d been wanting to go for years, and was excited to drink my way around the city. Havana is variously sleek or crumbling, as well as fascinating and vibrant. Pre-revolutionary buildings and cars sit comfortably alongside newer ones. I felt welcomed by the Habaneros, who tend to be good-humored, opinionated, resourceful, and proud people. If you\u2019re heading to Havana for your own \u201ceducational\u201d trip, here\u2019s everything you need to know about getting the best booziest experience out of it.\n\n## Bars vs. Restaurants\n\nThis is a blurrier distinction than it probably needs to be, as almost every bar serves food, and almost every \u201ccafe\u201d serves drinks as well as light bites. But, it\u2019s a good idea to decide what you\u2019re in the mood for and plan your approach accordingly. One welcome part of the Cuban government\u2019s easing restrictions on private businesses has been the advent of paladares, privately-owned and operated restaurants. When they became possible in the late 1990s, paladares consisted of nothing more than a few tables in the corner of someone\u2019s living room, but after further changes to the rules in 2010, the paladar scene exploded and now offers some wildly inventive takes on Cuban and international cuisine. (Similarly, casa particulares\u2014privately run B&Bs\u2014are often cheaper and definitely more personal and fun than hotels. And you can even book them with U.S. credit cards through Airbnb now.)\n\nWith the explosion of private businesses and the wave of American visitors, reservations are recommended for many places, particularly paladares. Some have websites and Facebook pages (all have phones), and it\u2019s worth locking down a reservation well in advance. Your hotel or casa particular host can be a real help here, especially if you don\u2019t speak much Spanish.\n\n## What\u2019s On A Cuban Drinks Menu\n\nAlmost every drinking establishment offers a list of cocktails, and often that list is broken up into \u201cnational\u201d and \u201cinternational\u201d sections. The \u201cinternational\u201d side has everything from Pi\u00f1a Coladas to White Russians, while the \u201cnational cocktails\u201d show a surprising amount of overlap. These are heavy-on-the-rum drinks, as you\u2019d expect, and tend to feature the holy trinity of rum, lime, and sugar in various combinations. I found the rum to almost always be Havana Club, though sometimes Cubay, Mulata or Santiago brands wound up in the shaker tins.\n\nPretty much any place you find will make you a Mojito, or a Daiquiri or a Ron Collins or a Cuba Libre (most often made with Cuban brand tuKola in place of \u201cThe Real Thing,\u201d of course. However, tuKola uses actual sugar instead of the corn syrup-sweetened Coca-Cola, so there\u2019s a case to be made that it\u2019s better than Coke.)\n\nOne of the wonderful things about drinking in Cuba is that almost every one of these basic drinks is made to a very high standard. Even when I stumbled up to a beachside shack that only displayed a cooler full of beers, I spotted a styrofoam cup of mint placed under an electric fan. I asked \u201c\u00bfTienes un mojito, por favor?\u201d and the guy working the bar shrugged as if to say \u201cof course, turista,\u201d then set about making me a top-notch example. (One thing that I wasn\u2019t expecting is that almost every Daiquiri I got was either blended or frapp\u00e9d by hand, with only the occasional version served on the rocks.) A word of warning, though: Sweeter drinks such as the Mary Pickford and Havana Special (an aged-rum sour with pineapple juice and Maraschino liqueur) can be served very sweet indeed, in accordance with the Cuban palate.\n\nSome other \u201cnational cocktails\u201d that you\u2019ll find on menus include:\n\n- Cubata (a Cuba Libre made with aged rum)\n- Cubanito (a rum Bloody Mary)\n- Saoco (white rum, coconut water, lime and sparkling water)\n- Canch\u00e1nchara (aguardiente, lime, and honey, sometimes with mint added)\n- El Presidente (rum, dry vermouth, dashes of grenadine and cura\u00e7ao)\n- Hotel Nacional Special (rum, lime, pineapple, sugar, apricot brandy)\n- Rum Old Fashioned\n\nOther spirits besides rum are available, too: Spanish-style Gin & Tonics cropped up on various menus, as did Micheladas (and Buls, their Cuban cousins consisting of pilsner, ginger ale, and lime), Caipirinhas (and Caipirissimas) and Negronis. I wandered into a local market in Havana and saw not just a wide array of Cuban rums, but also Lillet Blanc, Plymouth Gin, Kahl\u00faa, and many other offerings from all over the world.\n\n## Where To Drink In Havana, by Neighborhood\n\n## Habana Vieja\n\n**El Floridita and La Bodeguita del Medio **\n\nHave you heard the Hemingway quote \u201cMy Mojito in La Bodeguita. My Daiquiri in El Floridita?\u201d Of course you have. (And you\u2019ll hear it again and again in Havana, about as many times as you encounter the tune \u201cChan Chan\u201d from the Buena Vista Social Club.) I mention these spots together because they\u2019re the twin gravitational centers for Hemingway fans and enormous crowds of tourists from all over the world. (Papa also stayed at the Hotel Ambos Mundos, two blocks from La Bodeguita, if you want to complete the pilgrimage. Though, to complicate matters, one Hemingway biographer says the Mojito story is a fake.)\n\nEl Floridita, located in a small square on the western edge of Habana Vieja, is surrounded by tour buses, which stop to disgorge selfie-stick-waving hordes at regular intervals. The famous statue of Hemingway holds court at one end of the bar in a blizzard of camera flashes. If you can fight your way to a table, it\u2019s much easier than joining the scrum up at the stick. They have a long menu of various Daiquiris, but everyone only gets the house special, blended with a dash of Maraschino liqueur. It\u2019s delicious and goes down very easily, and once I attained a table, I was happy to stay for a few rounds and peruse the souvenir kiosk.\n\nLa Bodeguita del Medio is a state-run restaurant, but you can identify the downstairs bar by the throng of tourists outside on the narrow street. When I visited, two bros were loudly discussing the finer points of Colorado\u2019s legal weed and blocking the way into the tiny space, which the bar somehow shared with iceboxes, a three-piece son combo, and one solitary, insanely busy bartender, who was cranking out nothing but excellent Mojitos. I was impressed that quality didn\u2019t suffer either here or at El Floridita, given the sheer volume they were serving.\n\n**El Dandy**\n\nThis agreeably jumbled casual bar/cafe is an easy spot to while away an afternoon. Beers are kept cold in an ancient Hotpoint refrigerator, the kitchen produces all sorts of nibbles (the excellent toasted ham and cheese sandwiches with pickles were a hit), and cheerful young women turned out some very refreshing drinks.\n\n**O\u2019Reilly 304**\n\nA very popular trendy tapas restaurant with a solid, creative bar program. I couldn\u2019t get in the door the first time I tried, and the amiable doorman said that no reservations were available the rest of the week. I happened to pass by a few days later and managed to squeeze in for a late lunch, and was blown away by the croquettes, the taco specials, and the seafood, not to mention the large selection of cocktails\u2014especially gin drinks. Head bartender Wilson Hernandez turns out wacky concoctions such as the Havana Londres, the Jimmy Hendrick\u2019s, and the Gin Mo (a brilliant cross between a G&T and a Mojito) in big jars or goblets, with artfully carved lime peels and other flashy garnishes.\n\n**Museo del Ron Havana Club**\n\nThis isn\u2019t a distillery tour, as all of that happens outside Havana, but rather a small museum as the name indicates. Access is only by tour, which is given in five languages (you may want to check the schedule in advance to see when yours is offered). The tour includes a brief spiel about the Havana Club line of rums, a film about the history of the company and Cuban rum, an exhibition of some of the tools, a room-sized model of a distillery and sugar mill operation circa 1893, and reproductions of barrels and warehouses. It\u2019s not super-informative, especially if you\u2019ve been on a distillery tour before, but it does deposit you in a stunningly restored 1930s style bar where you\u2019re served a tiny sample of Havana Club 7. I\u2019d read reports that you can order more drinks there, but the bartender disappeared as soon as the samples were handed out. There is, of course, a shop with the Havana Club line and a few logo items.\n\n## Centro Habana\n\n**Si\u00e1 Kar\u00e1**\n\nA laid back, good-humored, casual hipsterish joint full of Cuban twenty-somethings and some older foreigners. The cozy lounge area is lined with comfortable benches and decorated with arty bric-a-brac (with a lineup of hundreds of neckties adorning a balcony). The classic cocktails are well-executed and balanced, and the check comes in a tiny ceramic toilet.\n\n**La Guarida**\n\nThis is perhaps the country\u2019s best-known, highest-end paladar. Reservations are utterly essential, as far in advance as you can make them, but the astonishingly great restaurant hidden on the top floors of a crumbling, unassuming mansion is worth it. Consider arriving early so you can wait for your table at the rooftop bar, which feels like it was transported from a trendy Miami hotel\u2014except with better drinks. Perhaps the most expensive cocktails we had in Cuba (at around 8-9 CUC) but the list was long and inventive and exceptionally well executed. A rum Negroni was a perfect pre-dinner drink.\n\n## Vedado\n\n**Hotel Nacional de Cuba**\n\nThe Hotel Nacional is the grandest hotel in the country, and it\u2019s worth it to wander through the ornate lobby, the manicured gardens and terrace looking out over the Malec\u00f3n, and the museum with pictures of celebrities who\u2019ve stayed there, from Yuri Gagarin to Nat \u201cKing\u201d Cole. The Gallery Bar, just out the back door and next to the garden, has a fantastic band, a long cocktail list and a very comfortable ambience in which to pretend you\u2019re one of the swells, or a pre-revolutionary gangster.\n\n**El Emperador**\n\nThis restaurant looks unchanged from the 1950s, undoubtedly because it\u2019s unchanged since the 1950s\u2014with the exception of the light-up Red Bull sign on the bar. The room is large, cool, quiet and dark, with an understated atmosphere, and the drinks are definitely up to standard. High above this ground floor restaurant, the state-run restaurant La Torre on the 33rd floor of the massive Edificio FOCSA building offers an extensive drinks menu with snacks, and the best view of Havana from above.\n\n**FAC (F\u00e1brica de Arte Cubano)**\n\nA very popular combination of art galleries, artists\u2019 studios and performance venues, FAC is open evenings and late nights, Thursday through Sunday. The multi-level space has several bars, and it\u2019s fun to wander with a drink; if one room doesn\u2019t appeal, there\u2019ll be something completely different on display in the next. Going here feels like you\u2019re present at the creation of a new scene, but it\u2019s friendly, welcoming and they\u2019ll pour you a Cuba Libre that\u2019ll knock you out.\n\n## Acquiring Cuban Rum, and Getting Your Booty Home\n\n\nDon\u2019t forget that you can bring Cuban rum back with you. Prices are fixed countrywide, so you won\u2019t save any money if you wait until you get to the airport duty-free shop. Up until October, there was a $100 limit on the amount of alcohol and tobacco that U.S. travelers were allowed to bring back; that limit has now been lifted, and you can bring back as much as you want for personal use. (The normal rules on bringing back alcohol still apply, though, and Customs could theoretically charge you a small tax if you bring back more than a liter.) So load up that hard-sided suitcase!\n\nIf you do visit the airport duty-free shop and you\u2019ll be taking a connecting flight after you return, make sure they sell you a tamper-evident bag and that the shop employees seal your receipt inside. When you get back to the U.S., TSA will open the bag, screen the bottles, and reseal it, which allows you to take it as carry-on luggage without running afoul of the restrictions on liquids. Now you\u2019re set to continue your Cuban imbibing even after you return." + }, + { + "title": "I went to Cuba, met gracious people and realized how pretentious we can be - Axios", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "I went to Cuba, met gracious people and realized how pretentious we can be - Axios" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMirgFBVV95cUxONDN0b0FGSHlOZllsaDl1TVNoeHFOU3NpSU40RHRjWE52d1k0c08wdVlfa3JCNUtodHJTZ25Ic0IwVEt0d2lNazhzTHhlN055X01YdFFIZy1fNzhhMnBIaFlheEVFdWdPRm5UaUNRTmc0TGU1d0E1Q0hWNGFFQ0x5Z3JFeHNfVkl4X3loLTE4UjBIRzlic2VfUUlSN3FjbG0xRnlTWmhjNU55dEVrUEE?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://epgn.com/2017/05/17/cuba-where-lgbtq-means-lesbians-gays-bi-trans-questioning-repression-or-openness/", + "id": "CBMirgFBVV95cUxONDN0b0FGSHlOZllsaDl1TVNoeHFOU3NpSU40RHRjWE52d1k0c08wdVlfa3JCNUtodHJTZ25Ic0IwVEt0d2lNazhzTHhlN055X01YdFFIZy1fNzhhMnBIaFlheEVFdWdPRm5UaUNRTmc0TGU1d0E1Q0hWNGFFQ0x5Z3JFeHNfVkl4X3loLTE4UjBIRzlic2VfUUlSN3FjbG0xRnlTWmhjNU55dEVrUEE", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Wed, 24 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 24, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 2, + 144, + 0 + ], + "summary": "I went to Cuba, met gracious people and realized how pretentious we can be  Axios", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "I went to Cuba, met gracious people and realized how pretentious we can be  Axios" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.axios.com", + "title": "Axios" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Cuba, where LGBTQ means lesbians, gays, bi, trans, questioning: repression or openness? - Philadelphia Gay News\nauthor: Mark Segal\nurl: https://epgn.com/2017/05/17/cuba-where-lgbtq-means-lesbians-gays-bi-trans-questioning-repression-or-openness/\nhostname: epgn.com\ndescription: As I was standing in Revolution Square in Havana, Cuba, looking at the giant silhouette of Che Guevara, I smiled, recalling the Che Guevara Caf\u00e9 I once visited in Beirut where I watched a male belly dancer as I was reporting on Lebanon\u2019s first LGBT organization. It occurred to me that the relationship between [\u2026]\nsitename: Philadelphia Gay News\ndate: 2017-05-17\ncategories: ['Mark My Words']\n---\n\nAs I was standing in Revolution Square in Havana, Cuba, looking at the giant silhouette of Che Guevara, I smiled, recalling the Che Guevara Caf\u00e9 I once visited in Beirut where I watched a male belly dancer as I was reporting on Lebanon\u2019s first LGBT organization. It occurred to me that the relationship between the United States and the Middle East is easy to explain compared to the relationship our country has with Cuba, as well as Cuba\u2019s position on LGBT issues.\n\n\nIt was 20 years ago when I reported on the state of LGBT life in Havana. The difference could not be more apparent than it was in the procedure to arrange my travel to Cuba. In 1997, as an out LGBT journalist \u2014 and refusing to be anything but out \u2014 I received no assistance from the U.S. government, except the warning that I could have trouble re-entering the United States, since the U.S. government might not recognize LGBT reporters as legitimate journalists. As for Cuba, its embassy refused to return calls. It was almost a clandestine trip. I had to travel via Mexico and arrange hotel and other necessities through third- and fourth-party connections. At times, it was cloak and dagger.\n\nAnd there was reason for Cuban hesitance in having an LGBT journalist in the country: Life for LGBT people at that time was like 1950s America, or worse. (Read more about that trip at http://bit.ly/2q46XUQ.) Twenty years would bring some surprises and a brush with the past, both in the United States and Cuba.\n\nModern U.S. travel protocol made the arrangements slightly easier than 20 years ago. The Cuban Embassy not only sped up my visa, they arranged for me to have official Cuban press credentials, which they also did for other U.S. LGBT media on the same trip. This is an amazing fact that should not be overlooked, as it makes the point clear that Cuba is attempting \u2014 with baby steps \u2014 to open its society and go after the lucrative worldwide LGBT tourism market.\n\nThe timing could not have been better, since Cuba was about to commemorate the 10th-annual International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, spearheaded in the country by the Cuban National Center for Sex Education. CENESEX is headed by Mariela Castro, the daughter of the current president of Cuba and niece to its former president, Fidel Castro.\n\nMy first evening\u2019s dinner proved that Cuba had changed \u2014 but at the same time is even more complex. That dinner was spent with old friend and U.S. LGBT pioneer the Rev. Troy Perry of Metropolitan Community Church, who was scheduled to receive an award from CENESEX. We dined with members of his Cuban church, headed by Elaine Saralegui, an out lesbian from Matanzas, Cuba. Their work begins to explain the story of the culture of the Cuban people and how change occurs. It\u2019s an eye-opener for many in our country since when we speak of socialist/communist Cuba, many often think of a godless society, but indeed the last three popes have made it a point to visit Cuba. Now, about 40 percent of Cubans identify as Catholic while others follow the African Caribbean Santer\u00eda faith.\n\nIn order to understand Cuba and Cubans, you must know that religion is a large part of their culture, and religious views on the LGBT community are intertwined with the country\u2019s politics. Example: As the country opens its doors even further, U.S. fundamentalists are looking for influence and to apostolize. A story that\u2019s making the rounds is that American fundamentalists offered to bring in a million Bibles and the Cuban religion minister (yes, they have a religion minister) stated, \u201cLet the U.S. end the embargo and we\u2019ll buy our own Bibles.\u201d\n\nThings have changed. But faith and that embargo influence almost all aspects of Cuba today, as its youth look to the future with a skeptical eye. But Perry\u2019s church has a distinction. It is the first official non-government LGBT organization in Cuba, a distinction that has plagued individuals who have tried to organize independent LGBT organizations. Perry takes pride in stating that Cuba now becomes the 34th nation with MCC churches.\n\n\u201cWe even have one in Kuala Lumpur,\u201d he noted.\n\nPerry\u2019s Cuban church was conceived when he visited the island two years ago as an invited speaker for a religious conference. A local Baptist church was sponsoring a small LGBT meeting group, but after those in attendance heard Perry and his story about the battle to form MCC in the United States, and how his faith community is LGBT-inclusive, they asked and received permission to form MCC Cuba.\n\nThe distinctions and progress don\u2019t end there. Perry tells me that the Catholic Church in Cuba imports its priests from other Latin countries and that all MCCs will have Cuban-born ministers.\n\nThe first is Saralegui, making her the first independent out lesbian activist in Cuba who tells me with a grin that she identifies as an LGBT Christian activist. She\u2019s one of those individuals who was in the audience two years ago when Perry spoke and said that \u201cGod is my pastor and he knows I\u2019m gay.\u201d Saralegui, who was in the seminary at the time studying to be a minister for Cuba\u2019s Baptist Church, was inspired by the address and asked her bishop about creating a church for LGBT people. A few disagreements later, MCC Matanzas (a city that considers itself Cuba\u2019s art capital) became Cuba\u2019s first out Church.\n\nWhen she\u2019s not tending to her own church, which varies between 20-40 members, Saralegui travels the country performing liturgies for LGBT Cubans and anyone else who wants to hear her message of inclusion.\n\n\u201cI want our community to be proud,\u201d she says with a smile through a translator. Saralegui has already tackled some major issues. A week ago, her church held a service officiated by three international transgender ministers: from Brazil, Canada and the United States. When I ask her if she\u2019s had any issues from members of the LGBT community about her activism, she smiles broadly and states, \u201cSome don\u2019t believe you can be Christian and gay.\u201d\n\nIf you bring up the issues of trans people in Cuba, people will reference CENESEX and its program to support gender-reassignment surgery. They\u2019ll proudly point to Clinico Quirurgico, a government-run hospital that specializes in such operations, and explain that like all medical needs in Cuba it\u2019s free, and like most things in Cuba, you can\u2019t get exact numbers.\n\nCuba\u2019s past often clashes with its present. The convoluted connections and disconnections when you attempt to explain how open or repressed the LGBT community in Cuba can be is displayed by looking at a part of its shameful past \u2014 then realizing it\u2019s something that is very present in the United States.\n\nMeet Louis. Now 74, he survived one of Cuba\u2019s labor camps for gay men in the 1960s. When you ask him what it was like when, at 16, he was taken to a camp, he smiles and says, \u201cEveryone in my neighborhood said I was that way.\u201d If you ask him how bad it was, he\u2019ll tell you that \u201cthe second day they yelled and yelled at me, \u2018Be a man, be a man.\u2019 All day.\u201d And when asked if they ever physically harmed him, he says, \u201cThey never hit those of us in the camps; they only spoke at us.\u201d On most days, the men had to sit through what today we\u2019d call re-programming. \u201cThey had signs everywhere: \u2018The revolution needs men.\u2019 And they kept telling us we had to be men and gay people were not men.\u201d When I ask what it was like each day, he tells me that, aside from listening to the psychologist camp officials brought in from Havana, the men were put to work. I try to ask him about the harshness of that work but fail and he notices, smiles and shakes his head.\n\nAccording to Louis, there were many camps and each had about 120 men in it. No physical harm, but hard work that allegedly attempted to make you a hard (read: real) man. The government used to attempt to deny it ever had such camps but before his death, Fidel Castro admitted it and apologized. Louis, a short, jovial man, wanted a personal apology and he eventually received it from another Castro: CENESEX\u2019s Mariela.\n\nLouis is not clear on how he left the camp but he\u2019s clear about what he did afterward.\n\n\u201cMy old life was no more and I couldn\u2019t go home or get work so I went to the capital [Havana],\u201d he recalled. \u201cI told them I lost my papers and was given new papers; they never knew about my past life.\u201d\n\nHe studied and became a technical draftsman. He found love, and settled into life. When I ask what he thinks the future holds for Cuba\u2019s LGBT community, he shrugs and says he\u2019s \u201chopeful.\u201d And you can see he wants people not to forget their history, but he doesn\u2019t want that connection to the past to impede progress. It\u2019s a hard line he walks, but he does it with a joyous style. It amazed me a couple days later as I watched him dancing at the CENESEX rally, doing a rhumba with his friends. Louis was enjoying life and its new freedoms, but never letting go of the papers that recall his time in the labor camp.\n\nAmericans, especially LGBT Americans, use the camps as a hammer against Cuba, but while Cuba has moved on, the U.S. still has its equivalent: conversion-therapy camps. And some of those camps do hand out corporeal punishment. As to numbers, Louis tells me that several-thousand gay inmates were housed in a section of Cuba far from Havana. In the U.S, conversion therapy is still flourishing and is associated with that word again: religion. If you don\u2019t get the theme, think about Uganda and its \u201cKill the Gays\u201d legislation. Again, it\u2019s fundamentalism.\n\nThe reality is that you can\u2019t judge Cuba on its treatment of LGBT people in the past. Louis wants to live for today, and in today\u2019s Cuba, at least for the LGBT community, things have changed. It\u2019s not all about weekend dance parties that are now all the rage with the LGBT community.\n\nMy tour guide, Leandro Velazco, states about LGBT tourism: \u201cWe have bars, nightly \u2018inclusion\u2019 parties, a couple of good restaurants, a state-run LGBT organization, occasional festivals and even Grindr.\u201d When I look quizzically at him, he tells me about something called Planet Romeo, which he said was the first LGBT social-networking site to hit Cuba several years ago. His business, GaytoursHavana.com, like many in Cuba, is adjusting to the \u2019Net, hoping that the promise of LGBT tourism in Cuba becomes a reality.\n\nBefore leaving for Cuba, it was handy to google Amnesty International to see what it had on Cuban repression. The background states: \u201cThe re-establishment of relations between the USA and Cuba in 2015 led to increased trade and tourism between the two countries in 2016. For example, commercial air services from the USA to Cuba resumed after more than 50 years.\u201d You can read the full report at www.amnesty.org/en/countries/americas/cuba/report-cuba/#.\n\nSo where\u2019s the repression? Each time I asked someone to name a famous LGBT person, they all said the same. They\u2019d mention a name and say, \u201cWe know, but they keep it to themselves.\u201d\n\nI thought of that as I marched in the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia rally, along with almost 1,000 Cubans. They shouted socialist slogans peppered with \u201cEnd Homophobia and Transphobia Now.\u201d There were no corporate sponsors, which reminded me of our first gay Pride in the United States, and indeed this looked more like a gay Pride celebration than a march of defiance. At the rally, there were a few speeches and then a dance and festival. CENESEX used the time and event for HIV education, condom distribution and testing.\n\nOnce you work out the political dissertation, you can then try and unravel the country\u2019s views on LGBT tourism. There\u2019s no question that Cuba wants to get in the game. There are at least four LGBT tour-guide sites on the web and numerous individuals and travel groups in the United States who specialize in LGBT tourism to Cuba. And surrounding the 10th-annual International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, the government gave official press credentials to several LGBT media outlets. So Cuba is open. How open, and to what kind of travel?\n\nCuba is home to great weather, beaches, mountains, incredible colonial architecture and some of the most hospitable people you\u2019ll ever meet, but at times due to that touchy subject of the U.S. embargo \u2014 which some claim is keeping this country in economic turmoil while others say it is the government\u2019s political repression that stifles Cuba \u2014 it seems the country is in a time capsule. That can be a curse or a charm. The old U.S. Buicks and Chevys are an example. They\u2019re charming but their prevalence points out that new cars are at a premium \u2014 although that has begun to change, as has the hospitality industry, which languished for years. On the way to the airport, you notice parking lots full of new taxis and tour buses waiting for the explosion of tourists.\n\nCubans call their country \u201cThe Pearl of the Caribbean,\u201d but that pearl is trapped by the U.S. embargo, which wreaks havoc on tourism. There is not one place in all of Cuba that you can use an American credit card. Therefore, cash is a requirement. How many Americans want to travel with a wad of cash in their pockets?\n\nThere is no way to write about Cuba and not elicit strong views on one side or the other. What I can say after speaking with Cubans themselves is that they want change and they don\u2019t want to be the pawns among governments." + }, + { + "title": "Cuba 2017: Tales of a Musack Missionary - Relix", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba 2017: Tales of a Musack Missionary - Relix" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMifkFVX3lxTE9GRHVaZ1hRYlV3bDU4NzVoT3N4MEJOMFpXYW54M210YXhmQzJyb3pHblh6anpjeVRkUml6eTN5cy1GV0M2bFFhbHNPazdnNWVBWmZMZmJUUk1EcGpWV1B6UXFPV1JuaFprNmg4UnpacGpmSV9rUnF0SnZNQ1F3dw?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.axios.com/local/charlotte/2017/05/24/went-cuba-met-gracious-people-realized-pretentious-can-91687", + "id": "CBMifkFVX3lxTE9GRHVaZ1hRYlV3bDU4NzVoT3N4MEJOMFpXYW54M210YXhmQzJyb3pHblh6anpjeVRkUml6eTN5cy1GV0M2bFFhbHNPazdnNWVBWmZMZmJUUk1EcGpWV1B6UXFPV1JuaFprNmg4UnpacGpmSV9rUnF0SnZNQ1F3dw", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Mon, 01 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 1, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 0, + 121, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Cuba 2017: Tales of a Musack Missionary  Relix", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba 2017: Tales of a Musack Missionary  Relix" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://relix.com", + "title": "Relix" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 403, + "response": "Error: HTTP 403" + }, + { + "title": "The Success of Literacy Education in Cuba - 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Havana Times", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "This US Traveler\u2019s Glimpse of Cuba - Havana Times" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMidEFVX3lxTE5fd3VzWk9FelpWV1BhUGRHSzh5T0thN2pyeUNacEpTY1JVaFd3SFg2U2NiT3hCeXpHM0NJYnZEM3dISFV0YVBXc1p1d21NTXhVZWYwMWJTT0REMTIzY1hKTUFuUHRtcG5KVG9KT3huOFozVnhZ?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/article/technology-innovation-cuba-youth-arts", + "id": "CBMidEFVX3lxTE5fd3VzWk9FelpWV1BhUGRHSzh5T0thN2pyeUNacEpTY1JVaFd3SFg2U2NiT3hCeXpHM0NJYnZEM3dISFV0YVBXc1p1d21NTXhVZWYwMWJTT0REMTIzY1hKTUFuUHRtcG5KVG9KT3huOFozVnhZ", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Sun, 28 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 28, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 6, + 148, + 0 + ], + "summary": "This US Traveler\u2019s Glimpse of Cuba  Havana Times", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "This US Traveler\u2019s Glimpse of Cuba  Havana Times" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://havanatimes.org", + "title": "Havana Times" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: How Technology is Changing Cuba\nauthor: Nina Strochlic; Greg Kahn\nurl: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/article/technology-innovation-cuba-youth-arts\nhostname: nationalgeographic.com\ndescription: For decades, Cuba has been closed off to technology. Now, wifi and warming relations with the U.S. are paving the way for a digital revolution.\nsitename: National Geographic\ndate: 2017-10-05\ncategories: ['Photography']\n---\n# How Unlikely Hackers Will Transform Cuba\n\nFor decades, Cuba has been closed off to technology. Now, wifi and warming relations with the U.S. are paving the way for a digital revolution.\n\n\n*Read this story on your mobile device for the best viewing experience.*Nowhere is the old adage about necessity breeding innovation more true than in Cuba. Working against a wide-ranging embargo from the neighboring United States, Cubans have been getting along without many basic goods for half a century.\n\n## The Internet Revolution\n\nFrom illegally installing rooftop radio antennas to record American music to hotwiring antique cars, Cubans are ingenious at figuring out workarounds to barriers that would otherwise keep them decades behind their neighbors. Now, in the Internet era there are no shortage of Cuban entrepreneurs aspiring to overcome the technological drought.\n\nSince 2007, the most important method of distributing the Internet has been the *El Paquete Semanal*\u2014or, The Weekly Package. Like a subscription service, thousands of couriers deliver a terabyte of videos, movies, music, and games via thumb drive to half the island\u2019s population each week.\n\nThere were major hurdles facing Cuba\u2019s entry into the technologically advancing world. But after President Obama lowered sanctions in 2009, restored diplomatic ties in 2014, and removed Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list in 2015\u2014a digital revolution has dawned.\n\nTwo years ago, the groups of people crowding Havana\u2019s parks and sidewalks with cell phones pressed to their faces didn\u2019t exist. Since the Cuban government opened 35 wifi hotspots in parks and plazas across the island in July 2015, they\u2019ve become ubiquitous. More than 100 public wifi zones and 180 Internet cafes have opened so far. Even before a reliable Internet connection, Cubans had created their own versions of Craigslist, Yelp, and eBay. Now, they\u2019re opening Facebook accounts, listing their homes on Airbnb, and watching Netflix.\n\nBut barriers to access remain\u2014continuously testing the island\u2019s ingenuity. When the one-hour Internet cards sold at hotspots were prohibitively expensive (they\u2019re more than $2\u2014double the average daily wage), savvy entrepreneurs started divvying them up and selling shorter, slower allotments.\n\n## Innovators and Inventors\n\nCuba may not have had the technology, but it\u2019s had the drive for innovation. Twenty years ago, Cuban leader Fidel Castro launched the \u201cFuture Project,\u201d a plan to integrate the software industry into the country\u2019s economy. According to an article in the *Harvard International Review*, the country invests 1.17 percent of its GDP in technological research\u2014more than the U.S. and on the same level with Israel. Thousands of students graduate with information technology degrees each year, but there are few jobs.\n\nStudents who studied technology, like 34-year-old Yusnier Fern\u00e1ndez, find ways to put their skills to use. With his robotics training, Fern\u00e1ndez has created a Roomba from scratch using processors brought into the country by his friends.\n\nMany Cubans have relatives in the U.S., so relying on outside parts is common. Andy Ruiz, one of the only people producing 360 degree videos in Cuba, gets the technology brought in from connections in America.\n\nThe most famous symbol of Cuba\u2019s embargo-innovation balancing act are the vintage American cars. Owners haven\u2019t been able to acquire new parts since President Kennedy issued a trade embargo in 1962, so they have devised hacks to keep the cars running. Now, with new technology coming into the country, these old cars are being revamped with mini-DVD players and stereo systems that blast out oldies in Spanish and the latest American pop.\n\n## A New Soundtrack\n\nAccess to culture was a principal pillar of the communist system Fidel Castro installed in Cuba. Theater and dance were given to the masses for almost nothing. Spilling out of cafes and blasting from cars, music is a backdrop to daily life in Cuba. On weekends, plazas are crammed with bands and dancers showing off their salsa moves.\n\nAmong younger generations, the music scene has taken a turn toward house and electronica. When Major Lazer played a show in Havana in 2016, half a million people showed up. Underground DJs like Joan Coffigny and the female duo Pauza spin at clubs like the Fabrica de Arte Cubano and house parties. Havana\u2019s first independent electronic music studio was started by DJ Ra. But a lack of basic supplies introduces new twists for the island\u2019s innovators: a few summers ago recording artists found the island had run low on CDs.\n\nMusic isn\u2019t the only art form transforming as Cuba opens. Salsa and ballet have long been staples of Cuban culture, but other dance forms are arriving. Breakdancing has become increasingly popular and troupes like the B-Boy dancers, a subset of the Havana Queens dance company, learn moves from YouTube videos.\n\nIn Cuba, there\u2019s hope that loosening restrictions will help it catch up with the 21st century. Raul Castro, Fidel\u2019s younger brother, has led the country since 2006. Shortly after taking power, he legalized private home computers, mobile phones, and DVD players. Fidel died in late 2016, and now Cubans are watching to see what further technological advances will arrive on the island. They may not have to wait long: Raul has promised to cede power in 2018, and a likely successor is Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel, a frequent Facebook user." + }, + { + "title": "Everything You Need to Know About Planning a Trip to Cuba - GQ", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Everything You Need to Know About Planning a Trip to Cuba - GQ" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiY0FVX3lxTFBLSFBuWWQ0a1MwZXp1d0llZDVHcDBocW9LZmVaNFFBMXNYanFScElwSkZCTDNjUkhnQ0R2NVJ6TUtybi1CR09kUFVGOWppeWozQUxWM1Bqb3k0NzFVdFp2MTh1UQ?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://havanatimes.org/opinion/this-us-travelers-glimpse-of-cuba/", + "id": "CBMiY0FVX3lxTFBLSFBuWWQ0a1MwZXp1d0llZDVHcDBocW9LZmVaNFFBMXNYanFScElwSkZCTDNjUkhnQ0R2NVJ6TUtybi1CR09kUFVGOWppeWozQUxWM1Bqb3k0NzFVdFp2MTh1UQ", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Sun, 07 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 7, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 6, + 127, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Everything You Need to Know About Planning a Trip to Cuba  GQ", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Everything You Need to Know About Planning a Trip to Cuba  GQ" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.gq.com", + "title": "GQ" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: This US Traveler's Glimpse of Cuba - Havana Times\nauthor: Circles Robinson\nurl: https://havanatimes.org/opinion/this-us-travelers-glimpse-of-cuba/\nhostname: havanatimes.org\ndescription: Here in the US, we\u2019ve heard characterizations of Cuba for many years, so until I visited, all I had were passive presumptions. Members of my extended family tried to tell me how it would feel in Cuba, and what it would be like--mostly trying to curb my optimism--even though none of them had visited Cuba. (20 photos)\nsitename: Havana Times\ndate: 2017-05-28\ncategories: ['Opinion', 'Other Galleries', 'Photo Feature']\n---\n# This US Traveler\u2019s Glimpse of Cuba\n\n\n**Photos and text by Dan Segal***\n\nHAVANA TIMES \u2014 In March, I visited Cuba for the first time, with a friend. We both have families and are in the busy peak years of our work lives, so it was hard to pull it off, and equally rewarding to do it. One of the most enjoyable surprises of the trip was feeling the warm familiarity of the Cuban people.\n\nHere in the US, we\u2019ve heard characterizations of Cuba for many years, so until I visited, all I had were passive presumptions. Members of my extended family tried to tell me how it would feel in Cuba, and what it would be like\u2013mostly trying to curb my optimism\u2013even though none of them had visited Cuba.\n\nThe whole experience proved positive, which should not be a surprise, but that\u2019s why we travel, to feel common threads of love and humanity, as well as the common burdens of humanity\u2019s weight, that we all share no matter where we live on Earth.\n\nFor US citizens to visit Cuba, our travel must fall under one of 12 accepted reasons. Many US citizens choose the \u2018People to People\u2019 category because it seems the most general. Many times during our visit, the power of this term came to mind because the people of Cuba engaged us in conversations that opened doors of culture, and of the mind. Doors that led to beautiful and intriguing places, and to more doors, some of which we did not open, and I daydream about returning to knock on those.\n\nEven the casual photographer will find Cuba an inexhaustible dream. With an extra camera battery, I still charged twice a day. It would be clich\u00e9, and a mistake, to simply focus the lens on the structures and trappings of antiquity, as if juxtaposition is Cuba\u2019s only trait, as if Havana and the entire country is only a museum that highlights time having passed, as if the whole culture is summed up as a time capsule. But then again, it\u2019s impossible to miss that side of Cuba\u2019s personality.\n\nI appreciated the patience of so many Cubans who didn\u2019t seem to mind my camera being out all the time. Walking the streets for miles and hours, by day and by night, seeking immersion in the whirlwind of nuance and circumstance, and talking with people along the way, the photographer tries to capture dimension, and add depth to every image, beyond the substance of the photo. A good photo catches facial expression or some recognizable body language that enriches the story and adds meaning in a format that lacks words, such as the \u2018Rolling Market\u2019 or \u2018Sharing Photos\u2019 images. A good photo should offer more than just the building or the people or the scenery within its borders. I hope some of those added dimensions come through in this sampling of photographs.\n\nA few themes emerged in the scenes I found myself drawn to capture on film. These themes translated loosely into the folder names I used for organizing over 2,000 photos, including Street Scenes, People, Sports, Agriculture/Work, Transportation (with subheadings of Cars/Trucks, Bicycles, Horses/Wagons). Horses and wagons were such a vibrant and emblematic feature of the few days we spent in and around the city of Trinidad.\n\nAgain, easy to snap clich\u00e9 photos of horses and wagons, but from behind the lens, it\u2019s so much more than that\u2013it\u2019s the low-angle light on the faces of the riders, or the rainbow of colors in the clothing of the wagon passengers, and the slanting last light of day on their faces as they squint a little against the universal sun. All glimpses of real people thinking real thoughts during real moments of real days. Apprehension, anxiety, daydreaming, fantasizing\u2026whatever people do while they\u2019re going about their lives.\n\nThe four soccer photos show boys picking teams at Plaza Vieja in Old Havana, and pickup games in Trinidad on Calle Cruz Verde and at the school there. The boy standing on the raised concrete sidewalk as his friends played 2 on 2 was announcing the play-by-play action in a high pitched voice, part narrator and part comedian.\n\nThe universal beauty of pick-up soccer was easy to see in its pure form, everywhere we saw kids playing soccer, often barefoot boys, no sidelines, no adults or coaches, and none of the expensive accessories that have deflated the joy of youth sports in the US, and turned it into yet another business.\n\nThis is not to sound idealistic about what kids or people may lack in Cuba, but the joy of kids playing soccer in the street and on rough fields was anything but idealistic. It was realistic. You play with what you have, where you can\u2013a good reset for kids in the US, and I wish the kids I coach here in New York could have seen that.\n\nA mother of one of the boys was sitting nearby, and when I asked her if she minded me taking photos, she said of course not, and asked if I wanted her to take me to the school field around the corner where the older kids were playing. The other two photos are from that schoolyard.\n\nOne photo shows the classic and natural movement of team soccer as all kids are moving in unison while one carries the ball up field, as they all gracefully avoid some concrete pieces half-buried in the field. If kids in the US played in these conditions, they\u2019d all be better soccer players, again, not to sound idealistic, but as a coach, I see many young kids who are well trained and well outfitted, but lack the innate wisdom that only comes from pick-up soccer in an unstructured environment.\n\nWould it be nice for these kids to have a lush green field to play on? Maybe. But they all seemed to be doing well and having fun without that. The last schoolyard photo was more about how the light seemed to elongate the already long forms of the boys who were waiting for next game. And how the stretching light seemed to stretch the waiting\u2026anyone who has called \u2018next game\u2019 on the playground should recognize this scene.\n\nFor years I have been photographing plants and ecology for the work I do, but in Cuba, I found myself drawn to taking photos of people. Seeing kids arriving for the school day at Plaza Vieja was both charming and a little sad. I could not help but think of our morning routine at home, which can be stressful and dreary during the long dark months of winter. I\u2019m sure some kids were worrying about some things, but there was such a pleasant calm and sweetness about the kids we watched as they crossed the square for school, some in pairs, some with parents, some with siblings\u2026fathers handing over lunch money, parents carrying backpacks, kids snacking, gossiping, smiling\u2026\n\nI also found myself taking endless photos of Cuba\u2019s colorful and creative modes of transportation, and its simplest forms of conveyance, not just the luscious old US cars, but the more stoic Russian trucks, as well as the lean perfection of the bicycle, or the timelessness of the horse-drawn wagon. Father and daughter on horseback on Calle Cruz Verde, that was a Monday morning, another going-to-school photo.\n\nNice way to get to school\u2013and again, though it might seem idealistic, to me it seems like a bottom-line situation: maybe they don\u2019t own a car, maybe they do, but father and daughter look pretty happy, and close, compared to some of the glum faces I see at the school drive-through here in New York on a Monday morning. It is hard to generalize, or put a finger squarely on the reason, so I would rather not\u2013but instead, will let a photograph capture a moment, and a moment\u2019s emotion, without the burden of analysis.\n\nThe only questions for me after visiting Cuba are when I can get back there, and for how long can I stay\u2026\n\n**Havana Times Guest writer*\n\n*Click on the thumbnails below to view all the photos in this gallery. On your PC or laptop, you can use the directional arrows on the keyboard to move within the gallery. On cell phones use the keys on the screen.*\n\nI cannot comment about a photograph of somebody in a Mercedes. I am aware that Fidel was said to have a fleet of them, but my personal observation of Raul has been in BMW\u2019s. on the autopista.\n\nThank you for your insight into the Cuban system\u2014 it makes me sad to think people must always be afraid someone is listening in to \u201creport\u201d them if they say something that could be labeled \u201csubversive.\u201d Yes, the US system needs some revamping to be sure, but thank goodness every 4 years we can vote someone else in and let the parties argue things out in Congress. No system is perfect but it sounds like no one in Cuba is able to thrive in a purely economic sense? A photo of a young person in a Mercedes seems strangely deceptive\u2013 how is that possible on $30/month? I read news reports that some private businesses are now permitted with the profits going to the entrepreneur rather than the govt? That seems like a good sign perhaps. I almost feel defeated before even traveling there \u2014 do these volunteer groups actually help people [for example, teaching English to children] or will we be perpetuating a myth? Complicated :/\n\nHi, my friend has some relatives who are on social media and I think I would be able to track him down that way. I have not attempted to do this as I don\u2019t really use facebook etc . But I think it is a viable option. Just not wanting to trigger any paranoia on his part\u2013 he had a LOT of paranoia about government watching/listening/recording. I never knew if it was real or maybe a PTSD issue? :/\n\nOn every block of every village, town and city in Cuba there is a \u2018President\u2019 of the CDR (Committee for the Defence of the Revolution) established by Fidel Castro on September 28, 1960 with the declared purpose being:\n\n\u201ca collective system of revolutionary vigilance so that everybody (ie: the regime) knows who lives on every block, what they do on every block\u2026in what activities they are involved and with whom they meet.\u201d\n\nThe Presidents of the CDR report to the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) and their duties include an annual report upon every single citizen. Those are now on a computer program. The Head of Cuba\u2019s security services both within and outside Cuba (MININT) is General Alejandro Castro Espin, Raul Castro\u2019s son.\n\nMy advice is that when you have had time to assess any particular person, that you confine conversations to one on one, not in a group. Secondly that you do so only when well clear of others. Don\u2019t embarrass Cubans by directly asking them political questions \u2013 remember that criticism of the regime by them is a criminal offence for which they can be jailed, just let them talk.\n\nThe CDR when established was tutored by the East German Stasi. These forms of internal spying are based upon a system introduced by Adolf Hitler in Germany in 1935. General Alejandro Castro Espin has received training in Moscow.\n\nOne of the questions which I am asked by young Cubans, is:\n\n\u201cWhat is the difference between our political system and yours?\u201d\n\nMy response \u2013 only given in one on one conversations \u2013 is:\n\nIn Cuba, the government has all the money and gives a little to the people, in our country the people have all the money and give a liitle \u2013 which we think is too much \u2013 called tax, to the government. If we don\u2019t like the government there is opportunity every four years for the people to change it for a different political party and that happens \u2013 the people control.\u201d\n\nNow I expect Maria that some of the US contributors will respond with abuse, but the US system is peculiar compared with other democratic nations. Clinton had 3 million more votes than Trump(f).\n\nThank you I will do so! Will these places be mostly free from the watchful eye of the government or is it necessary to be extremely careful and stay away from any politically charged conversations with a host? I like learning from people about their personal situations/beliefs but do not want any problems!\n\nAirbnb is an American outfit that has newly entered the Cuban market and charges for its services, if you book accommodation through them you will pay a higher price \u2013 I recently checked and was surprised at their high prices.\n\nMy advice is to go to: http://www.cuba-particular.com\n\nIt is Cuban and operated by a fellow named Raul Fuentes and there is no charge. On the site you will find details of each casa in each town and price per room. Reservation can be made on site and confirmation by e-mail is given. You pay the casa directly when you are there.\n\nNormal prices are about $US equivalent of $35 per room (accomodate 2 or 3), in Havana and $25 per night in Trinidad, Vinales, Baracoa and elsewhere. Usually the casa is the best place to eat. Breakfast 3 \u2013 4 CUC, supper 8 -10 CUC.\n\nUnless you have an address, how are you going to contact your friend?\n\nThank you so much for your information and obvious intelligence. I am sad for my friend who made a rash decision [I think] to go \u201cvisit\u201d Cuba [via Mexico] where his elderly mother lives, along with other family members. Life was not perfect here in the US for him as he had not fully integrated[15 yrs here] but I believe his opportunities were better here. As he had left Cuba without permission [refusing to be part of the military and spending 6 mos in jail] I am thinking that on his return his Cuban documents [original birth certificate] might not be well-received. Do you think if I tried to inquire as to his well-being while visiting Cuba that it might trigger problems for him? Also, if I have the option to stay with an Airbnb host would your recommend that? Thank you!\n\nThe Cuban you write about Maria, is not alone, he will still be unhappy with the communist system as it hasn\u2019t changed and indeed, communism doesn\u2019t change. The main difficulty for Cubans in travelling to other countries is in obtaining visas from those countries. That is because so many when they reach another country have defected and sought political asylum. If everybody who would like to leave Cuba could do so, there would be an even greater flood of emigrants. Until a few years ago, Cuba itself would prevent people with passports and visas from leaving by application of the notorious \u2018carta blanca\u2019 and even although they have discontinued that, they still prevent some people from leaving.\n\nThe essence of Cuban society is \u2018la familia\u2019 and members of families are very close to each other, the soul of the people is music, but then both family and music are free!\n\nI would encourage you to visit and enjoy both the beauty and people of Cuba \u2013 both are unforgettable. I assume that you know how and with whom you intend to volunteer.\n\nBecause I live most of the time in Cuba, I can only speak of the reality. But thank you!\n\nHello All, I am interested in visiting Cuba for volunteer work next year and I am glad to find this \u201cHavana Times\u201d site. I\u2019m from the US and met a Cuban who had been living here for many years (did not follow through on his paper work) and recently made his way back to Cuba [family is there] via Mexico. He was very unhappy with the communist system when he fled in 2000. I am hoping he can find a peaceful way to live there. . . so many restrictions and hardships, it sounds like, and he has been spoiled with easy access to internet, Facebook, etc. here. Are Cubans allowed to come and go more freely now or do you still need special \u201cpapers\u201d? Carlylle MacDuff thanks for keeping it real.\n\nAs Winston Churchill said Kennedy Earle Clarke, \u201cGo to it\u201d. Go and take photographs of the US and publish them where they are relevant. You may recall that it was I who provided the list of incarceration by different countries. The US is not the only alternative in a world of some 200 nations.\n\nI challenge you to disclose any criticism that i have made of the people of Cuba or of Cuba as a country.\n\nMy criticisms are of the communist dictatorship and regime of the Castro family. They and their repression are not synonymous with Cuba and the people of Cuba. The country although under communist dictatorship is not a possession of the Communist Party of Cuba but off its people. Similarly the flag of Cuba belongs to the people, not to the communist regime.\n\nIn general you are correct about taking photographs in Cuba \u2013 but there are parts where restrictions apply \u2013 military and MININT facilities \u2013 and try Villa Mariska. But where could you publish your photographs in Cuba?\n\nI Dan, have visited and walked in over thirty countries. Each has its share of misery. The question is one of degree. Per capita, Alberta Canada has the highest level of oil reserves in the world (in Canada natural resources belong to each province). It is prosperous even during recession. I know a man who has a mental illness, but his rent is paid by the Province of Alberta plus almost $1,000 per month. Once a year he flies to the Maritimes to visit his parents. Yet walking along Jasper Avenue \u2013 the main thoroghfare of Edmonton, the provincial capital city, I pass the odd beggar. They are usually quite young and the victims of drug use.\n\nYes, horrify is a strong word which I do not use lightly.\n\nThere have been in the past comments in these pages about racism. I would agree that from media reports, racism in the US is even more rife than in Cuba \u2013 but that does not excuse Cuba \u2013 or the regime\u2019s methods of enhancing that racism which they purport to oppose. The State Police and MININT goons report to MININT \u2013 where their boss is Raul Castro\u2019s son.\n\nThose cities in not only the US but also in Europe that grew following the industrial revolution have as their various industries declined tended to suffer a form of interior rot. Europe has possibly been better at endeavoring to remedy the problems, but not with total success.\n\nLiving most of the time in Cuba as I do, exposes the reality of the consequences of the communist regime.\n\nI favour increases in tourism. For many Cubans it is painful to observe the apparent wealth of the tourists compared with their own plight. But the more that Cubans come in contact with those from capitalist countries (with all the faults) the sooner they will demand change by the regime. Even the cell phone and minor access to limited Internet is having its effects especially upon the young.\n\nOne of the advantages of being married to a Cuban is becoming a member of \u201cla familia\u201d. I now know all 67 of my wife\u2019s family and am totally accepted by them. So I have daily contact with four generations and consequently\n\nthe opportunity to hear their views and opinions. My mother-in-law is one of those black people who initially benefitted from the revolution, her children had opportunity for education. Three of the four hold professional positions, but the fourth has a higher income \u2013 I won\u2019t reveal how.\n\nThe next generation \u2013 that of my step-daughter, a lawyer \u2013 are almost 100% professionals.\n\nThe fourth generation include my God-daughter now six.\n\nBut for example, when in discussion one day, I happened to mention that in\n\nthe countries where I have lived, accused people are innocent until proven guilty and that the reverse applies in Cuba, my wife remonstrated with me, only to be interrupted by her own daughter, telling her that I was correct.\n\nHer generation are slowly but surely accumulating knowledge about the capitalist countries, they are far from having the access to information which we enjoy, but the time is ticking! Sorry for warbling on, but Cubans are my family and friends and I hope that perhaps my step-daughter and certainly my God-daughter may know the freedom in their lives which we enjoy!\n\nCarlyle, the next time I visit the USA, I will take photos of homeless people wandering the streets in the dead of winter, hobbling together around a makeshift fire from card board boxes and searching the garbage bins for food to eat. Why don\u2019t you allow peaceful dogs to lay down peacefully? .\n\nOn my next visit to the USA, I will take photos of the slums in Harlem, in California and the other parts of the USA where people live worse than animals without hope. The USA is no paradise here on Planet Earth? It has more persons imprisoned than on any part of the planet\u2019 it has ton loads of drug addicts. It has people who cannot access decent medical attention. Did you hear what the writer said? Walked up and down any hour of the day or night unmolested. Could this happen in the USA?\n\nCarlyle I toured Cuba on one of my visits and I was taken all around the place. I could have taken photos of whatever I wanted to take.\n\nIf you are so critical of the country of adoption, why don\u2019t you exit peacefully? You have nothing positive to say about the country and its people and I find it difficult to comprehend how you manage to live and exist under such horrific conditions? Next year when I visit Cuba, I will like to meet you and hold discussions, so that we could send those discussions to Havana Times in Nicaragua to be printed. In your reply to me, could you forward your address to me?\n\nYou make a good point. Spend an hour on a freeway in the US and even in \u201cpolite\u201d Canada and you will see plenty of angry and distressed people.\n\nCarlyle,\n\nthanks for your comments. I definitely saw the influence of prosperity that UNESCO\u2019s restorations have brought, and that tourism has subsequently brought to those restored centers. And yes I do realize those may be exceptional. We saw a lot of hard life between locales and at the margins of those locales, but honestly that hardness is what we expected to see, and I did not feel right about posting photos of that hardness as much\u2013lest someone think I was trying to glorify that! I am not sure what it the \u2018right\u2019 way for Cuba to manage what seems like imminent growth\u2013and I don\u2019t want to say that prosperity is the answer to all problems, nor do I want to say that stifling tourism or growth is the best way to keep gawkers out of Cuba. I think the answer is in the details\u2013do tourists want to come and have their needs met, and just pay pay pay for services without caring about the people who \u2018serve\u2019 them? Or do travelers visit and try to make connections, as can happen in any country? I think the latter is a better situation, and it just depends on how it happens\u2013if people treat each other kindly, if they try to do nice things while visiting, if they are sensitive, etc. If one were to suggest that the only safe way to keep Cuba whole and pure is to keep everyone out, well, that is often what people suggest is part of the problem in the first place\u2026the last thing I would want to see in Cuba is American businesses, or those from any other country, taking up shop there and making money off Cuba. One of the most refreshing and insightful things about visiting Cuba is not seeing all the familiar companies selling stuff\u2013Kentucky Fried Chicken, Benetton, etc. Then the question is how to make sure some of that prosperity reaches people without fundamentally altering the nature of a place.\n\nAs soon as we arrived I realized we were going to be seeing two main centers of population and culture that people wanted us to see, and that was ok, although yes, I realized we were not seeing a lot of the intervening country where that hardness persists. I would rather have spent more time in those places, but that will be for the next time.\n\nTHanks for reading!\n\nDan\n\nNice photographs Dan which reflect well known tourist spots in Cuba. Glad you enjoyed your visit.\n\nBecause they are tourist hot-spots the restoration of which has been paid for by UNESCO, Habana Vieja and Trinidad display an appearance of semi-prosperity which belies the reality of much of Cuba.\n\nIf for example, you had visited La Lisa in Havana, or Pinar del Rio you would have seen the hard reality of life for the average Cuban.\n\nThe local populations of both Habana Vieja and Trinidad benefit enormously from tourism. Whereas only ten years ago, Trinidad had some 45 Casa Particulars, it now has over 300 and at least a couple of dozen paladars. Four years ago the hotel next door to the Iberostar was in a state of ruin \u2013 restored it now charges 180 CUC per night. Only two years ago the price of a Bucanero in a trova was 1 CUC \u2013 it is now 2 CUC. The return ticket to Playa d\u2019Ancon was 2 CUC. Now it is 5 CUC. There has in consequence been an economic trickle down effect. The kids playing soccer have a proper ball, the bicycles are modern not the usual incredibly heavy iron ones that were imported from China. But if you go to the Cuba where most Cubans live, the kids playing baseball are using a stone wrapped in cloth as a ball and a rough stick as a bat.\n\nI am not criticizing your observations Dan, but if you return, do try to get away from the tourist hot-spots and see and record that hard reality of life for the average Cuban.\n\nI expect that Cubans who move abroad will miss many aspects of their life in Cuba.\n\nBut, while I cannot claim to be an expert, I think many Cubans are worn down by privation and the daily struggle for the means of life. By no means did all Cubans look happy to me.\n\nA friend of mine who spent quite a bit of time in Cuba was told that if she got rid of her back pack and looked tired and harried, she could pass for Cuban.\n\nSky, thanks for your comment. I really don\u2019t mean to sound naive, or to idealize any of the conditions that Cuban people don\u2019t like. I know there are problems in Cuban society, just as in any society\u2013and I know that smiling faces do not mean that everyone is always happy, or that some kids walking to school peacefully mean that all kids do that.\n\nOne thing I have been thinking about since visiting Cuba is that for every thing we have been taught about Cuba in a negative way, as kids growing up in the US or as adults who hear and see things in the media, we have a version of that \u2018problem\u2019 in the US, but we usually call it something else. Struggles, poverty, dissent, sadness, frustration, alienation, hopelessness\u2026those things don\u2019t go away with money or the choice of political system\u2026and depression and anxiety seem to be inherent in the modern human condition, even if there is a Cuban version and a US version that might be explained differently, or considered to arise from different causes. I hope it does not come across that my article\u2019s conclusions are simplistic or condescending\u2013I am not saying that smiling faces and colorful clothing = an idyllic country with happy people. But\u2026I was impressed that in spite of problems, so many Cubans we met seemed to be fairly happy people and not obsessed with their own problems\u2013as best we could tell from meeting people. I kept trying to imagine how a Cuban person visiting the US would be treated, and would feel\u2013and I do believe your country scores a lot higher on that one\u2026those are the kind of bottom line measures I was trying to point out.\n\nI am sure there are many Cubans\u2013and people from any other country that is visited by tourists\u2013who basically want to say \u201cyou think it\u2019s so nice here, but you have no idea\u201d. I felt that way in Cuba when people would speak so highly of visiting NY City\u2013I grew up near there, and to me it is crowded, polluted, over-rated, expensive, and in many ways charmless and impersonal. Yes it\u2019s a \u2018great\u2019 city, but there\u2019s clearly some relativism at work: I\u2019d rather visit Havana than NYC at this point in my life. I would guess many Cubans would say the same about wanting to visit NYC.\n\nSome of the photos I took are definitely part of the mobile experience of being in Cuba for a short time and trying to see as much as possible\u2013I wish we could have spent a month in one locale and \u2018moved in\u2019 a bit more. Yes many photos are impromptu or spontaneous. I know there is some risk in taking candid photos, that they might seem voyeuristic or hasty, or that they risk the cliche I was pointing out. And I worry about that with many of the photos I take. With my own family at home, I much prefer to take photos without staging them or setting them up\u2013and many of those might lack a bit of composition or appear to lack engagement, but my hope is that they gain something else, which I guess is just that spontaneity. Anyway I appreciate your thoughts and welcome them, and would also welcome a continued conversation with you! Peace,\n\nDan\n\nI want to go back. There are so many interesting places to visit. The men are hot. The people are lovely , and unlike some U.S. cities, I feel safe walking around.\n\nSurely it is the contrary to what the author says: it is easy to generalise and to project a subjective \u2018analysis\u2019 of the lives of people snapped. Our 13 year old neighbour has a really difficult time getting to his school in Miramar from Centro Habana. He needs leave at 6am to be sure of getting to school on time. It makes for a long day\u2026 People might be smiling but depression and anxiety are massive problems in Cuba.\n\nI understand that the unique experience of going to Cuba, so long forbidden fruit to Americans can make tourists want to record anything and everything. A lot of these photos appear to have been hastily snapped from afar and there is little of the engagement the author talks about. Also For it to really work, street photography needs to be sharp, well composed, insightful, thought provoking and even humorous (though not at the expense of any subject), otherwise as the author recognises, it is easy to snap cliches. And Cuba does not need any more cliches.\n\nHey Dan,\n\nSome great photos.\n\nWonderful use of light and colour.\n\nI\u2019m from the UK and Cuba has been a \u2018second home\u2019 to me for a good many years now.\n\nVery interesting to get your first impressions in words and photos.\n\nIt strikes me that you have managed to capture something Cuban and non touristy.\n\nSmile on my face.\n\nThanks.\n\nGreat article. Thank you Dan. I visited Cuba for the first time 3 years ago. Have been there 14 times since then\u2026 for those same reasons that you described so well in your article..\n\nWonderful glimpse. I want the USA to return to full cooperation/friendship with Cuba. The \u2018electric wiring\u2019 over streets and sidewalks looks scary. The people are beautiful." + }, + { + "title": "What Life Is Like for Jews in Cuba - Tikvah Ideas", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "What Life Is Like for Jews in Cuba - Tikvah Ideas" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMihgFBVV95cUxQZ0hmaWFuWUloT0pmYkY4UEpyMC1FanU3RlItalc0a28yUHZaSVJkaktmWlhGOUVodk55dlpZeWxNSFhtdlpYd3NWN0NvMjlHb201Y3Jrb0szVkR1WG5QOXMwc3FkX1d6eVhCRDBQUTViR3NPU2ZFQnVjVXdOaFotY21mVkljZw?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.gq.com/story/how-to-plan-cuba-trip-advice", + "id": "CBMihgFBVV95cUxQZ0hmaWFuWUloT0pmYkY4UEpyMC1FanU3RlItalc0a28yUHZaSVJkaktmWlhGOUVodk55dlpZeWxNSFhtdlpYd3NWN0NvMjlHb201Y3Jrb0szVkR1WG5QOXMwc3FkX1d6eVhCRDBQUTViR3NPU2ZFQnVjVXdOaFotY21mVkljZw", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Thu, 11 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 11, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 3, + 131, + 0 + ], + "summary": "What Life Is Like for Jews in Cuba  Tikvah Ideas", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "What Life Is Like for Jews in Cuba  Tikvah Ideas" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://ideas.tikvah.org", + "title": "Tikvah Ideas" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Everything You Need to Know About Planning a Trip to Cuba\nauthor: Molly McArdle\nurl: https://www.gq.com/story/how-to-plan-cuba-trip-advice\nhostname: gq.com\ndescription: Want to look extremely stylish in a vintage Cadillac and wide-brimmed hat? Cool. But you need to know this stuff first.\nsitename: GQ\ndate: 2017-05-07\ncategories: ['culture']\n---\nThere\u2019s no place in the world like Cuba, particularly right now. Only 103 miles away from the United States (that\u2019s about the distance between New York City and Philadelphia), the largest island in the Caribbean has lived through a complicated estrangement from its nearest neighbor since 1961. What Americans call \u201cthe embargo,\u201d and what Cubans call \u201cthe blockade,\u201d has arguably done more (or at least as much) to shape Cuba\u2019s present as its 1959 revolution. Since President Obama lifted many of the longstanding travel restrictions for U.S. citizens when he restored diplomatic ties with Cuba in 2015, Americans are now able to experience a country that, in the 1950s, they flooded with tourists. (Now Cuba is probably flooding your Instagram feed.) What has happened since that high-rolling (and often mob-backed) heyday for American travel is a little paradoxical: Almost nothing has changed, and almost everything has.\n\nMany Americans describe Cuba as being lost or frozen in time, and this is true\u2014while Havana is a magnetic, lively city, there\u2019s been very little new construction since 1959. But Cuba also wears those six decades, more or less, on its sleeve\u2014the half-century-old cars chugging around the city neither look, nor sound, new. The ripple effect of U.S.-Cuban relations touches almost everything having to do with the island, from the paperwork you have to fill out before your Havana-bound flight to the dearth of shampoo and toilet paper once you arrive. (We recommend you bring your own.) If relations continue to thaw, travel will likely become easier for American visitors, but in the meantime, you\u2019ll get the most out of your Cuba trip if you plan ahead. Here are all the nitty-gritty, unsexy details you\u2019ll need to know before you leave.\n\nHere\u2019s the good news: All the paperwork you have to do can be handled at the airport before departure. Tourist travel remains prohibited for U.S. citizens, but most trips fall under one or more categories of \u201cauthorized travel\u201d permitted by the U.S. government. If you plan, on your visit to Cuba, to hear live music, you can confidently check off \u201cpublic performances\u201d as your reason for travel. If you plan to stay in a \u201ccasa particular,\u201d accommodations provided by a private family, you can check off \u201csupport for the Cuban people.\u201d If you plan to visit a museum, you can check off \u201ceducational activities.\u201d\n\nThe Cuban government, on the other hand, welcomes you as a tourist. Some airlines allow you to purchase your $50 Cuban tourist card, which you\u2019ll pick up at the airport, ahead of time. Other airlines will sell the card to you at the airport before your departure (and some will tack on a processing fee). If filling the tourist card out by hand, write with care\u2014if you cross anything out, you have to buy a new one. Make sure to keep it somewhere safe: You\u2019ll present the card upon your arrival in Havana, and again when you leave the country. If you lose it, you have to buy a new one. Not fun.\n\nCuba has two currencies, the CUP\u2014the peso that most Cubans earn and use\u2014and the CUC\u2014which is linked to the American dollar and which is what tourists use. (You get *one* cuck joke. Use it now. Get it out of your system.) This system exists so that tourists don't inflate costs for normal Cubans and so that Cubans can charge tourists prices they are used to paying\u2014creating what's essentially a local price and a tourist price. For instance, a Cuban might pay the equivalent of 5 cents to go to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, but an American tourist would pay the equivalent of 5 dollars. Expect to pay in CUCs, and make sure the change you receive is in CUCs, too.\n\nIn Cuba, you can't use credit or debit cards from U.S.-based banks. (Even if you do have a non-U.S. bank, few places take cards.) This means you have to bring *all* your money with you on the plane. And be sure to ask for new bills from your bank: The Cuban government will not take wrinkled, torn, or old bills. Cuba also charges a 10 percent fee for American currency\u2014you can try to get around this by bringing Canadian dollars or euros; the exchange rates for those will often work out to be less than the dollar exchange rate plus the 10 percent fee. But do your research, and check exchange rates before you travel.\n\nSo how much should you bring? Havana is cheaper than, say, New York, but still within the same realm of cost. So, no $15 cocktails, but expect to pay $3\u2013$8 for a mojito or daiquiri. Taxi rides will likely be your biggest expense: They can range between $10 and $30 for inter-Havana travel. Budgets will vary depending on the traveler and the itinerary, but if you have paid for your lodging ahead of time, planning on $200 per day for two people is a safe bet, plus another $200 for emergencies. It\u2019s better to bring too much than too little.\n\nIn Cuba, tourists can choose between services offered by the government or by private individual. In general, you will always get a better deal and higher quality when you go with private enterprise, particularly when deciding where to stay.\n\nHotels in Cuba are government-owned, either entirely or partially (though some are operated by foreign companies). Havana has some truly beautiful old hotels built before the Revolution\u2014the Saratoga, the Nacional\u2014which are arguably worth the extra expense. Still, a real taste of Cuban life can be found by staying with actual Cuban citizens in their homes, a style of accommodation called a *casa particular*. Casas are also a great place for food: Almost all offer delicious and huge breakfasts for about 5 CUC per person. Most casas also serve dinner, which are some of the most affordable, generous, and best-tasting meals you\u2019ll find in Cuba. Meals for two often look like they could feed a family of at least four. AirBnB is a dependable, but not the only, way to book and pay for a casa particular ahead of time.\n\nThere are about 150,000 cars in Cuba, a country of 11 million, and a big percentage of them are nearly 70 years old. They are a precious and limited resource in Cuba\u2014expect to pay commensurately. A cab from the airport into Old Havana should cost at most 30 CUC. You can arrange for cars ahead of time through your hotel or casa, but in Havana there are taxis everywhere and everyone wants to give you a ride. It's worth planning ahead if you have a particular schedule to keep to, or you want to lock in a specific price, or you want to ride in a specific car. Your casa or hotel will likely be able to help you out here. The quality of cars varies really widely, from dreamy candy-colored Cadillacs that have been lovingly cared for to fume-filled Soviet wrecks that look like they drove out of *Mad Max*. Also, say goodbye to seatbelts.\n\nIf you\u2019d like to travel outside of Havana, you have a few options.\n\n**Rent a car.** Rental cars are the only new cars on the island, so you won't have to worry about getting a vehicle in bad repair. There are also so few cars on the island, period, that you don't really have to worry about other drivers outside of Havana. You\u2019re not going to run into a gridlock on the interstate.\n\n**Hire a private car.** A private car ride from Havana to Vi\u00f1ales, a rural tourist town about two and a half hours away, can cost at least 100 CUCs. You can arrange and pay for one online through the Cuban government before you leave, or you can arrange for one once you arrive, but making arrangements in person will give you the greatest flexibility and the most freedom to negotiate.\n\n**Take a taxi collectivo,** which is a shared private car. Prices are comparable to the official bus routes, but you have more flexibility with regard to pick-up time and location. In Havana, it\u2019s easy to arrange a\n\n*taxi collectivo*outside the city\u2019s Viazul bus station, but it\u2019s a conversation you can broach with any taxi driver. (If they can\u2019t give you a ride, they certainly will know someone who can.) A\n\n*taxi collectivo*from Havana to Vi\u00f1ales can cost about 20 CUC per person, and they can pick you up and drop you off at your accommodations.\n\n**Ride on the tourist-only Viazul bus.** Cheaper than a *taxi collectivo* (it costs 12 CUC per person from Vi\u00f1ales to Havana) and often more comfortable, the buses are new, air conditioned, and plush. The ride takes a bit longer, because it makes several stops and you have to get yourself to and from the station. You can buy tickets online ahead of your trip, but only a limited number are available for sale on the Internet: A bus that appears to be sold out online probably isn't sold out in person; you can always go to the station in person to check.\n\n**Buy a ticket for an inclusive tour.** Many companies offer tours from Havana to other parts of the island. Many people, for instance, visit Vi\u00f1ales by way of a day tour from Havana. On the plus side, you are more likely to be interacting with English speakers and you don't have to worry about making all the arrangements yourself. On the minus side, you may get a rushed or cursory experience of the place you are traveling to.\n\nAs with lodging, private is better than government when it comes to food. Take advantage of the meals your *casa* offers: cheap, delicious, plentiful, and flexible to your schedule. Outside of *casas*, the best places to eat food are restaurants known as *paladars*. Originally conceived as private homes that offered meals for purchase, the *paladar* industry has gotten so big that you won't ever mistake one for someone's private home.\n\nThe best paladars, especially in Havana, require a reservation. Do this ahead of time\u2014many have websites and all have phone numbers. (The best way to call a Cuban landline is by using the Skype app for your cell phone.) The best and most successful restaurants all have plenty of English speakers employed, so you don't have to worry about the language barrier to make those phone calls. Once you arrive in Cuba, have your *casa* host or someone at your hotel reconfirm all your reservations by phone. Paladar owners realize that plans often change once people arrive in Cuba; they will drop your reservation if they don\u2019t hear from you. Plan to tip 10 percent on meals.\n\nAn important note to keep you mobile and happy: According to my *casa particular* host, you can only drink the tap water if it has been boiled. A lot of casas will offer boiled water in a central location (like their kitchen, or in a fridge), or else will provide bottled water for purchase or included with your room.\n\nSpanish is extremely useful here, but not mandatory. People manage to make themselves understood, one way or another. That being said, even just a few words can make a big difference. It\u2019s worth breaking out (or downloading) some flashcards. Unless you are fluent, make sure you have the Spanish language dictionary for the Google Translate app downloaded on your phone. It's a little awkward, but better than being completely unable to express yourself.\n\nYes, there are a few places to get access to the Internet in Cuba, but why not just give up? You\u2019re not going to get a better excuse not to check your e-mail than being in Cuba. Put your phone on airplane mode, and just use it to take pictures, punch something into Google Translate, take notes, or look at maps. Maps.Me will allow you to download searchable maps of Cuba to use offline. You\u2019ll be able to use it to find businesses and addresses and to get directions, even in airplane mode.\n\nIf you insist on using the Internet, there are many Wi-Fi hotspots available across the country\u2014often around tourist-heavy areas (the airport, hotels) or in parks; you buy access to them by the hour, which is easiest to do at the front desk of a hotel. You'll receive a card with a temporary login and password; then you connect to the network with \"ETECSA\" in the name. After you join the Wi-Fi network, click on the \"Learn more about...\" link to bring up the login page.\n\nTo use the phone in Cuba, ask your hotel or casa host. They'll also make phone calls for you on your behalf, if you need to confirm a reservation or order a taxi.\n\nHavana is one of the safest cities in the world, and Cubans (as much as this can be said of any nation of millions of people) are very friendly. However, because the disparity between the CUP (the Cuban peso) and the CUC (the tourist currency) is so large, it is *highly* advantageous for anyone in the proximity of a tourist to try and earn their money. Taxi drivers and casa owners can make more money in a day than a doctor\u2014the highest-paid government position in Cuba\u2014makes in two months. As a result, in tourist-heavy areas, you\u2019ll likely be approached pretty constantly by people who want to offer you a taxi, show you a menu for a restaurant, sell you cigars, or lead you to a good music spot for a tip. You can either ignore (faster but more rude) and they'll leave you alone, or engage in conversation but explain why you won't be taking them up on their offer (pleasant but time-consuming). If you are interested in what they are trying to sell you (this goes for taxis in particular), don't be afraid to haggle.\n\nOne group of people to always give money to, however, is musicians: Small groups will often set up in public establishments, play a few songs, and then pass around a basket for donations. It\u2019s appropriate to pay between $1 and $5 per basket-pass, and it\u2019s one of the most wonderful parts about walking around Havana." + }, + { + "title": "1968: the liberation of Cuba as seen through the Luc\u00eda Triptych - Festival de Cannes", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "1968: the liberation of Cuba as seen through the Luc\u00eda Triptych - Festival de Cannes" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMipgFBVV95cUxPSUtEOG5sQTlxWDR0RDdkc1BJNjIzT05IRUZrT2xPM1pUZ1ExUUtOYTBMdHNWSktDQVFPRkd5ME4tUVByTHVIR0FYdTRSaVJyT2Rac0RoR2xIeHhVdUtrZ2o3aFpBT1p0d21hdk10MTBsZHFCTVVYcTY3Vko3eGpnNEdwVXpVVnJSSlN3aVc5Q1BmR0tIc3REcktUdGVYMHpnblowVnl3?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://ideas.tikvah.org/mosaic/observations/what-life-is-like-for-jews-in-cuba", + "id": "CBMipgFBVV95cUxPSUtEOG5sQTlxWDR0RDdkc1BJNjIzT05IRUZrT2xPM1pUZ1ExUUtOYTBMdHNWSktDQVFPRkd5ME4tUVByTHVIR0FYdTRSaVJyT2Rac0RoR2xIeHhVdUtrZ2o3aFpBT1p0d21hdk10MTBsZHFCTVVYcTY3Vko3eGpnNEdwVXpVVnJSSlN3aVc5Q1BmR0tIc3REcktUdGVYMHpnblowVnl3", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Sat, 27 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 27, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 5, + 147, + 0 + ], + "summary": "1968: the liberation of Cuba as seen through the Luc\u00eda Triptych  Festival de Cannes", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "1968: the liberation of Cuba as seen through the Luc\u00eda Triptych  Festival de Cannes" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.festival-cannes.com", + "title": "Festival de Cannes" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: What Life Is Like for Jews in Cuba\nauthor: Dovid Margolin\nurl: https://ideas.tikvah.org/mosaic/observations/what-life-is-like-for-jews-in-cuba\nhostname: tikvah.org\ndescription: Now that Americans can easily visit the \"Latin paradise,\" I jumped at the opportunity to see first-hand the reality of life for its few remaining Jews. It isn't pretty.\nsitename: Mosaic\ndate: 2017-05-11\ncategories: ['Observations']\n---\nMay 11, 2017\n\n# What Life Is Like for Jews in Cuba\n\nNow that Americans can easily visit the \"Latin paradise,\" I jumped at the opportunity to see first-hand the reality of life for its few remaining Jews. It isn't pretty.\n\nLess than four hours from New York by plane, the dreamy island destination of Cuba\u2014fabled home to vintage American cars, Hemingway mojitos, and charming pastel-colored buildings, and so long closed off to the average American\u2014is easy to get to today. I landed in Havana on the December 2016 day when Fidel Castro\u2019s ashes were buried in the city of Santa Clara, the culmination of nine days of state-imposed, nation-wide mourning.\n\nFor generations of leftists, Havana\u2019s fading glory\u2014so unlike the austere grayness of the former Communist eastern bloc\u2014carried a special allure; Cuba under Castro, wrote the late French historian Fran\u00e7ois Furet, \u201crepresented a Latin paradise and communitarian warmth.\u201d Now that Americans can easily visit this \u201cLatin paradise,\u201d where the propaganda posters continue to function as ever-present reminders of just who\u2019s boss\u2014yesterday Fidel, today his brother Ra\u00fal\u2014I jumped at the opportunity to see first-hand the realities of life for, in particular, its remaining Jews.\n\nThroughout its lifespan as a Communist nation, the Soviet Union held captive one of the largest Jewish populations on earth. By contrast, 94 percent of Cuba\u2019s Jewish community left soon after Castro\u2019s revolution, escaping to the freedom of the United States or Israel. If Jews and Jewish groups visiting their brethren in the Soviet Union back in the 70s and 80s brought books, ritual objects, or humanitarian aid and returned with news of fear, oppression, and poverty, many of today\u2019s Jewish travelers to Communist Cuba return with a message considerably more upbeat." + }, + { + "title": "Margarita de Sa\u00e1 White, Cuban Ballerina and Beloved Ballet Teacher, Dies at 77 - Dance Magazine", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Margarita de Sa\u00e1 White, Cuban Ballerina and Beloved Ballet Teacher, Dies at 77 - Dance Magazine" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMingFBVV95cUxONGxCdGhteVNkTFRsMzFGTVNrU1VwSEw0b3BwQ0gtQTFRWXp2WjhoOWM3NVdQWFdKb2pwanFadmQzbDFhQ05odHotQTJ5WTRTMGRRUi1oNGZuOGJhVzd2MEN5M2I2a3ZkY2N6UlRyN1hPZEFDZXRwV1FPaTlDcC1mNVNubGZ1bnZJZ2JfTEt0VV9oT0UzTWhMQU5Nemo3dw?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2017/1968-the-liberation-of-cuba-as-seen-through-the-lucia-triptych/", + "id": "CBMingFBVV95cUxONGxCdGhteVNkTFRsMzFGTVNrU1VwSEw0b3BwQ0gtQTFRWXp2WjhoOWM3NVdQWFdKb2pwanFadmQzbDFhQ05odHotQTJ5WTRTMGRRUi1oNGZuOGJhVzd2MEN5M2I2a3ZkY2N6UlRyN1hPZEFDZXRwV1FPaTlDcC1mNVNubGZ1bnZJZ2JfTEt0VV9oT0UzTWhMQU5Nemo3dw", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Sun, 14 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 14, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 6, + 134, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Margarita de Sa\u00e1 White, Cuban Ballerina and Beloved Ballet Teacher, Dies at 77  Dance Magazine", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Margarita de Sa\u00e1 White, Cuban Ballerina and Beloved Ballet Teacher, Dies at 77  Dance Magazine" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://dancemagazine.com", + "title": "Dance Magazine" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: 1968: the liberation of Cuba as seen through the Luc\u00eda Triptych - Festival de Cannes\nauthor: Festivaldecannes\nurl: https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2017/1968-the-liberation-of-cuba-as-seen-through-the-lucia-triptych/\nhostname: festival-cannes.com\ndescription: A Luc\u00eda for each era. Each character captures a different era in Cuban history and a different social class. The first, played by Raquel Revueta,\nsitename: Festival de Cannes\ndate: 2017-05-27\ncategories: ['Official Selection']\n---\n# 1968: the liberation of Cuba as seen through the Luc\u00eda Triptych\n\nOne name \u2013 three different women... *Luc\u00eda* was the first feature film by Cuban genius Humberto Sol\u00e1s. The film is divided into three distinct parts, each with its own aim and backdrop, charting the history of three Cuban women, and in fact of all Cubans, at key moments in the country's liberation.\n\n**A Luc\u00eda for each era**. Each character captures a different era in Cuban history and a different social class. The first, played by Raquel Revueta, lives in the throes of the independence war with Spain in 1895. Then comes Eslinda N\u00fa\u00f1ez as Luc\u00eda in the 1930s, active in the struggle against the dictator Machado, and finally Adela Legr\u00e1, at the start of the Cuban Revolution.\n\n**A crowning film**. Luc\u00eda was the film that ensured Humberto Sol\u00e1s's place in cinema history. Critics saw inspirations in it from Visconti to Kurosawa, and acclaimed the film's fiery spirit, intelligent grammar and precise realism. The director was hailed for his daring filmmaking with this celebration of the liberation of a people and denunciation of an uncompromisingly macho society.\n\n**Humberto Sol\u00e1s raised the game of Cuban cinema**. He was just 18 when he made his first short film. With *Luc\u00eda*, he embarked on a motion picture novel dedicated to uban history, often seen through female eyes, which reached its apogee in *Cecilia *(presented in Competition at Cannes in 1982). Before his death in 2008, Humberto Sol\u00e1s created the curious Poor Film Festival, dedicated to low-budget and alternative films, in the unknown village of Gibara." + }, + { + "title": "In a first, Cuba loses patience with Trump\u2019s \u201cridiculous\u201d statements - EL PA\u00cdS English", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "In a first, Cuba loses patience with Trump\u2019s \u201cridiculous\u201d statements - EL PA\u00cdS English" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMigwFBVV95cUxNRTZXNnpnd3FfNDhlQkgwLTZHaHZVRHpHZTI2eUxMOHBudm9QZDhzbDRTQVkzSEQ0NHRQT3lUNG0ybGptdHRmZENGVHE3QllWLWJqaElQQmFOWFBHTzV4cGtwb1o4S05CRWpXT2JyR2xGN1NoMmdybUJ3WG02TXZJS0VzSdIBlwFBVV95cUxOV2RleFJ4TVRLY3M0OXVQd2dEakZvaTB4YmRNVW1RbW1LY0o0SnBtcnhqX0E4Y3QxQzRqbVV0TGRkZWNBazdFRHdQYmNwb0pJVmhqdHYyaS1CRVhxNzkzMWhSeWw4YzlDMnRnSXhsdFcwRWtFV25FMi1TLVdKa1EzVVhYeFowSmtFdnY5NUxUeENfWjVNeHFB?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://dancemagazine.com/margarita-de-saa-white-cuban-ballerina-and-beloved-ballet-teacher-dies/", + "id": "CBMigwFBVV95cUxNRTZXNnpnd3FfNDhlQkgwLTZHaHZVRHpHZTI2eUxMOHBudm9QZDhzbDRTQVkzSEQ0NHRQT3lUNG0ybGptdHRmZENGVHE3QllWLWJqaElQQmFOWFBHTzV4cGtwb1o4S05CRWpXT2JyR2xGN1NoMmdybUJ3WG02TXZJS0VzSdIBlwFBVV95cUxOV2RleFJ4TVRLY3M0OXVQd2dEakZvaTB4YmRNVW1RbW1LY0o0SnBtcnhqX0E4Y3QxQzRqbVV0TGRkZWNBazdFRHdQYmNwb0pJVmhqdHYyaS1CRVhxNzkzMWhSeWw4YzlDMnRnSXhsdFcwRWtFV25FMi1TLVdKa1EzVVhYeFowSmtFdnY5NUxUeENfWjVNeHFB", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Mon, 22 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 22, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 0, + 142, + 0 + ], + "summary": "In a first, Cuba loses patience with Trump\u2019s \u201cridiculous\u201d statements  EL PA\u00cdS English", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "In a first, Cuba loses patience with Trump\u2019s \u201cridiculous\u201d statements  EL PA\u00cdS English" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://english.elpais.com", + "title": "EL PA\u00cdS English" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 403, + "response": "Error: HTTP 403" + }, + { + "title": "Cuba unplugged: Just 90 miles from Florida, another world awaits - Steamboat Pilot", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba unplugged: Just 90 miles from Florida, another world awaits - Steamboat Pilot" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMioAFBVV95cUxQNFUyNnlYV2w0elNtbGpjcE9XSlRjU3h6dTJUeGN6cWdaYTVsVmI1Y1hPdFluNjl2SjV2WVlndXdaWWhOSXN0OHN6alRKbDhwTDZnbmVjXzFmRW5DTlZITG9QQU9NVTZjOU9ENlRNUGYxMkdodksweVF2NXZUcF9LeHhyOFhsYkItQjNJY1R5S1JlN3piTjhNaktOWjdERVFG?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2017/05/22/inenglish/1495462290_428970.html", + "id": "CBMioAFBVV95cUxQNFUyNnlYV2w0elNtbGpjcE9XSlRjU3h6dTJUeGN6cWdaYTVsVmI1Y1hPdFluNjl2SjV2WVlndXdaWWhOSXN0OHN6alRKbDhwTDZnbmVjXzFmRW5DTlZITG9QQU9NVTZjOU9ENlRNUGYxMkdodksweVF2NXZUcF9LeHhyOFhsYkItQjNJY1R5S1JlN3piTjhNaktOWjdERVFG", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Sun, 14 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 14, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 6, + 134, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Cuba unplugged: Just 90 miles from Florida, another world awaits  Steamboat Pilot", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba unplugged: Just 90 miles from Florida, another world awaits  Steamboat Pilot" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.steamboatpilot.com", + "title": "Steamboat Pilot" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: In a first, Cuba loses patience with Trump\u2019s \u201cridiculous\u201d statements\nauthor: Pablo de Llano Neira\nurl: https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2017/05/22/inenglish/1495462290_428970.html\nhostname: elpais.com\ndescription: US president criticizes regime on Independence Day; Havana chides \u201cmillionaire-tycoon-turned-president\u201d\nsitename: Ediciones EL PA\u00cdS S.L.\ndate: 2017-05-22\ncategories: ['International']\n---\n# In a first, Cuba loses patience with Trump\u2019s \u201cridiculous\u201d statements\n\nUS president criticizes regime on Independence Day; Havana chides \u201cmillionaire-tycoon-turned-president\u201d\n\nFor the first time, the Cuban government has responded to US President Donald Trump in an exasperated tone. On Saturday, when the island nation was observing the anniversary of the creation of the Republic of Cuba on May 20, 1902, the White House released a statement from Trump \u201cto the Cuban-American community and to the people of Cuba\u201d stating that historical figures such as the Cuban patriot Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed \u201cremind us that cruel despotism cannot extinguish the flame of freedom in the hearts of Cubans.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Cuban people deserve a government that peacefully upholds democratic values, economic liberties, religious freedoms, and human rights, and my Administration is committed to achieving that vision,\u201d reads the statement.\n\nJust hours later, Cuban television aired a reply that derided Trump\u2019s message as \u201cridiculous\u201d and \u201cill-advised.\u201d Cuban authorities criticized \u201cthe contradictory, blundering statements by the millionaire-magnate-turned-president on matters of foreign and domestic policy.\u201d\n\nThis recent verbal scuffle could set the tone for a future relationship defined by an ill-humored pragmatism\n\nUp until now, the Ra\u00fal Castro administration had exercised self-restraint in the face of Trump\u2019s criticism. This verbal clash is the first direct falling out between both countries since the new US president took office, and it represents a harsh change of tone in bilateral relations following the diplomatic normalization that began in December 2014 under then-president Barack Obama.\n\nUnder Trump, who has spoken \u2013 both before and after his election victory \u2013 of the possibility of backtracking on his predecessor\u2019s overtures to Cuba if Havana did not respect civil liberties, bilateral relations have entered a period of unease until the White House defines its Cuba policy.\n\nCuban-American political power, which remains loyal to Miami exiles\u2019 traditional demands for Washington to be tough on Havana, is pressuring the president in this direction, although his administration is not expected to go much further than verbal political denunciation and the odd minor corrective measure. This is because half of all Cuban-American voters support a normalization of relations, and because there is significant US business interest in continuing with the thaw.\n\nThis recent verbal scuffle could set the tone for a future relationship defined by an ill-humored pragmatism under which both governments would direct barbs at one another but make no politically significant moves \u2013 or it could herald a regression to the days of open hostility that could eventually have real political repercussions.\n\nEnglish version by Susana Urra.\n\n## Tu suscripci\u00f3n se est\u00e1 usando en otro dispositivo\n\n\u00bfQuieres a\u00f1adir otro usuario a tu suscripci\u00f3n?\n\nSi contin\u00faas leyendo en este dispositivo, no se podr\u00e1 leer en el otro.\n\nFlecha## Tu suscripci\u00f3n se est\u00e1 usando en otro dispositivo y solo puedes acceder a EL PA\u00cdS desde un dispositivo a la vez.\n\nSi quieres compartir tu cuenta, cambia tu suscripci\u00f3n a la modalidad Premium, as\u00ed podr\u00e1s a\u00f1adir otro usuario. Cada uno acceder\u00e1 con su propia cuenta de email, lo que os permitir\u00e1 personalizar vuestra experiencia en EL PA\u00cdS.\n\n\u00bfTienes una suscripci\u00f3n de empresa? Accede aqu\u00ed para contratar m\u00e1s cuentas.\n\nEn el caso de no saber qui\u00e9n est\u00e1 usando tu cuenta, te recomendamos cambiar tu contrase\u00f1a aqu\u00ed.\n\nSi decides continuar compartiendo tu cuenta, este mensaje se mostrar\u00e1 en tu dispositivo y en el de la otra persona que est\u00e1 usando tu cuenta de forma indefinida, afectando a tu experiencia de lectura. Puedes consultar aqu\u00ed los t\u00e9rminos y condiciones de la suscripci\u00f3n digital.\n\n**nombre y apellido**para comentarcompletar datos" + }, + { + "title": "Cuban-Canadian Grammy winner Alex Cuba sparks the heart with his new, crazy good album - NBC News", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuban-Canadian Grammy winner Alex Cuba sparks the heart with his new, crazy good album - NBC News" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiqgFBVV95cUxQSUtNWFRkelhnX0pPcTRfb3lKSFJISVp6czA3WjZiUTM0UWxjZjNVWHo5VFA5am9sckQ4RGsyWHRxWEhpUmoyUlI3NDBxSndjaGJKMGMyR040TFIxRUgxZ3Rwc1p5Qk9XNXNMOG5FNzh4X21SOXI3WXhTZ1dXS2RKLU5kcFQ4ZDZwNVFWR2NrOVdfSUVtM3VTbjEyWnBLREtnUXJoRkpfUlk1dw?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/cuba-unplugged-just-90-miles-from-florida-another-world-awaits/", + "id": "CBMiqgFBVV95cUxQSUtNWFRkelhnX0pPcTRfb3lKSFJISVp6czA3WjZiUTM0UWxjZjNVWHo5VFA5am9sckQ4RGsyWHRxWEhpUmoyUlI3NDBxSndjaGJKMGMyR040TFIxRUgxZ3Rwc1p5Qk9XNXNMOG5FNzh4X21SOXI3WXhTZ1dXS2RKLU5kcFQ4ZDZwNVFWR2NrOVdfSUVtM3VTbjEyWnBLREtnUXJoRkpfUlk1dw", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Wed, 17 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 17, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 2, + 137, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Cuban-Canadian Grammy winner Alex Cuba sparks the heart with his new, crazy good album  NBC News", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuban-Canadian Grammy winner Alex Cuba sparks the heart with his new, crazy good album  NBC News" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.nbcnews.com", + "title": "NBC News" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Cuba unplugged: Just 90 miles from Florida, another world awaits\nauthor: Staff\nurl: https://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/cuba-unplugged-just-90-miles-from-florida-another-world-awaits/\nhostname: steamboatpilot.com\ndescription: I almost didn\u2019t make it into Cuba.\nsitename: SteamboatToday.com\ndate: 2017-05-14\ncategories: ['Rentals', 'Real estate', 'Autos', 'Service Directory', 'Real Estate', 'Pets', 'Recreation', 'Merchandise']\n---\n# Cuba unplugged: Just 90 miles from Florida, another world awaits\n\nSteamboat Springs \u2014 I almost didn\u2019t make it into Cuba.\n\nSometime around 4:30 a.m., Steamboat Springs time, in early April, I was jolted awake from my nap on the floor of the Miami International Airport by a loud announcement on the loud speaker.\n\nA gate attendant informed anyone who didn\u2019t have a Cuban visa to come to the podium.\n\nI thought I had done all of the research and came prepared with letters from my editor and a copy of a newspaper to prove I was a working journalist.\n\nThe $60 per night Airbnb across the street from the sea was all booked, and my travel insurance cards were printed.\n\nSo I was perplexed when the gate agent insisted I still needed a tourist travel visa.\n\nFoggy and still tired from a redeye flight to Miami from Denver, panic started to set in.\n\nAs the departure time approached, it became apparent I would need to go to the other side of the Miami airport, buy an unplanned $100 travel visa and make it back through security in time for my flight.\n\nLuckily and oddly, there were no lines.\n\nOn the quick flight into Havana, I worried about what might happen if there was another piece of paperwork I missed, and what would happen if they wouldn\u2019t let me into Cuba.\n\nI spent the last minutes of internet access I would have for four days finding conflicting news reports about whether it would be wise to proclaim I was a journalist or just say I was a tourist.\n\nWould the 360-camera I had in my bag set off alarms?\n\nWas I destined to spend a day, maybe two, waiting at an airport?\n\nThis was no ordinary flight and no ordinary vacation.\n\n**A time capsule**\n\nWhen the airplane touched down nine miles from downtown Havana, almost everyone on our Frontier Airlines flight started clapping and cheering.\n\nThey also promptly ignored the pilot\u2019s request to stay seated and buckled until the airplane reached the gate.\n\nIt was as if everyone on this flight was part of one big family.\n\nCubans, as I would quickly learn, are very friendly and social. They are always laughing and socializing.\n\nAnd without the constant distraction of smartphones and tablets, they seem to be more engaged with each other.\n\nWhen an American steps outside of the Jose Marti Airport in Havana, they instantly step into a different world.\n\nThe smell of diesel fuel and gas fumes are overpowering.\n\nSoviet-era flatbed trucks rumble down the streets carrying workers and agriculture equipment.\n\nHispanic music fills the air.\n\nAnd the flurry of American classic cars from the \u201850s and \u201860s make it hard to pin down exactly what year it is in Cuba.\n\nOur friendly cab driver, Ismael, drove an old car that reminded me of my brother\u2019s fixer-upper Volkswagen Scirocco.\n\nIsmael\u2019s car had no AC and a frame that rumbled and squeaked on every bump in the road.\n\nAnd, it sometimes took two or three attempts to start the car.\n\nI would quickly learn Cubans are very thrifty and resourceful.\n\nDrivers working on their broken-down cars in the middle of busy streets were a common sight.\n\n\n\nPhotographic goldmine\n\nI first became interested in visiting Cuba when I heard my father talk about his desire to see the old Spanish architecture in Havana.\n\nMy dad started studying Texas and Spanish history extensively when my family moved to Austin, Texas.\n\nAfter seeing this country, myself, I\u2019m hoping he\u2019ll get to make the trip sometime soon.\n\nCrumbling pastel buildings dot the landscape.\n\nThere are no modern, glass skyscrapers.\n\nWalking around Old Havana felt like you were stepping even further back in time than the 1950s cars rumbling down the streets would suggest.\n\nAt sunset, hundreds of people sit on the edge of the Malecon, which stretches 5 miles along the coast of Havana, and watch the sunset.\n\nFishermen cast into the violent waves.\n\nDuring the day, the sea spills over the wall and splashes onto a busy highway.\n\nIn the afternoon, a salsa class was taught on the sidewalk right below the apartment where I was staying.\n\n**Unspoiled**\n\nJust a few miles east of the smelly, smoggy and busy streets of Havana, Cubans relax on pristine, white sandy beaches.\n\nThere are no big crowds or towering resort buildings.\n\nOn a quarter mile stretch of beach, a Cuban couple can have the beach all to themselves.\n\nAt shacks, just steps from the beach, you can find a juicy hamburguesa for 1.5 CUC, or about $1.70.\n\nA large, ice-cold beer adds another 1.5 CUC.\n\nAt one such lunch spot, a group of Cubans trotted up on horseback, the riders smoking large cigars.\n\nPart of the allure of Cuba is that it is still largely unspoiled by large-scale development.\n\nYou don\u2019t have the sense that anyone owns certain views, and long stretches of beach are unimpeded by exclusive resorts.\n\nThis might change soon.\n\nThere were many old, abandoned buildings in downtown Havana sporting advertisements and renderings of new luxury hotels that are planned.\n\nAnd the English-language newspaper boasted how Cuba has the potential to become the second-largest tourism driver in Latin America, behind Mexico.\n\nBut I rather enjoyed the parts of Havana that weren\u2019t touched up.\n\nThe gritty, dirty streets flanked by crumbling buildings had a charm to them.\n\nHere, children played soccer, wall ball and other games in the streets.\n\nMen pushing heavy wooden carts went block to block, selling bananas and other fruits.\n\nLater at night, windows offered a glimpse into other parts of Cuban life.\n\nOn a quiet street, an older man was passed out on his couch with his cat snuggled in his lap.\n\nI got to step inside an ordinary day in the life of a Cuban and enjoyed every minute of it.\n\nAnd when I stuck my camera in the window of a painter, he promptly took his brush and swatted it at my arm, covering it in purple paint.\n\nIt reminded me I was a just a visitor here.\n\n**Unplugged**\n\nOn another international vacation I took to Europe, I stood on a street corner in Prague, waiting for my friends to finish up at the post office.\n\nI felt a little sick when I noticed how many people were craning their necks to check their smartphones.\n\nCouples sat on benches not talking to one another, distracted by the internet in their hands.\n\nBus riders didn\u2019t look out the windows to people-watch. They were zoned out, streaming.\n\nFor 15 minutes, I kept off my own phone and was still surprised at how consuming our smartphones have become.\n\nMy travel companions and I were also guilty of chowing down on WiFi any chance we got.\n\nWhen I touched down in Cuba, there were no WiFi signals. And it was refreshing.\n\nFor almost four days, I didn\u2019t get any updates on the Trump administration.\n\nThe closest thing I got to consuming news was seeing a garbled image of Trump next to a picture of a battleship on a Cuban news station.\n\nAmid tensions involving North Korea, congressional inquiries and health care, my only concern was finding the next cold beer, taking another good picture, lugging jugs of drinkable water back to my apartment.\n\nAnd poaching the pool at the Hotel Nacional.\n\n*To reach Scott Franz, call 970-871-4210, email scottfranz@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @ScottFranz10*\n\n\n### Support Local Journalism\n\n# Support Local Journalism\n\n**Readers around Steamboat and Routt County make the Steamboat Pilot & Today\u2019s work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.**\n\n**Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.**\n\n**Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.**" + }, + { + "title": "Senior thesis deepens the understanding of an architectural icon in Cuba - Princeton University", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Senior thesis deepens the understanding of an architectural icon in Cuba - Princeton University" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiowFBVV95cUxNLVMtVVFJMDJXLWQzRXdXVXlnd3V2b1JHRkQ1WVQ2WWZ0cktSaHM3WHg4VXZsaVBScE9GT3dEUWxHTHpmWXFzcWxPc21lMUk1OUVhbzZjOW5NLWxPNW5GdjBPV1k0QzYyUm9xaGI2cWRqNVIwVWNWRnV5ckZBWEsxVWdUb2ZaR2czTHN0NlBsMTRvMHZ5RTEwZlFPY0ZGWnROek1B?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/cuban-canadian-grammy-winner-alex-cuba-sparks-heart-crazy-good-n760291", + "id": "CBMiowFBVV95cUxNLVMtVVFJMDJXLWQzRXdXVXlnd3V2b1JHRkQ1WVQ2WWZ0cktSaHM3WHg4VXZsaVBScE9GT3dEUWxHTHpmWXFzcWxPc21lMUk1OUVhbzZjOW5NLWxPNW5GdjBPV1k0QzYyUm9xaGI2cWRqNVIwVWNWRnV5ckZBWEsxVWdUb2ZaR2czTHN0NlBsMTRvMHZ5RTEwZlFPY0ZGWnROek1B", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Wed, 24 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 24, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 2, + 144, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Senior thesis deepens the understanding of an architectural icon in Cuba  Princeton University", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Senior thesis deepens the understanding of an architectural icon in Cuba  Princeton University" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.princeton.edu", + "title": "Princeton University" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Cuban-Canadian Grammy winner Alex Cuba sparks the heart with his new, crazy good album\nauthor: Marisa Arbona-Ruiz\nurl: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/cuban-canadian-grammy-winner-alex-cuba-sparks-heart-crazy-good-n760291\nhostname: nbcnews.com\ndescription: Cuban-Canadian, multiple Grammy winner Alex Cuba opens up about his new album that is as layered and joyful as his fascinating musical and personal journey.\nsitename: NBC News\ndate: 2017-05-17\n---\nAlex Cuba\u2019s unanticipated musical and personal paths are the stuff of a Hollywood screenplay. Born Alexis Puentes, he was raised in a Cuban music-performing family and, despite being told he couldn\u2019t sing like other Cubans \u2014so he shouldn\u2019t even try \u2014 he pursued his love of singing while playing. Then, while on tour in Canada he met the other love of his life, Sarah Goodacre. They married in Cuba, then settled in the tiny, remote Canadian town of Smithers, in British Columbia, and his creativity boomed.\n\nCuba has become a cross-cultural singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who luckily ditched the advice he got in Cuba and defied the odds. The pursuit of both loves has resulted in an armful of Grammys and Junos. He calls his latest album, Lo \u00danico Constante (The Only Constant) \u201cthe most free, honest, naked, musical statement I have ever made.\u201d\n\n**RELATED: The Cuban Music You Haven\u2019t Heard: \u2018Forbidden Shore\u2019 at Havana Film Festival New York**\n\nMinimalistic, its main influence is the mid-1900s Cuban sound of *filin* (pronounced \u201cFEE-leen\u201d), a poetic offshoot of the acoustic guitar-based *trova* that was inspired by the romantic \u201cfeeling\u201d of American jazz. The album sprinkles in soul, pop and flamenco.\n\nCuba\u2019s mastery of making complexities sound simple stuns.\n\nStirring melodies, harmonies and creative arrangements dance over infectious Afro-Cuban percussion and polyrhythms. And, that sweet, smooth, soulful, tenor magic \u2014 Alex Cuba\u2019s voice can touch a heart as easily as Adele\u2019s can make people cry. We feel the *filin* as his melodies flow like honey over streams of acoustic goodness and love.\n\n*Lo \u00danico Constante *philosophically presents change as the one constant in life, with songs that speak to love, hope, empowerment and transformation. Perhaps powered by his beautiful *Santero* essence, Cuba\u2019s sublime artistry lifts us through changing times.\n\nComing off his US tour, Cuba spoke with NBC Latino from his remote home in Canada to talk about his life, music and the new album.\n\n**It takes a radiant heart to transmit the joyful effect your music has. Where does that come from?**\n\nAll my music has the vibration of coming from a happy place from me. In 2002, I went to Cuba and became \u201dborn\u201d as a *Santero* priest. [Though] just a beginner, it has given me even more discipline to follow my vision and feelings; a lot of guidance that I have learned to trust from a metaphysical (not superstitious) point of view. It\u2019s very beautiful; it has helped me a lot. And I have helped others, too. I hope this album helps [people] find answers when they have questions about their own lives.\n\n**Artists are responding deeply to world happenings.Your two singles are both amazing and drastically different, with messages of being positive. \"Todas Las Cabezas Est\u00e1n Locas\" is an upbeat metaphor, while \"L\u00e1grimas Del Que Llora\" featuring guitarist Josemi Carmona has a dreamy, jazz-flamenco sound.**\n\nWithout aiming at being current, I\u2019ve created my most socially conscious-of-the-moment record. Those two songs, I wrote over ten years ago and never recorded. What stopped me with \u2018L\u00e1grimas\u2019 was not wanting to sound flamenco; it had to be real, from me. Then life brought me together with Josemi about five years ago for his album. It was so beautiful, we both walked away knowing we were going to do something else, sometime. When I [revisited] this song, my wife said, \u2018Talk to Josemi.\u2019 The ten years that this song has waited was so worth it! It\u2019s beautiful on its own but also so now; saying to leave your sadness and move on.\n\n**How did your father, musician Valent\u00edn Puentes, influence your musicianship?**\n\nFundamentally, his love and passion for Cuban music passed on to me; his performing and also teaching created this whole musical universe I grew up in. I was breathing his harmonies from the time I was born.\n\nCuban musicians specialize in just one thing. But I challenged him. When I was 14, I switched from guitar to electric bass and dove into American music; blues, jazz, rock and funk. And he was like, \u201cDon\u2019t play that American music.\u201d But I wanted more.\n\n**He discouraged you from singing, because you don\u2019t have a booming voice like your twin brother\u2019s.**\n\nIt\u2019s not like \u201cmy dad didn\u2019t let me do this!,\u201d but that\u2019s a true fact. Cuban singers have to have a big, bright voice \u2014 not necessarily soulful, to command a loud band. You have to be as loud as a trumpet. It took me a lot of courage to move far away from my culture in order to find my voice.\n\n**You started recording in Canada. How has moving there impact your songwriting?**\n\nCanada made me explode with creativity, with all these influences. It allowed me to grab all of those pieces from my past, bring my Cuban-ness into it and put them together, digging even deeper.\n\n**The first album featured Cuban music with your brother. Your subsequent solo albums gravitated to world music and now everything in between, with a Cuban infusion. Were there pivotal moments behind those musical directions?**\n\nThe producer had heard my voice and encouraged me to sing on the album with my brother. It was very successful. We played interesting places, [but] that somehow very quickly took my passion out of it. I started writing songs with a different sound. That\u2019s when I said, \u2018Hey bro, I think we\u2019re done with this album and need to both find our own paths.\u2019 That was the turning point for me.\n\nAfter[ward], one of my first shows was just me and my guitar, for only 40 people. Despite language, the crowd was so present, was so in the moment, so taking the music in, that I came off that stage with my heart full of love and joy. I was so happy! And I knew this was what I wanted to sing, and never looked back.\n\n**A setback inspired your becoming an independent artist.**\n\nWhen my first album came out, I did it with a company that was half British, half American. They\u2019d find the talent, produce the album and then look for the proper label. I was so excited that I was going to get signed to a label, you know? I waited with such big hopes for about a year. Songs were [pouring] out of me. And then nobody signed me because I\u2019m Cuban.\n\n[President] George Bush had said, \u2018No business with Cuba.\u2019 One of the labels, Blue Note Records, loved the album. They wanted to sign me, but said there was nothing they could do. I was devastated.\n\nThen, I became enlightened with the idea that, \u2018If the mountain doesn\u2019t come to you, you go to the mountain.\u2019 And we created our own little label. It was 2004. I put Caracol Records on the back without saying it was an independent label.\n\n**So, what does your father say about your music now?**\n\nHa! He\u2019s a big fan of my music now, and incredibly proud. In April I invited him, and we played to a sold-out crowd of 1,100 people in Toronto. He was amazed, and happy. It helped him validate my leaving Cuba, and all my hard work. It was beautiful!" + }, + { + "title": "Cuba: From Threat to Partner? - War on the Rocks", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba: From Threat to Partner? - War on the Rocks" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMib0FVX3lxTE03dmo4S0lZdEREd0lQWFlpTXhQNzFydkhEWkpqTVMwb3FoZlVnLW0yUXFBV3ZxOW9kZGVSZi0tMERLM21NX211MVJHT2ZtdFUwSGdJckJDaE9mRlY0bVd1aU9JdTVTQW5iRi1Vb0tUNA?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/communist-ruled-cuba-hosts-first-transgender-religious-ceremony-n756071", + "id": "CBMib0FVX3lxTE03dmo4S0lZdEREd0lQWFlpTXhQNzFydkhEWkpqTVMwb3FoZlVnLW0yUXFBV3ZxOW9kZGVSZi0tMERLM21NX211MVJHT2ZtdFUwSGdJckJDaE9mRlY0bVd1aU9JdTVTQW5iRi1Vb0tUNA", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Fri, 19 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 19, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 4, + 139, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Cuba: From Threat to Partner?  War on the Rocks", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba: From Threat to Partner?  War on the Rocks" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://warontherocks.com", + "title": "War on the Rocks" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Communist-ruled Cuba hosts first transgender religious ceremony\nurl: https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/communist-ruled-cuba-hosts-first-transgender-religious-ceremony-n756071\nhostname: nbcnews.com\ndescription: Rainbow flags decorated the chapel, the pastors wore stoles in the trans hues of blue, pink and white and the congregation swayed to Caribbean beats.\nsitename: NBC News\ndate: 2017-05-07\n---\nMATANZAS, Cuba \u2014 For decades belonging to a religion and being anything but heterosexual was stigmatized in Communist-ruled, macho Cuba, making the Mass held by three transgender pastors in the western Cuban city of Matanzas all the more groundbreaking.\n\nRainbow flags decorated the chapel, while the pastors, who had flown in from Brazil, Canada and the United States, wore stoles in the trans hues of light blue, pink and white and the congregation swayed to Caribbean beats.\n\nFriday was the first time a trans pastor held a Holy Communion in Cuba, highlighting how much the island nation has changed since both religious believers and gays went to \"correctional\" labor camps in the early years after the 1959 revolution.\n\n\"Tonight has been a night of celebration of equality between all people, marking a new era for Cuba,\" said Alexya Salvador, a Brazilian trans pastor wearing a black dress with a white clerical collar and lacy sleeves she made herself.\n\n\"God's love is radically inclusive.\"\n\nThe Mass on Friday was the highlight of a three-day conference on gender identity and theology organized by the Matanzas-based Cuban branch of the international Metropolitan Community Church.\n\n\"This is not only a first of its kind event for Cuba, but certainly one of the very first ever to be held anywhere in the world,\" said Allyson Robinson, a trans Baptist reverend from Washington.\n\nThe conference took place ahead of the 10th anniversary, next weekend, of Cuba celebrating the global day against homophobia, and included a raucous \"transformist\" party as well as a variety of panels on theology and personal experiences.\n\nIn one, Salvador argued God was transgender, given the Holy Trinity was made up of the Holy Spirit, which she views as feminine, the Father and the Son.\n\nElaine Saralegui, a lesbian pastor who founded the Cuban branch of the MCC nearly two years ago, said she hoped the conference would foster greater inclusion of trans people and prove that being trans and Christian were not incompatible.\n\n\"I leave with having learnt a lot of things I can share with other trans,\" said one participant, a 26-year-old Cuban trans woman called Malu Duardo, \"in particular that there is a God for everyone.\"\n\n**Related: Transgender Advocate Creates Safe Space for LGBTQ Homeless**\n\nSaralegui's congregation numbers around 35, but she said she also gets asked to hold Mass at LGBTQ activist events around the rest of the island nation of 11 million inhabitants.\n\n\"Nearly always they ask me to hold a liturgy there, so we have to improvise wine, bread and hold a (Lord's) supper anywhere,\" she said.\n\nThe trans pastors said they were impressed by Cuba's progressiveness in some respects, for example providing state-financed sex reassignment.\n\nThe country was clearly lagging the rest of the Americas in other ways though, they said. Same-sex couples may not marry or adopt children and a promised update to Cuba's family code has been slow to materialize.\n\n\"Everyone should have the right to have a family,\" said Salvador, who has adopted two children, including a trans girl. \"I believe this touch of God will also happen in the Cuban community.\"" + }, + { + "title": "Communist-Ruled Cuba Hosts First Transgender Religious Ceremony - NBC News", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Communist-Ruled Cuba Hosts First Transgender Religious Ceremony - NBC News" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMisAFBVV95cUxOYldUY3ZjVTJreC1uald6UXNXSG12b0F1WUVLekVuTld4RFc2aFd2SG52eWVVNm5ZU0c1WFBhVmpCdUNqMC1ZNE9mZFU5cEhWdDBBekQ5ZTJONmpDdVFMZWtYS1F6Y0NfWThHV3dtZ0tuNmZ3V1ljM0t1cmlEVkJ3NWIwM1I5VDM3ZUZPZEdPZkdfbW9kRzNVSWlZT1NrQmpUcTdnQ2JZYjYzNzFFNEU5cQ?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://warontherocks.com/2017/05/cuba-from-threat-to-partner/", + "id": "CBMisAFBVV95cUxOYldUY3ZjVTJreC1uald6UXNXSG12b0F1WUVLekVuTld4RFc2aFd2SG52eWVVNm5ZU0c1WFBhVmpCdUNqMC1ZNE9mZFU5cEhWdDBBekQ5ZTJONmpDdVFMZWtYS1F6Y0NfWThHV3dtZ0tuNmZ3V1ljM0t1cmlEVkJ3NWIwM1I5VDM3ZUZPZEdPZkdfbW9kRzNVSWlZT1NrQmpUcTdnQ2JZYjYzNzFFNEU5cQ", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Sun, 07 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 7, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 6, + 127, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Communist-Ruled Cuba Hosts First Transgender Religious Ceremony  NBC News", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Communist-Ruled Cuba Hosts First Transgender Religious Ceremony  NBC News" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.nbcnews.com", + "title": "NBC News" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Cuba: From Threat to Partner?\nauthor: Ralph Espach; William Rosenau\nurl: https://warontherocks.com/2017/05/cuba-from-threat-to-partner/\nhostname: warontherocks.com\ndescription: In 2015, the United States and Cuba reestablished diplomatic relations more than 50 years after they were broken off. As part of the agreement, trade and\nsitename: War on the Rocks\ndate: 2017-05-19\ncategories: ['Commentary']\n---\nJoin War on the Rocks and gain access to content trusted by policymakers, military leaders, and strategic thinkers worldwide.\n\nIn 2015, the United States and Cuba reestablished diplomatic relations more than 50 years after they were broken off. As part of the agreement, trade and travel restrictions were eased, prisoners exchanged, and Cuba was removed from the U.S. government\u2019s list of state sponsors of terrorism. Visits by U.S. cruise ships, mail service, and regularly scheduled flights resumed. Journalists and other observers enthused that U.S. tourists, real-estate developers, cigar smokers, rum swizzlers, and even Major League Baseball would reap rich dividends as the tortured U.S.-Cuba relationship normalized. The so-called *deshielo cubano* (\u201cCuban thaw\u201d) was hailed as President Barack Obama\u2019s greatest foreign policy triumph.\n\nToday, the future of U.S.-Cuba relations is uncertain at best. Early in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Trump, virtually alone among GOP hopefuls, offered support for the U.S.-Cuba d\u00e9tente. \u201cFifty years is enough \u2014 the concept of opening with Cuba is fine,\u201d he told *The* *Daily Caller*. But candidate Trump\u2019s support had its limits. Using a signature phrase, he also insisted \u201cwe should have made a better deal.\u201d Later in the campaign, Trump vowed to roll back if the government of President Ra\u00fal Castro failed to release political prisoners and improve its appalling human rights record. Castro, in turn, has insisted that Cuba will never give up its \u201cindependence and sovereignty\u201d to preserve d\u00e9tente.\n\nInside the Trump administration, a major review of Cuba policy is underway. As policymakers weigh options, they should consider areas of potential cooperation. Trade and investment is one obvious area. Unilateral prohibition on U.S. citizens visiting, investing, and selling in Cuba \u2014 with the stated purpose of undermining the Castro regime \u2014 has been fruitless. And it\u2019s been a terrible deal for U.S. businesses and agriculture, which have had to stand by while European, Chinese, and South American competitors position themselves in the Cuban market and gobble up prime opportunities.\n\n**Cuba Looks to the Future**\n\nDuring the 1990s, Cuba weathered, through misery and poverty, the end of decades of patronage from the Soviet Union. In 1999, the Hugo Chavez government in Venezuela threw Cuba a lifeline, which lasted as long as oil prices were high. But now the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela is in a tailspin and the country cannot afford food or medicine, much less largesse for ideological allies. Like his brother Fidel before him, Ra\u00fal has long recognized the dangers of Cuba\u2019s heavy reliance on other countries for its survival and has experimented with a state-led, incremental approach to allowing private investment. Havana seeks to manage an economic transition away from crippling communism, to a state-led, limited capitalism along the lines of China and Vietnam. Rapprochement with the United States is part of this strategy. But openness to foreign trade, investment, tourists, and goods does not come without a cost. The Cuban government and army realize that to compete for this investment and commerce, they have to learn to meet the expectations and standards for safety, security, and quality that international markets demand.\n\n**Shared Security Threats**\n\nEven during the darkest days of mutual antagonism, the United States and Cuba always found the means to cooperate on matters of shared national security. The U.S. Coast Guard has long cooperated with Cuban forces on the open seas to manage migrant flows and rescue shipwreck victims. Routine \u201cfenceline\u201d dialogues take place between Cuban and U.S. officers about emergency response and other issues that arise with the presence of U.S. facilities and personnel on Cuban soil at Guant\u00e1namo. And U.S. military doctors and Cuban medical personnel have interacted during visits to the Caribbean by a U.S. military hospital ship.\n\nIn a new CNA study, we argue that the long-term interests of the United States in a stable, prosperous, and peaceful Caribbean and Latin American community would be best served through dialogue and, when possible, cooperation with Cuba. Enduring distrust between Washington and Havana means that a strictly bilateral approach isn\u2019t sufficient. We suggest the U.S. government consider supporting a multi-national dialogue, centered somewhere in the Caribbean that includes important mutual partners such as Mexico and Jamaica. Issues related to security offers the most promising areas for progress.\n\nCuban policymakers recognize that new waves of tourists, commercial shipping, and foreign investors pose security issues. For example, by what legal process will rowdy or violent tourists be processed? Can Cuba screen and protect container ship traffic effectively? Since 2015, U.S. and Cuban officials have been addressing similar technical issues that come with expanded trade and interactions, and private sector actors have negotiated their own accords and practices. But it would better serve Cuba, the United States, and their regional partners if these numerous concerns could be addressed and discussed in a common regional forum, where Cubans could learn from neighbors like Jamaica and Barbados how those nations protect their sovereignty, public security, and resources while benefitting from foreign investment and tourism.\n\nIn our study, we examine three areas in particular where shared interests and clear and where Cuba has both an incentive to cooperate, and can provide its own value to a regional dialogue. Migration, for one, is an area where longstanding U.S. policy unnecessarily complicates its relations not just with Cuba, but with Central American partners and Mexico. There are several ways by which the flows of people could be rationalized and managed better. And as Cuba showed during the massive earthquake in Haiti in 2010, Cubans have been willing and able to provide timely assistance, particularly in terms of medical care.\n\nFinally, Cuba faces the threat of transnational organized crime and smuggling as much as any other nation in the region, and that will increase along with further trade and exchange with the United States. Cuba could gain from a better understanding about how its neighbors share information, train together, and support one another \u2014 including the United States \u2014 to counter this threat. Again, the Cubans bring certain strengths to the discussion. One example is their renowned capacity for regional intelligence.\n\n**Dealing with Cuba\u2019s Armed Forces**\n\nThe Cuban military, the *Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias* (FAR), runs not only the nation\u2019s security sector but most of its economy as well, and will necessarily be a major part of any successful engagement. The managerial mindset of many of its officers, however, suggests that they are interested in learning how public and international security requirements can be achieved without sacrificing economic efficiency or value. Cuba is hardly a liberal democracy, nor is likely to become one anytime soon, but neither is China or Vietnam. Some Americans may detest the idea of helping the FAR and the Cuban government become better at making money, but we suggest the alternative \u2014 an impoverished, desperate Cuba which has to reach out to patrons like Russia or China for handouts \u2014 poses a greater long-term regional risk.\n\n**\u00bfY D\u00f3nde Trump?**\n\nThe Trump administration\u2019s policy review may very well conclude that U.S. interests require a return to the kind of adversarial relationship with the Castro government that emerged shortly after the 1959 revolution. Long-time opponents of normalization, such as the Heritage Foundation, have considerable influence within the administration. Republicans like U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio remain outspoken critics of U.S.-Cuban d\u00e9tente.\n\nBut the president is hardly a conventional Republican politician. Trump\u2019s high-wire style, love of the deal, and disdain for establishment political thinking may lead him to see Cuba as an opportunity rather than as a threat. Moreover, an important Trump constituency, the U.S. business community \u2014 including hotel, real estate, and transportation companies \u2014 is eager to make sure the thawing Cuban investment climate doesn\u2019t refreeze. And Trump, having repeatedly praised the likes of Russia\u2019s Vladimir Putin, Turkey\u2019s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Egypt\u2019s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi \u2014 and having visiting Saudi Arabia on his first trip abroad as president \u2014 doesn\u2019t seem particularly squeamish about international strongmen and despotic regimes.\n\nIn fact, he seems to take to them. With his party in control of Congress, Trump is uniquely poised to sit down with Cuba\u2019s leadership, set aside thorny disputes and distrust over human rights and political freedoms, and strike a deal. If so, we suggest that shared security concerns, and the use of regional partners as models and hosts, provide a promising platform and venue for such engagement.\n\n\n*Dr. Ralph Espach (@respach) and Dr. William Rosenau (@williamrosenau) are senior analysts at CNA, a nonprofit research and analysis organization in Arlington, VA. **The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect CNA or its sponsors.*" + }, + { + "title": "Trump weighs shift on Cuba - The Hill", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Trump weighs shift on Cuba - The Hill" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiggFBVV95cUxQUnBDX2J6eXpwTVY2c09mUW1lMjNDVUZUU1AxcEs3T3M0RGRLNkJRRndBc1lkUHNqeE5KVFRvN2RXUXZzcWU3SUZFNkNXaExhenBmT0JKTWg0bmJ2UXoyWURsRGlYckl0cmRzSE9BcURVa281aks5bkRoYmNFWFVQT2xn0gGHAUFVX3lxTFAyWTh5bmIybi0wRm1oUGc5QTlRRnU0OHdKYmFaLV95VjFDSFBiTzNEcUNwTF9jSlZMZzhWVmlPRW0yQ0NMemt5R0NoOXYxWldnVm1NQmpLZEotbno1N2NZenkzN0czc0hqWnN6T19xWFdNcEJtSlZzOTZTdDg4OHhKNHpYbmZuZw?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.voanews.com/a/raul-castro-daughter-says-would-not-want-to-be-cuban-president/3836532.html", + "id": "CBMiggFBVV95cUxQUnBDX2J6eXpwTVY2c09mUW1lMjNDVUZUU1AxcEs3T3M0RGRLNkJRRndBc1lkUHNqeE5KVFRvN2RXUXZzcWU3SUZFNkNXaExhenBmT0JKTWg0bmJ2UXoyWURsRGlYckl0cmRzSE9BcURVa281aks5bkRoYmNFWFVQT2xn0gGHAUFVX3lxTFAyWTh5bmIybi0wRm1oUGc5QTlRRnU0OHdKYmFaLV95VjFDSFBiTzNEcUNwTF9jSlZMZzhWVmlPRW0yQ0NMemt5R0NoOXYxWldnVm1NQmpLZEotbno1N2NZenkzN0czc0hqWnN6T19xWFdNcEJtSlZzOTZTdDg4OHhKNHpYbmZuZw", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Wed, 31 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 31, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 2, + 151, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Trump weighs shift on Cuba  The Hill", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Trump weighs shift on Cuba  The Hill" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://thehill.com", + "title": "The Hill" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Raul Castro's Daughter Says Would Not Want to Be Cuban President\nauthor: Reuters\nurl: https://www.voanews.com/a/raul-castro-daughter-says-would-not-want-to-be-cuban-president/3836532.html\nhostname: voanews.com\ndescription: With President Raul Castro set to step down next year, daughter Mariela Castro says she would never want to be contender for presidency, but that there was room for surprises in succession process\nsitename: Voice of America (VOA News)\ndate: 2017-05-03\ncategories: ['Americas']\ntags: ['Americas, Cuba, raul castro']\n---\nWith Cuban President Raul Castro set to step down next year, his daughter Mariela Castro said on Wednesday she would never want to be a contender for the presidency, but that there was room for surprises in the succession process.\n\nRaul, 85, who took the reins from his older brother, the late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, has said he will step down in February 2018 at the end of a second five-year term.\n\nHis heir apparent is Cuba's First Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel, 57, and experts say the latter would have to stumble badly for someone else to leapfrog him in Cuba's arcane system for choosing its leader.\n\nStill, speculation there could be other candidates is rife on the Communist-ruled island.\n\nMariela Castro, 54, a lawmaker and director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX), was evasive when asked about the issue at a CENESEX news conference.\n\n\"The men and women of the people of Cuba are candidates,\" she told reporters. \"I don't say: 'We are,' because I will never let myself be nominated for such a big task.\"\n\n\"Sometimes, you orientate yourself one way and then suddenly, you look over there, and you say: 'How interesting is this person whom I hadn't checked out before,'\" she said. \"There are always surprises.\"\n\nNames that have been bandied around as possible alternatives to Diaz-Canel are Alejandro Castro Espin, another child of the current president and one of his closest aides, and foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez.\n\nCastro Espin played a key role in the secret negotiations leading up to the rapprochement between Cuba and the United States, although he ruled out succeeding his father in a 2015 interview.\n\nRodriguez meanwhile has a high public profile as Cuba's top diplomat, most recently touring Europe.\n\nStill, Cuba experts say Diaz-Canel has clearly been groomed for the job and the government would unlikely want to risk political stability by appointing someone with less legitimacy.\n\n\"Perhaps she wanted to inject an element of excitement into what otherwise appears to be a pre-determined top-down bureaucratic selection,\" said Richard Feinberg, author of \"Open for Business: Building the New Cuban Economy\".\n\nSurprises were always possible, he added, but he doubted the rumors of another Castro.\n\n\"That would be a grave mistake by the Cuban Communist Party leadership, as it would make Cuba appear to be a family dynasty, rather than an institutionalized polity,\" he said." + }, + { + "title": "Frumpy Mom: We\u2019re back from Cuba, but not entirely - Orange County Register", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Frumpy Mom: We\u2019re back from Cuba, but not entirely - Orange County Register" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMigAFBVV95cUxPd2VISzZ5dW83ay05WDVrczBXN3dOWVhZajFSUmd6UG5ObFJFZUlSdXI5WF9CZHVVdUZTdUp0VnJSdE5LOWtlY1FZOGkySnhoVlVrdGxSQU5adVhiVnVwN3NRbWNlTXhBSHVvNjI5XzVUT3c0OGQyd1V4dXJwR3F4ZQ?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://havanatimes.org/opinion/rauls-story-and-prostitution-in-cuba/", + "id": "CBMigAFBVV95cUxPd2VISzZ5dW83ay05WDVrczBXN3dOWVhZajFSUmd6UG5ObFJFZUlSdXI5WF9CZHVVdUZTdUp0VnJSdE5LOWtlY1FZOGkySnhoVlVrdGxSQU5adVhiVnVwN3NRbWNlTXhBSHVvNjI5XzVUT3c0OGQyd1V4dXJwR3F4ZQ", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Tue, 16 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 16, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 1, + 136, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Frumpy Mom: We\u2019re back from Cuba, but not entirely  Orange County Register", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Frumpy Mom: We\u2019re back from Cuba, but not entirely  Orange County Register" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.ocregister.com", + "title": "Orange County Register" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Raul\u2019s Story and Prostitution in Cuba - Havana Times\nauthor: Circles Robinson\nurl: https://havanatimes.org/opinion/rauls-story-and-prostitution-in-cuba/\nhostname: havanatimes.org\ndescription: From May 4-18, the most important event for the Cuban LGBT community takes place. This year, it is marked with a peculiar and much-needed CENESEX (Centro Nacional de Educaci\u00f3n Sexual) campaign \u201cfor schools without homophobia and transphobia.\u201d\nsitename: Havana Times\ndate: 2017-05-11\ncategories: ['Opinion']\n---\n# Raul\u2019s Story and Prostitution in Cuba\n\n**Jancel Moreno**\n\nHAVANA TIMES \u2014 From May 4**\u2013**18, the most important event for the Cuban LGBT community takes place, a drive against homophobia and transphobia.\n\nThis year, it is marked with a peculiar and much-needed CENESEX (Centro Nacional de Educaci\u00f3n Sexual) campaign \u201cfor schools without homophobia and transphobia.\u201d\n\nEverything seems perfect, everyday it seems like the issues of homophobia and transphobia are being beaten, but there is another problem, one that continues to exist and which can\u2019t even be controlled, and that is prostitution.\n\nI will now tell you the story of Raul, a friend of mine, which is based on real events:\n\nA teenager, he is only 19 years old, his name is Mario Hernandez, he lives in Alamar, with his grandparents, he doesn\u2019t study, but he works, he works his body out every day at the gym, so he is in perfect physical condition, because Mario makes a living with his body.\n\nIt\u2019s Friday, he leaves Alamar and he arrives at his destination, Vedado. Our boy walks down all of 23rd street, with a totally masculine swag, which is capable of making any girl who sees him fall crazily in love with him.\n\nHe\u2019s arrived, the place is banging (that\u2019s what he says to say that a place is busy), at the BimBom, on Infanta and 23rd Streets, there are always tourists there, it\u2019s a sure bet.\n\nMario is wearing trousers that stick to his skin, which highlight his working tools, at the front and the back.\n\nLeaning against the wall of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, he smokes a cigarette, while he works at looking at an apparently 55 year old man up and down, who according to him, could be his father.\n\nThe man approaches him, they introduce themselves, this time he isn\u2019t Mario, now our friend is called Raul. The tourist was quite direct; he asked \u201chow much do you ask for a night?\u201d\n\nRaul remains silent for a moment to give a bit of mystery and appear interesting, but he\u2019s already thought about the price beforehand, 40 CUC for a whole night of Cuban sex. The foreigner accepts and takes him to Room 3 at the Ines Hostal, also on Infanta street.\n\nThe room is perfectly adapted for the encounter; they go in and begin to slowly kiss each other, Raul feels his phone vibrate for a second and asks to go to the bathroom so that Andres can start taking his clothes off.\n\nHe checks his phone in the bathroom, he has a missed call from his girlfriend; yup, Mario has a girlfriend who he\u2019s been with for quite some time, but according to him, he has to make a living.\n\nHe finishes up in the bathroom and comes out into the room wearing fewer clothes, where the man is waiting for him to start the job.\n\nBefore starting, Raul warns the man that he won\u2019t have sex without a condom; the tourist refuses, but convinces him by saying that he\u2019ll pay 100 CUC to do it without protection. Both of them agreed and so the game finally started.\n\nRaul woke up at 7 AM in the morning; he sees a note by his side and an envelope with 150 CUC inside. The message read: \u201cThank you for all the pleasure you gave me, I hope you never forget me, I\u2019m already a part of you.\u201d Puzzled by what he had just read, he leaves and goes to his home in the Alamar neighborhood.\n\nToday, May 7th, it\u2019s been two years since this story happened and Mario Hernandez is now here, at my home, crying, and telling me he has HIV.\n\nThis article is not really about communism/capitalism (neither of which I would regard as inherently hideous \u2013 to use your terminology).\n\nI think I am correct in saying that the article refers to someone employing the services of a sex-worker in Havana and knowingly infecting him with HIV.\n\nFor some reason you felt the need to introduce Mao Tse-Tung into the debate.\n\nI merely pointed out you got your facts wrong.\n\nI\u2019m full of interest when it comes to 20th century right wing British politicians, but I can\u2019t help noticing that you do not admit that your \u2018fact\u2019 regarding Mao was indeed a 100% non-fact.\n\nI don\u2019t really think that you are prepared to admit this.\n\nSo I shall move on and leave you to get on with your Cold War reminiscences.\n\nCarlyle, please try and stick to the subject of the post.\n\nI congratulate you on having thus far lived a rich and full life and I sincerely hope that are blessed with good health and sufficient wealth for a great many more years to come.\n\nI have however, no intention of entering into any kind of \u201cI\u2019m the Big Expert on Them Dodgy Commies\u201d competition with you.\n\nI am neither a Communist nor an Anti-Communist. I know and have known a considerable number of Communists in various countries and I shall always feel comfortable agreeing/disagreeing with these acquaintances on a point by point basis.\n\nI would suggest that your life experiences fully entitle you to express strong opinions and I do not suggest that everything you present as fact is erroneous.\n\nI would however state that your facts are, on the whole, pretty selective.\n\nAnd that sometimes they are not facts at all.\n\nAnd if you are such a big cheese, then why don\u2019t you simply have the good grace to admit that the following is incorrect?\n\nWhy don\u2019t you admit that the following fits in nicely with your strong anti-Mao viewpoint but is 100% at odds with historical fact??\n\n\u2018\u2026\u2026Think about the inevitable increase there will be in prostitution in China as a consequence of the Mao tze Dong policy of one child which has resulted in there being tens of millions more young men than young women.\n\nThat is a direct consequence of a political decision taken by a communist dictator\u2026\u2026\u2019\n\nMao Tse-Tung was totally against a one child policy.\n\nHe was a \u2018six feet under\u2019 several years before it was introduced.\n\nGeddit?\n\nNick as you are a relative newcomer to Havana Times, you may not recall one contributor to these pages who had read my book \u2018Cuba Lifting the Veil\u2019 and having read the comments made by the usual sycophants, challenged them to find a single given fact within the book that was not correct.\n\nTo date almost a year later, not one has been able to do so.\n\nMy knowledge of communism is a consequence of living through the Second World War as a schoolchild, of knowledge derived from my late father serving in France with the Maquis (French underground and communist) then being the Military Governor of a substantial portion of Northern Italy where the communists were taking revenge on the fascists and then being one of the first two Britishers into Vienna when it fell to the Russians in May, 1945.\n\nWe had an apartment in Vienna from 1945 until my fathers death there in the mid-nineties. As his actual occupation was as Head of Station of MI6 (British Secret Intelligence Service) in Vienna with agents serving in the area from Czechoslovakia to Hungary, Yugoslavia, Rumania, several of whom I met, i gained substantial knowledge of communism, meeting some of those who escaped the USSR web by crossing the Iron Curtain \u2013 as you may know, many died on the wire \u2013 yes I saw the Curtain!\n\nI served as a British officer in Germany when it was still an occupied country and met very many displaced persons from Eastern Europe \u2013 they were stateless.\n\nLater in life I served on a British Parliamentary Committee with all the other members being M.P\u2019s. Having signed the British Official Secrets Act, I have been careful in that which I have divulged.\n\nI have been married to a Cuban for quite a few years and my home is in Cuba. I daily watch the Cuban national news at 8.00 p.m, have Cuban friends, attend a Saturday morning discussion group that meets in the local library and am related to over sixty Cubans.\n\nYou have the temerity to suggest that the facts which I provide are opinions whereas in your conceit you suggest that you are objective.\n\nSo here is the challenge Nick!\n\nList the background of your knowledge of communism, of your experiences which enable you to dismiss the facts I provide as mere opinion. Go on, tell everybody on these pages the basis of your knowledge and finally try to correct any fact about Cuba that I have given.\n\nYou Nick are evidence that total ignorance is bliss!\n\nI just try to look at the history, look at the facts, look at all sides of the debate and form some sort of objective opinion on matters.\n\nWhereas with yourself, it would appear that you have formed a not particularly objective opinion a good many years ago.\n\nAnd ever since then you look out for facts to select which back up that opinion.\n\nPerhaps you are not too concerned if your \u2018facts\u2019 are really strong opinions masquerading as facts, if they are a bit distorted or a little far fetched.\n\nMaybe you think no one will notice.\n\nMaybe if you really want things to be facts badly enough (because they fit in so well with your viewpoint), they will actually morph into being real facts?\n\nWell all I can say is that I wish the very best of luck to you in these endeavours of yours.\n\nAnd meanwhile I shall remain ever thankful for the food I eat, the air I breathe and the apparent gift of being able to be objective.\n\nRead the book: \u2018Mao\u2019. Nick. If he was interested in population increase why did he kill so many of his own countrymen?\n\nThe discussion is about prostitution. Do you disagree that the one child policy which has resulted in their being many millions more young men than young women in China will inevitably lead to an increase in prostitution?\n\nDo you deny that the US despite its wealth receives sex tourists?\n\nDo you deny that HIV rates in Sub-Saharan Africa are the highest in the world \u2013 without sex- tourism by the wealthy?\n\nIt would seem that you are desperately trying to find a way to contradict what I am saying\u2026..\n\nBut despite managing to shoe-horn Mao into your comment, you don\u2019t quite achieve your goal of contradiction.\n\nAnd as per usual you get your history mixed up in your scatter-gun criticism of all political systems you disapprove of.\n\nI\u2019m no expert on Chinese history (as you seemingly purport to be), but even I know that the one child policy was introduced several years after Mao\u2019s death.\n\nIn actual fact Mao was totally and utterly against the one child policy believing that continued rapid population growth was the quickest way of making China into a big economic power.\n\nBut you don\u2019t like to let the facts to get in the way of a good story huh?\n\nWhen Nick you speak of sex tourism being \u201cOne of the inevitable results of huge global wealth disparity.\u201d have you included single Canadians who visit Florida, Californiia, Arizona and Las Vegas for \u201ca good time\u201d ?\n\nSex itself Nck is a fact of life.\n\nThink about the inevitable increase there will be in prostitution in China as a consequence of the Mao tze Dong policy of one child which has resulted in there being tens of millions more young men than young women.\n\nThat is a direct consequence of a political decision taken by a communist dictator, it didn\u2019t take Moses Patterson to initiate the introduction of politics into consideration of prostitution. Remember it is the world\u2019s oldest profession.\n\nReread the post carefully. There is no direct link between the sex this unfortunate male prostitute had with the tourist in the story and his being infected with AIDS. Put your crying towel away just yet.\n\nNot at all cynical. Also, I am hardly scraping. I\u2019m entitled to take what I choose from the article. This was the angle from which I chose to respond. If you choose to lament about the downside of sex tourism, to each his own.\n\nYou miss my point entirely.\n\nI\u2019m not getting in a jab at capitalism. Capitalism is a fact of life.\n\nI\u2019m taking issue with the fact that Mr P is using the the awful tale related in the article as yet another pretext to politicise.\n\nThe article is not about wages in Cuba. it\u2019s about sex tourism and it\u2019s effects.\n\nLike capitalism, sex tourism is also a fact of life.\n\nOne of the inevitable results of huge global wealth disparity.\n\nBut surely people can indulge themselves in this type of activity in a safe manner?\n\nRather than knowingly spread infection in the way described in the article?\n\nAre you and Mr P incapable of expressing an opinion on the sick behaviour of the tourist described in the article?\n\nAnd just by the way\u2026.\n\nSex tourism destinations exist throughout the less developed parts of the world not just those parts which have political systems that you and Mr P disapprove of.\n\nIn your enthusiasm Nick to get in a jab at capitalism, you ignore the fact that the highest rates of HIV in the world are in sub-Saharan Africa. It is not spread there by immoral capitalist tourists but by the native peoples usually paying nothing, let alone the princely sum of $150 \u2013 which I would remind you, is more than six months pay for the average Cuban living under the repression of \u2018Socialismo\u2019.\n\nAnd yet you speak of cynicism in others!\n\nNot for the first time your comments are misplaced.\n\nThis is an article about a tourist going to Cuba and deliberately infecting a sex-worker with HIV. He paid a mere $150 for doing this.\n\nThis story may be true or it may be apocryphal.\n\nSex tourism is a global phenomena and one of the most base of the myriad ways in which the developed world exploits the less developed world.\n\nYou don\u2019t comment on this theme or on the apparently shocking act of this tourist.\n\nInstead you cynically choose to utilise the victim\u2019s story as merely another opportunity for putting forward your dreary old pro capitalist rhetoric.\n\nI note that you are scraping the bottom of the barrel yet again Mr P?\n\nSadly, there\u2019s a big difference between what happens on the US and elsewhere in the world and what happens in Cuba.Yes, in the US, there are those very high-priced hookers that earn those incredible sums. But even an average doctor can outearn these girls (and boys). In Cuba, the average jinetera (hooker) easily outearns even the highest-paid Cuban surgeon. See the difference?\n\nAnd the answer is \u2026\u2026.. SEX ECONOMY. It pays more than the average salary of most professions even in the U.S. $10,000.00 for a night of doing the wild thing. Yup, that\u2019s what the 1 percenters pay for such services, but you know what they say, \u201cWhat happens in Vegas\u2026\u2026..\u201d , and of course there was also the Heidi Fleiss debacle too, Hollywood has a very dark underbelly. But of course we never hear about it in the news, well I guess they are a part of Hollywood themselves \ud83d\ude42 or thy are to busy hating on Trump. \ud83d\ude42\n\nJancel, if there is any sliver of truth to your story, I hope that the tourist is fed to the sharks (we have a whole extra bunch of them crowding the Southern California coastline right now). In the U.S. if a person purposely spreads a potentially fatal communicable disease, they can be charged with a serious crime.\n\nRegardless, it is not uncommon for male or female prostitutes to give in to unprotected sex in exchange for additional cash, however I seriously doubt that the person infected with HIV would do such thing to purposely spread this horrible disease. (Hope that some day soon a cure will be discovered for HIV AND Cancer).\n\nWell, when I first read this article I was angry, until I read the comments below. I had never heard this particular urban legend. Haha sucker me \ud83d\ude42\n\nThank you Chuck, Moses, and Stephen for the insight.\n\nJust a form of advertising the need for using ubbers!!!\n\nWhat kind of economic system pays a 19 year-old more for one night of sex than a it pays an experienced neurosurgeon in 3 months? The one in Cuba, obviously.\n\nThis is the common urban legend. While it\u2019s true that people are routinely infected with the HIV virus because of unprotected sex, I seriously doubt the end of the story. I have heard many versions of this: the tourist who is told not to open his gift until he gets home: it\u2019s a little wooden coffin that says \u201cyou have aids\u201d \u2013 the man who goes to his hotel bathroom the morning after and see written in lipstick on the mirror, \u201cwelcome to the world of aids\u201d \u2013 and now \u201cRaul\u2019s\u201d story. People do contract AIDS, but I doubt there\u2019s and entire group of HIV positive people dramatically creating AIDS messages. There is a lesson in all these stories, and it\u2019s not the use a condom warning, like you thought, it\u2019s for tourists \u2013 \u201cDon\u2019t take advantage of another person\u2019s disadvantages.\u201d" + }, + { + "title": "This Day in History: Castro Bans Elections, Declares Cuba Socialist Country - VOA - Voice of America English News", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "This Day in History: Castro Bans Elections, Declares Cuba Socialist Country - VOA - Voice of America English News" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMimwFBVV95cUxOa1N5YVpXemd5YWtIUjhxd2xWeng1REJsTWszU0QzZGw0bVdKMUR1Y19PekFXYklJdXR0UGVNX042RkJOSXBQS3BubzdkT2xBcXl0OEJXa0tVcU5KYWtXeWhtOExZRTByNTBLYzZyd19XUktjQnRfNEJFazFDOWN3NFZMUVJPaWtlVHJzTzJVQV9sWklXSzF2bnpGc9IBngFBVV95cUxPZjlKcldHZ19Ccmx3d25WSjRfVXN4N2NacVFXYTZ3c0l3eWhBaVNHU3FUV1Fra21sdlNPbksxb081bWp6dGVjN29nUWdVVDdGZWhWZlpHaFZmNkdtMTJPaXhMZ3Bkb3l0THpwRlVEcWxXUlZhaHJ1dHp5ZHhVZG5XR1dYNUZ4eHNIUGhvcndRaVMxbEtIRUd3U2xDOUtVUQ?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/335714-trump-weighs-shift-on-cuba/", + "id": "CBMimwFBVV95cUxOa1N5YVpXemd5YWtIUjhxd2xWeng1REJsTWszU0QzZGw0bVdKMUR1Y19PekFXYklJdXR0UGVNX042RkJOSXBQS3BubzdkT2xBcXl0OEJXa0tVcU5KYWtXeWhtOExZRTByNTBLYzZyd19XUktjQnRfNEJFazFDOWN3NFZMUVJPaWtlVHJzTzJVQV9sWklXSzF2bnpGc9IBngFBVV95cUxPZjlKcldHZ19Ccmx3d25WSjRfVXN4N2NacVFXYTZ3c0l3eWhBaVNHU3FUV1Fra21sdlNPbksxb081bWp6dGVjN29nUWdVVDdGZWhWZlpHaFZmNkdtMTJPaXhMZ3Bkb3l0THpwRlVEcWxXUlZhaHJ1dHp5ZHhVZG5XR1dYNUZ4eHNIUGhvcndRaVMxbEtIRUd3U2xDOUtVUQ", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Mon, 01 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 1, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 0, + 121, + 0 + ], + "summary": "This Day in History: Castro Bans Elections, Declares Cuba Socialist Country  VOA - 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Voice of America English News", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Raul Castro's Daughter Says Would Not Want to Be Cuban President  VOA - Voice of America English News" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.voanews.com", + "title": "VOA - Voice of America English News" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Frumpy Mom: We\u2019re back from Cuba, but not entirely\nauthor: Marla Jo Fisher\nurl: https://www.ocregister.com/2017/05/16/were-back-from-cuba-but-not-entirely/\nhostname: ocregister.com\ndescription: Our visit to Cuba was filled with delicious coffee, rum, fresh fresh and pristine beaches\nsitename: Orange County Register\ndate: 2017-05-16\ncategories: ['']\n---\n**Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...**\n\nThis morning, my teenage daughter tried to lecture me about my behavior.\n\n\u201cMom, we aren\u2019t in Cuba anymore,\u201d she said, pursing her lips and frowning. \u201cYou\u2019re still drinking Cuban coffee and forcing us to listen to Cuban music all the time. Every time I come into the kitchen, it\u2019s playing on the stereo. We are back in the United States now. It\u2019s time to get over it. Let\u2019s move on.\u201d\n\nI had one word for her. \u201cNo.\u201d\n\nShe had a great time in Cuba, as did we all, so I\u2019m not sure why she thinks we have to come back to real life. In my opinion, reality is highly overrated, anyway.\n\nIf I have to listen to hour upon hour of their migraine-inducing hip-hop and auto-tuned pop music on a daily basis, I\u2019m pretty sure they can live through a little rumba, timba and son, which some experts consider the best music in the world.\n\nTo catch you up, my son, Cheetah Boy, daughter Curly Girl and four friends went to Cuba recently for eight days. We flew JetBlue out of the Long Beach airport and changed planes in Ft. Lauderdale, into Havana.\n\nIt was easy and affordable. It was cheaper than flying to New York. You should go. I\u2019m writing a travel story about our trip, so I won\u2019t get into details, but let\u2019s just say it exceeded my expectations.\n\nI\u2019m not sure I really knew what to expect, to tell the truth, since Cuba remains such a mystery to most Americans. I only knew that I wanted to get there before the American trade embargo is lifted, and the entire island is overtaken with McDonald\u2019s restaurants, Subway shops, Costco stores and Walmart.\n\nThink I\u2019m joking? What\u2019s at the bottom of the Spanish steps in Rome? A McDonald\u2019s. Across the street from Windsor Castle? McDonald\u2019s. At the Museum of Communism in Prague? McDonald\u2019s.\n\nLike cockroaches, they\u2019re everywhere.\n\nApparently, there actually already is a McDonald\u2019s in Cuba, but it\u2019s only on the American base at Guantanamo Bay. Probably part of the torture terrorists endure at the notorious prison there.\n\nJust kidding, it\u2019s there to serve the Naval service members, who apparently don\u2019t have enough punishment being forced to live on a military base in a paradise they can\u2019t visit.\n\nBut, forget about McDonald\u2019s. I want to talk about Cuba, where there are no other McDonald\u2019s restaurants, nor a single Holiday Inn, Burger King or Starbucks.\n\nJust the absence of Starbucks alone would make it a worthwhile destination in my book, but there are also beautiful beaches, fascinating crumbling architecture, revolutionary rhetoric, great music and cheap rum.\n\nYou don\u2019t miss the Starbucks, by the way, because Cuban coffee is everywhere and delicious, especially if you like your java thick enough for the spoon to stand up by itself.\n\nI was glad I\u2019d brought my son along, because we needed someone young and buff enough to haul seven suitcases up and down the endless staircases of our ancient guesthouses in Havana and the town of Trinidad.\n\nCheetah Boy was also useful when we took a hike in the Cienaga de Zapata natural park, which consisted of walking on ancient limestone formations and looking for birds and wildlife in a forest, until we were dripping with sweat and dehydrated.\n\nHe lent me a hand and helped me haul my keister up and down the limestone rocks that everyone else seemed to leap over like mountain goats. Ironically, I didn\u2019t fall until the end, when a low-lying branch did me in and I landed flat on my back with a whomp. Luckily, it was embarrassing but not painful.\n\nSpeaking of the endless staircases, I bitterly resent the implication that I was drunk just because it took me 10 minutes to get down from the rooftop terrace of the La Concordia restaurant in Havana. Yes, I was swaying, but only because I had to hold my long dress in one hand while I navigated three floors of narrow stairs.\n\nAdmittedly, I drank two mojitos, a pina colada and a glass of wine during dinner, but the grilled lobster and vegetables soaked all that up. So stop the slander and stop it now.\n\nAs some of you know, I\u2019ve been on a health kick this year and lost the equivalent of Brittany Spears in body weight by laying off junk food, booze and most animal products.\n\nWell, that didn\u2019t happen in Cuba. I not only ate everything I wanted \u2013 which mostly consisted of fish fresh from the ocean\u2014but I also drank just a tiny bit of rum.\n\nYou know I like to save money, and it was very cheap. Also, healthy, when you consider I mixed in fresh mint in the mojitos, freshly juiced coconut and pineapple in the pina coladas, and tomato juice in the Cubanitos.\n\nIt was really a health food. So, maybe the Presidente beer wasn\u2019t a health food, but I\u2019m sure if I spent some time on the Internet, I could find health benefits for beer.\n\nSpeaking of the Internet, there isn\u2019t any in Cuba. Well, that\u2019s not true, but it\u2019s very limited. Most people don\u2019t have Internet in their homes, and if you want to get online, you have to go to a public park and buy a wi-fi card for a couple bucks that will get you on for an hour.\n\nIt\u2019s easy to find these parks, because it\u2019s the only place where people are sitting and staring at their phones, unlike at home, of course, where they do it 24 hours a day.\n\nIt was delightful being unplugged, and especially having actual conversations with my children that didn\u2019t involve them turning away to watch a cat video in the middle of our talk. At first, the teens had painful withdrawal symptoms, but by the end of the trip, they weren\u2019t even bothering to buy wi-fi cards or sneak out to the park.\n\nOne of my friends said on our return that she was worried about us, because none of us were posting anything on social media, so there was general concern that we might have been arrested by the Cuban government.\n\nBut, instead we were arrested by the stunning Caribbean beaches, the kind and funny people, the irresistible music, the dancing, the glory of crumbling cities, the step backward into the past, the life without televisions or junk food, swaying palm trees and humid, tropical air.\n\nSo, no, my beautiful daughter. I won\u2019t get over Cuba. Though I might have to get over the five pounds I gained while I was there.\n\nLet me just have a few more mojitos, first." + }, + { + "title": "Melissa Etheridge Plans a Cuban Trip With a Musical Theme (Published 2017) - The New York Times", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Melissa Etheridge Plans a Cuban Trip With a Musical Theme (Published 2017) - The New York Times" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMimwFBVV95cUxNd05NTVRKT1NfcUhWN2k5ZGFLNTlPOWVsaUJNVnJrLWpZLUNoaGtFYWg3SEFqNjhOU2hmSG5oRWtkbWhCdTBtWmliaTdnNUhCZUk3TnJ6YllOcmhzSkdkQ0ZUcWNCWEF6MDdXT09aVXljSF9XZ0hqQmctTm5TWGpKV3BtMm5pUHF2QVhqY1lfTFVBUGI4RlBkNzBiZw?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.voanews.com/a/castro-declares-cuba-socialist-nation-56-years-ago-today/3833077.html", + "id": "CBMimwFBVV95cUxNd05NTVRKT1NfcUhWN2k5ZGFLNTlPOWVsaUJNVnJrLWpZLUNoaGtFYWg3SEFqNjhOU2hmSG5oRWtkbWhCdTBtWmliaTdnNUhCZUk3TnJ6YllOcmhzSkdkQ0ZUcWNCWEF6MDdXT09aVXljSF9XZ0hqQmctTm5TWGpKV3BtMm5pUHF2QVhqY1lfTFVBUGI4RlBkNzBiZw", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Wed, 10 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 10, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 2, + 130, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Melissa Etheridge Plans a Cuban Trip With a Musical Theme (Published 2017)  The New York Times", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Melissa Etheridge Plans a Cuban Trip With a Musical Theme (Published 2017)  The New York Times" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.nytimes.com", + "title": "The New York Times" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: This Day in History: Castro Bans Elections, Declares Cuba Socialist Country\nauthor: VOA News\nurl: https://www.voanews.com/a/castro-declares-cuba-socialist-nation-56-years-ago-today/3833077.html\nhostname: voanews.com\ndescription: Charismatic one-time rebel, Fidel would remain loyal to Marxist philosophy during his decades-long rule\nsitename: Voice of America (VOA News)\ndate: 2017-05-01\ncategories: ['Americas']\ntags: ['USA, Americas, Cuba, fidel castro, socialism']\n---\nFifty-six years ago today, Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro banned multiparty elections and declared Cuba a socialist nation.\n\nAddressing hundreds of thousands of Cubans at a May Day parade (read his speech in English here), Castro openly identified himself as a Marxist-Leninist, setting off a decades-long Cold War with the United States.\n\n\"If Mr Kennedy does not like socialism, we do not like imperialism,\" Castro said, referring to then-president John F. Kennedy. \"We do not like capitalism.\"\n\nThe May Day proclamation came just one month after the failed U.S.-sponsored invasion of the island by Cuban exiles, the so-called Bay of Pigs operation.\n\n\nThe invasion force of 1,300 men landed at Bahia de Cochinos, but was quickly crushed. The days that followed saw thousands of anti-Castro rebels confined in makeshift prisons; hundreds were later executed.\n\n\nCastro came to power in 1959 after leading a successful revolt against dictator Fulgencio Batista and his government.\n\nFrom the start, the United States worried that Castro was too leftist in his politics. He implemented agrarian reform, expropriated foreign oil company holdings, and eventually seized all foreign-owned property in Cuba.\n\nHe also established close diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, and the Russians were soon providing economic and military aid to the Caribbean nation.\n\nBy January 1961, the United States had severed diplomatic relations with Cuba.\n\nDecades later in 2014 (long after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union), former U.S. President Barack Obama restored full diplomatic relations with Cuba. The U.S. opened an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century as Obama vowed to \"cut loose the shackles of the past\" and sweep aside one of the last vestiges of the Cold War.\n\nThe historic deal broke an enduring stalemate between the two countries, divided by 144 kilometers of water and decades of mistrust and hostility dating from the days of Theodore Roosevelt\u2019s charge up San Juan Hill during the Spanish American War that brought independence to Cuba.\n\nThe visit by Obama in 2016 was aimed at cementing the new relationship between Washington and Havana. Some years before, in 2008, an aging and unwell Fidel Castro officially stepped down, handing power to his brother, Raul.\n\nFidel Castro died Nov. 25, 2016, at age 90." + }, + { + "title": "Photos: When crabs cover Cuba, what to do in a pinch - PBS", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Photos: When crabs cover Cuba, what to do in a pinch - PBS" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMickFVX3lxTE9DNF9oN0VJQnB0c2Y3Q0cyUDhMWkJwa0JyTnFBMkUwQXQ2T2lQTkJYMGFqNmh3c3BySFpqQTJDdllKclZfUEx0Z2MwUEJxcURnMlB1b3JmSmNNMmFRanhoMEc1SkxxTU42U0lWMUVpbjRPZ9IBd0FVX3lxTE5wZFFrdU5YVm5IV2otNHUxUjV2YS1idV9XM2dsemVFV1ZaYjhLemY2WXZyMFM5OXAxb29mdm52aFlEX21qcUZlSTV2UFJwSFM5Q3BXTzVUUTVWZE5lanhNWXRhbHU4X1MwMVdqNGZRRGJYUE5DVDk0?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/10/travel/melissa-etheridge-singer-cuba-trip-musical-theme.html", + "id": "CBMickFVX3lxTE9DNF9oN0VJQnB0c2Y3Q0cyUDhMWkJwa0JyTnFBMkUwQXQ2T2lQTkJYMGFqNmh3c3BySFpqQTJDdllKclZfUEx0Z2MwUEJxcURnMlB1b3JmSmNNMmFRanhoMEc1SkxxTU42U0lWMUVpbjRPZ9IBd0FVX3lxTE5wZFFrdU5YVm5IV2otNHUxUjV2YS1idV9XM2dsemVFV1ZaYjhLemY2WXZyMFM5OXAxb29mdm52aFlEX21qcUZlSTV2UFJwSFM5Q3BXTzVUUTVWZE5lanhNWXRhbHU4X1MwMVdqNGZRRGJYUE5DVDk0", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Fri, 05 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 5, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 4, + 125, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Photos: When crabs cover Cuba, what to do in a pinch  PBS", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Photos: When crabs cover Cuba, what to do in a pinch  PBS" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.pbs.org", + "title": "PBS" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 403, + "response": "Error: HTTP 403" + }, + { + "title": "Bay of Pigs: A Case Study in Strategic Leadership and Failed Assumptions - The Strategy Bridge", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Bay of Pigs: A Case Study in Strategic Leadership and Failed Assumptions - The Strategy Bridge" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMivgFBVV95cUxNNmxlNmRycXhqT2lrN3Nvb2w1WHhPdnZ4akhhU0Eyek96bWl0TzJTNFJmbXNZMFVnd2ZNOG9OUFhiYmREUWhSYjE1MG1YSHJJMTBGMmJBenQ5N3UzNUFYS3FneWh6bE4ycTEySk01MXZ1cnBaU0lBeTVCejNZa04wY3BSQ0NTYWs4cFJnUXlJQXVRaXFRallIR3ZoS0ZRTHRyQWY5T0NZSDRFQ042QWpmTmpob3N2T21TYkRQN3Z3?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/photos-crabs-cover-cuba-pinch", + "id": "CBMivgFBVV95cUxNNmxlNmRycXhqT2lrN3Nvb2w1WHhPdnZ4akhhU0Eyek96bWl0TzJTNFJmbXNZMFVnd2ZNOG9OUFhiYmREUWhSYjE1MG1YSHJJMTBGMmJBenQ5N3UzNUFYS3FneWh6bE4ycTEySk01MXZ1cnBaU0lBeTVCejNZa04wY3BSQ0NTYWs4cFJnUXlJQXVRaXFRallIR3ZoS0ZRTHRyQWY5T0NZSDRFQ042QWpmTmpob3N2T21TYkRQN3Z3", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Tue, 02 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 2, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 1, + 122, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Bay of Pigs: A Case Study in Strategic Leadership and Failed Assumptions  The Strategy Bridge", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Bay of Pigs: A Case Study in Strategic Leadership and Failed Assumptions  The Strategy Bridge" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://thestrategybridge.org", + "title": "The Strategy Bridge" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Photos: When crabs cover Cuba, what to do in a pinch\nurl: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/photos-crabs-cover-cuba-pinch\nhostname: pbs.org\ndescription: A swell of yellow, black and red crabs recently skittered from nearby forests to the turquoise waters of Cuba\u2019s Bay of Pigs.\nsitename: PBS News\ndate: 2017-05-05\ncategories: ['World']\ntags: ['crabs, cuba, photo essay']\n---\nBy \u2014 Larisa Epatko Larisa Epatko Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/photos-crabs-cover-cuba-pinch Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Photos: When crabs cover Cuba, what to do in a pinch World May 5, 2017 9:25 AM EDT In Cuba, crabs make like spring breakers and head to the beach. A swell of yellow, black and red crabs recently skittered from nearby forests to the turquoise waters of the Bay of Pigs. Hundreds of thousands of the crustaceans crossed roads and climbed buildings in their springtime pilgrimage to the southern coastal waters, where they will lay their eggs. \"Seeing all these crabs at the moment is nothing like what we've seen before, it's just amazing to see the whole road covered,\" Australian tourist Kaliash Attwar told NBC News. The sharp shells are known to damage tires, so it's best to avoid running over the crabs who make their move during dawn and dusk. See more photos of the annual crab migration below. A man driving a vintage car passes by crabs crossing a highway in Playa Giron, Cuba, on April 21. Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters Crabs travel from surrounding forests to the Caribbean Sea. Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters The crabs are looking for a safe place to spawn. Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters Hundreds of thousands of crabs don't let buildings get in their way as they head to the beach. Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters A tourist steps near a crab in Playa Giron on Cuba's southern coast. Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters At last the crabs reach the sea. Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters A free press is a cornerstone of a healthy democracy. Support trusted journalism and civil dialogue. Donate now By \u2014 Larisa Epatko Larisa Epatko Larisa Epatko produced multimedia web features and broadcast reports with a focus on foreign affairs for the PBS NewsHour. She has reported in places such as Jordan, Pakistan, Iraq, Haiti, Sudan, Western Sahara, Guantanamo Bay, China, Vietnam, South Korea, Turkey, Germany and Ireland. @NewsHourWorld\n\nIn Cuba, crabs make like spring breakers and head to the beach. A swell of yellow, black and red crabs recently skittered from nearby forests to the turquoise waters of the Bay of Pigs. Hundreds of thousands of the crustaceans crossed roads and climbed buildings in their springtime pilgrimage to the southern coastal waters, where they will lay their eggs. \"Seeing all these crabs at the moment is nothing like what we've seen before, it's just amazing to see the whole road covered,\" Australian tourist Kaliash Attwar told NBC News. The sharp shells are known to damage tires, so it's best to avoid running over the crabs who make their move during dawn and dusk. See more photos of the annual crab migration below. A man driving a vintage car passes by crabs crossing a highway in Playa Giron, Cuba, on April 21. Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters Crabs travel from surrounding forests to the Caribbean Sea. Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters The crabs are looking for a safe place to spawn. Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters Hundreds of thousands of crabs don't let buildings get in their way as they head to the beach. Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters A tourist steps near a crab in Playa Giron on Cuba's southern coast. Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters At last the crabs reach the sea. Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters A free press is a cornerstone of a healthy democracy. Support trusted journalism and civil dialogue. Donate now" + }, + { + "title": "How African med students created a new genre of Cuban music - The Outline", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "How African med students created a new genre of Cuban music - The Outline" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiY0FVX3lxTE5La3Y4UWdDeVRnRUl0STVRUHZVSUxXM2dHWm9QXzdmVTNKelhFdVktWVBPN2ZqVFhmOHJFMXBkZGZTSkhDRFFrYkVWSWRTM0tOM3ExWXI1SmowZVNybmdJQlV3bw?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://thestrategybridge.org/the-bridge/2017/5/2/bay-of-pigs-a-case-study-in-strategic-leadership-and-failed-assumptions", + "id": "CBMiY0FVX3lxTE5La3Y4UWdDeVRnRUl0STVRUHZVSUxXM2dHWm9QXzdmVTNKelhFdVktWVBPN2ZqVFhmOHJFMXBkZGZTSkhDRFFrYkVWSWRTM0tOM3ExWXI1SmowZVNybmdJQlV3bw", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Tue, 30 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 30, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 1, + 150, + 0 + ], + "summary": "How African med students created a new genre of Cuban music  The Outline", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "How African med students created a new genre of Cuban music  The Outline" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://theoutline.com", + "title": "The Outline" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Bay of Pigs: A Case Study in Strategic Leadership and Failed Assumptions\nauthor: Vincent Due\u00f1as\nurl: https://thestrategybridge.org/the-bridge/2017/5/2/bay-of-pigs-a-case-study-in-strategic-leadership-and-failed-assumptions\nhostname: thestrategybridge.org\ndescription: The real lesson to be gleaned from the Bay of Pigs is that strategic leadership must not be content in merely believing that because an operation is justified and well-planned that those characteristics can be counted on as a guarantor of success.\nsitename: The Strategy Bridge\ndate: 2017-05-02\ntags: ['Kennedy', 'Bay of Pigs', 'Groupthink']\n---\n**Introduction**\n\nThe Bay of Pigs invasion was President John F. Kennedy\u2019s most controversial foreign policy mistake, and it serves as a useful case study in strategic miscalculation and faulty critical analysis. The failures in the planning and conduct of the operation highlight the leadership challenges and inherent difficulty in attempting to covertly overthrow another government deemed hostile to National Security interests. Planned initially during President Dwight D. Eisenhower\u2019s administration and executed by President Kennedy\u2019s administration, the Bay of Pigs was devised as an attempt to foment a popular uprising against the government of the newly triumphant Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro.\n\nOperation Zapata was a covert effort led by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to organize and train expatriate Cubans as a direct action force to invade Cuba and establish a base of operations that would incite a general revolt against Castro.[1] The CIA had been responsible for the successful, covert *coups d\u2019\u00e9tat* in Iran under Operation Ajax in 1953, and in Guatemala under Operation Success in 1954, proving a U.S. aptitude for this type of operation.[2] To maintain plausible deniability, President Kennedy wanted it to be executed under the auspices of rich Cuban dissidents who were willing to pay for the cost of the invasion themselves.[3] In the end, the operation was overly complex, based on multiple unsubstantiated assumptions, and underwent too many last minute changes, which ultimately rendered it impossible for the operation to comply with an absolute requirement that the U.S. maintain plausible deniability of its participation.\n\nThe operation began on April 15, 1961 (D-2), when eight B-26 bombers, piloted by the US-backed Cuban Expeditionary Force, also known as Brigade 2506, flew from Nicaragua to designated targets in Cuba. Originally, Operation Zapata called for fifteen bombers, but this was reduced to eight the day prior at the request of President Kennedy in an effort to reduce the overall signature of the strike.[4] After the B-26 bombers attacked Cuba, a single, bullet-ridden B-26 bomber with Cuban markings landed at Miami International Airport to complete a ruse that the attack was being launched by defectors from within Castro\u2019s Cuba and that a tipping point had been reached.[5] This diversion was meant to signal that the U.S. played no direct role in the attack and maintain the veneer of plausible deniability in advance of the invasion, which the U.S. could then publicly support as an oppressed people\u2019s call for democracy.\n\nOn April 16, 1961, President Kennedy ordered the cancellation of a second planned series of the Cuban Expeditionary Force\u2019s aerial bombings meant to establish favorable conditions for the amphibious landings due to confusion about its operational necessity.[6] The invasion officially began with the beachhead landing at the Bay of Pigs on April 17, 1961. Officially reported available forces for the operation included 1,511 men, fifteen B-26 bombers, ten C-54 transports, five C-46 transports, two Landing Craft, Infantry; three Landing Craft, Utility; four Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel; seven chartered commercial freighters; and one 165-foot Cuban coastal steamer.[7] It was soon evident that the (D-2) aerial bombings failed to significantly incapacitate the Cuban Air Force, leaving the invasion force to deal with stiff resistance.\n\nBy April 19, 1961 the invasion force was becoming combat ineffective, so President Kennedy authorized additional air cover from six unmarked U.S. jets for one hour to support the invasion forces\u2019 B-26s.[8] The two elements, however, never rendezvoused because the CIA and Pentagon failed to plan for the time difference between Nicaragua and Cuba. Complicating matters further, four U.S. military service-members were killed while piloting Cuban Expeditionary Force B-26s, which contradicted President Kennedy\u2019s order against U.S. personnel participating directly in the fight.[9] Between April 17-20, Castro\u2019s military and militia battled Brigade 2506, ultimately defeating them and taking approximately 1,197 prisoners, killing 89, downing nine B-26 bombers, and sinking two 5,000-ton boats; one communication boat; three Landing Craft, Utility; and five for troops.[10] The evidence indicating U.S. involvement after the Brigade\u2019s defeat was almost impossible to suppress, and, although not publicly acknowledged by the government, it was universally understood that President Kennedy had lied to the world, both during the operation and in its aftermath.\n\nTo understand how the Bay of Pigs materialized as an operation is to understand the mentality of the U.S. political atmosphere of the time. Communism appeared to be spreading globally and its ideology seemed to be in direct opposition to the U.S., both militarily and economically. The only acceptable position for any political candidate was that the U.S. had to assume leadership and proactively combat communism around the globe.[11] The desire to pursue a covert operation was born out of the evolutionary shift in U.S. foreign policy that occurred after the end of World War II. It was in this era when the U.S. began to experiment with covert operations as a tool of foreign policy to shape geopolitical situations without committing military forces. Central to the success of this approach was the necessity to maintain a veneer of plausible deniability of involvement. President Eisenhower believed in the almost infallible capacity of covert action as a means to shape events and his personal success in the Guatemala Coup of 1954 led him to lean on key members from the Operation Success CIA team to initiate plans for a covert coup attempt in Cuba in the same manner.[12]\n\nPresident Kennedy was a product of the early Cold-War years and approached his presidency in a manner similar to President Eisenhower. Kennedy possessed a strong sense of duty to confront Communism using the full spectrum of actions available to him as a president. This approach was reinforced by Kennedy\u2019s electoral success, fueled in part by his decision to appear more anti-Communist than his electoral opponent, Vice President Nixon.[13] President Kennedy\u2019s platform for Latin America was essentially the same as Eisenhower\u2019s had been when he was elected, which was to admonish the previous administration for not paying attention to the region and promising to do so under his own administration. On the key topic of covert action, Kennedy did not differ from Eisenhower on the philosophy of its usefulness to combat communism. A key difference however, was Kennedy\u2019s lack of experience or understanding of covert operations. As result, he endorsed Operation Zapata's somewhat hastily and relied heavily on advisors for key analysis and critiques. When viewed in hindsight, advisors failed to communicate to President Kennedy key information about the operation. Furthermore, the impacts of decisions he was making to critical components of the operation seem to have not been discussed or considered.[14]\n\nIn understanding the shortfalls that plagued the operation what emerges is a patchwork of restraints and assumptions at the strategic level which directly impacted the tactical situation and led to what Jim Rasenberger eloquently called \u201cthe brilliant disaster.\u201d Rasenberger described this as the perfectly planned failure by intelligent men all committed to the defense of democracy.[15] The restraints, identified as strategic priorities, embody the factors which President Kennedy and the operation needed to put in place in order set the parameters for how the invasion was to be conducted. The assumptions embody the accepted knowledge of the situation that could not be verified, but were thought to be generally understood, on which all other decisions were predicated upon.\n\n**Strategic Priorities**\n\nThe strategic priorities for both the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations began with stemming the spread of Communism and preventing further radicalization in Latin America. The fight against communism was the global effort espoused by the U.S. and constituted the only policy direction given by President Eisenhower towards Latin America.[16] To accomplish this, President Eisenhower successfully pursued the use of covert action in Guatemala. President Kennedy accepted this viewpoint and decided to move forward with the covert Cuban invasion planned by his predecessor on the premise that it was the preferred means to stem communism in Cuba.\n\nThe second strategic priority President Kennedy elevated was the improvement of relations with the Soviet Union. Close to the timeframe that the invasion was supposed to occur, Kennedy solicited a commitment to hold his first U.S.-Soviet Summit to discuss the status of the strained relationship.[17] President Kennedy understood that any U.S. association with a coup attempt could derail talks. Perhaps more importantly, Kennedy believed that such an action, made public, could provide a pretext for the Soviet Union to overtly take action in West Berlin. President Kennedy, however, wanted to move forward with the operation because of reports that the Cubans were getting increasing military support from the Soviet Union, and the situation necessitated action.\n\nThe third strategic priority adopted by the Kennedy administration was plausible deniability. President Kennedy had attacked the Eisenhower administration for abandoning President Roosevelt\u2019s promises to Latin America, and he did not want to mar his presidency at its outset by implicating the U.S. in another intervention. Kennedy was sensitive to the negative perception of U.S. gunboat diplomacy in Latin America and was not willing to upset an already tenuous relationship in the region by engaging in an overt overthrow of Cuba.[18] President Kennedy\u2019s assessment of what had transpired in Guatemala thus led him to trust the CIA with the covert operation, as evidenced by the continued service of Allen Dulles and Richard Bissell, the two most responsible for Operation Success.\n\nThe last strategic priority the President Kennedy imposed was the need to take action quickly. During his presidential campaign he made promises to be aggressive, and this self-imposed pressure, coupled with an immature understanding of how complex the operation was, led him to act hastily.[19] These four priorities ensured that the only feasible option to remove Castro was immediate covert action.\n\n**Failed Assumptions**\n\nIn adhering to the above priorities, Kennedy moved forward with seemingly benign assumptions about his understanding of the situation and confidence in the input from his advisors that proved fatal to the chances for success of Operation Zapata.\n\nIncipiently, the President and his group assumed that they were properly assessing all the data and that was just not the case. The first and most important failed assumption was that the group inherently felt it was being thoroughly critical of all facets of the problem. The concept of groupthink was born out of the study of major disasters, of which the Bay of Pigs would become a primary case.[20] The President and his senior leaders needed to be more skeptical of the operation and of likely outcomes based on changing conditions Kennedy kept imposing, such as the cancellation of the second B-26 bomber run. The ability for the group of individuals around President Kennedy to be in almost complete harmony about such a complex operation and approve its execution without raising critical objections is staggering in hindsight.\n\nThe group\u2019s self-confidence in its decision-making ability directly resulted in the failure of the operation. There were objections to the operation first voiced in an unnamed CIA memo noting that the circumstances surrounding the success of the coup in Guatemala did not translate to the circumstances in Cuba. The memo highlighted that Fidel Castro enjoyed popular support, unlike the Guatemalan president, and that there was a \u201cunique coincidence of favorable factors\u201d and \u201cunbelievable luck\u201d that had allowed the Guatemalan coup to succeed.[21] Objections were again noted in more detail by the president\u2019s Special Assistant Arthur Schlesinger; in this case, however, he was preparing President Kennedy to deal with the potential aftermath of the operation rather than persuading him to cancel the it.[22]\n\nThe second failed assumption was Kennedy\u2019s belief that he could adequately rely on the CIA and Joint Chiefs of Staff for tactical advice and good feedback on his last minute changes. Unfortunately, the CIA's Operation Zapata Director, Richard Bissell, failed to communicate in concrete terms the impact Kennedy\u2019s changes would have on mission success.[23] President Kennedy\u2019s late decision to forbid any U.S. participation during the invasion, the initial reduction in B-26s and subsequent cancellation of the second air strike, dramatically changed the character of the operation. The potential impacts on the operation were never clearly communicated to the President until after each event had occurred. The Joint Chiefs, for their part, failed to analyze closely the operation because it did not belong to them, so their affirmations only served to enhance that the plan was sound no matter what changes were made.[24]\n\nA subset of this miscalculation, internal to the CIA, but profound nonetheless, was the fact that the secrecy of Operation Zapata was such that the analytical branch of the CIA never provided insight into its conception.[25] Therefore, CIA feedback was devoid of its own critical analysis before reaching the President, which compounded the issue of faulty advice directly begin given to the president. Kennedy thus, made tactical decisions under the restraint of maximizing plausible deniability, which fundamentally changed the capacity of the invasion force and compounded the difficulty experienced, all without much objection from the true tactical experts.\n\nThe final key failed assumption was the estimate of the Cuban situation. The government\u2019s capacity to mobilize support, the loyalty of the armed forces and the strengthening of the Cuban-Soviet relationship all coalesced to create a scenario where a popular uprising instigated by a small invasion force, without direct support from the U.S., stood no chance of success.[26] There was no popular uprising because the Cuban Underground movement did not even know that the invasion was occurring. Castro had full knowledge of the impending invasion because the very process of recruiting Cubans in Miami simultaneously alerted Castro\u2019s informants. By the time of the invasion the Soviet Union solidified a relationship with Castro and supplied equipment and arms for the Cuban defense. These failed assumptions directly informed decisions on the tactical priorities and amplified already existing tactical miscalculations ultimately resulting in the operation\u2019s failure.\n\n**Conclusion**\n\nThe priorities President Kennedy had identified were all based on the political and geopolitical threats his administration faced, and they informed the decisions he made about all aspects of Operation Zapata. A litany of failed assumptions, arising from several sources ultimately doomed the operation to failure. These fundamental assumptions, such as the belief that the advice to the President was thoroughly and completely vetted by relevant agencies, that each advisor actually believed in the likelihood of success they purported, and the belief that the situation in Cuba itself was well-defined, were all deeply flawed. In hindsight, they amplify the need for executive leadership to conduct vigorous critiques of the operation each time changes were made. The phenomenon of groupthink pervaded the operation and led to the acceptance of conditions that made the tactical situation unwinnable.\n\n*The real lesson to be gleaned from this example is that strategic leadership must not be content in merely believing that because an operation is justified and well-planned that those characteristics can be counted on as a guarantor of success.*\n\nThe real lesson to be gleaned from this example is that strategic leadership must not be content in merely believing that because an operation is justified and well-planned that those characteristics can be counted on as a guarantor of success. No level of intelligence, no degree of importance and no magnitude of immediacy can immunize risky operations, such as covert *coups d\u2019\u00e9tat* from failure. The Bay of Pigs is but one case study when all the variable factors converged into situation of grandiose failure. However, as the anonymous CIA memo noted, \u201cfavorable factors\u201d and \u201cunbelievable luck\u201d can also lead to great success. Guatemala succeeded in large part due to the deposed government of Arbenz believing that U.S. would follow the insurgent revolt with military support. In Cuba, Castro was prepared for a fight and welcomed it to further his own cause. Leaders ultimately, are the stopgap to these types of critical failures.\n\n*Vincent Due\u00f1as is an active duty U.S. Army Western Hemisphere Foreign Area Officer with multiple deployments to Latin America and Afghanistan. He is an Associate Member of the Military Writer\u2019s Guild and earned his graduate degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. **The views expressed are the author's alone and do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.*\n\n*Have a response or an idea for your own article? Follow the logo below, and you too can contribute to *The Bridge:\n\n*Enjoy what you just read? Please help spread the word to new readers by sharing it on social media.*\n\n*Header Image: President John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy at the white house on Oct. 1, 1962 in Washington, D. C. (Chicago Tribune)*\n\n### Notes:\n\n[1] Col. Jack Hawkins, \u201cClandestine Services History: Record of Paramilitary Action Against the Castro Government of Cuba,\u201d Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, DC, April 5, 1961, https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/clandestine-services-history-record-paramilitary-action-against-castro (accessed April 24, 2017), 4, 58-59.\n\n[2] Jim Rasenberger, *The Brilliant Disaster: JFK, Castro, and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs* (New York: Scribner, 2011), 44.\n\n[3] Haynes Bonner Johnson, et al, *The Bay of Pigs: The Leaders' Story of Brigade 2506* (New York: Norton, 1964), 380.\n\n[4] Bay of Pigs/Playa Giron Chronology of Events: 40 Years After. http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/bayofpigs/chron.html (accessed October 13, 2016); Col. Jack Hawkins, \u201cClandestine Services History: Record of Paramilitary Action Against the Castro Government of Cuba,\u201d Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, DC, April 5, 1961, https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/clandestine-services-history-record-paramilitary-action-against-castro (accessed April 24, 2017), 51.\n\n[5] Bay of Pigs/Playa Giron Chronology of Events: 40 Years After.\n\n[6] \u201cTaylor Report,\u201d Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, DC, August 15, 1961, https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/cia-rdp80b01676r001900160002-5 (accessed April 24, 2017), 3; Col. Jack Hawkins, \u201cClandestine Services History: Record of Paramilitary Action Against the Castro Government of Cuba,\u201d Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, DC, April 5, 1961, https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/clandestine-services-history-record-paramilitary-action-against-castro (accessed April 24, 2017), 40-41.\n\n[7] Hawkins, \u201cClandestine Services History,\u201d 32-33.\n\n[8] Bay of Pigs/Playa Giron Chronology of Events: 40 Years After.\n\n[9] Bay of Pigs/Playa Giron Chronology of Events: 40 Years After. http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/bayofpigs/chron.html (accessed October 13, 2016); \u201cOfficial History of the Bay of Pigs Operation: Volume 1 Part 2\u201d, Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, DC, September 1979, https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/official-history-bay-pigs-operation-volume-1-part-2 (accessed April 24, 2017), 57-59.\n\n[10] Bay of Pigs/Playa Giron Chronology of Events: 40 Years After.\n\n[11] Thomas G. Paterson, *Kennedy's Quest for Victory: American Foreign Policy, 1961-1963* (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 407.\n\n[12] Ibid., 407.\n\n[13] Ibid.\n\n[14] Peter Kornbluh, *Bay of Pigs Declassified: The Secret CIA Report on the Invasion of Cuba *(New York: The New Press, 1998), 339.\n\n[15] Rasenberger, *The Brilliant Disaster*, xviii-xix.\n\n[16] Rasenberger, *The Brilliant Disaster*, 460.\n\n[17] JFK Library, \u201c50th Anniversary of the Bay of Pigs Invasion,\u201d Performers Timothy Naftali, Peter Kornbluh, Alfredo Duran, et al, streaming video, 1:30:34, https://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/mDT9kKj0dEaYkORl3AiPJg.aspx (accessed October 13, 2016)\n\n[18] Ibid.\n\n[19] Ibid.\n\n[20] Irving L.Janis, *Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes* (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982), 349.\n\n[21] Rasenberger, *The Brilliant Disaster*, 460.\n\n[22] Ibid., 460.\n\n[23] JFK Library, \u201c50th Anniversary of the Bay of Pigs Invasion.\u201d\n\n[24] Rasenberger, *The Brilliant Disaster*, 460.\n\n[25] Kornbluh, *Bay of Pigs Declassified*, 339.\n\n[26] JFK Library, \u201c50th Anniversary of the Bay of Pigs Invasion.\u201d" + }, + { + "title": "You can buy a $10,000 watch in Havana? Cuba opens first luxury mall - NBC News", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "You can buy a $10,000 watch in Havana? Cuba opens first luxury mall - NBC News" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMipgFBVV95cUxQcTF1VzVjVU52VXFRcGRRRUt0TUVXMllKWElCTG5KRzBvSmN5enA2Z01oYnpEcmJBeWFoTFZ2cHJJemx6a3RzVWc2OUV1SUJzNnoyc3hiN015Q2M1RmRvWkdHeWFDakZPU0lINVhKWjBWXzZYSWE5ZlpGcXZRSUtKSEpwREx3OGk5VmZTVXE2ZE5IV1M0OE9heWdVWVcwaHh0VFowVXRR?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/bulgari-watches-lacoste-shirts-cuba-opens-first-luxury-mall-n756811", + "id": "CBMipgFBVV95cUxQcTF1VzVjVU52VXFRcGRRRUt0TUVXMllKWElCTG5KRzBvSmN5enA2Z01oYnpEcmJBeWFoTFZ2cHJJemx6a3RzVWc2OUV1SUJzNnoyc3hiN015Q2M1RmRvWkdHeWFDakZPU0lINVhKWjBWXzZYSWE5ZlpGcXZRSUtKSEpwREx3OGk5VmZTVXE2ZE5IV1M0OE9heWdVWVcwaHh0VFowVXRR", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Tue, 09 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 9, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 1, + 129, + 0 + ], + "summary": "You can buy a $10,000 watch in Havana? Cuba opens first luxury mall  NBC News", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "You can buy a $10,000 watch in Havana? Cuba opens first luxury mall  NBC News" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.nbcnews.com", + "title": "NBC News" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: You can buy a $10,000 watch in Havana? Cuba opens first luxury mall\nurl: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/bulgari-watches-lacoste-shirts-cuba-opens-first-luxury-mall-n756811\nhostname: nbcnews.com\ndescription: Havana has opened a high-end mall with luxury goods that are quite the sight for Cubans in the island, as teens and young adults take Facebook photos in front of store windows.\nsitename: NBC News\ndate: 2017-05-09\n---\nIn the heart of the capital of a nation founded on ideals of social equality, the business arm of the Cuban military has transformed a century-old shopping arcade into a temple to conspicuous capitalism.\n\nThe saleswomen in L'Occitane en Provence's new Havana store make $12.50 a month. The acacia eau de toilette they sell costs $95.20 a bottle. Rejuvenating face cream is $162.40 an ounce.\n\nA few doors down, a Canon EOS camera goes for $7,542.01. A Bulgari watch, $10,200.\n\nWith the first Cuban branches of L'Occitane, Mont Blanc and Lacoste, the Manzana de Gomez mall has become a sociocultural phenomenon since its opening a few weeks ago, with Cubans wandering wide-eyed through its polished-stone passages.\n\n**RELATED: Communist-Ruled Cuba Hosts First Transgender Religious Ceremony**\n\nOlder Cubans are stunned at the sight of goods worth more than a lifetime's state salary. Teenagers and young adults pose for Facebook photos in front of store windows, throwing victory signs in echoes of the images sent by relatives in Miami, who pose grinning alongside 50-inch TV sets and luxury convertibles.\n\nThe Cuban armed forces' business arm has become the nation's biggest retailer, importer and hotelier since Gen. Raul Castro became president in 2008.\n\nGaviota, the military's tourism company, is in the midst of a hotel building spree. The military corporation Cimex, created two decades ago, counts retail stories, auto-rental businesses and even a recording studio among its holdings. The military retail chain TRD has hundreds of shops across Cuba that sell everything from soap to home electronics at prices often several times those in nearby countries.\n\nThe military-run Mariel port west of Havana has seen double-digit growth fueled largely by demand in the tourism sector and the armed forces last year took over the bank that does business with foreign companies, assuming control of most of Cuba's day-to-day international financial transactions.\n\nOn a recent weekday, Oswell Mendez and the members of his hip-hop dance group De Freak posed for their Facebook page in the center of the Manzana, on the spot where a bust of early 20th century Cuban Communist leader Julio Antonio Mella sat before it was removed in the building's multi-year renovation.\n\n\"This is a high-end spot, really nice,\" said Mendez, 24. \"It's something we haven't seen before.\"\n\n**RELATED: New Documentary \u2018Eli\u00e1n\u2019: Remembering the Boy Caught Amid the U.S.-Cuba Saga**\n\nThe five-story Manzana sits off the Prado, the broad, tree-lined boulevard that divides the colonial heart of the city. The upper floors are a five-star hotel opening in early June that is owned by the military's tourism arm, Gaviota, and run by Swiss luxury chain Kempinski. Along the bisecting galleries of the Manzana's ground floor, TRD Caribe and Cimex - host the luxury brands along with Cuban stores selling lesser-known but still pricey products aimed at Cuba's small but growing upper-middle class, like $6 mini-bottles of shampoo and sets of plates for more than $100.\n\nA few blocks away, working-class Cubans live in decaying apartments on streets clogged by uncollected trash. With state incomes devastated by long-term stagnation and inflation, there's barely money for food, let alone home repairs or indulgences.\n\n\"This hurts because I can't buy anything,\" said Rodolfo Hernandez Torres, a 71-year-old retired electrical mechanic who lives on a salary of $12.50 a month. \"There are people who can come here to buy things but it's maybe one in 10. Most of the country doesn't have the money.\"\n\nL'Occitane, Lacoste, Mont Blanc and the Cuban military's business wing did not return requests for comment.\n\nWith its economy in recession and longstanding oil aid from Venezuela in doubt, the Cuban government appears torn between the need for market-based reforms and the fear of social inequality that would spawn popular dissatisfaction and calls for political change.\n\nWith other sectors declining, Cuba's increasingly important tourism industry is under pressure to change its state-run hotels' reputation for charging exorbitant prices for rooms and food far below international standards. The Manzana de Gomez Kempinski bills itself as Cuba's first real five-star hotel, and the brand-name shops around it appear designed to reinforce that.\n\nThe hotel is earning positive early reviews but many tourists say they find the luxury mall alongside it to be repulsive.\n\n**RELATED: Thanks to Google, Cubans Are Getting a Much Faster Internet**\n\n\"I was very disappointed,\" said Jeannie Goldstein, who works in sports marketing in Chicago and ended a six-day trip to Cuba, her first, on Saturday.\n\n\"I came here to get away from this,\" she said. \"This screams wealth and America to us.\"\n\nThe Prado boulevard was the scene of Cuba's previous record for a state-sponsored display of exorbitant consumerism. Last May, the government closed the boulevard for a private runway show by French luxury label Chanel for a crowd that included actors Tilda Swinton and Vin Diesel and supermodel Gisele Bundchen.\n\nThe temporary privatization of a street for an international corporation built on exclusivity and luxury generated widespread revulsion in Cuba and an unusually angry reaction among writers and intellectuals. Cuba's culture minister resigned two months later, with no reason given for his departure.\n\nMany other Cubans were delighted by Chanel and adore the Manzana de Gomez, saying it's the sign the country knows its future depends on opening itself to foreign wealth.\n\n\"These stores are for millionaires. Attracting tourists with money, that's development, capitalism,\" said Maritza Garcia, a 55-year-old airline office worker. \"Everything that's development is good. Bit by bit the country is lifting itself up. We're a socialist country but the economy has to be a capitalist one.\"" + }, + { + "title": "Postcard from Havana: A Lack of Childcare Leaves Cuban Women in Quandary - Council on Foreign Relations", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Postcard from Havana: A Lack of Childcare Leaves Cuban Women in Quandary - Council on Foreign Relations" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMikAFBVV95cUxQNzR0bmM3ZHAxd2JVbjdVOEwwX2ZYQkJZQ2JtUzZRb2NpOFBMNzB4RDZXYkVya0sxSlkwalo0ZjBuTTdab1Q5eHM3d2RZZ0lSVUd6aHBYV2tlUE9JYzR3NlFPQkVYVW8tMzFoRXVTd2JiWjh5MEZPM2FVM1R4Q3gtTF9UTm9XZnAxXy1BbHBjclc?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://theoutline.com/post/1591/santiago-cuba-bakoso", + "id": "CBMikAFBVV95cUxQNzR0bmM3ZHAxd2JVbjdVOEwwX2ZYQkJZQ2JtUzZRb2NpOFBMNzB4RDZXYkVya0sxSlkwalo0ZjBuTTdab1Q5eHM3d2RZZ0lSVUd6aHBYV2tlUE9JYzR3NlFPQkVYVW8tMzFoRXVTd2JiWjh5MEZPM2FVM1R4Q3gtTF9UTm9XZnAxXy1BbHBjclc", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Wed, 24 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 24, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 2, + 144, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Postcard from Havana: A Lack of Childcare Leaves Cuban Women in Quandary  Council on Foreign Relations", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Postcard from Havana: A Lack of Childcare Leaves Cuban Women in Quandary  Council on Foreign Relations" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.cfr.org", + "title": "Council on Foreign Relations" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "" + }, + { + "title": "Five Things to Know About the Cuba U-17 MNT - US Soccer", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Five Things to Know About the Cuba U-17 MNT - US Soccer" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMihgFBVV95cUxQdUhqdmxRRFM2ZEtXOHl3WTBtUzNJeGJLRGRBRVRKR0trcm1aNU9RWm9tNGRiVm4yZzRMUlV3QVljem5xUkhFSVBtU2tCUzQ3amhSdHFudHZpZWxSNzRjVmFzellpbzhjSjVKSXQ3ckI0bkxzaF9uMkJDMDVadExuYXBESkNiZw?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.cfr.org/articles/postcard-havana-lack-childcare-leaves-cuban-women-quandary", + "id": "CBMihgFBVV95cUxQdUhqdmxRRFM2ZEtXOHl3WTBtUzNJeGJLRGRBRVRKR0trcm1aNU9RWm9tNGRiVm4yZzRMUlV3QVljem5xUkhFSVBtU2tCUzQ3amhSdHFudHZpZWxSNzRjVmFzellpbzhjSjVKSXQ3ckI0bkxzaF9uMkJDMDVadExuYXBESkNiZw", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Thu, 04 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 4, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 3, + 124, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Five Things to Know About the Cuba U-17 MNT  US Soccer", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Five Things to Know About the Cuba U-17 MNT  US Soccer" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://ussoccer.com", + "title": "US Soccer" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Postcard from Havana: A Lack of Childcare Leaves Cuban Women in Quandary | Council on Foreign Relations\nurl: https://www.cfr.org/articles/postcard-havana-lack-childcare-leaves-cuban-women-quandary\nhostname: cfr.org\ndescription: As my own spring break approached this past March, I decided to take a couple of my students to this Caribbean destination to explore the impact of Obama-era policies on Cubans. We were surprised by what we learned about the opportunities and challenges facing Cuban women.\nsitename: Council on Foreign Relations\ndate: 2017-05-24\n---\n# Postcard from Havana: A Lack of Childcare Leaves Cuban Women in Quandary\n\nAs my own spring break approached this past March, I decided to take a couple of my students to this Caribbean destination to explore the impact of Obama-era policies on Cubans. We were surprised by what we learned about the opportunities and challenges facing Cuban women.\n\n## By experts and staff\n\n- Published\n\n### Experts\n\n- By Catherine PowellAdjunct Senior Fellow for Women and Foreign Policy\n\nSince Barack Obama visited Havana in March 2016\u2014the first U.S. president to travel to the island nation since 1928\u2014 and took steps to normalize U.S.-Cuba relations, tourism to the island has exploded. As my own spring break approached this past March, I decided to take a couple of my students from Fordham Law School to this Caribbean destination to explore the impact of Obama-era policies on Cubans. With the support of the Law School\u2019s Leitner Center for International Law and Justice, we boarded a flight that took off just before a blizzard of snow blanketed New York City. Amidst the tropical weather, we were surprised by the throngs of American tourists flooding the streets, but even more so by what we learned about the opportunities and challenges facing Cuban women.\n\nDespite the strides women have made in both education and employment in Cuba, where they comprise nearly half the labor force, women are still underrepresented in traditionally male sectors and face glass ceilings in certain leadership positions. Among other barriers, while paid maternity and paternity leave are guaranteed by the government up to a point, women are more likely than men to take parental leave and the paid leave available for men is inadequate. Cuban women also lack access to quality, affordable childcare following their maternity leave, when they are otherwise ready to return to work. The work that women disproportionately undertake to care for their own children is largely unwaged work\u2014following an initial period of paid maternity leave\u2014and outsourcing this care is prohibitively expensive for many Cuban women.\n\nMany relationships in Cuba are also transient, and women often end up single parenting. Cubans are simply not marrying at the same rate as couples in other parts of Latin America and the Caribbean. Some observers attribute Yoruba religious values that do not stress marriage the way Catholicism does, but other constraints likely play a role. Cuba faces a huge housing crisis, with few new homes built there in 50 years and existing homes falling apart. The housing shortage makes it difficult for new families to start on their own.\n\nThese are familiar problems for women in both capitalist and socialist economies, but women in Cuba face an extra twist that we here in the United States largely do not, given our ability to order groceries online and benefit from other conveniences that come with living in a market-driven and more open economy. With no Fresh Direct to order groceries online, Cubans often have to spend hours in line at different shops to get even basic food and other supplies. And it\u2019s not unusual for the power to go out, spoiling everything in the refrigerator. Given all this, even though women outnumber men in some fields as academia, they often don\u2019t make it to the top because it is so hard to balance work with everything else. (How many women can stay for the 5 o\u2019clock meeting if someone needs to pick up the kids?)\n\nCuban women can take 18 weeks of maternity leave with one hundred percent of their pay\u2014six weeks before birth and 12 weeks after\u2014with the option of taking an additional 40 weeks at 60 percent of pay. While fathers do not receive paternity leave for the first 18 weeks, they can take 40 weeks of paternity leave at 60 percent pay beginning anytime between weeks 12 and 40. In total, the policy allows for up to 52 weeks of leave\u2014or until the child\u2019s first birthday\u2014for mothers. Cuba\u2019s policy, in some respects, puts it in league with other countries with generous paid maternity leave policies, available in only a small number of countries.\n\nBy guaranteeing 18 weeks of fully paid maternity leave, Cuban mothers are on par with mothers in Denmark, Lithuania and Sweden. But while the offer of long-term maternity leave at 60 percent of pay is generous in contrast to many other countries, many Cuban men and women find they cannot afford the 40 percent pay cut due to the nation\u2019s economic standing\u2014and while fathers have the ability to take paternal leave, not many take it. One report notes that only 125 fathers requested paternal leave between 2006 and 2013 out of a population of close to 11 million Cubans\u2014and around 5 million men. A disincentive is the fact that men do not receive full pay for parental leave the way women do in the weeks immediately preceding and following pregnancy. Many observers note that men are less likely to take parental leave because of a culture of machismo\u2014a strong sense of masculine pride\u2014which, as is the case in many other countries, discourages men from taking leave to care for children as childcare is generally associated with women and femininity.\n\nIn addition, although women in Cuba are able to enroll their children in government-run day care centers once their toddlers can walk\u2014generally between nine to 18 months\u2014the government-run day care system is unable to keep up with demand. In light of this, there is an alternate system of private day care centers, which are often more expensive than public day care. For women whose children are not in government day care and who cannot afford private care, the lack of childcare is a significant barrier to returning full-time to work.\n\nCuba lost its largest benefactor when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and in the decades since the nation has struggled to find foreign investment. While a growing tourism sector\u2014including now from the United States\u2014has helped economically, the U.S. trade embargo cuts off imports and exports with an enormous market that is only 90 miles away. The Cuban government has undertaken reforms to allow for an increasing amount of self-employment and private sector activity\u2014including a booming market of Airbnb rentals for tourists\u2014but the private sector is limited, tightly regulated and heavily taxed. Moreover, despite having one of the highest literacy rates in the world, Cuba has a surprisingly low standard of living. In 2015, Cubans on average made around 687 pesos, or around 20 to 25 U.S. dollars per month.\n\nAs one Cuban woman noted, having a baby in Cuba \u201ccan be economically a tremendously stressful challenge.\u201d Many ordinary Cubans simply cannot afford to have children, and many Cuban women are reluctant to. Many who do will not return to work. This may help explain why Cuba has the lowest birth rate in Latin America\u2014one below the replacement level of one daughter per woman.\n\nIf Cuba is able to address barriers women face in the labor force, Cuban women, Cuban families and the Cuban economy as a whole will benefit.\n\n*This post has been cross-posted at Ms Blog. *" + }, + { + "title": "Cuba\u2019s New Luxury Hotels Look to Lure Waves of U.S. Tourists (Published 2017) - The New York Times", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba\u2019s New Luxury Hotels Look to Lure Waves of U.S. Tourists (Published 2017) - The New York Times" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiuwFBVV95cUxNWE5wOE1iNURmaEowa2kzLTdzODljUWcyZHV5SC1VU25OaFVCTTdnNWNBNTBpN0s5QVdWR3pVZmZrTzRBSkN1ZC02TldPTHZLRXF2QXk5TTJaOTlaMTJwZ0JKY3ZvWTZudmpvN2s0YnR4MXI5MkxMcjlrN2l4djVHaE0yWm91bTBqdGY4dTUtSElIelVWZkNFSWxRY185eHIyME52Q1RfNHB5QXI2LVZXUGdJTTZhcndTNGdz?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://ussoccer.com/stories/2017/05/five-things-to-know-about-the-cuba-u17-mnt", + "id": "CBMiuwFBVV95cUxNWE5wOE1iNURmaEowa2kzLTdzODljUWcyZHV5SC1VU25OaFVCTTdnNWNBNTBpN0s5QVdWR3pVZmZrTzRBSkN1ZC02TldPTHZLRXF2QXk5TTJaOTlaMTJwZ0JKY3ZvWTZudmpvN2s0YnR4MXI5MkxMcjlrN2l4djVHaE0yWm91bTBqdGY4dTUtSElIelVWZkNFSWxRY185eHIyME52Q1RfNHB5QXI2LVZXUGdJTTZhcndTNGdz", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Tue, 09 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 9, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 1, + 129, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Cuba\u2019s New Luxury Hotels Look to Lure Waves of U.S. Tourists (Published 2017)  The New York Times", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba\u2019s New Luxury Hotels Look to Lure Waves of U.S. Tourists (Published 2017)  The New York Times" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.nytimes.com", + "title": "The New York Times" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Five Things to Know About the Cuba U-17 MNT\nurl: https://ussoccer.com/stories/2017/05/five-things-to-know-about-the-cuba-u17-mnt\nhostname: ussoccer.com\ndescription: After sweeping the group stage and winning its opening classification stage match at the 2017 CONCACAF U-17 Championship, the U.S. Under-17 Men\u2019s National Team is set to square off against Cuba on Friday with the goal of earning a berth to the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup this October in India. Before settling in to watch the game (6:30 p.m. ET on Univision Deportes and CONCACAF\u2019s YouTube page), here are five things you should know about Cuba.\nsitename: ussoccer.com\ndate: 2017-05-04\n---\nAfter sweeping the group stage and winning its opening classification stage match at the 2017 CONCACAF U-17 Championship, the U.S. Under-17 Men\u2019s National Team is set to square off against Cuba on Friday with the goal of earning a berth to the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup this October in India. Before settling in to watch the game (6:30 p.m. ET on Univision Deportes and CONCACAF\u2019s YouTube page), here are five things you should know about Cuba.\n\n**CUBA\u2019S ROAD TO THE CLASSIFICATION STAGE\n**After finishing second in the Caribbean Zone\u2019s qualification tournament for the CONCACAF U-17 Championship, Cuba was drawn into Group B with eventual group winner Costa Rica, Canada and Suriname. After drawing Suriname 1-1 in their opening game, Cuba defeated Canada 2-1. The win proved crucial, propelling Cuba to the classification stage as Group B runner up after dropping its final group game to Costa Rica 3-1.\n\n**THE ROSTER\n**The Cuba U-17 roster is made up of domestic-based players. FC La Habana of the Cuban first division, Campeonato Nacional de F\u00fatbol de Cuba, contributed a team-high seven players.\n\n**Cuba U-17 Men\u2019s National Team Roster by Position:\n**GOALKEEPRS (3): Danny Echevarr\u00eda D\u00edaz (Villa Clara/CUB), Antuan Obregon Medina (Mayabueque/CUB), Arturo H\u00e9ctor Godoy (La Habana/CUB)\n\nDEFENDERS (7): Miguel Ignacio Coll Tamayo (Holgu\u00edn/CUB), Christopher Yoel Llorente Fern\u00e1ndezn (Cienfuegos/CUB), Pedro Paulo Pi\u00f1eiro Sarduy (La Habana/CUB), Bruno Manuel Rend\u00f3n Cardoso (Matanzas/CUB), Cristhian Turca Pijuan (La Habana/CUB), Karel Aldair Espino Contreras (Artemisa/CUB), Roy Luis L\u00f3pez (Camaguey/CUB)\n\nMIDFILDERS (6): Carlos Alberto Molina L\u00f3pez (Matanzas/CUB), Carlos Eli\u00e1n Ibarra Molina (Santiago de Cuba/CUB), Josue Vega Alvares (La Habana/CUB), Omar P\u00e9rez Ram\u00edrez (Villa Clara/CUB), Ronaldo Rosette Garc\u00eda (La Habana/CUB), Jhan Marcos Rodriguez Licea (Camaguey/CUB)\n\nFORWARDS (4): Manuel Ignacio Cruz Ledesma (Camaguey/CUB), Brian Savigne Polanco (Santiago de Cuba/CUB), Ribaldo Roldan Moreno (La Habana/CUB), Yandry Romero Clark (La Habana/CUB)\n\n**WHAT\u2019S IN A (NICK)NAME?\n**Cuba is commonly known as \u201c\n\n**THE COACH\n**A former player for Cuban first division team FC Pinar del R\u00edo from 1976 to 1989, Rufino Sotolongo is in his second year as head coach of the Cuba U-17 men\u2019s national team. As a player, Sotolongo twice won the league championship in 1987 and 1989. As coach of FC Pinar from 1995-1996, Sotolongo once again claimed the hardware from a league title.\n\nBefore he coached the Cuba U-17 Men\u2019s National Team, Sotolongo led the Cuba and Dominican Republic women\u2019s national teams from 2004-2010 and 2011-2015, respectively.\n\n**CONCACAF U-17 CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY\n**Since the inaugural CONCACAF U-17 Championship in 1983,\n\nOf the 10 CONCACAF tournaments that they have qualified for and participated in, Cuba has won once (1988) and qualified for the FIFA U-17 World Cup (formerly FIFA World Championship) twice (1989, 1991)." + }, + { + "title": "How Cuba's growing internet is fuelling new businesses - BBC", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "How Cuba's growing internet is fuelling new businesses - BBC" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiVEFVX3lxTE5rRU8weEpGT3U4aVRCVzJIbElMdVhPcmU4NmpPNzVLcE9SUFp0TFJfZEZfLVgwN3hXa3p2ZzVIWnVhQThlc0xFY3U3MUNlbTBNM1NPdg?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/realestate/commercial/cubas-new-luxury-hotels-look-to-lure-waves-of-us-tourists.html", + "id": "CBMiVEFVX3lxTE5rRU8weEpGT3U4aVRCVzJIbElMdVhPcmU4NmpPNzVLcE9SUFp0TFJfZEZfLVgwN3hXa3p2ZzVIWnVhQThlc0xFY3U3MUNlbTBNM1NPdg", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Tue, 23 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 23, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 1, + 143, + 0 + ], + "summary": "How Cuba's growing internet is fuelling new businesses  BBC", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "How Cuba's growing internet is fuelling new businesses  BBC" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.bbc.com", + "title": "BBC" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 403, + "response": "Error: HTTP 403" + }, + { + "title": "Corruption in Cuba: an External Curse or Inherent to the System? - Havana Times", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Corruption in Cuba: an External Curse or Inherent to the System? - Havana Times" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMimwFBVV95cUxOY1ozOTlZdk5WRjhtSEpYaTFjVEoxZjNsNUFlWEJsYkdyTDRmMG1qMjhRQ1AzREkwcElxVmNmUmRRdmZpdU8yQjZKOGtuZVVkemVFaEtpaDFiWFdSS1VzWkxnSktHSXo2bHMwMVZCNWl0VUwwbEtfVUx5UmUwbnhwYnEwN2tybE40X3dldTRTUzhKOEVCaS1nd3c2RQ?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://havanatimes.org/opinion/corruption-in-cuba-an-external-curse-or-inherent-to-the-system/", + "id": "CBMimwFBVV95cUxOY1ozOTlZdk5WRjhtSEpYaTFjVEoxZjNsNUFlWEJsYkdyTDRmMG1qMjhRQ1AzREkwcElxVmNmUmRRdmZpdU8yQjZKOGtuZVVkemVFaEtpaDFiWFdSS1VzWkxnSktHSXo2bHMwMVZCNWl0VUwwbEtfVUx5UmUwbnhwYnEwN2tybE40X3dldTRTUzhKOEVCaS1nd3c2RQ", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Wed, 03 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 3, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 2, + 123, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Corruption in Cuba: an External Curse or Inherent to the System?  Havana Times", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Corruption in Cuba: an External Curse or Inherent to the System?  Havana Times" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://havanatimes.org", + "title": "Havana Times" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Corruption in Cuba: an External Curse or Inherent to the System? - Havana Times\nauthor: Circles Robinson\nurl: https://havanatimes.org/opinion/corruption-in-cuba-an-external-curse-or-inherent-to-the-system/\nhostname: havanatimes.org\ndescription: One of the most defining aspects of Raul Castro\u2019s government is his fight against corruption. Of course it can always be alleged, and especially in Miami, that the main corrupt people in Cuba are members of the ruling elite...\nsitename: Havana Times\ndate: 2017-05-03\ncategories: ['Opinion']\n---\n# Corruption in Cuba: an External Curse or Inherent to the System?\n\n*In spite of the constant and widespread anti-corruption campaign, the doubt remains as to whether the system that the government wants to continue to uphold is capable of existing without corruption.*\n\n**By Alejandro Armengol ***(Cubaencuentro)*\n\nHAVANA TIMES \u2014 One of the most defining aspects of Raul Castro\u2019s government is his fight against corruption. Of course it can always be alleged, and especially in Miami, that the main corrupt people in Cuba are members of the ruling elite, but trying to constrain this argument to a problem that from the beginning of the Republic has formed part of Cuban reality doesn\u2019t emphasize the debate, but reduces this to a simple political declaration.\n\nDuring Fidel Castro\u2019s leadership, uncovering a corrupt person was rather falling out of the Jefe\u2019s grace than the result of a real investigative operation, report and punishment of their wrongdoings.\n\nRaul Castro has changed this around, and prosecuting different kinds of corruption has become a priority in today\u2019s Cuba. Since he became President, not only have some important government officials been brought down but foreign businessmen too, as well as businessmen who were considered \u201cfriends\u201d up until a few years back.\n\nHowever, in spite of this constant and widespread anti-corruption campaign, the question remains as to whether the administrative system, which continues to exist on the island, is capable of existing without corruption; if the mechanisms of diverting resources, theft and disorder aren\u2019t also a source of stability for the government.\n\nGetting rid of all this prevailing corruption is extremely difficult, if not impossible, without providing alternative ways to obtain resources, investments and even profits.\n\nWith Cuban people\u2019s lives being based on the principle of shortages, both economic and psychological, Cubans have been ruled by corruption ever since the Revolution triumphed.\n\nOne of the Cuban Government\u2019s allies for decades now has been scarcity. Shortages of everything, to both feed people\u2019s envy and resentment as well as occupying the greater part of the Cuban people\u2019s everyday lives.\n\nEver since shortages began, the black market has flourished and the main source of its supplies has always been theft. Sometimes, goods are directly stolen from the State, taking them out of their warehouses, but at other times, it\u2019s the customers themselves who are robbed, who receive less than they should. The classic example of this is the butcher who fixes his scales and gives a few ounces of meat less to each of his customers, so that at the end of the day, he has some extra pounds which he can sell on the black market for a higher price.\n\nThis was where the myth was born which was based on the more or less common practice in the country before Fidel Castro came into power \u2013 long before 1959 folklore and gossip were linked to the store owner figure, who messed with the scales, and the existence of inspectors to fight this crime- and which has always been very convenient for the regime.\n\nFirstly, it takes away the \u201ccurrentness\u201d of the problem, as it moves the appearance of this crime to a distant time in history which could be considered a scourge of the past, and secondly, because it created a vulnerable culprit: not only external but also against the ruling ideology. Thieves are converted into counter-revolutionaries and the victim in accomplice: the neighbor who lets a portion of his food rations be stolen so that he can then go and buy a part of what was taken from him and others on the black market.\n\nSelfishness and inequality are identified as the main reasons for committing this crime, while the desire to create an equal society has driven the guardians of law and order.\n\nAll of this does little more than cover up the root causes of the problem \u2013 the black market as the result of a monopoly economy and shortages \u2013 and has tried to focus people\u2019s attention on the con artist on the corner (the bodega store worker, the butcher) while the greatest thefts are being overlooked which take place at distribution centers and warehouses, managed by officials of a certain political standing.\n\nDuring Fidel Castro\u2019s time as president of Cuba, accusations of inefficiency or moving away from the official line never managed to take the place of corruption as the Cuban leaders and bureaucrat\u2019s imperfect crime. When his younger brother came into power, this situation changed. Raul Castro has bid farewell to all those he believes to be incompetent.\n\nNone of the above denies or justifies the proliferation of corrupt people in all of Cuba\u2019s government institutions, but rather highlights the fact that these are the result of and not the exception to the system.\n\nWhile Fidel Castro was president of the island, political factors had greater weight than administrative capacities, when it came to choosing somebody to head a company. Now, a mix of capitalist reality under the wrapping or guise of socialist services is becoming more and more apparent, where inefficiency is no longer justified with rhetoric.\n\nHowever, the supposed results of Raul Castro\u2019s battle against corruption haven\u2019t done away with doubts about the justice and depth of the problem. Like what normally happens on the island, very little is published about the trials that take place \u2013 because corruption is an inherent process to the regime that his brother introduced: something endemic to the system, but passed off as something external.\n\nWith Cuban people\u2019s lives being based on the principle of shortages, both economic and psychological, Cubans have been ruled by corruption ever since the Revolution triumphed, which loathes and practices it in equal amounts. Since the firing squad shootings in the Ochoa case (1989), corruption has been an excuse and scapegoat; the reason for envy and bitterness.\n\nEver since the beginning of Raul Castro\u2019s campaign against corruption, some foreign investors have privately stated that such a commitment has become a destabilizing factor. Many of them have communicated their doubts and fears in the face of the fact that while the regime puts a \u201cCuban manager\u201d in charge of their company, over time it is revealed that said \u201cmanager\u201d is involved in a corruption investigation, with the subsequent process of freezing accounts and paralyzing all operations.\n\nWorse yet, though, is that these investors have seen that this campaign against corruption has also been a settling of scores, as certain businesses who belong to specific groups, families or members of the ruling elite are favored or wronged, in a kind of war between Mafioso families.\n\nOne of the Cuban regime\u2019s mistakes is not publicly and widely recognizing the renunciation of political ideals when it comes to managing the country, and to return the meaning Max Weber gave to the concept \u201cbureaucracy\u201d when he said that there were two kinds of officials: administrative and political.\n\nBureaucratic officials should carry out their duties in an impartial manner, while political leaders should take sides and show their passion.\n\nA \u201croutinization\u201d of politics transforms Government resolutions into what refers to most national administration matters, into routine administrate decisions which are carried out according to established standards, which an official adheres to in a bureaucratic way, and which are essentially external to the demands of politics. In this way, a politician is reduced to being an administrator who governs a country, a State or a city, with honor and who is limited to a normal working day who goes home like any other worker and forgets about work. In everyday life, political importance loses its greatness and it becomes an everyday activity.\n\nGetting rid of all this prevailing corruption is extremely difficult, if not impossible, without providing alternative ways to obtain resources, investments and even profits.\n\nOf course, none of this prevents corruption from existing, and the political refuge that the party in power provides, like in any democratic system. However, there are legal aspects to this problem \u2013 which continue to be limited on too many occasions because of political factors -, and it doesn\u2019t subordinate them to the existence of a nation or homeland.\n\nSo, ultimately, everything is resolved when we rectify the function \u2013 or as a last resort the replacement \u2013 of those who are in charge of the government post, but without this leading to a debate about the existence of the State as such. Only when corruption, government management and national projects or models create an unbreakable bond, in which it is impossible to rectify the situation without the system falling to pieces, it reaches the extreme of a failed State.\n\nRaul Castro\u2019s government has been unable to take the necessary step forward in order to overcome the situation created in January 1959. Fidel Castro\u2019s messianic autocratic leadership has been replaced with backscratching. The \u201cmilitant and fighting\u201d attitude demanded of its citizens is still upheld. With Raul, this autocratic leadership has been partially transformed into the mentality of the pitiless leader, who oversees the behavior of those who hold administrative roles in government institutions and companies. However, at the end of the day, control of the country is still exercised in a fanciful and personal way.\n\nThe authoritarian facade, which is apparently seeking to replace totalitarianism and allow spaces of greater economic freedom, hasn\u2019t been able to shake off the irrationality that stops the government from acting in an unbiased way. Contemplating this situation doesn\u2019t mean hanging onto a rhetorical question or a sociological argument, and much less becoming wrapped up in political critique. It once again proves the ignorance of those who rule our island and highlights their stubbornness to cling to power.\n\nWhen reports emerge of voter intimidation of minority voters in the US, it is particularly egregious because the US has held itself out as a bastion of open, free and fair elections. Likewise, the everyday stories of corruption in Cuba are particularly disturbing because the Castros have cackled about egalitarianism y justice in Cuba for nearly 60 years. The truth is that Cuban life is rife with corruption. Worse yet, the higher up the food chain you go, the more corruption exists.\n\nMy opinion is that corruption in Cuba is inherent to the system. Corruption occurs across the world in almost every society, but in Cuba corruption by those who act within the Castro family communist regime is inviolable.\n\nYes people get charged and put on non-public trial for corruption, but many of them are foreign business people who have signed agreements with the regime to accept the level of payments to Cubans dictated by the regime and who have made additional payments to good employees. But when was a member of the regime and its PCC support last put on trial?\n\nFidel Castro was supposedly a virtuous man living a similar life to his subjects, but in reality he lived like the millionaire which he was. The five house complex in Siboney with swimming pool and tennis court, the two island retreat of Cayo Piedra with his yacht Aquarama II and his investment in partnership with little brother Raul in ETECSA. Raul\u2019s son \u2018Tony\u2019 is an international style playboy \u2013 how can an ordinary Cuban achieve such status? But don\u2019t talk of corruption.\n\nMININT can build substantial office blocks and then new houses for the goons it employs providing superior living conditions, but don\u2019t talk of corruption.\n\nThe powerful don\u2019t see it as corruption." + }, + { + "title": "Raul\u2019s Story and Prostitution in Cuba - Havana Times", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Raul\u2019s Story and Prostitution in Cuba - Havana Times" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMieEFVX3lxTE9pbEZTdll2QVBKMGdvaFMxSWFzYlRKVzNSc0YzWDV4MVAwbjVHUW42NEhER1hyV2VkQmRtSzA1czR3dm4xU2pmcG1NcWtVNEZOSjlzN001c2xYNTllYVpmWk9hREZDMFVUSlVBTE16dkF5YmZsWEVlUA?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.bbc.com/news/business-39930696", + "id": "CBMieEFVX3lxTE9pbEZTdll2QVBKMGdvaFMxSWFzYlRKVzNSc0YzWDV4MVAwbjVHUW42NEhER1hyV2VkQmRtSzA1czR3dm4xU2pmcG1NcWtVNEZOSjlzN001c2xYNTllYVpmWk9hREZDMFVUSlVBTE16dkF5YmZsWEVlUA", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Thu, 11 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 11, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 3, + 131, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Raul\u2019s Story and Prostitution in Cuba  Havana Times", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Raul\u2019s Story and Prostitution in Cuba  Havana Times" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://havanatimes.org", + "title": "Havana Times" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: How Cuba's growing internet is fuelling new businesses\nauthor: Natalie Sherman\nurl: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-39930696\nhostname: bbc.com\ndescription: As the internet becomes more widespread in Cuba, online start-ups are emerging. But challenges remain.\nsitename: BBC News\ndate: 2017-05-22\ncategories: ['Business']\n---\n**As the internet becomes more widespread in Cuba, online start-ups are emerging. But the problems many of the companies hope to address are also a reminder of how far the island has to go.**\n\nBernardo Romero Gonzalez, a 33-year-old software engineer from Cuba, launched his new business this month: a website where people can order island-made products such as soap, bouquets of flowers and cakes for home delivery.\n\n\"It's like Amazon for Cuba, but with a difference,\" he told an audience of New York techies at a conference this month.\n\nThe summary was a classic start-up pitch, but it also underscored the obstacles when it comes to starting an online business in the Caribbean country.\n\nMr Gonzalez is counting on buyers from the Cuban diaspora, which already plays a role in the economy, sending money and other products to the island.\n\nBut the infrastructure doesn't exist for domestic buyers to sustain the market.\n\n## Growing internet\n\nInternet access among Cuba's 11.2 million people is growing.\n\nBetween 2013 and 2015, the share of the Cuban population using the internet jumped from about a quarter to more than 35%, according to estimates from the International Telecommunications Union.\n\nThe growing market has helped draw the attention of internet giants, such as Airbnb, Netflix and Google, which installed servers on the island and started hosting data there last month.\n\nThe rise is also fuelling activity among local entrepreneurs, who are launching domestic versions of sites such as the crowd-review business directory Yelp.\n\nBut there's a long way to go.\n\n## 'Third world conditions'\n\nLess than 6% of Cuban households had internet access at home in 2015, one of the lowest rates in the western hemisphere, according to the ITU. (In the UK, that figure tops 91%.)\n\nWi-fi hotspots in parks and other public places operated by the state-run telecom company remain the primary way to log on.\n\nService at the hotspots is often slow, expensive and selective, with the government restricting access to the full range of internet sites.\n\nThe constraints are shaping the emerging Cuban start-ups.\n\nAt this month's TechCrunch conference in New York, Mr Gonzalez shared a stage with Kewelta, a firm focusing on advertising within decentralised online and offline networks, and Knales, which provides updates on weather, news and other events via text messages and phone calls.\n\nKnales co-founder Diana Elianne Benitez Perera told the audience that \"Cubans are disrupters by definition. We always find the way to have first world conditions with third world conditions.\"\n\n## 'Change in the air'\n\nThe government in recent years has taken some steps to boost internet access, increasing wi-fi hotspots in parks and other places, lowering prices and experimenting with home installations.\n\nThe measures come amid broader economic changes in Cuba, after the Castro regime loosened rules for private enterprise and the Obama administration eased the US embargo, unleashing large numbers of US travellers.\n\nThe Cuba Emprende Foundation started working with the Catholic Church in Cuba about five years ago as the reforms started, funding four-week courses in entrepreneurship from which more than 3,000 people have graduated.\n\nThe Foundation helped organise the 10x10KCuba start-up competition in which both Diana and Bernardo participated last year, that led to the invitation to the Tech Crunch conference in New York in May.\n\n\"There's change in the air,\" says Anna Maria Alejo, one of the people who helped organise the TechCrunch panel and helped raise about $10,000 (\u00a37,700) to pay for eight entrepreneurs to attend the conference.\n\n\"We're not exactly sure where things will go, but there's a lot of optimism among these young people,\" she says.\n\n## 'Workarounds'\n\nCuba has a relatively high number of well-trained software engineers, especially for a country with its size and degree of internet access, said Kirk Laughlin, managing director of NearShore Americas.\n\nThe media advisory company published a report in 2015 that highlighted the island's potential as a hub for cheap IT labour.\n\nBut Mr Laughlin says he's been disappointed by how slowly the Cuban government has moved to improve the broadband network, especially given interest from international companies and numbers of educated Cubans opting to leave and take their chances elsewhere.\n\n\"There is such an opportunity to leapfrog ahead and really light up the island with really robust broadband. That is just not happening,\" he says.\n\n\"When it comes to online start-ups, there's a lot of workarounds\".\n\n\"That's great that people have the ingenuity and creativity and in some ways we should applaud that,\" he says.\n\n\"But it's still a long way to go to get into the league that Cuba has great qualifications to participate in.\"\n\n## 'The companies are waiting'\n\nSome say the changes could accelerate after Raul Castro retires next year.\n\nIn speeches, Mr Castro's presumed successor, vice president Miguel Diaz-Canel, has indicated a more open attitude, said Larry Press, a professor emeritus at California State University Dominguez Hills, who has researched the internet in the developing world and writes a blog, external on Cuba.\n\nMr Press said media recently praised Revolico, a Craigslist-like site that was blocked by the government after its launch in 2007. More recently, it has been celebrated, external and has inspired competitors.\n\nBut those steps aside, a lot of work remains, he says.\n\n\"Those indicate a change of attitude, not a giant change of reality.\"\n\nMr Gonzalez, who has also started computer repair and web development businesses, said he thinks the moment for Cubazon is now, while shipping to Cuba from the US remains limited.\n\nHe and the staff from his current business are working to sign up more businesses to sell their wares on Cubazon.\n\nMany of the people he's talking to don't have an online presence, he says, but can see the possibility: \"The companies are waiting for us.\"\n\nStill, he adds, his primary focus for the moment is a basic one: \"My goal currently is working.\"\n\nFollow Technology of Business editor Matthew Wall on Twitter, external and Facebook, external" + }, + { + "title": "Jazz and culture bring New Orleans and Cuba together - Cubadiplom\u00e1tica", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Jazz and culture bring New Orleans and Cuba together - Cubadiplom\u00e1tica" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMimwFBVV95cUxQSTVpNjM3ZnlmeUFvc0lxZkdmUUVtZkUwWlZXeDdhWHRueFV5TzU5OWFZTHItX3d1UlVmazRWVHhIbFZ0R3pTcjh6SUVVRGtlNndKckRzSjE5YTBycUNfWVNHUy1SSGxJaFdRVDljdXBLT0hvQjhFY05aZUNGODlPNW5mTE1iM1FXcnMyRjNrM3c0SVB5YlBaVTFUbw?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.bu.edu/articles/2017/lift-cuban-embargo-says-miguel-fraga/", + "id": "CBMimwFBVV95cUxQSTVpNjM3ZnlmeUFvc0lxZkdmUUVtZkUwWlZXeDdhWHRueFV5TzU5OWFZTHItX3d1UlVmazRWVHhIbFZ0R3pTcjh6SUVVRGtlNndKckRzSjE5YTBycUNfWVNHUy1SSGxJaFdRVDljdXBLT0hvQjhFY05aZUNGODlPNW5mTE1iM1FXcnMyRjNrM3c0SVB5YlBaVTFUbw", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Mon, 08 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 8, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 0, + 128, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Jazz and culture bring New Orleans and Cuba together  Cubadiplom\u00e1tica", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Jazz and culture bring New Orleans and Cuba together  Cubadiplom\u00e1tica" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://misiones.cubaminrex.cu", + "title": "Cubadiplom\u00e1tica" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Cuban embargo must be lifted, diplomat tells Pardee audience | BU Today | Boston University\nurl: https://www.bu.edu/articles/2017/lift-cuban-embargo-says-miguel-fraga/\nhostname: bu.edu\ndescription: US embargo on Cuba makes no sense and must be lifted, a Cuban diplomat told an audience at the Pardee School.\nsitename: Boston University\ndate: 2019-06-25\n---\n# Time to Lift the Embargo, Cuban Diplomat Tells Pardee Audience\n\n## Out of date, out of step with current global trade, Miguel Fraga says\n\nThe US embargo on Cuba makes no sense and must come to an end, Miguel Fraga, first secretary of the Cuban Embassy in the United States told an audience of students, faculty, and guests last Thursday at the Pardee School of Global Studies.\n\n\u201cWe are in the best moment in the last 50 years between Cuba and the United States,\u201d Fraga said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to wait another 50 years.\u201d\n\nThe secretary\u2019s appearance was part of Pardee\u2019s Beyond the Headlines lecture series, and Fraga said he liked the title. \u201cIf you believe the media, Cuba is the worst country in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cBut if you ask the World Bank\u2014this is not Cuban propaganda\u2014the life expectancy is 79 years, and we have 6.7 doctors per every 1,000 people in our country. We spend 12.8 percent of our GDP on education and 8 percent on health.\u201d\n\nFraga was quick to acknowledge that Cuba \u201cis not a perfect country, but we are proud of many things. All we want is normal relations, with goodwill and respect. Why can we not have normal relations? Because we are communist? You have relations with China, with Vietnam. How many soldiers have you lost in Vietnam? And how many in Cuba?\u201d\n\nOver the last few years, under President Obama, Fraga noted, many improvements were made to the relationship between the two countries, including the restoration of diplomatic relations in 2015 and the easing of travel restrictions. But the embargo imposed after Cuba\u2019s 1959 revolution remains in place, and its future under President Trump is unclear.\n\nFraga cited recent polls by the Pew Research Center and other pollsters indicating that the majority of Americans, even Cuban-Americans, now support better relations and lifting the embargo.\n\nHe attributed the change in attitude to the rise of a new generation that is not held back by the arguments of a half-century ago, when the late Fidel Castro and his brother Raul, now the president, were Cold War targets of the United States.\n\n\u201cWe are in the best moment in the last 50 years between Cuba and the United States. We don\u2019t want to wait another 50 years.\u201d \u2013Miguel Fraga\n\n\n\u201cIn the beginning, after the revolution, people said this is only going to be for six months,\u201d Fraga said. \u201cThen they said the problem is the Soviet Union. After the Soviet Union disappeared in 1991 and we lost 80 percent of our trade, they said the problem was Fidel. Now the people say the problem is Raul. I don\u2019t know what they are going to say next, because Raul says he is not going to be part of the government after next year.\u201d\n\nSo why does he think the embargo\u2014called a blockade by Cubans\u2014remains? His personal opinion, he said, is that the United States is dealing with many problems, \u201cand only our enemies\u2014only the people that don\u2019t want good relations\u2014make Cuba a priority.\u201d\n\nFraga preempted questions about human rights and freedom of speech in Cuba by bringing up the issue himself, noting that the United States trades with plenty of other one-party-system countries. \u201cIs Cuba a bad society?\u201d he said. \u201cIt is not perfect, and we are doing a lot of changes in Cuba.\u201d\n\nSome 10 percent of Cubans are now employed in the private sector, a major shift, he noted, adding that the government is not censoring content on the internet, whose access is limited largely by lack of resources and equipment.\n\nHe said that students at a Cuban law school recently got a computer lab with 24-hour internet. \u201cWhat they did there? No research,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were trying to see what happened with baseball here in the United States, soccer in Spain, what movie do you have here? So, we are not afraid of the internet. Right now, a quarter million Cubans connect daily to Wi-Fi. And they do the same that you do here: Twitter, Facebook, whatever.\u201d\n\nFraga himself tweets. And Cuba has recently signed an agreement with Google to try to improve access, he said.\n\nPaul Webster Hare, a Pardee School senior lecturer in international relations and the British ambassador to Cuba from 2001 to 2004, asked Fraga why Cuban officials took so long to approve even those foreign investments that are allowed by law.\n\n\u201cI really believe the problem is that we need to be sure something is for the future, and in the majority of cases, we don\u2019t have that feeling, because the embargo is a reality,\u201d Fraga said. For example, he noted that it is legal now for a US bank to open an office in Cuba, but none has done so. Why? Because nobody knows what the relationship is going to be in six months, he said.\n\n\u201cI always remember the speech of President Kennedy, when he talked about opportunities between the Soviet Union and the United States,\u201d Fraga said. \u201cHe said, \u2018Probably we cannot solve all our differences now, but we can work together.\u2019 And he was thinking about the Soviet Union. Why not with Cuba?\u201d\n\n## Comments & Discussion\n\nBoston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation." + }, + { + "title": "The Ghost Towns Left Behind by Cuba\u2019s Shuttered Sugar Mills - Global Voices", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "The Ghost Towns Left Behind by Cuba\u2019s Shuttered Sugar Mills - Global Voices" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMimwFBVV95cUxNSzBwWjg2MHEtY1JEcnZCTFM0YmthU0RDWl82dHhLQkZ3M2VuWlAxS1JxQXA3ZTM0Y3B4MjZreUJnTjVLcHhrNGFhTmFpM0FxLUQtTDBKeVVhd3d4WDF1ZzZKVEwzTGpjbVNhbFhMQlhYOEVRUVFOMzN4RUZhRkpublc3aVZDQUVLNDgwM1Rod19QOHNQYUhiYWw4WQ?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://globalvoices.org/2017/05/09/the-ghost-towns-left-behind-by-cubas-shuttered-sugar-mills/", + "id": "CBMimwFBVV95cUxNSzBwWjg2MHEtY1JEcnZCTFM0YmthU0RDWl82dHhLQkZ3M2VuWlAxS1JxQXA3ZTM0Y3B4MjZreUJnTjVLcHhrNGFhTmFpM0FxLUQtTDBKeVVhd3d4WDF1ZzZKVEwzTGpjbVNhbFhMQlhYOEVRUVFOMzN4RUZhRkpublc3aVZDQUVLNDgwM1Rod19QOHNQYUhiYWw4WQ", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Tue, 09 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 9, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 1, + 129, + 0 + ], + "summary": "The Ghost Towns Left Behind by Cuba\u2019s Shuttered Sugar Mills  Global Voices", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "The Ghost Towns Left Behind by Cuba\u2019s Shuttered Sugar Mills  Global Voices" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://globalvoices.org", + "title": "Global Voices" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: The Ghost Towns Left Behind by Cuba's Shuttered Sugar Mills\nauthor: Periodismo de Barrio\nurl: https://globalvoices.org/2017/05/09/the-ghost-towns-left-behind-by-cubas-shuttered-sugar-mills/\nhostname: globalvoices.org\ndescription: What happened in the Cuban sugar towns after the mills of its primary industry were dismantled?\nsitename: Global Voices\ndate: 2017-05-09\nlicense: CC BY 3.0\n---\nThe people's council of Gregorio Arle\u00e9 Ma\u00f1alich, in the western province of Mayabeque, is better known as *el Central*, which means sugar mill in Cuban Spanish. However, sugar harvest isn\u2019t talked about there anymore. Twelve years ago, production at the mill was halted, and then came the dismantling. Piece by piece, the mill was taken apart until there was nothing more than steel infrastructure and concrete.\n\nAbout 272 employees had to reinvent themselves. Some changed jobs. Others traveled daily to mills that continued grinding.\n\nThe sugar harvest doesn't worry Nene, an old welder who still gets up everyday at 4 in the morning. He doesn't lose any sleep over the sugar harvest. But then he heard that there were mills in the east that had begun grinding again after a lot of inactivity. They had apparently been maintained.\n\nThat did keep him awake that night.\n\nIn Ma\u00f1alich, Nene remembers perfectly, they said they\u2019d maintain the mill, but they didn't.\n\nThe sugar industry in Cuba has encountered many merciless hurdles: the collapse of the socialist block, low market values, inefficiencies, bad administrative decisions and climate change.\n\nIn 2016, production was at 1.6 million tons of sugar, less than what was being produced back in 1910. That kind of news would have shocked the nation decades ago, but the failure of the sugar cane harvest is no longer a concern in Cuba.\n\n### Why was the sugar cane industry dismantled?\n\nThe downsizing of the sugarcane industry was an economic necessity: the total of 155 mills\u2014which were technologically behind and uncompetitive\u2014was unsustainable for the country. The initial approach was to consolidate the production efficiently, with a cap of 4 million tons a year.\n\nOnly the factories capable of producing sugar at a cost of 4 cents a pound or less would remain. And the solution to the unemployment that came as a result: going back to school.\n\nThe motives to take such measures were the low productivity of sugarcane fields and the slump on sugar in the global market.\n\nHowever, the price of sugar began to improve over a decade ago.\n\nFrom 2017 through 2025, the price of unrefined sugar is expected to level off between 15 and 16 cents per pound, according to the 2016 edition of the \u201cAgricultural Perspectives\u201d from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).\n\nHad production in 2001 been maintained (3.6 million tons), about 815 million dollars would have been made from the export of unrefined sugar.\n\n### Things weren't going so well\n\n\u201cToday will surely become a historic day\u201d were the first words of Cuban President Fidel Castro during his speech on October 21, 2002 at Lavandero mill. So began the restructuring of the sugar industry.\n\nIn the following years, a total of 98 mills would be closed down and more than 65,000 people would receive their full salary for going back to school. The Gregorio Arle\u00e9 Ma\u00f1alich mill's turn would arrive on May 14, 2004.\n\nLuis Alberto P\u00e9rez (or Nene, as everyone calls him) had worked there since 1967. When he speaks of the closing of the sugar mill, the word he repeats the most is \u201cdeception.\u201d\n\nAlmost all the interviewees agree: They were never told that the mill would be dismantled.\n\nA team stayed on to work full-time on preserving the place. But before the first year was up, letters began to arrive. They were formulaic documents in which the only things that changed were the names of the pieces to be extracted, the recipient and the date. All were signed by the Cuban minister of sugar at the time, Ulises Rosales del Toro. Only the minister could authorize each extraction. Further responsibilities would be delegated afterwards, however, and the letters would arrive more frequently.\n\nFor two years, Juan Carlos Rivero was head of the Closed Factory (the official name given to mills and agro-industrial complexes that had to be closed down) and amongst those who received the letters. \u201cThe country had neither money to buy supplies, nor spare parts for the factories that were functioning,\u201d he assures.\n\nEddy Reyes, 64, is waiting to reach the retirement age at another mill, the Bouris Luis Santa Coloma. Against his will, he had to dismember the installations he had put in place before. With each piece he stripped, he was dismantling 31 years of his own life.\n\nThe direct legacy of closing a hundred sugar mills has been a string of communities with engineers and technicians that, suddenly, didn't have any factories to help operate or repair.\n\nThe best distributed industrial branch of Cuba and the oldest employment source in the nation were eliminated; and in many ways, no alternatives were created for those lost jobs or for the services in the communities where the mills were located.\n\nWe will never know if during his lengthy inauguration speech on October 21, 2002, the Cuban president looked in the faces of those who were listening to him when he guaranteed that everything was going well in the factories that had stopped grinding five years prior.\n\n### The impact of closing the sugar mills on people\n\nTwo years later, the people's council of Gregorio Arle\u00e9 Ma\u00f1alich would realize that, when a mill closes, a lot of things change, but almost never for the better.\n\nWhen the mill closed, or rather, when it was destroyed, they also stopped paving highways and thus, services declined.\n\nWithout work in the town and too old to study, Nene and Eddy had to go work for other mills. They became replacement parts. Without a hopeful future in their isolated town, many other young people finally left too.\n\nIn the small neighborhood surrounding the sugar mill, a pasta factory was built, but it couldn't even produce enough noodles to feed the municipality. The scraps of the sugar mill that remained at the base of the new establishment remained untouched, imposing.\n\nAt the end of 2016, Nene returned from the Boris Luis Santa Coloma mill to the ruins of the place where he had started working. Forty-nine sugar harvests allowed him to settle in Ma\u00f1alich with more than 2,000 pesos.\n\nNene \u2014 black, short, with few teeth and a clear voice \u2014 is not a spiteful man, but he will never forgive them for lying to him. The distress has consumed him over the last decade. He retired at 65. But it wasn't because he lacked strength; rather, because he was bitter." + }, + { + "title": "Time to Lift the Embargo, Cuban Diplomat Tells Pardee Audience - Boston University", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Time to Lift the Embargo, Cuban Diplomat Tells Pardee Audience - Boston University" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiekFVX3lxTE94UEpIcHU1M1hxNTdTZGF3XzZNRWw1VTYxWFlvWlRBcXRzRmdYaXV5U3NvLUlHMjRWUVAwNHQ4a2dVcWtwSXM3V2EtM3BIOHZKUDl6ZTViX01jVERQRldWX3Y4MnktaHZoSG5MVFJvaTNOdG51UmZ5TTlR?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://misiones.cubaminrex.cu/en/articulo/jazz-and-culture-bring-new-orleans-and-cuba-together", + "id": "CBMiekFVX3lxTE94UEpIcHU1M1hxNTdTZGF3XzZNRWw1VTYxWFlvWlRBcXRzRmdYaXV5U3NvLUlHMjRWUVAwNHQ4a2dVcWtwSXM3V2EtM3BIOHZKUDl6ZTViX01jVERQRldWX3Y4MnktaHZoSG5MVFJvaTNOdG51UmZ5TTlR", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Mon, 01 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 1, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 0, + 121, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Time to Lift the Embargo, Cuban Diplomat Tells Pardee Audience  Boston University", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Time to Lift the Embargo, Cuban Diplomat Tells Pardee Audience  Boston University" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.bu.edu", + "title": "Boston University" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 0, + "response": "Error: HTTP 0" + }, + { + "title": "Eli\u00e1n, son of Cuba, among history\u2019s most famous 5-year-olds - 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Statesman Journal", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Travel to Cuba more than cigars, rum and beaches - Statesman Journal" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiogFBVV95cUxPM2pLd3ZaVEExVUJ6dGNKazJrVXZjdThheXNRVjZxT19oTVBiMTl0bXBGZnAtTXBuRC1sNEh0a0U0bnppd3NKRHZtdzRXTFVlQkJaSjRvWVdPczFlaERoVllvVE4zMFR4WXZXai10NU14cnZfT2V1NWljY25MblE2dHRQdkpOMzY4SW53SUdQLVF1ZWQwZVRnUGZfbW0xR3I2elE?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.polygon.com/features/2017/5/15/15625950/cuba-secret-gaming-network/", + "id": "CBMiogFBVV95cUxPM2pLd3ZaVEExVUJ6dGNKazJrVXZjdThheXNRVjZxT19oTVBiMTl0bXBGZnAtTXBuRC1sNEh0a0U0bnppd3NKRHZtdzRXTFVlQkJaSjRvWVdPczFlaERoVllvVE4zMFR4WXZXai10NU14cnZfT2V1NWljY25MblE2dHRQdkpOMzY4SW53SUdQLVF1ZWQwZVRnUGZfbW0xR3I2elE", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Thu, 18 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 18, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 3, + 138, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Travel to Cuba more than cigars, rum and beaches  Statesman Journal", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Travel to Cuba more than cigars, rum and beaches  Statesman Journal" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.statesmanjournal.com", + "title": "Statesman Journal" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Inside Cuba\u2019s secretive underground gamer network\nauthor: Brian Crecente\nurl: https://www.polygon.com/features/2017/5/15/15625950/cuba-secret-gaming-network/\nhostname: polygon.com\ndescription: Evolved from gamer network, to social community\nsitename: Polygon.com\ndate: 2017-05-15\ncategories: ['Feature', 'World of Warcraft', 'Nintendo 64', 'StarCraft', 'Linux', 'Dota 2', 'StarCraft', 'The Park', 'With Friends']\n---\nThe last rule of the Street Network is that you don't talk about the Street Network. But that wasn't always the case.\n\nFor several years the clandestine Havana network of illegal Wi-Fi repeaters, lengths of high-speed network cable and squirreled away servers packed with pirated games, movies and music was sort of an open secret.\n\nThe government didn't just turn a blind eye to it; in some cases it protected the valuable equipment located on windowsills and rooftops, keeping an eye out for potential thieves.\n\nAll of that changed in some people\u2019s eyes in 2015 after several people in the Street Network (often just called the Snet) talked to the Associated Press and brought too much attention to their efforts. Since then, the Snet has continued to grow, quickly stretching outside the bounds of Havana and becoming something more than the gaming and entertainment network it started out as. But now that growth happens despite the government's continued efforts to take the network down, several people who help maintain the network tell Polygon.\n\n\"It's like, for me it's the most magic place,\" says Fidel Rodriguez, a professor at the University of Havana department of journalism who has studied the Snet. \"It is the most magical thing happening in technology in Cuba because it's like a live organism. It's always changing and it points out the contradictions of Cuba life, about Cuban society and the potential young people have to make things happen.\"\n\nRodriguez also sees it as an excellent example of how things can be built communally instead of through more vertically structured organization.\n\nIn researching the Snet, Rodriguez discovered that the network, one of many that seem to stretch like cobwebs across Cuba's major cities, started up about five years ago and has, over the years, expanded with the help of literally thousands of \"young people\" without any help from the Cuban or any other governments. It is, he says, purely a thing born of the need to socialize, initially to socialize through video games.\n\n\"You have a situation where you find some young people who do something for the common good,\" Rodriguez says. \"They do something to be together and take responsibility to develop complex things. So you have \u2026 18-years-old kids who are taking this kind of complex responsibility in the development of this huge network.\"\n\nRodriguez traces its origin back to 2012 when the country introduced a formal system for providing limited internet to the public. Raul Castro formed ETECSA, a government run telecommunications service provider, and opened 35 Wi-Fi parks. Anyone can go into these parks with a pre-purchased internet card and get online. The scratch off cards, which provide a unique login and password, originally cost about $5 for an hour. Nowadays, they cost $2 an hour.\n\nBy 2014, the country estimated that about three million people, or about 27 percent of the country's population, were using the parks, according to Rodriguez\u2019s research. By the end of 2015, ETECSA estimates that 150,000 people were getting online through the parks daily.\n\nThe available, but limited, internet access expanded the desire for networking at a time when Cubans who grew up playing video games were leaving high school and moving on to college.\n\nThe Snet started, according to several people I spoke with who help administer nodes and to Rodriguez, when two friends strung some cable between their homes so they could play LAN games. When one of them moved away, they extended the network so they could continue gaming. Soon friends were building out the network so they could get in on the gameplay. Within a couple of years, the network was massive. By 2015 it stretched from one end of Havana to the other, but 2017 it was in other regions around the country, I'm told.\n\nThings became more complicated in 2015 when the government passed regulations banning the importation of 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi equipment. Moving forward the equipment had to be smuggled into the country. Often, people take the equipment apart and slip pieces into different suitcases or their pockets, reassembling and selling them once they get into the country.\n\nThe Snet has rules: No talking about drugs, no sharing pornography, no talking about politics or religion, no selling access or connecting nodes to the world\u2019s internet and when you're not on the Snet, you don't talk about the Snet.\n\nIt's one of the ways the many network moderators try to fly under the government's radar. The Snet now is massive; one person estimates that more than 20,000 people use it in Havana alone, and its web of interconnections might make taking it down impossible, but no one wants to risk that.\n\nSo they follow the rules.\n\nIt does create a bit of a conundrum for someone who doesn't have access to the Snet. If you're a member, you're not supposed to talk to non-members about it. And to become a member you need to have an existing member vouch for you. But it somehow still works out.\n\nI spend much of my time in Havana, while talking to gamers, visiting government centers and tracking down developers, on the hunt for the Snet and its members.\n\nFinally, I gain the trust of one member who was willing to introduce me to another, more highly placed member. He, in turn, brings me to one of the neighborhood hubs to meet one of Havana's Snet administrators.\n\nAs we drive through the side-streets of Old Havana in a meticulously cared for 1960s Russian car, the neighborhood leader points to one of the thick clusters of cables strung across the road between telephone poles.\n\n\"See that yellow cable?\" he says. \"That's an Snet cable.\"\n\nThe road, packed with traffic and near a busy intersection, is hardly an out of the way byway. I ask how they managed to string a LAN cable across the road.\n\nThey just do it, he says. They come out at night and run the cable.\n\nWhen we arrive at the heart of this part of the city's Snet, I'm told not to take any pictures. Somewhere past the many windows facing the dusty park rests a major server, home to all of the content found in this cluster of the network. My contact points out cables surreptitiously running out of windows, or between buildings. He points to small white devices attached to the sides of buildings or resting on their rooftops. They're nanostations, tiny relatively inexpensive but powerful point-to-point wireless bridges. They are the wireless form of those long cables connecting people to one another on the Snet.\n\nI'm introduced to the leader of this area. He looks at me for a second, his red-rimmed, slightly glassy eyes staring at me as the translator explains that I'm hoping to talk to the leadership of the Snet.\n\nHe tells her that he has to check into the request and walks off.\n\nA few minutes later he tells me that he can't do an interview until all of the city's administrators approve it and that can't happen until the next meet-up.\n\nA month later I hear through a connection that the administrator I met is no longer part of the Snet. He\u2019s been kicked out for breaking one of the cardinal rules: selling access, connecting a portion of Snet to the internet or porn.\n\n\"Overcoming obstacles is part of the Cuban identity,\" Rodriguez says, making it clear that the network isn't really the by-product of any sort of government or ideology, but rather of necessity. \"You have the idea of 'We have to make this thing happen and we have to make this thing so everybody wins.' It's a very pragmatic idea.\"\n\nThat pragmatism, helped along by a desire to play games with friends and watch pirated movies and television, has helped the Snet spread quickly throughout the country and now it's starting to connect cities.\n\n\"It's already connecting cities, mostly in the Havana area,\" Rodriguez says. \"They have connected some parts of Havana with Artemisa. If you look at the map, they are like 100 kilometers apart.\"\n\nThat's 100 kilometers of nanostations and hand-strung network cable, almost all of which was done by young Cubans.\n\n\"It's not connecting the whole country right now,\" Rodriguez says, and if it ever did he could see the government getting more involved in stopping it. \"It's a lot of work to do this and a lot of work to maintain the service.\"\n\nOn top of that, he says, there is a lot of internal strife on Snet between the administrators. Whatever the future holds for Snet, Rodriguez just hopes it sticks around.\n\n\"It shows what we can do as a people,\" he says. \"We can do something in a collective way that can be an example of development.\"\n\nIt is a sign that Cubans can, without the help of a company or the government, create something powerful in a collective way, he says.\n\n\"That's probably the main dream of the revolution,\" he says. \"I think it is a pure idea of the revolution.\"\n\nDespite the increased regulations and government scrutiny, the Snet hasn't just survived; it has thrived. That's likely because it was so established and steers clear of hotbed political issues, says Ted Henken, a Latin American studies professor at Baruch College who has researched and written about Cuba's small businesses and internet.\n\n\"The government has largely tolerated it,\" Henken says. \"It's not hands off, but not a knee jerk repressive approach either as long as the content is relatively non-political and doesn't include porn.\n\n\"They realize it's a lost battle. It would be like whack a mole trying to root it out. It doesn't have a central hub. It could also be a strategy of let them eat cake. 'Let them be entertained as long as we maintain control where it matters.'\"\n\nAfter my failed attempt at an interview with the Snet leadership, my guides brought me to another neighborhood and a friend who regularly hangs out on Snet, so I could see what the network is like.\n\nWhile the Snet started out as a place to play games, it has evolved to become much more since. When I arrive at the house, I'm let into a room that is home to two desks and computer setups. One person sits watching television shows that were downloaded the day before and the other, my host, is preparing to walk me through the network's offerings.\n\nAmong the most popular online competitive games in Cuba are Blizzard's StarCraft and StarCraft 2, World of Warcraft\u2019s player-versus-player Arena and Valve's DOTA 2. Because those online games run through the developer's own anti-cheat, anti-piracy software, Snet is also home to heavily modded versions of both Blizzard's BattleNet and Valve's Steam. Both programs are free and never go online. Instead they run entirely on the Snet LAN. Both are also routinely, manually patched to ensure the games they host are always up to date.\n\nTypically, my guide tells me, a patch hits the Snet version of DOTA 2 within a month of release in the U.S. Sometimes, it can be just a couple of days.\n\nAnd while the Snet hackers have to remove the official cheat detectors built into the games, the street network has its own program for detecting cheats. In this case, get caught and, like when you break one of the rules of Snet, you're banned from the network.\n\nThe Snet is also home to an extensive network of voice channels where people can get together to talk about just anything that doesn't break Snet's own rules. Those voice-over-internet channels can connect anyone anywhere on the Snet to each other. When I was there, I saw they were organized into a slew of channels and sub channels. Inside the game channel, for instance, there were channels for games, and inside those channels were channels for modes and inside that channel, channels for locations and finally smaller player groups.\n\nThe end result is the ability for people to hop into a voice channel dedicated to a single match and let the players chat with one another as they play.\n\nOther channels let people chat about general topics, the latest movies or TV shows.\n\nBut the Snet and the hacked and modded programs created for it go well beyond that. For instance, the Snet has its own form of Facebook, a program that appears to have been built from the ground up to mimic the best parts of Facebook in a forum more suitable to the street network and the people who use it. Inside, as with the official Facebook, users can share updates, chat with one another and search for friends and family.\n\nThere's a dedicated Snet dating program, a Cuban take on an offline Wikipedia, live chat programs and a special forum created to work like Craigslist, where people can buy, sell and trade items.\n\nThe Snet also is host to publications, both from the United States and those indie publications growing inside Cuba itself.\n\nThere's even online versions of Cuban-run pirate radio stations and they have live DJs who mix their chatter with a constant stream of pirated music.\n\nFor some, it's their nearly eight-hour-a-day Snet job, all done free of pay, voluntarily.\n\nLately, thanks to those DJs and the explosive growth of the Snet, there have been meet-ups, pool parties where Snet users get together in real life to hang out and have fun.\n\n\"The thing about the Snet is that people don't play only online,\" my guide says. \"They actually want to meet each other so they can socialize.\"\n\nYou just read one entry in Polygon\u2019s 12-part series on video games in Cuba. Check out the rest on our hub." + }, + { + "title": "Cuba Remembers Chris Cornell as a \u2018Rock Hero\u2019 After Historic 2005 Audioslave Concert in Havana - Billboard", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba Remembers Chris Cornell as a \u2018Rock Hero\u2019 After Historic 2005 Audioslave Concert in Havana - Billboard" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMigAFBVV95cUxQdlF6SEs2bjd5VEtKdzA1dnQtcVNmOTZUejgzYUY4VEFDOGNDWUNOblJkLVVZSFlNUGJjTGM4ZDhnTWNhYmNRWS1DbU9ZOENLWkdFWUw5WWwxUUl3SHFQaFJtVVgtZUFSS2tuWGQ4amFncllSa21aSGVDSzhZRzBrZA?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article152407904.html", + "id": "CBMigAFBVV95cUxQdlF6SEs2bjd5VEtKdzA1dnQtcVNmOTZUejgzYUY4VEFDOGNDWUNOblJkLVVZSFlNUGJjTGM4ZDhnTWNhYmNRWS1DbU9ZOENLWkdFWUw5WWwxUUl3SHFQaFJtVVgtZUFSS2tuWGQ4amFncllSa21aSGVDSzhZRzBrZA", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Thu, 18 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 18, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 3, + 138, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Cuba Remembers Chris Cornell as a \u2018Rock Hero\u2019 After Historic 2005 Audioslave Concert in Havana  Billboard", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba Remembers Chris Cornell as a \u2018Rock Hero\u2019 After Historic 2005 Audioslave Concert in Havana  Billboard" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.billboard.com", + "title": "Billboard" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 403, + "response": "Error: HTTP 403" + }, + { + "title": "Cuban Medical Diplomacy: A Developmental Paradox - coha.org", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuban Medical Diplomacy: A Developmental Paradox - coha.org" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMic0FVX3lxTFBXQTVUSDlpUWNHRklrbUlwZWlyVF9pcXFfYnpXTkVGWHFiT0gxdmdlaGJsQm1Ub1A0LXFYVC1sSjJzRVZaV3NVaXhUYk9YdXhjdHNMQzFYV2l5cS14WTdEUE8tODBqLXNXTnNRVkVDel9ZUDg?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://coha.org/cuban-medical-diplomacy-a-developmental-paradox/", + "id": "CBMic0FVX3lxTFBXQTVUSDlpUWNHRklrbUlwZWlyVF9pcXFfYnpXTkVGWHFiT0gxdmdlaGJsQm1Ub1A0LXFYVC1sSjJzRVZaV3NVaXhUYk9YdXhjdHNMQzFYV2l5cS14WTdEUE8tODBqLXNXTnNRVkVDel9ZUDg", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Tue, 02 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 2, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 1, + 122, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Cuban Medical Diplomacy: A Developmental Paradox  coha.org", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuban Medical Diplomacy: A Developmental Paradox  coha.org" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://coha.org", + "title": "coha.org" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Cuban Medical Diplomacy: A Developmental Paradox\nauthor: COHA\nurl: https://coha.org/cuban-medical-diplomacy-a-developmental-paradox/\nhostname: coha.org\ndescription: By Haley Wiebel, Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs To download a PDF version of this article, click here. Although its role as a pariah state in the eyes of the U.S. government has contributed\nsitename: COHA\ndate: 2017-05-02\ntags: ['Argentina (88)', 'Bolivia (32)', 'Brazil (134)', 'Chile (62)', 'China (30)', 'coha (20)', 'Colombia (76)', 'Coronavirus (19)', 'corruption (41)', 'COVID-19 (22)', 'Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (24)', 'Cuba (91)', 'Daniel Ortega (19)', 'Dilma Rousseff (21)', 'Donald Trump (23)', 'Ecuador (46)', 'Elections (43)', 'El Salvador (40)', 'Embargo (21)', 'Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto (27)', 'Environment (21)', 'Erika Quinteros (19)', 'evo morales (24)', 'FARC (40)', 'Guatemala (38)', 'Honduras (65)', 'Hugo Ch\u00e1vez (31)', 'Human Rights (73)', 'Immigration (36)', 'Larry Birns (25)', 'Latin America (46)', 'Mauricio Macri (23)', 'Mexico (114)', 'Michel Temer (31)', 'Nicaragua (44)', 'Nicolas Maduro (34)', 'OAS (35)', 'Obama (22)', 'Peru (46)', 'U.S. (21)', 'UNASUR (20)', 'United States (97)', 'Uruguay (19)', 'Venezuela (161)', 'Violence (19)']\n---\n# Cuban Medical Diplomacy: A Developmental Paradox\n\n*By Haley Wiebel, **Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs*\n\n*To download a PDF version of this article, click here.*\n\nAlthough its role as a pariah state in the eyes of the U.S. government has contributed to its underdevelopment as a nation, Cuba has emerged an unlikely victor in health care. The Cuban Revolution served as a catalyst for improved medical services and universal treatment on the island. Although Fidel Castro\u2019s vision for a Cuba *mejor *stemmed from his political mantra, the country\u2019s most successful social program can ultimately be credited to the medical training of former revolutionary Che Guevara. Still, a cursory review of Cuba\u2019s economy would suggest a lack of social institutions altogether. Exporting Guevara\u2019s legacy in an effort to gain international recognition, Castro used the country\u2019s unique medical prototype as a diplomatic tool beginning in the 1960s. The increasing supply of Cuban doctors allowed some of the most underdeveloped parts of the world to begin receiving medical professionals as well as new clinics. The Cuban health care system, therefore, has revolutionized the implications of domestic social development.\n\nAs a young man, Castro developed a profound interest in social justice. Attending law school fueled his desire to become an advocate of reform. Furthermore, once he became involved in the island\u2019s anti-communist party *Partido Orthodoxo*, Castro began building his political platform on social change.[i] He soon gained political momentum, motivating his decision to run for parliament in 1952.[ii] However, Castro\u2019s vision was temporarily crushed after Fulgencio Batista scrapped all elections through a coup. Associated with crime and corruption, Batista allowed social and economic disparity to widen under his rule. Castro became increasingly frustrated by the worsening conditions in Cuba: \u201c[Many of the sugar cane workers were] living on the margins of survival [\u2026] Neither health care nor education reached those rural Cubans at the bottom of society.\u201d[iii] Although Castro came from a middle-class family, he understood rural poverty because he spent his early childhood in the countryside. Thus, Castro\u2019s campaign as a *revolucionario* was intensified by his disdain for Batista and his belief in improving society. Castro\u2019s rhetoric following his dissident 1953 attack on Moncada Barracks underscored his belief in providing improved institutions: \u201cCuba could easily provide for a population three times as great as it has now, so there is no excuse for the abject poverty of a single one of its present inhabitants [\u2026] What is inconceivable is that [\u2026] children should die for lack of medical attention.\u201d[iv] Thus, Castro\u2019s *History Will Absolve Me* speech unveiled part of his reformist agenda: his belief in universal health care on the island as a major form of social progress.\n\nFollowing the Cuban Revolution, Castro began to mold a political framework consistent with the revolutionary impact of health care. He guaranteed free elections after he ousted Batista in 1959.[v] However, the young leader broke his promise, resorting to absolute power to restructure the nation. In the absence of democracy, the United States condemned his plan to develop Cuba. Castro challenged western paradigms of modernization at the time, in an era in which development efforts were motivated by Cold War sentiment. Rather than relying on Western standards, Castro used his intimate knowledge of Cuba\u2019s impoverishment to construct the nation\u2019s own development model: \u201cFrom the initial days of the revolutionary government, Cuba\u2019s leaders espoused universal health care as a basic human right and the responsibility of the state.\u201d[vi] Castro\u2019s ideology surrounding health care became cemented into Cuban law by 1976.[vii] Article 50 of the Cuban Constitution highlights the role of the state in providing equal access to health care: \u201cEverybody has the right to health protection and care. The State guarantees this right by providing free medical and hospital care by means of the installations of the rural medical service network, polyclinics, [and] hospitals.\u201d[viii] Under Castro\u2019s leadership, \u201c[the government] absorbed all private insurance programs, health care services, and hospitals into a national public system. Prices for medicine were reduced and pharmaceutical companies were nationalized.\u201d[ix] Castro used authoritarianism to support his belief in the continued relevance of the Revolution. Thus, he believed that Cuban health care not only served as a validation of the state, but also his leadership abilities: \u201cCuban leaders consider health indicators to be measures of government efficacy, and as a result, health care has assumed an inordinately prominent place in Cuban government policies.\u201d[x] Cuban domestic politics built the foundation of the country\u2019s modern health care system, ensuring Castro\u2019s stronghold of control.\n\nAlthough Castro created the political mechanism that enforced his vision, Che Guevara influenced the effectiveness of the health care system itself. Castro and Guevara shared the same vision: to create Cuban solidarity through advanced health care.[xi] Guevara\u2019s advocacy of universal medical treatment stemmed from his own training as a physician and travels across Latin America.[xii] His 1960 speech *On Revolutionary Medicine*, explains how witnessing social disparity shaped his future involvement in Cuba: \u201cI began to travel throughout America [\u2026] I came into close contact with poverty, hunger and disease; And I began to realize at that time that [\u2026] I wanted to help those people [\u2026] I began to investigate what was needed to be a revolutionary doctor.\u201d[xiii] Guevara\u2019s redefined ideology made him a strong advocate of rural medical care. Despite his ambitions, half of the island\u2019s doctors left immediately after the Cuban Revolution as a result of the new government.[xiv] Undoubtedly influenced by Guevara, Castro quickly responded by reopening the University of Havana Medical School; The Ministry of Public Health also established the Rural Health Service, a domestic volunteer program for doctors.[xv] Thus, Guevara\u2019s advocacy began to materialize: \u201cThe government started by enlisting 750 physicians and medical students for a period of their professional lives to work in the mountains and coastal communities.\u201d[xvi] Guevara essentially created mobile medical units. Those who were unable to reach the cities\u2019 developing health care facilities due to their own poverty or immobility were not discriminated against, but rather were given equal medical attention.[xvii] Thus, Guevara\u2019s ideology provided Castro with a roadmap for some of the most successful aspects of his social program.\n\nFurthermore, Castro\u2019s health care innovations became a model for development during the late 20th century. Using free education as an incentive for medical students, Castro\u2019s government ensured that the number of medical training facilities could accommodate the supply and demand of health care professionals.[xviii] Medical and nursing schools were built in Cuba\u2019s provinces, encouraging locals to serve their own communities.[xix] As a result, Castro created a medical workforce that remains unrivaled by any other developing nation: \u201c[In 2008, Cuba had] about 33,000 family physicians. Specialization in family medicine is a requirement for more than 97% of medical graduates.\u201d[xx] His model relied heavily on community polyclinics, which were first established in 1974; the Cuban government continues to believe that workers can efficiently practice medicine if they understand the social conditions of their site.[xxi] Serving as an alternative to large hospitals, polyclinics have offered specialized care to communities. As a result, residents can easily access professionals such as gynecologists and pediatricians without traveling to an urban center.[xxii] Cuba has continued expanding its medical services and technology over time, making the country a hub for organ transplants, heart bypasses, and other complex surgeries.[xxiii] Thus, by the 1980s, Cuba boasted rival health indicators in relation to developed countries: \u201cIn 1982 Cuba\u2019s infant mortality rate [\u2026] was [73] points lower than the average rate for all developing nations [\u2026] life expectancy at birth in Cuba was surpassed by only Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Iceland, the Netherlands, and Norway, being equaled by the United States\u201d[xxiv] While Castro\u2019s health care program appeared relatively intuitive during its early stages, it later became recognized as a development phenomena throughout the world. Castro\u2019s 1992 speech, *Health Care at Ameijeras Hospital*, conveys Cuba\u2019s developmental paradox: \u201cI am sure that in no other country in the world do all the citizens have the same rights and the same possibility of receiving top health care as in Cuba.\u201d[xxv] Thus, Guevara and Castro\u2019s simple steps for lessening poverty and disparity gave rise to Cuban medical internationalism.\n\nAlthough Cuban medical diplomacy originates from Guevara and Castro\u2019s shared ideology regarding poverty, political circumstances have shaped the country\u2019s international development efforts. During the Cold War, Castro became embroiled in the U.S. and Soviet Union\u2019s battle for hegemonic power; given Cuba\u2019s strategic location, both countries wanted influence over the island. In an effort to gain international recognition and to appease its northern neighbor, Castro visited Washington, D.C. in 1959.[xxvi] Yet, Castro\u2019s trip only worsened the U.S.\u2019s fear of the spread of communism in Cuba, resulting in tense relations. After the U.S. enacted the 1961 Trade Embargo, Castro found himself isolated from the West, which he used to his advantage.[xxvii] Although he instituted the first medical brigade in 1960, in response to a Chilean earthquake, health care became a way for Castro to appeal to foreign governments that shared a similar distrust of the West.[xxviii] Moreover, Cuba\u2019s role in the Cold War demanded the need for international allies: \u201cHavana began in the early 1970s to expand its foreign policy perspectives beyond these narrow Cold War parameters by interjecting a stronger South/South dimension into its international agenda.\u201d[xxix] Countries throughout Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean began receiving increased medical assistance as a result. Furthermore, Castro believed that health care diplomacy would spread the ideals of the Cuban Revolution and give non-western governments increased agency from Western influence: \u201cCuban revolutionaries from the very beginning felt an obligation to show \u2018solidarity with their brothers\u2019 and go wherever in the world fellow human beings were in medical need [\u2026] Washington accused Cuba of exporting revolution.\u201d[xxx] Moreover, the nation\u2019s involvement in Algeria during the 1960s exemplifies the complex political forces behind Cuban medical internationalism. As Algeria remained one of the last French colonies fighting for independence in Africa, Cuba offered rebel groups medical and military assistance.[xxxi] Cuba was struggling economically at the time; however, Castro believed that Algeria\u2019s cause embodied the ideals of the Revolution.[xxxii] Algeria served as Cuba\u2019s first medical assistance project abroad that did not involve disaster relief. After securing independence from France in 1963, Algeria relied on Cuban health care professionals. Many of its own doctors had returned to Europe: a testament to the power of the Cuban health care model.[xxxiii] Castro deployed 56 doctors to the African nation, where they assisted with post-war development for 14 months.[xxxiv] Castro\u2019s political strategy proved successful, as Algeria\u2019s first president, Ahmed Ben Bella, visited the island in 1962 as a gesture of gratitude.[xxxv] Thus, Castro\u2019s development model legitimized his leadership in many parts of the world, rendering him a global player in the Cold War.\n\nAlthough the Cold War drove much of Cuba\u2019s policy towards medical diplomacy, the end of the era did not signify the retirement of Cuba\u2019s international efforts. The government has openly promoted its projects abroad when given an international stage. For example, Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla\u2019s presentation at the United Nations in 2014 demonstrates the Cuban government\u2019s strategic rhetoric: \u201cCuba decided to maintain its medical cooperation in all the 32 African countries [affected by Ebola] where more than 4,000 Cuban specialists are working [\u2026] Our medical and paramedical staff will do it on a voluntary basis.\u201d[xxxvi] Parrilla\u2019s speech began by scolding the U.S. for its involvement in a series of international disputes and then concluded with a summary of Cuba\u2019s fight against Ebola in Africa; the nation demanded that the West contribute to similar health efforts abroad.[xxxvii] Working with the World Health Organization, Cuba dispatched a flux of medical supplies and additional doctors to West Africa. Cuba\u2019s response was impressive when considering that the total population of the island was only 11 million in 2014.[xxxviii] Soon after, Castro boasted of Cuba\u2019s efforts, emerging from his retirement to remind Cubans of the relevancy of the Revolution: \u201cOur country did not hesitate one minute in responding to the request [for support.] The medical professionals who travel [\u2026] provide the greatest example of solidarity a human being can offer.\u201d[xxxix] Although Castro\u2019s political strategy might have appeared hypocritical given his promotion of altruism, it proved effective nonetheless: \u201cThe U.N. General Assembly on [October 28, 2014] voted overwhelmingly for the 23rd time to condemn the decades-long U.S. economic embargo [\u2026] with many nations praising the island state for its response in fighting the deadly Ebola virus.\u201d[xl] Thus, Castro used health care as a means of leverage within the international community, reshaping the discourse surrounding contemporary development.\n\nSince the rise of former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, Cuba\u2019s economic survival has depended on its greatest export. The island\u2019s economy experienced a massive shock following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Cuba had to rely on the communist nation for oil and practically all of its other resources; ironically, Cuba failed to fully develop its agricultural and industrial systems, primarily focusing on health care. Thus, Castro searched for trading partners who could support the country\u2019s needs in exchange for Cuban medical services. After taking office in 1998, Chavez and Castro found that they had a double coincidence of wants.[xli] Chavez built his political platform on alleviating the country\u2019s largest social problem: impoverishment. National interest, therefore, founded the beginnings of the countries\u2019 close relationship: \u201c[In 2000,] Mr. Ch\u00e1vez signed the first oil deal [known as the Convenio Integral de Cooperaci\u00f3n] with Castro, providing Cuba with 53,000 barrels per day at cut-rate oil prices, a sum that [rose] to 110,000 barrels [in 2013].\u201d[xlii] A nation with a seemingly endless supply of oil, Venezuela could effortlessly support Cuba\u2019s demand. In exchange, Castro traded human capital, aiding development throughout Venezuela: \u201c[As of 2013,] Cuba [had] sent some 40,000 doctors, dentists (find Emergency Dental services) [\u2026] and other experts in [the field].\u201d[xliii] Further establishing Cuban medical diplomacy, the two nations signed the Cuba-Venezuela Cooperation Agreement on Health in 2000.[xliv] As a result, many Venezuelans traveled to Cuba to receive free medical care: \u201cOver 100 health flights took place during the first three years of the program.\u201d[xlv] Furthermore, since the policy\u2019s establishment, Cuba has set up clinics in Venezuela, offering a variety of free, specialized medical services: \u201c[Thirteen] modern eye clinics built in Venezuela were performing thousands of operations.\u201d[xlvi] Despite Cuba\u2019s promotion of goodwill, its diplomacy and distribution of services in Venezuela have ironically strained the island in recent years.[xlvii] As a large percentage of Cuban doctors have left the island to work in Venezuela, Cubans have complained that there are not enough medical resources to service domestic needs: \u201c[The system] is neither fast nor efficient for two important reasons [\u2026] financial resources [and] the export of doctors, nurses and dentists in exchange for hard currency [\u2026] Ironically, many medicines that cannot be found at a pharmacy are easily bought on the black market.\u201d[xlviii] Cuba, therefore, exposed a weakness of its new paradigm for development.\n\nDespite the strain on its domestic health care system, Cuba continues to serve as an innovator of international development. The principal weakness of its model does not render the paradigm irrelevant. Rather, it is representative of the realities of the implemented development theory. Still, the far-reaching power of Cuba\u2019s political tool has been demonstrated within recent months, as the Trump administration has sought to eliminate the Affordable Care Act. Many U.S. citizens have considered receiving medical treatment in Cuba if domestic health care costs rise. Cuba\u2019s current leader, Ra\u00fal Castro, cannot allow the ideals of the Revolution to stagnate Cuba\u2019s social progress, given the changing political tide. Thus, Cuba must consider its health care model as an evolving tool towards a sustainable future.\n\n*By Haley Wiebel, **Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs*\n\n* **Additional editorial support provided by Mariana S\u00e1nchez Ram\u00edrez and Tobias Fontecilla, Research Associates at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs *\n\nFeature image: Combined Joint Task Force Taken From: Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa\n\n[i] \u201cFidel Castro \u201c*Biography*,\u201d last modified 2015, http://www.biography.com/people/ castro-fidel- 9241487#early-life.\n\n[ii] Ibid.\n\n[iii] \u201cPre-castro Cuba,\u201d PBS, last modified 2004, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/castro/ peopleevents/ e_precastro.html.\n\n[iv] Fidel Castro, \u201cHistory Will Absolve Me,\u201d 1953, https://www.marxists.org/history/ cuba/archive/castro/1953/10/16.htm.\n\n[v] Daniel Trotta, \u201cTwo Cubans Lose Bids to Become First Opponents Elected to Office,\u201d Reuters, last modified 2015, http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/20/us-cuba-election-opponents-idUSKBN0NA16F20150420.\n\n[vi] Julie Feinsilver, \u201cFifty Years of Cuba\u2019s Medical Diplomacy: From Idealism to Pragmatism,\u201d *Cuban Studies* (2010) 86.\n\n[vii] Constitution of the Republic of Cuba, 1976, art. 50, sec. 7.\n\n[viii] Ibid.\n\n[ix] Steve Brouwer, *Revolutionary Doctors: How Cuba and Venezuela are Changing the World\u2019s Conception of Health Care* (New York: NYU Press, 2011), 56.\n\n[x] Julie Feinsilver, \u201cCuba as a \u2018World Medical Power\u2019: The Politics of Symbolism\u201d *The Latin American Research Review* (1989), 16.\n\n[xi] Steve Brouwer, *Revolutionary Doctors: How Cuba and Venezuela are Changing the World\u2019s Conception of Health Care* (New York: NYU Press, 2011), 22.\n\n[xii] Ibid, 21.\n\n[xiii] Che Guevara, \u201cOn Revolutionary Medicine,\u201d 1960, https://www.marxists.org/archive /guevara/1960/08/19.htm.\n\n[xiv] Steve Brouwer, *Revolutionary Doctors: How Cuba and Venezuela are Changing the World\u2019s Conception of Health Care* (New York: NYU Press, 2011), 45.\n\n[xv] Ibid., 57.\n\n[xvi] The World Health Organization, \u201cCuba\u2019s Primary Health Revolution: 30 Years On\u201d *Bulletin of the World Health Organization*, 2008, http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/86 /5/08-030508/en/.\n\n[xvii] Ibid.\n\n[xviii] C. William Keck and Gail Reed, \u201cThe Curious Case of Cuba\u201d *American Journal of Public Health *(2012), 14.\n\n[xix] Ibid.\n\n[xx] The World Health Organization, \u201cCuba\u2019s Primary Health Revolution: 30 Years On\u201d *Bulletin of the World Health Organization* (2008): 327, http://www.who .int/bulletin/vol umes/86 /5/08-030508/en/.\n\n[xxi] William Keck and Gail Reed,\u201cThe Curious Case of Cuba,\u201d *American Journal of Public Health* (2012), 14.\n\n[xxii] Ibid.\n\n[xxiii] Julie Feinsilver, \u201cCuba as a \u2018World Medical Power\u2019: The Politics of Symbolism,\u201d *The Latin American Research Review* (1989), 10.\n\n[xxiv] Ibid., 5-6.\n\n[xxv] Fidel Castro, \u201cHealth Care at Almeijeras Hospital,\u201d 1992, http://lanic.utexas.edu/project /castro/db/1992/19921205.html.\n\n[xxvi] Andrew Glass, \u201cFidel Castro Visits the U.S., April, 15, 1959,\u201d *Politico*, last modified 2013, http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/this-day-in-politics-april-15-1959-90037.html.\n\n[xxvii] Danielle Renwick, \u201cUS-Cuba Relations,\u201d *Council on Foreign Relations*, last modified 2015, http://www.cfr.org/cuba/us-cuba-relations/p11113.\n\n[xxviii] Julie Feinsilver, \u201cFifty Years of Cuba\u2019s Medical Diplomacy: From Idealism to Pragmatism,\u201d *Cuban Studies* (2010), 87.\n\n[xxix] John Kirk and Michael Erisman, *Cuban Medical Internationalism: Orgins, Evolution, and Goals* (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), ebook edition.\n\n[xxx] Steve Brouwer, *Revolutionary Doctors: How Cuba and Venezuela are Changing the World\u2019s Conception of Health Care* (New York: NYU Press, 2011), 45-47.\n\n[xxxi] John Kirk, \u201cCuba\u2019s Medical Internationalism: Development and Rationale,\u201d *Bulletin of Latin American Research *(2009), 499.\n\n[xxxii] Ibid.\n\n[xxxiii] Ibid.\n\n[xxxiv] Nancy Burke, Health Travels: Cuban Health(care) On and Off the Island (San Francisco: University of Southern California Press, 2013), 107.\n\n[xxxv] John Kirk, \u201cCuba\u2019s Medical Internationalism: Development and Rationale,\u201d *Bulletin of Latin American Research *(2009), 499.\n\n[xxxvi] Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, \u201cWe Live in a Globalized World which Moves toward Multi-Polarity,\u201d 2014, http://en.granma.cu/mundo/2014-09-29/we-live-in-a-globalized-world-which-moves-toward-multi-polarity.\n\n[xxxvii] Ibid.\n\n[xxxviii] Seumas Milne, \u201cCuba\u2019s Extraordinary Global Medical Record Shames US Blockage,\u201d The Guardian, last modified 2014, http://www.theguardian.com /commentisfree/2014/dec /03/cuba -global-medical-record-shames-us-blockade-ebola.\n\n[xxxix] Fidel Castro, \u201cDuty Calls,\u201d Granma Internacional, 2014, http://www.granma.cu/idiomas /ingles/cuba-i/19octubre-articulofidel.html.\n\n[xl] Mirjam Donath and Lous Charbonneau, \u201cFor 23rd time, U.N. Nations Urge End to U.S. Embargo on Cuba,\u201d *Reuters*, last modified 2014, http://www.reuters.com/article/ 2014/ 10/28/us-cuba-un-idUSKBN0IH1RN20141028.\n\n[xli] Jos\u00e9 de C\u00f3rdoba, \u201cThe Future of \u2018Cubazuela,\u201d *Wall Street Journal*, last modified 2013, http://www.wsj.com/articles/ SB10001424127887323884304578328252463429328.\n\n[xlii] Ibid.\n\n[xliii] Ibid.\n\n[xliv] Max Azicri, \u201cThe Castro-Ch\u00e1vez Alliance,\u201d *Latin American Perspectives* (2009), 100.\n\n[xlv] Ibid., 101.\n\n[xlvi] Ibid.\n\n[xlvii] Lucia Newman,\u201dThe Truths and Tales of Cuban Healthcare,\u201d *Aljazeera*, last modified 2012, http:// www.alj azeera.com/indepth/feature s/2012/06 /20126511 55276226 47.html.\n\n[xlviii] Ibid." + }, + { + "title": "While tourists drink water out of a bottle, Cubans ration and boil a limited supply - Miami Herald", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "While tourists drink water out of a bottle, Cubans ration and boil a limited supply - Miami Herald" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMikAFBVV95cUxNSV95NzNOSEViRDJTbUd0Wng3eVd6MTNBVEdEbXdEeC1LSVotSkZVanVNREpZU2JISHRDRUJTcmdFSTFROVlnRkYyMV9YVXdBQ0RLQXBQQkl3NE9WR0JvellJMXc4cXdybVBIS1JSR1pKNXg4UGtTT05ZdHdZb3RfRGU1d3VRaEc2LW83Wl9udEfSAZABQVVfeXFMT2xvUXNJNTJvTXduNExmZ1dkUk0xRlFJRlA0TkM0OEcyLW5jb2hpRE9zWlVOVWRiRmI3V3FLNThLTU9jcUdZOGFQQW9ydGRNTmIyRWM2ckxDZkNyQkZ1em9mUUVCaWI2RGpSenRweV9IeW5hakIyT2hMSWYzRlEwYUxvM3hlV2Jja1o4eUI5Zm9z?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.billboard.com/music/latin/cuba-remembers-chris-cornell-7800907/", + "id": "CBMikAFBVV95cUxNSV95NzNOSEViRDJTbUd0Wng3eVd6MTNBVEdEbXdEeC1LSVotSkZVanVNREpZU2JISHRDRUJTcmdFSTFROVlnRkYyMV9YVXdBQ0RLQXBQQkl3NE9WR0JvellJMXc4cXdybVBIS1JSR1pKNXg4UGtTT05ZdHdZb3RfRGU1d3VRaEc2LW83Wl9udEfSAZABQVVfeXFMT2xvUXNJNTJvTXduNExmZ1dkUk0xRlFJRlA0TkM0OEcyLW5jb2hpRE9zWlVOVWRiRmI3V3FLNThLTU9jcUdZOGFQQW9ydGRNTmIyRWM2ckxDZkNyQkZ1em9mUUVCaWI2RGpSenRweV9IeW5hakIyT2hMSWYzRlEwYUxvM3hlV2Jja1o4eUI5Zm9z", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Thu, 25 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 25, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 3, + 145, + 0 + ], + "summary": "While tourists drink water out of a bottle, Cubans ration and boil a limited supply  Miami Herald", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "While tourists drink water out of a bottle, Cubans ration and boil a limited supply  Miami Herald" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.miamiherald.com", + "title": "Miami Herald" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Cuba Remembers Chris Cornell as a \u2018Rock Hero\u2019 After Historic 2005 Audioslave Concert in Havana\nauthor: Judy Cantor-Navas\nurl: https://www.billboard.com/music/latin/cuba-remembers-chris-cornell-7800907/\nhostname: billboard.com\ndescription: In Cuba, Chris Cornell will be remembered by thousands for the 2005 Havana Audioslave concert that was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a once-in-a-lifetime experience.\u00e2\u20ac\nsitename: Billboard\ndate: 2017-05-18\ncategories: ['Latin']\n---\n### Trending on Billboard\n\nIn Cuba, Chris Cornell will be remembered by thousands for the 2005 Havana Audioslave concert that was \u201ca once-in-a-lifetime experience.\u201d\n\n\u201cNone of the followers of the grunge movement who grew up in the Cuba of the 1990s could have imagined that they could see this rock hero live,\u201d Michel Hernandez wrote in Spanish on the website of Havana music magazine *Vistar*, one of the Cuban media outlets that published obituaries for Cornell as the sad news of his untimely death reached the island. \u201cBut against all odds, Chris landed on the island together with three members of Rage Against the Machine to offer a concert in 2005 that many still remember as a once-in-a-lifetime experience.\u201d\n\n\nThe concert, which took place at the Jose Marti Anti-Imperialist Tribune in front of what was then the U.S. Interests Section in Havana (the U.S. Embassy opened in 2015), was the first major outdoor concert by an American rock band in Cuba. An estimated 70,000 people attended the free show. According to Cornell, the band itself spent $1 million to fund the concert, which was arranged in accord with the U.S. State Department and Cuban officials as a cultural exchange.\n\nAs The Rolling Stones were preparing to play Havana last year, more than a decade after Audioslave\u2019s show, Cornell talked to *The Associated Press* about his experience in Cuba. \u201cI really didn\u2019t think the same after I left,\u201d he said. \u201cI really understood what music is and how it\u2019s that language that everybody speaks no matter what other audible language you speak.\u201d\n\nIn the interview, he encouraged The Stones to tell other bands to perform on the island. \u201cI also think that upon their exit they need to \u2026 tell all their friends in the music business and all their friends who are in bands who can afford to follow suit, and go right in and play music for the Cuban people.\u201d\n\nA live DVD recording of Audioslave\u2019s Havana show, *Live in Cuba*, was released following the historic May 2005 concert.\n\n## Leave a Comment" + }, + { + "title": "Cuba's first luxury hotel opens in Havana - dw.com", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba's first luxury hotel opens in Havana - dw.com" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMifkFVX3lxTE9fS3puT3NVSzRib2hTenViUUpKaEhKQ0thN1FkWHFHV3h4UDY2OEFFbnA3blA3M0VoSk5RdDVSUWx1UDdQR1pwbTJYR3JMM1VxUndFeWx4QUxpV3lYbDQ1U0xnRi1sOHZ5eGFvZUZXTi02NDNWWU8tSEg3QVk4QdIBfkFVX3lxTE5nZ21LbV9tdWQzaWx6TjhfN3RYOEhSaW5ubWtPZ0JvdWJ2bmZodmdxU1VkZTZ2c0hOU2x2d3A5ZkhnekdsczViQ05DZkVHdHAwXzF1STA2aXQwNVcteDFBbEJnZ0g4bEZQVnR6a0xOREtrejAxelg4U1Q1TXluZw?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.harlemworldmagazine.com/mrs-shirley-gooding-family-note-regarding-harlems-late-great-cuba-gooding-sr/", + "id": "CBMifkFVX3lxTE9fS3puT3NVSzRib2hTenViUUpKaEhKQ0thN1FkWHFHV3h4UDY2OEFFbnA3blA3M0VoSk5RdDVSUWx1UDdQR1pwbTJYR3JMM1VxUndFeWx4QUxpV3lYbDQ1U0xnRi1sOHZ5eGFvZUZXTi02NDNWWU8tSEg3QVk4QdIBfkFVX3lxTE5nZ21LbV9tdWQzaWx6TjhfN3RYOEhSaW5ubWtPZ0JvdWJ2bmZodmdxU1VkZTZ2c0hOU2x2d3A5ZkhnekdsczViQ05DZkVHdHAwXzF1STA2aXQwNVcteDFBbEJnZ0g4bEZQVnR6a0xOREtrejAxelg4U1Q1TXluZw", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Tue, 23 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 23, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 1, + 143, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Cuba's first luxury hotel opens in Havana  dw.com", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba's first luxury hotel opens in Havana  dw.com" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.dw.com", + "title": "dw.com" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 403, + "response": "Error: HTTP 403" + }, + { + "title": "Mrs. Shirley Gooding And Family Note Regarding Harlem\u2019s Late Great Cuba Gooding Sr. - Harlem World Magazine", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Mrs. Shirley Gooding And Family Note Regarding Harlem\u2019s Late Great Cuba Gooding Sr. - Harlem World Magazine" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiswFBVV95cUxQYklvMVFfMU1pSzJ6TzF0OG1OZk9lcEp6Tk4xZlJONUQ3ZWRmT1k3cTFqRkRPTGpPRXZUc2s3TVZlSVJ4RVN2bk02SUtUN3AyejJZcURLbEJHN1NvNWhQYURPRFdCUzFROERvU2NUUTFEOEZLODdkclBWTUxTMXM0ZDdTd2lUVld2NEpDMEdYWWY5UGRBLU9uOG1lX3lqbzkzZm9jMDl5eUlhVHlLcGZFTXlnVQ?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.dw.com/en/cubas-first-luxury-hotel-opens-in-havana/a-38947403", + "id": "CBMiswFBVV95cUxQYklvMVFfMU1pSzJ6TzF0OG1OZk9lcEp6Tk4xZlJONUQ3ZWRmT1k3cTFqRkRPTGpPRXZUc2s3TVZlSVJ4RVN2bk02SUtUN3AyejJZcURLbEJHN1NvNWhQYURPRFdCUzFROERvU2NUUTFEOEZLODdkclBWTUxTMXM0ZDdTd2lUVld2NEpDMEdYWWY5UGRBLU9uOG1lX3lqbzkzZm9jMDl5eUlhVHlLcGZFTXlnVQ", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Fri, 19 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 19, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 4, + 139, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Mrs. Shirley Gooding And Family Note Regarding Harlem\u2019s Late Great Cuba Gooding Sr.  Harlem World Magazine", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Mrs. Shirley Gooding And Family Note Regarding Harlem\u2019s Late Great Cuba Gooding Sr.  Harlem World Magazine" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.harlemworldmagazine.com", + "title": "Harlem World Magazine" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Cuba's first luxury hotel opens in Havana\nurl: https://www.dw.com/en/cubas-first-luxury-hotel-opens-in-havana/a-38947403\nhostname: dw.com\ndescription: Cuba's first ultra luxury hotel opened its doors Monday in Havana, with guests paying up to $2,500 a night to stay in five-star comfort on the Communist island.\nsitename: Deutsche Welle\ndate: 2017-05-23\n---\n# Cuba's first luxury hotel opens in Havana\n\nMay 23, 2017The \"Gran Hotel Manzana,\" part of the Swiss group Kempinski Hotels, is situated in the heart of the Cuban capital in front of the verdant gardens of Parque Central and the grand Alicia Alonso theater, home to the Cuban National Ballet.\n\nThe European-style building first opened in 1917, before undergoing a complete renovation. In order to deliver the project in time, the Cuban government was forced to accept the builders bringing hundreds of qualified workers from India, a rare move in a country that usually requires that only underpaid - and undermotivated - Cuban workers.\n\nNow the hotel, jointly owned by Kempinski and the military-controlled Cuban tour operator Gaviota, charges between $440 and $2,485 a night. \"We appreciate hidden gems and this matches our philosophy,\" Kempinski director Xavier Destribats told Cuban state television.\n\nGuests in each of the hotel's 246 rooms, 50 of which are suites, have the pick of four bars and two restaurants and can take a swim in the rooftop infinity pool. On the ground floor of the hotel, a shopping mall filled with high-end boutiques such as Versace, Lacoste and Montblanc sparked curiosity in a country where luxury was long ago banned under the iron-fisted rule of revolutionary leader Fidel Castro. \"The hotel is really beautiful, but here everything is terribly expensive. It's not for the Cubans,\" said Lidia Martinez, a 29-year-old housewife. Leonardo Padilla, a salesman, admitted he had difficulty selling watches ranging from $1,775 to $4,500 in a country where the average wage is no more than $30.\n\nis/at (afp)" + }, + { + "title": "Rocker Tanya Returns to the Cuban Music Scene - Havana Times", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Rocker Tanya Returns to the Cuban Music Scene - Havana Times" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiiAFBVV95cUxPU0RCMDRZOS1rTy1WYi1NbGJXZTZPZHdnRS1raXZMQmJraDRKNWwtbzFWaGkyQlB1SGlOMFlVU1E0bFFRZHJsa1pUb2xYaldBTFgxQVNXS1Z6WHlTZFVYUEplTHd5bGszMmlwd0NJS3hqTTFSV3hJd1FMTllvVFdOa2RZLXYyYXd0?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.thefader.com/2017/05/04/ibeyi-cover-story-interview-cuba-photos", + "id": "CBMiiAFBVV95cUxPU0RCMDRZOS1rTy1WYi1NbGJXZTZPZHdnRS1raXZMQmJraDRKNWwtbzFWaGkyQlB1SGlOMFlVU1E0bFFRZHJsa1pUb2xYaldBTFgxQVNXS1Z6WHlTZFVYUEplTHd5bGszMmlwd0NJS3hqTTFSV3hJd1FMTllvVFdOa2RZLXYyYXd0", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Wed, 24 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 24, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 2, + 144, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Rocker Tanya Returns to the Cuban Music Scene  Havana Times", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Rocker Tanya Returns to the Cuban Music Scene  Havana Times" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://havanatimes.org", + "title": "Havana Times" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Ibeyi\u2019s Home\nauthor: Anupa Mistry\nurl: https://www.thefader.com/2017/05/04/ibeyi-cover-story-interview-cuba-photos\nhostname: thefader.com\ndescription: Ibeyi/The Diaz sisters were raised in Paris on dreams of their father\u2019s Cuba. Now that the island is opening up, they\u2019re unfurling the roots of return.\nsitename: The FADER\ndate: 2017-05-04\ncategories: ['Music']\ntags: ['Clothing,', 'cover story,', 'Electronic,', 'R&B']\n---\nThere\u2019s a house that\u2019s slowly under construction at the end of a long, quiet street in western Havana. Urban development in the capital city is ramping up \u2014 in 2011, president Ra\u00fal Castro reversed a decades-long ban on Cubans buying and selling homes, and last year the U.S. scrapped its 60-year-long embargo \u2014 but this sculptural, light-filled, wood, glass, and concrete bungalow isn\u2019t an entirely new structure, it\u2019s a restoration.\n\nThe house is being worked on for twins Naomi and Lisa-Kaind\u00e9 Diaz, of the French-Cuban electronic soul duo Ibeyi, and their mother and manager, Maya Dagnino. The whole building is white, which stands out in a city mottled with faded pastel facades. Inside, Lisa shows me bedrooms that are underway, pointing out raised, loft-style sleeping spaces and glass-walled bathrooms. \u201cNaomi\u2019s bedroom is by the front door,\u201d Lisa says, \u201cbecause she always comes home the latest.\u201d In the garden, shrubbery partially obscures an outdoor shower for after trips to the beach \u2014 \u201cOr when you come home late from a party,\u201d says Naomi, laughing.\n\nAcross the street, there\u2019s an imposing, sea-facing police panopticon and a massive, crumbling multi-building apartment complex, where, their mother Maya tells me, just five resident families are holding strong. It\u2019s a short walk to a supermarket that, like the rest of Cuba, only carries non-perishables: stock is regulated by the government, not consumer preference, which is why, when I visit, there\u2019s one whole aisle filled with orange soda and nothing else. But in the \u201950s and \u201960s, before the Revolution, this barrio was popping. Maya, who is intensely thoughtful and French-Venezuelan, says that for years she and her late husband, the famed Cuban conguero Anga Diaz, had wanted to live on this exact street. Nearby, on the rocky shoreline, locals discretely spear squid and offer prayers to the Yoruba gods.\n\n\u201cYou can say whatever you want about Cuba. But the people here are amazing with each other.\u201d \u2014 Naomi Diaz\n\n\nYoruba is a West African language and faith practice that, starting in the 16th century, was carried by enslaved peoples to the Americas. There, the religion was preserved under the guise of Catholic traditions throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. It remains prevalent in Cuba, where it\u2019s called Santer\u00eda. *Ibeji* is the word for twins in the original Yoruba, but in Cuba\u2019s pidgin dialect, Lucum\u00ed, it\u2019s *ibeyi*.\n\nBorn and raised in Paris and now 22, Naomi and Lisa are the least twinlike twins I\u2019ve ever met. They tell me how their personalities align with their reigning Santer\u00eda orishas, or patron saints. Lisa, who composes the songs and sings lead vocals, is the daughter of Yemaya, a calming, mother divine water goddess, while Naomi, who also sings and plays percussion, is the daughter of Chang\u00f3, a roiling, masculine deity of thunder. Though Naomi was born first, she\u2019s the youngest according to Yoruba tradition. The twinlore goes that Kaind\u00e9, or Kehinde, as it\u2019s often spelled, nudges Taiwo, sometimes written as Taiye, out of the womb first to make sure the coast is clear.\n\nLisa has round, curious brown eyes and wears her hair in corona of afro. Naomi has a cat-eyed stare, and a looser, wavy curl pattern; if a band starts to play on the street or in a bar, she\u2019s the first to rumba. Their fashion sense is different, too. Naomi will conspicuously stalk the streets of crumbling Old Havana wearing a silver grill on her bottom teeth and head-to-toe Nike; Lisa wears a white, three-quarter length button-down dress that belonged to their mom.\n\nBut both navigate Havana, and its people, with the same familiarity. They spent time in the country as toddlers, and have always had a family home here. Lisa remembers playing in the streets with their cousins until late at night, being watched over by one adult or the other. \u201cHere, everybody knows each other. Havana is like a village,\u201d says Naomi, sitting in the garden of a cozy rental house a few doors down from their new property. Three sweet little licky dogs toddle around, competing for attention with two wolf-whistling Bahamian parrots in a cage out back. Unripened mangoes from a large tree in the middle of the yard dot the grass, and mounted tropical air plants that would cost hundreds of dollars at hip florists in New York City circle the patio.\n\n\u201cYou can say whatever you want about Cuba,\u201d Naomi says. \u201cBut the people here are amazing with each other. I\u2019m scared about it changing: capitalism is \u2018everybody thinks about himself and not the others.\u2019\u201d (There are good shifts, though, too. \u201cThree years ago, no one was wearing the afro,\u201d Lisa says, squeezing at her hair. \u201cNow, people are discovering their roots again.\u201d)\n\nDespite this aversion to Cuba squinting into the bright glow of global capitalism, Ibeyi share the belief that, more than anything, Cubans deserve the right to choose their fates. \u201cMy best friends here are really poor. We know how it is, we are with the people,\u201d Naomi begins, before Lisa cuts in \u2014 they do this a lot \u2014 to elaborate: \u201cPeople want [choice], you can\u2019t choose for them.\u201d\n\nThey often refer to the new house as an \u201cinvestment.\u201d Holding a financial stake in a slowly modernizing Havana is important because \u201cCuba represents our father,\u201d Lisa tells me. \u201cBut it means something that with this [house], we are committed with the country.\u201d For a family that\u2019s lived abroad for so long, this rebuild is a tangible symbol of Ibeyi\u2019s future connection to the island \u2014 a flexing of choice \u2014 made possible through a career creating experimental Yoruba soul.\n\n\nEarlier that morning we\u2019d listened to a rough mix of Ibeyi\u2019s forthcoming second album. Like 2015\u2019s self-titled release, the album is produced by Richard Russell, founder of their label XL Recordings, and features crystalline parallel harmonies and minimalist Latin percussion that Russell embellishes with drum machines and twinkling synth lines. Unlike their self-titled debut, which was filled with Yoruba chanting and held the ghosts of their late father, as well as their older sister, Yanira, who died of a brain aneurysm in 2013, the new album feels more playful, present, and much less gothic.\n\n\u201cOur first album was really emotional: it was our story, our baggage,\u201d says Lisa, who speaks in a soft French cadence, flattened by the taut edges of time spent in London.\n\n\u201cAll of the songs were written when Lisa was 14 to 18. We were really young but talking about grown subjects, like death,\u201d adds Naomi, who is better in French than English. \u201cThis album is us now, in the moment. It\u2019s less melancholic.\u201d\n\n\u201cOur father died when we were 11, and we\u2019d mourned through music, being with our family and talking about him \u2014 and it,\u201d Lisa says. \u201cI don\u2019t feel we mourned,\u201d Naomi interjects, then turns to me to clarify, \u201cWell, it was not like a mourning process where everyone is screaming and crying.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut that was it! It was joyful,\u201d Lisa shoots back. \u201cAnd how did we mourn Yanira?\u201d She directs this question to her sister. \u201cWe went on [a European] tour the next day. Every night, we dedicated the whole show to her. That is how we deal with it: we play for them. Death is hard when you push it away, because it comes back.\u201d\n\n\nThe new album has two tracks explicitly dedicated to life: a lullaby for their 5-year-old niece, Yanira\u2019s daughter, called \u201cVale,\u201d as well as the shouty resistance anthem, \u201cDeathless.\u201d Feature credits include the mighty saxophonist Kamasi Washington, Canadian pianist Chilly Gonzales, Spanish rapper La Mala Rodriguez, and neo-soul legend Meshell Ndegeocello. The centerpiece is a near seven-minute suite called \u201cTransmission,\u201d which dips between heart-swelling choir vocals and a humid rumba. The song samples Claudia Rankine reading from her acclaimed 2014 dispatch *Citizen: An American Lyric*, as well as lines from Frida Kahlo\u2019s diary, orated by Maya. Though the twins don\u2019t identify as religious and aren\u2019t initiated into the faith, Santer\u00eda\u2019s ideas of ancestry, humanity, and self-identity clearly steers Ibeyi\u2019s songwriting, concerned equally with past, present, and future. The songs are laced with allegory to the orishas, and their new album closes with the same prayer to the god Elegua that the first record opened with.\n\nNaomi and Lisa say that because the stories on Ibeyi were so intimate, they were surprised to find themselves with fists raised this time around. \u201cThe month we were making this album was pretty dark for the world,\u201d says Lisa, referring to the late fall of 2016, and the election of Donald Trump. \u201cAnd I desperately needed a song that would remind us that we are\u2026 deathless. This want we have of humans being together and loving each other, no matter what. This is what we have to carry.\u201d\n\nNaomi\u2019s slouched in a chair. Without looking up, she adds: \u201cOtherwise we will be dead. If you don\u2019t dream, you\u2019re dead.\u201d\n\nOshun is the original mother of twins, which hold divine significance in Yoruba culture. Way before Beyonc\u00e9 announced she was pregnant with twins, Lisa and Naomi had suspected that Oshun was the singer\u2019s patron saint and that perhaps this was revealed when she and her husband visited Cuba in 2014. \u201cEven before she wore the yellow dress in *Lemonade*,\u201d Naomi says, referring to the deity\u2019s token hue. Ibeyi appeared in the video project, but they talk about it, and Beyonc\u00e9, like fans. \u201cYou can tell: she\u2019s the seductress, the queen, maternal,\u201d Lisa says, gushing a little bit. \u201cHer favorite song of ours is \u2018River,\u2019\u201d Naomi points out. \u201cAnd in *Lemonade* she\u2019s surrounded by water.\u201d\n\nOne evening, after spending the day shooting candids of her daughters on-set, Maya is sitting in an armchair in my rented bedroom charging her iPhone. She starts to tell me about her path to Cuba, which began when she discovered Yoruba music and the quasi-ceremonial bat\u00e1 drum at 18, back in France. Later, after falling in love with Anga, the couple came to Cuba and went through the intense Santer\u00eda initiation process \u2014 while Maya was pregnant with the twins. \u201cIt was so, so long, and hard. Really hard,\u201d she says, her face collapsing into a red stain. She starts to cry, but keeps talking between gulps of air. Part of the initiation is quite brutal and violent, she explains, clenching her fists and raising her chest. \u201cThis wasn\u2019t my country and I was scared, but I felt that going through [the initiation] with Anga was the deepest way to understand Cuba, its ancestors, and Anga himself. It was the deepest love proof I could give to him and his country.\u201d As quickly as she crumbles, Maya recovers. It was all worth it, she says smiling, when her orisha was divined as Oshun Ibu A\u00f1a, the mother of twins, \u201cwho owns and goes toward the drums.\u201d\n\nPart of Ibeyi\u2019s appeal is Santer\u00eda\u2019s influence on their music, and how it directly links Cuban culture to West Africa. Aesthetically, the project of siblings remixing and recontextualizing ancestral sounds and rhythms reminds me of the diasporic souljazz developed by Afro-Parisian sisters Les Nubians in the late \u201990s and early aughts. \u201cCuban music is Yoruba music,\u201d says Lisa, emphasizing the generational absorption of African indigenous practices into mainstream Cuba. But Ibeyi\u2019s love for Yoruba music came just a few years before they began to record it themselves.\n\nIn Paris, the twins grew up listening to Mozart, jazz, their father\u2019s drumming with Buena Vista Social Club and Irakere, and Maya\u2019s Mos Def and Eminem CDs. When they were 15, Maya asked them to join her at a group of Parisians that practiced bat\u00e1 drumming and Yoruba chants. \u201cThe first time we went, we were like, \u2018Aww, we don\u2019t wanna go to a choir on Friday, why is she doing that to us?\u2019\u201d says Naomi. \u201cAnd then, the second we heard the music, it was mind-blowing.\u201d They\u2019d go each week and, Lisa says, began to learn the liturgical music of Santer\u00eda.\n\nBut, Naomi reminds me, \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be what we are if we didn\u2019t grow up in France.\u201d Outside music is only slowly trickling into Cuba via the lucky few citizens granted access to travel, and visiting ex-pats. And because wifi is hard to come by, people get music \u2014 mostly Cuban reggaeton \u2014 and other media, including American TV shows like *Grey\u2019s Anatomy*, via black market *paquetes*: curated data distributed via thumb drives for a few dollars. This is how Ibeyi\u2019s music, specifically the 2015 video for \u201cRiver,\u201d finally reached Cuba, Maya explains, adding that last September she paid a *paquete* dealer for three months of promo. By the end of November, \u201cRiver\u201d was nominated in three categories, including Best New Artist, at Cuba\u2019s annual Premios Luc\u00e1s video music awards.\n\n\nOn the day we see the new house and listen to the new album, we also go for a drive. Between torrential sunshowers, six of us pile into a rickety red vintage car and drive east along Cuba\u2019s famed Malec\u00f3n toward Central Havana. One side of the seven-kilometer esplanade is lined with retrograde hotels and restaurants, and we pass by the newly reopened U.S. embassy. On the other side is a stone-laid seawall where tourists, skaters, smooching teenagers, and old couples look out onto the quiet expanse of the Gulf of Mexico. About halfway along the route, the driver pulls over. There\u2019s a black and white mural of Naomi, about 12-feet high, on the side wall of a roof. Street art is everywhere in Havana. \u201cIt was painted by a Cuban-American artist [named Abstrk] from Miami,\u201d Naomi says nonchalantly, although she\u2019s obviously pleased. Her sister snaps iPhone photos from the front seat. \u201cHe says he will come back to paint Lisa.\u201d\n\nI mention the mural to Lisa a couple of days later and she says she always responds with the same joke when people ask: \u201cThere\u2019s a humongous wall there; it\u2019s not like there\u2019s no space! Why didn\u2019t you do me too?\u201d We\u2019re back in the garden of the rental house, beneath a trellis veiled in pink flowers. She glances toward the house, where Naomi is getting her makeup done and listening to Robert Glasper. \u201cTo be fair, I really don\u2019t care. I love that they did that, and that she\u2019s looking out at the sea. I\u2019m the daughter of Yemaya, the daughter of the sea \u2014 and she\u2019s looking at me.\u201d\n\n\n\nHAIR BY PETER MATTELIANO AT ARTS BY TIMOTHY PRIANO, MAKEUP BY ERIN GREEN AT ART DEPARTMENT. SPECIAL THANKS: PRODUCTION: MAYA DAGNINO, NIKKI BENNETT, JON MAHONEY, CHRIS MCFARLAND; LOCATIONS: JOSEPH ROS; TALENT: FELIX PALMERO" + }, + { + "title": "Discovering A Secret Piece Of Myself In Cuba - Refinery29", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Discovering A Secret Piece Of Myself In Cuba - Refinery29" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiiwFBVV95cUxNRDk1LXVUTWZyX1FCQk9KMTE5QzA4ZEFEUExESUVZU1hxU3VXXzdwc1daYmpsRXBxWjZIREw3WUw2WnFSM3dqX2JCSmw0bEVrZHdLSDZmZEVDcjFPdXJzNGZWREVNUUZGV25jeFhhb284YnNNTklBR3F3XzBSZmRBc3BZX0wzOF9xenkw?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://havanatimes.org/interviews/rocker-tanya-returns-to-the-cuban-music-scene/", + "id": "CBMiiwFBVV95cUxNRDk1LXVUTWZyX1FCQk9KMTE5QzA4ZEFEUExESUVZU1hxU3VXXzdwc1daYmpsRXBxWjZIREw3WUw2WnFSM3dqX2JCSmw0bEVrZHdLSDZmZEVDcjFPdXJzNGZWREVNUUZGV25jeFhhb284YnNNTklBR3F3XzBSZmRBc3BZX0wzOF9xenkw", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Thu, 18 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 18, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 3, + 138, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Discovering A Secret Piece Of Myself In Cuba  Refinery29", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Discovering A Secret Piece Of Myself In Cuba  Refinery29" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.refinery29.com", + "title": "Refinery29" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Rocker Tanya Returns to the Cuban Music Scene - Havana Times\nauthor: Circles Robinson\nurl: https://havanatimes.org/interviews/rocker-tanya-returns-to-the-cuban-music-scene/\nhostname: havanatimes.org\ndescription: Tanya has returned to the Cuban rock scene, this time more mature, with better music arrangements, irreverent lyrics, romantic ballads, after two decades of not living on the island. She was a solo artist in the \u201880s of Live Art, and then became a member of alternative rock band Monte de Espuma.\nsitename: Havana Times\ndate: 2017-05-24\ncategories: ['Culture', 'Interviews']\n---\n# Rocker Tanya Returns to the Cuban Music Scene\n\n**By Irina Pino**\n\nHAVANA TIMES \u2014 Tanya has returned to the Cuban rock scene, this time more mature, with better music arrangements, irreverent lyrics, romantic ballads, after two decades of not living on the island.\n\nShe was a solo artist in the \u201880s of Live Art, and then became a member of alternative rock band *Monte de Espuma*, led by the late musician Mario Daly. She showed up with her band last Sunday at the Casa de la Amistad, on rock band La Vieja Escuela\u2019s regular night, in El Vedado.\n\nThe singer, composer and music arranger hopes to gradually introduce herself and her band back onto the music scene and have performed at venues such as El Sauce, at the Mella and Karl Marx theaters, as well as on other stages in Cuba\u2019s interior.\n\nShe kindly, and a little hurriedly, accepted to give Havana Times this brief interview.\n\n**HT: How long have you been back in Cuba?**\n\n**Tanya:** I\u2019ve officially been back for a year now, but I came several times before that. I started out with this band around this time.\n\n**HT: Any new songs?**\n\n**Tanya:** Yes, I have new songs now, some old ones, but rearranged, updated, I have made new arrangements for all my old songs and we\u2019re going to play some things that people aren\u2019t very familiar with, but those who have been to some concerts now are already catching onto them.\n\n**HT: I know that you performed at the Fabrica de Arte Cubano.**\n\n**Tanya:** Yes, I was there a few months back, but there were several sound problems, in fact they shut it down, and we hope that when they open up again that they have a good sound system, and we can play again. [According their website the Fabrica will be open again as of June 1st].\n\n**HT: What\u2019s your last album called?**\n\n**Tanya:** I have an album which is called *En este pueblo*, but this album hasn\u2019t been promoted in Cuba, that is to say, this new album will come out I don\u2019t know when, we\u2019re in the works of getting everything ready, but I\u2019m still not sure whether it will be released with the Egrem or Bis Music label.\n\n**HT: All the songs are in Spanish, of course.**\n\n**Tanya:** Yes, I sing everything in Spanish\u2026 there\u2019s a bit of \u201cI\u2019m crazy right now\u201d here and there, but that\u2019s just a chorus.\n\n**HT: What happened to Mario Daly?**\n\n**Tanya:** May he rest in peace.\n\n**What do you think about today\u2019s rock, it\u2019s going through a bit of a bleak time, don\u2019t you think? Cuban rock, I mean.**\n\n**Tanya:** Authentic rock, original rock, is going through quite a sad phase, some bands are trying to do things, but everything is too dull, because you know there are other music genres which are very powerful. However, I believe it\u2019s a question of promoting it, playing and playing it, and having radio stations supporting it.\n\n**HT: And how do you feel?**\n\n**Tanya:** I feel really great, and especially for being able to be here, in my own habitat.\n\n**HT: Is there anything you would like to say to Havana Times readers?**\n\n**Tanya:** To Havana Times readers, a big hello from Cuba\u2019s center of rock, the Casa de la Amistad, which I believe is the stronghold of rock in Havana right now; every Sunday with La Vieja Escuela, and today with Tanya and the band. (END)\n\n*After the interview, Tanya and her band played some hard rock songs from her album En este pueblo as well as some old tracks such as Acorralada and Ese hombre esta loco. The audience was reluctant at the beginning and didn\u2019t dance, but thanks to the buzzing sound of this group and Tanya\u2019s still almighty voice, they slowly began to dance, to move about with real euphoria to her music and with joy because of the reencounter.*\n\n*I\u2019ll leave you with an anecdote (I don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s true or not): a girl who was at Tanya\u2019s concert at the Fabrica told me that the sound system broke just as she began to sing: Ese hombre est\u00e1 loco\u2026 (This man is crazy\u2026).*" + }, + { + "title": "Cuba Libre by the Bay - Boston Magazine", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba Libre by the Bay - Boston Magazine" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMihwFBVV95cUxQcHNiaUh0ZGtZTG83czdZb0tBN2NwcERjWXRmSEVGWkY2a3BSZXRHZjNnc2RQWmczbXBlWENZbFFQSjhscEhkeDgzaXA0d056TUhaVEtZd0dzUzdoSG1iek1PdVY1cVd0Y3Fxc2lMd05fMXZ3ZldEUW5kc1NBUndPN3F6V1N2OW8?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/cuba-vacation-embracing-sexuality-femininity-essay", + "id": "CBMihwFBVV95cUxQcHNiaUh0ZGtZTG83czdZb0tBN2NwcERjWXRmSEVGWkY2a3BSZXRHZjNnc2RQWmczbXBlWENZbFFQSjhscEhkeDgzaXA0d056TUhaVEtZd0dzUzdoSG1iek1PdVY1cVd0Y3Fxc2lMd05fMXZ3ZldEUW5kc1NBUndPN3F6V1N2OW8", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Tue, 23 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 23, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 1, + 143, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Cuba Libre by the Bay  Boston Magazine", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba Libre by the Bay  Boston Magazine" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.bostonmagazine.com", + "title": "Boston Magazine" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Discovering A Secret Piece Of Myself In Cuba\nauthor: Megan Tan\nurl: https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/cuba-vacation-embracing-sexuality-femininity-essay\nhostname: refinery29.com\ndescription: \"Millennial\" podcast host Megan Tan writes about embracing her feminine side on a recent trip to Cuba.\nsitename: Refinery29\ndate: 2017-05-18\ncategories: ['Travel']\n---\n# Discovering A Secret Piece Of Myself In Cuba\n\nEven though we\u2019re 26, a part of me will always see my best friend Hannah in her 11-year-old form \u2014 with missing baby teeth, tie-dyed socks, and a long hair wrap. Like any middle schooler, she was a little nerdy and self-conscious. But she was bold. She would ask the embarrassing questions everyone else was thinking, but which no one wanted to say out loud \u2014 like \u201cWhat\u2019s a blow job?\u201d\n\nHannah and I grew up together. She was the first person to ever do my makeup in middle school and later for senior prom. I don\u2019t have to explain myself to her in the same way I do to new friends in a new city. We get each other. We know each other\u2019s strengths, and we seek to strengthen each other\u2019s weaknesses, despite the geographic distance between us.\n\nAdvertisementADVERTISEMENT\n\nRecently, at midnight on her 26th birthday, we FaceTimed. Sitting in my bed with a PBR and 1,700 miles between us, we toasted to our best-friend long-distance relationship. But hearing her voice on the phone and reminiscing about the past doesn\u2019t match up with present-day Hannah. It\u2019s not until I\u2019m sitting next to her, in her apartment in Cuba, that I start to see the woman she has become.\n\nHannah first traveled to Cuba in 2010 through a study abroad program. For the past five years, she\u2019s been living there, working in tourism and contributing to news outlets like\n\n*The New York Times*and*The Wa*l*l Street Journal*. In her 30-minute voice memos, she described her life to me, but I never considered visiting her. Flights were too expensive, and obtaining a visa sounded complicated. But then, the U.S. and Cuba started opening up their borders, and commercial flights became available. All of a sudden, there was an urgency to go. The plan was to travel to Cuba for two and half weeks, learn about the life of my best friend, and make a series about growing up in Cuba for*Millennial*, a podcast I host about coming of age.\u201c\n\nAs I took a cab into Havana, everywhere I looked, there were women and girls flaunting their femininity.\n\n\u201d\n\nWhen I land in Santa Clara, Cuba, I was hit with a wave of heat I\u2019ve never felt on the streets of my neighbourhood in Portland, ME. It was an instant reminder of how different my life is from Hannah's. As my senses took in the country that has become home to my best friend, I started noticing little things that surprised me.\n\nAdvertisementADVERTISEMENT\n\nI was drawn to a young woman working security at the airport. She was wearing a mini skirt, a tight, low-cut shirt, five-inch platform heels, hoop earrings, and full makeup. I felt like I was passing through a scene in a telenovela, but I had to remind myself that in Cuba, this is real life. Her attire wasn\u2019t what I expected a professional to wear, but she dressed with an air of confidence that drew me in. It was like she\u2019d worn that outfit most of her life.\n\nAs I took a cab into Havana, everywhere I looked, there were women and girls flaunting their femininity. It was illustrated in the short-skirt-wearing secondary-school girls, the grandmothers standing in doorways with open cleavage, and the curvy women in see-through blouses. In the U.S., their bodies would be judged, but here they seemed to blend in \u2014 a freedom that\u2019s so unfamiliar to me.\n\nWhen they walk, there\u2019s a strength in their strut, as if they're saying, \u201cI have nothing to hide and nothing to be ashamed of.\u201d Maybe this is what it means to be a woman in Cuba.\n\nWhen I first saw Hannah, I noticed she\u2019d acquired a similar strut. She calls it the \u201cCuban walk.\u201d She swings her hips back and forth, slowly, chin up, back arched, and looks like she\u2019s making a statement. The girl I grew up with is now buried deep inside a 26-year-old who wears tight-fitting dresses and big hoop earrings. Or maybe she\u2019s not buried at all. Maybe Cuba has tapped into a different part of Hannah that has been dormant this whole time.\n\nAdvertisementADVERTISEMENT\n\nOne morning during my trip, we lay in her bed, the same way we did in high school, and talked about men, sex, and her experience in Cuba versus in the U.S. She told me how she'd grown into herself as a woman here \u2014 in a way she never had at home.\n\nI think a big influence is the way Cubans approach sex. Kids in Cuba start learning about sex in preschool, and culturally, it\u2019s viewed as an everyday part of life. Hannah says that in Cuba, when you\u2019re hungry, you eat, when you\u2019re thirsty, you drink water, when you\u2019re horny, you have sex. Point blank.\n\n\u201c\n\nMaybe Cuba has tapped into a different part of Hannah that has been dormant this whole time.\n\n\u201d\n\nThe Cuban government has progressive policies when it comes to the control women have over their bodies. Abortion is available and accessible here: There aren\u2019t debates about it on television; it\u2019s not on the political agenda; and there isn\u2019t a stigma if you get one. It\u2019s a decision. If you don\u2019t want to have a child, you have an abortion. Hannah\u2019s friends talk about it in a sterile way. It\u2019s not emotional; it\u2019s practical.\n\nI think back to the Sex Ed classes we had in school, focused on abstinence and STDs. I remember the slut-shaming that would happen in the hallways, and the whispers, and the constant critiques of the feminine image.\n\nStill, this sexual freedom in Cuba seems to favor heteronormative, cisgendered, feminine-presenting women. While Hannah is free to embrace her heterosexuality, queer women are forced to retreat from being themselves. It was only in 1979 that being homosexual became legal in the eyes of the Cuban government.\n\nAdvertisementADVERTISEMENT\n\nBut for Hannah, living in Cuba means having nothing to hide. When she\u2019s with one of the men she\u2019s dating, I watch as she passionately kisses him in public, strokes his face, and calls him \u201cmi vida\u201d \u2014 \"my life.\" I never saw her this way in the U.S. \u2014 this sexy self-assuredness. I can tell their chemistry is based on Hannah\u2019s confidence in herself, her body, and who she is as a woman.\n\nShe doesn\u2019t just use her sexuality and her femininity as a source of strength in her personal relationships; she\u2019s learned to use this in her professional relationships as well. When we\u2019re talking about networking with people in journalism and media, the way we prepare is different. Hannah\u2019s priority is to look and feel amazing. To wear shirts and dresses that show off her curves and capture people\u2019s attention. Her appearance is a reflection of the confidence she has in herself, while my priority has always been to be comfortable.\n\nI've been taught not to embrace my femininity because it attracts negative attention. Hannah has tapped into a part of herself that I\u2019m still navigating.\n\nOne night, as we\u2019re preparing to go out, I reach in Hannah\u2019s closet and pick out a black crop top. The Megan Tan in Maine would never wear this in public, but in Cuba I admire myself in the mirror, like someone I\u2019ve never seen before.\n\nThere\u2019s a phrase people say on the streets: \u201cEstamos en Cuba.\u201d It literally means, \u201cWe\u2019re in Cuba.\u201d When I leave Hannah\u2019s house wearing a black crop top and a tight red skirt, I repeat it, \u201cEstamos en Cuba,\u201d as a way to give myself permission.\n\nThis feminine, openly sexual part of me may not follow me back to Maine, but in Cuba, alongside Hannah, at least I know it exists. In the same way best friends pull out the best parts of you, it\u2019s apparent that foreign countries can do the same.\n\nAdvertisementADVERTISEMENT" + }, + { + "title": "Ibeyi\u2019s Home - The Fader", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Ibeyi\u2019s Home - The Fader" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMigAFBVV95cUxNR3hQMVBzcGcwUEhmaEhrekhTTkJ0QXZ0Tk9QaG83WGs0QklQS1R4UUFzU3ZRbElvazdyUkpwUmgyM1ZnaUZnV05EQmgtdlRjaXVCYnJfWHZUNTFUWl92bXdMT20tM3dDaE1aY0NKOXZsN3JwWXN0YVdySG5EWDdQcw?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.bostonmagazine.com/property/2017/05/23/cuba-party-duxbury-lynn-dale/", + "id": "CBMigAFBVV95cUxNR3hQMVBzcGcwUEhmaEhrekhTTkJ0QXZ0Tk9QaG83WGs0QklQS1R4UUFzU3ZRbElvazdyUkpwUmgyM1ZnaUZnV05EQmgtdlRjaXVCYnJfWHZUNTFUWl92bXdMT20tM3dDaE1aY0NKOXZsN3JwWXN0YVdySG5EWDdQcw", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Thu, 04 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 4, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 3, + 124, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Ibeyi\u2019s Home  The Fader", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Ibeyi\u2019s Home  The Fader" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.thefader.com", + "title": "The Fader" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Cuba Libre by the Bay\nauthor: Alexandra Hall\nurl: https://www.bostonmagazine.com/2017/05/23/cuba-party-duxbury-lynn-dale/\nhostname: bostonmagazine.com\ndescription: An event planner throws a Duxbury bash that\u2019s anything but ordinary.\nsitename: Boston Magazine\ndate: 2017-05-23\ntags: ['Home Design']\n---\n# Cuba Libre Meets Duxbury Bay\n\nWhen you spend most of your professional time throwing magnificent parties for Boston\u2019s elite, sometimes you just want to throw one for yourself. Which is precisely how locally renowned event planner and philanthropist Lynn Dale, of Lynn Dale Events, ended up holding a midsummer soiree at her waterfront Duxbury home.\n\n\u201cI said, \u2018Let\u2019s have a small cocktail party on the water,\u2019 but I wanted something carefree, a little silly, and unexpected,\u201d Dale says. As a board member, she\u2019s helped put on philanthropic galas for local organizations ranging from the Emerald Necklace Conservancy to the Boston Lyric Opera. But for her own celebration, she wanted to take things in a different direction: \u201cI was thinking to not do the traditional thing, where you have people show up on a summer night and you feed them stuff with mayonnaise. You know, the usual.\u201d\n\nWhat she created on the sprawling bayside lawn of her 1812 home was anything but the usual. Her chosen theme? Cuba.\n\nGuests arrived at the historical Federal-style brick home on Powder Point Avenue (one of the South Shore\u2019s most exclusive neighborhoods) to find its flower-filled lawn bustling with a mix of more than 100 attendees, all of whom had clearly embraced the Havana-inspired dress code. And the evening that ensued proved to be an exuberant, downright magical ode to the spirit of the newly accessible island\u2014complete with salsa and mambo dancing, professional cigar rollers, and cheeky oversize pink blow-up flamingos bobbing in Dale\u2019s pool.\n\n\u201cEven for people who go to a lot of parties all the time, Lynn\u2019s parties are memorable and spectacular,\u201d declared personal stylist Elisha Daniels, her watermelon mojito glowing against her Alice + Olivia top and electric-orange Chanel clutch. \u201cShe just never misses a beat. It\u2019s always the best of the best. Best food, great d\u00e9cor and themes and locations, and then she puts together a group of really awesome people.\u201d As if on cue, a platter of warm traditional Cubano sandwiches and twice-baked plantains floated by, earning a smile of approval from local broadcast journalist Bianca de la Garza. \u201cIsn\u2019t this all so great?\u201d she exclaimed.\n\nThe evening\u2019s wildly creative food came courtesy of the Catered Affair (TCA), whose tasty offerings have been gracing Boston\u2019s top-tier parties since 1979. TCA founder and longtime Duxbury resident Holly Safford attended the party, as did her son (and TCA vice president) Andrew Marconi, who worked closely with Lynn to brainstorm this authentic yet imaginative menu. One of the evening\u2019s biggest showstoppers: passed platters of edible \u201ccigars\u201d\u2014pulled pork rolled in collard greens, then fastened with an edible wrapper. To complete the culinary trompe l\u2019oeil, each one sat on top of convincing-looking \u201cashes\u201d of crushed black-and-white sesame seeds.\n\nEqually delicious and buzzed-about throughout the night was everything that came from the ceviche bar, set by the pool in a yard dramatically drenched in purple-and-green lighting that flickered on the pines towering above. Bamboo cups of scallop with mango were a favorite of guests making their way to and from the dance floor within the glowing tent, where they swayed to the salsa tunes of a live band featuring a trumpet player who used to play with Buena Vista Social Club.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m so glad Lynn and Frank decided to go this way,\u201d Marconi observed. \u201cThis was unlike anything else Duxbury has ever seen before.\u201d Other guests agreed: \u201cIt takes a girl with a lot of sass to pull off something like this,\u201d said Daniels, who was one of the last revelers to leave the dance floor.\n\nAfter all the cigars had been smoked (\u201cI found labels hither and yon all over the lawn the next morning,\u201d Dale said, with a laugh) and the Cuba Libre cocktails imbibed, it was time to leave this tropical oasis behind and return to reality. But not before one parting gift: Between goodbye hugs, guests lined up for a nightcap of boozy Cuban coffee, served with dulce de leche ice cream and rum\u2014a final touch as sweet and surprising as the night itself." + }, + { + "title": "Cuba\u2019s crazy used-car market - The Economist", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba\u2019s crazy used-car market - The Economist" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMigwFBVV95cUxNSkw4NnNsbXQ4MmJQNWhxTFh6LVZzQUNjamo3T3BYdmZtdFB0LUpadjRia01iV09mQnBFSEtJbmlveDVfMVBvRDVrU3RCcXFVTVZ4UjZDZDlYaXlMMGxydlN4VGhlRVhGUUstX0gtSXRkTUFzeGdhUUJWNXY3ZVRTUDA4RQ?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/2017/05/23/the-night-in-havana-i/7363995007/", + "id": "CBMigwFBVV95cUxNSkw4NnNsbXQ4MmJQNWhxTFh6LVZzQUNjamo3T3BYdmZtdFB0LUpadjRia01iV09mQnBFSEtJbmlveDVfMVBvRDVrU3RCcXFVTVZ4UjZDZDlYaXlMMGxydlN4VGhlRVhGUUstX0gtSXRkTUFzeGdhUUJWNXY3ZVRTUDA4RQ", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Thu, 11 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 11, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 3, + 131, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Cuba\u2019s crazy used-car market  The Economist", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba\u2019s crazy used-car market  The Economist" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.economist.com", + "title": "The Economist" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 403, + "response": "Error: HTTP 403" + }, + { + "title": "The night in Havana I wasn\u2019t expecting: When I shook Fidel Castro\u2019s hand - The Palm Beach Post", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "The night in Havana I wasn\u2019t expecting: When I shook Fidel Castro\u2019s hand - The Palm Beach Post" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMijgFBVV95cUxNODFYODhmTTZwZ3ZKNmJvanpoY0Fsc3g0dXFUQVBhbzhQMEhBSEcwaWJrUnFZZVNGb0NnNXI0T3p0TU4tekl4cWNMbjNZajBXREdXcXBjZzJra1dfSG5ITGJBLXVPVVRwT2dTeWJObFZDSVVsV2JhNkt3QncyejRvWHNPNHFDQVhGZXh6ZjJB?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2017/05/11/cubas-crazy-used-car-market", + "id": "CBMijgFBVV95cUxNODFYODhmTTZwZ3ZKNmJvanpoY0Fsc3g0dXFUQVBhbzhQMEhBSEcwaWJrUnFZZVNGb0NnNXI0T3p0TU4tekl4cWNMbjNZajBXREdXcXBjZzJra1dfSG5ITGJBLXVPVVRwT2dTeWJObFZDSVVsV2JhNkt3QncyejRvWHNPNHFDQVhGZXh6ZjJB", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Tue, 23 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 23, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 1, + 143, + 0 + ], + "summary": "The night in Havana I wasn\u2019t expecting: When I shook Fidel Castro\u2019s hand  The Palm Beach Post", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "The night in Havana I wasn\u2019t expecting: When I shook Fidel Castro\u2019s hand  The Palm Beach Post" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.palmbeachpost.com", + "title": "The Palm Beach Post" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 403, + "response": "Error: HTTP 403" + }, + { + "title": "Cuba\u2019s piracy-fueled love affair with gaming, pop culture - Polygon.com", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba\u2019s piracy-fueled love affair with gaming, pop culture - Polygon.com" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMieEFVX3lxTE1taVdzVjY4cmQ3TEVaMUZUdFNrZkdyajFHUWphRUk2am1pd0t4M3ZaYTk3YzZpNncwM2wwYjRoLThvanFRdzI0M0R4dS1JR0Z2Y0hZWUJsZU45S1Zyb1dpT190T3ptdGV4aVFfeW9WMVJlcDhmLTRRUQ?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.polygon.com/features/2017/5/15/15626036/cuba-game-piracy/", + "id": "CBMieEFVX3lxTE1taVdzVjY4cmQ3TEVaMUZUdFNrZkdyajFHUWphRUk2am1pd0t4M3ZaYTk3YzZpNncwM2wwYjRoLThvanFRdzI0M0R4dS1JR0Z2Y0hZWUJsZU45S1Zyb1dpT190T3ptdGV4aVFfeW9WMVJlcDhmLTRRUQ", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Wed, 17 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 17, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 2, + 137, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Cuba\u2019s piracy-fueled love affair with gaming, pop culture  Polygon.com", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba\u2019s piracy-fueled love affair with gaming, pop culture  Polygon.com" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.polygon.com", + "title": "Polygon.com" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Cuba\u2019s piracy-fueled love affair with gaming, pop culture\nauthor: Brian Crecente\nurl: https://www.polygon.com/features/2017/5/15/15626036/cuba-game-piracy/\nhostname: polygon.com\ndescription: Where piracy operate like a deli\nsitename: Polygon.com\ndate: 2017-05-15\ncategories: ['Feature', 'The Room', 'Alphabet', 'Resident Evil', 'Nintendo GameCube', 'Atari 2600', 'Dota 2', 'PlayStation 3', 'PlayStation', 'Rime']\n---\nMedia piracy in Cuba isn't just rampant; it's a way of life.\n\nTerabytes of data come into the country nearly daily through smugglers, internet connections and satellite feeds, immersing the country and its people in a never-ending flood of Game of Thrones, Resident Evil, The Bachelor, great Dreamworks flicks and questionable Matt Damon movies.\n\nDespite trade embargoes and socialist government censorship, Cuba floats in a sea of commercialism fueled by United States pop culture and, thanks to the rules meant to keep it out, all of that content costs almost nothing, even for those living on a Cuban's low monthly salary.\n\nThe Cuban government isn't just ambivalent to the piracy; it participates in it, often broadcasting pirated television shows, selling tickets to pirated movies at state run movie theaters and even licensing some resellers of media content.\n\nThe complex issues of copyright and piracy in Cuba are perhaps the biggest challenges the country's emerging gaming culture faces as it struggles to expand past the socialist country's borders and be welcomed into the global gaming community.\n\nIt's not the sort of game buying experience I'm used to.\n\nI'm sitting in the tidy tiled backroom of Infinity just down the street from Havana's famed Coppelia, a massive complex of ice cream shops built by Fidel Castro in the '60s to introduce the Cuban people to the frozen treat. Across the street, dozens of people from all walks of life mill about in a mostly concrete park, some sitting on small patches of grass or park benches, all staring down at their cellphones or laptops, swimming in the country's only form of internet, paid for with $2 scratch tickets. Nearby looms the state-run Hotel Habana Libre, once the revolutionary headquarters of Castro (and before that the country's Hilton).\n\nBut here, past the green Infinity canopy and front cellphone repair desk, people line up for a chance to sit where I'm sitting and buy copies of the latest television shows, movies, music and video games. The content is nearly all from the United States and it nearly all preaches the sort of ideals and morals that seem to be a polar opposite of Cuba's socialist government.\n\nThere's a sort of unnoticed irony that Cubans who live off a $25 a month income and government socialist support wait in line to buy the pop-culture exports of a country that has embargoed its goods here for more than half a century.\n\nThe room's walls are painted green and white to match the Infinity logo. I'm at one of four small tables, sitting next to an advisor of sorts, as he shows me what video games are available to purchase. A large television on the wall plays trailers for movies just now hitting theaters in the U.S. on an endless loop.\n\nThe biggest expense for my outing to Infinity isn't the two movies or the game I buy, but the 32 gigabyte thumb drive they sell me, because the one I brought with me doesn't have nearly enough room.\n\nInfinity sort of looks like a bank and operates a bit like a deli, but instead of selling its goods by the pound, Infinity sells it by the gigabyte.\n\nI end up spending less than a dollar for copies of Sing and Moana -- both feature multiple language options including English and appear to be as sharp as what you'd find on a DVD or on cable -- as well as Resident Evil 7, which is loaded on my drive, cracked and ready to play.\n\nWhen I first arrive, walking over to my advisor who sits under a painting of a black Madonna with child, I'm overwhelmed by the sheer size of the selection. Through my translator, my advisor asks what I'm looking for. It turns out they have games that go well back into the Atari era. So I ask him what the newest titles are.\n\nHe pulls up a full screen of titles that starts alphabetically with Ballistic and ends with Ys Origin. While there are some major releases on the list like the latest Doom and Dragon's Age, I can't help but noticed it's packed with indies as well.\n\nNext I ask for Resident Evil 7 and my advisor brings up a list of Resident Evil games that seems to include every Resident Evil game ever made.\n\nThe advisor plucks my newly purchased thumbdrive from my hand and plugs it into the top of his computer to start the transfer process.\n\nAs I wait, I look around.\n\nAcross from me, a well-dressed woman with an expensive purse sits with another advisor picking out her selection of content. The third and fourth stations also have people choosing what they want to grab.\n\nWhen I start to surreptitiously take a quick picture, one of the advisors notices me and smiles broadly, posing for the shot.\n\nBefore there were places like Infinity, a business technically set up to repair cellphones but which seems to attract much more traffic with its entertainment downloads, there was El Paquete Semanal: a weekly updated one terabyte hard drive that runners around the country use to sell content to anyone with the money and a thumb drive. For years, it has been seen as a sort of offline internet, a weekly snapshot of the world outside of Cuba as viewed through the lens of movies, music and video games.\n\n\u201c\u2018El Paquete was founded by several people, each with a desire to find a way to entertain their towns,\u201d says one of the top distributors of the paquete in Havana who goes by the name Dany Paquete. \u201cWe wanted to find a way for the island to see the world in ways outside of politics, showing them culture, sports, entertainment, economy and society, showing them all the things going on in the world that weren\u2019t making it to our TVs.\n\n### An interview with Dany Paquete\n\nDany has left Cuba.\n\nDany is one of the main figures behind Havana's lucrative El Paquete Semanal, a weekly digital drop of pirated movies, magazines, television shows and video games that is delivered around the country through runners and sold for a low fee.\n\nThe paquete and Dany have been featured on television shows, in newspapers and magazines and on Vox as one of the ways Cubans get around state-approved media and entertainment. It is so popular that most Cubans in the country receive it in one form or another. But when I swung by Dany's Havana home in March he wasn't there. He wasn't answering emails, texts or phone calls. Even more troubling, friends and neighbors didn't know where he was. He had, they told me through a translator, simply vanished.\n\nThen in early May, Dany resurfaced \u2026 in Mexico.\n\nIn a translated email interview, Dany explains that he left the country to try to move to the United States via Mexico to rejoin his family who he hasn't seen in years.\n\nDany says that the paquete is doing just fine without his direct hand and that he believes more than 90 percent of Cuba households now use the system to receive television and video games.\n\nHe left Cuba in April to try to join his family in Miami, he says, and to \u201cgain another perspective in life.\u201d\n\n\u201cI have a right to be someone in life with limitless ideas,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted to leave behind the frustrations I had with my Cuban life.\u201d\n\nCurrently, Dany is in Mexico as he awaits residency papers.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m in Mexico for now; this country has been very welcoming to me,\u201d he says. \u201cBut, my future is with my family in the United States. That\u2019s where I see myself living and being with my family.\u201d\n\nAnd, he adds, he hopes to one day return to Cuba.\n\n\u201cI would never think of abandoning my roots.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt was created through a need to learn more and more about what was happening in the world around us, and not just what our TVs were showing us. Little by little, it increased as a form of consumerism, and we increased our knowledge of what was happening not just in America, but in continents across the world.\u201d\n\nBut piracy in Cuba didn't start with the paquete, Laura-Zoe Humphreys says.\n\n\"It comes from long before that,\" says Humphreys, an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba's Department of Anthropology and an expert on Cuba film and piracy. \"It is important to note that the whole history of copyright in Cuba is somewhat complicated.\n\n\"It's not coming out of nowhere.\"\n\nCuba's long history of media piracy includes Beatles records in the '60s, pirate radio stations, pirated VHS and DVDs, she says. Then in 2003, people started using flash drives and hard drives for informal exchanges of media.\n\nThe paquete is simply the evolution of all of that into a more efficient and widespread system, Humphreys says.\n\nWhile it's hard to pinpoint the exact date when the paquete got started, Humphreys says that 2010 is a good ballpark. That's also when Raul Castro opened up licenses for vendors of DVDs and CDs and opened the doors to people operating legal small businesses out of their homes. And just two years earlier, Castro started allowing the official sale of some electronics, like DVD players, to regular citizens for entertainment in the country.\n\n\"That created a market for something like the paquete semanal,\" she says. \"It included folders called combos, which included four or five movies as well as images of the official jacket covers, compressed into one file.\"\n\nTo try and operate as a Cuba-legal business, many of these media resellers received licenses for things like computer or cell phone repair, because there is no license for selling this content.\n\nBy 2011, Cuban artists, musicians and movie makers were already figuring out how to take advantage of the rampant piracy to help their own creations spread.\n\nHumphreys says that one movie maker she talked to used the paquete to spread the trailer for his movie around the country, as most assume their works will be pirated. Selling content created in Cuba to Cubans is essentially an impossibility, so embracing piracy as a form of marketing has become a new norm. There's even a saying in Cuba that says you're not a hit if you're not in the paquete.\n\n\"It is widely known that musicians bring their music to pirates to have it pirated,\" Humphreys says. \"They make money when people come to their shows, to their concerts.\"\n\nWhile the government's ambivalence to piracy is problematic, just as problematic is the fact that most Cubans wouldn't be able to afford this content at the prices it sells for in the rest of the world.\n\n\"Piracy is rampant throughout many parts of the global south,\" Humphreys says. \"Nobody has the money to buy these products. So when Netflix says, 'We're going to open in Cuba,' I don't know how. There\u2019s no bandwidth at which Cubans can afford that cost.\"\n\nThe same could be said of video games, which often cost what would amount to two months of a typical Cuban's pay.\n\nInfinity serves two major roles for Cubans. In the front of the store, people can bring their cellphones to be jailbroken or repaired. They can also buy small electronics, like VR headsets, phones or thumb drives. In the back it's all content, where people sit and shop for media.\n\n\"Infinity is a technology and informatics center where you can go and get series, movies, games and also you have phone apps,\" says Rafael Rivas, who runs Infinity's social media accounts in the country. \"Anything you need that can be downloaded digitally.\n\n\"We usually get [media] the day after it comes out but some things, like movies in HD, don't come here too quickly because it's hard to find them online. As long as someone uploads them we get it.\"\n\nWhat Infinity and stores like it do, essentially, is rely on a few people who scour the dark web and places like Pirate Bay looking for pirated content. Once they find it, they download it and ensure it's a legitimate, high quality copy and then add it to their library.\n\nFor games, that usually means they get the title the day after it arrives in stores in the U.S. Rivas said that Infinity has about 15 terabytes of computer and console games for sale. The games go back to the Atari 2600, but those older titles all need to run on an emulator on a PC, he says.\n\nAmong the most popular in Cuba are role-playing titles, shooters and sports titles, he says. Also both the original Defense of the Ancients and DOTA 2 are very popular.\n\n\"They play on LANs usually and there are places here that people manage to get like, LAN parties,\" he says. \"In one night we all, all of us, bring our laptops and play in some place. There are also places that rent laptops and consoles for doing that.\"\n\nIncreasingly, players also gather on Cuba's underground street network; a massive LAN created by gamers that can stretch throughout cities or between regions in the country. Both are highly illegal.\n\nMore common these days are these pop-up LAN parties, Rivas says. He regularly hosts gatherings of 15 or so people at his home to play impromptu FIFA 17 tournaments.\n\nLike a lot of people in Cuba, Rivas tells me he grew up playing games in \"arcades,\" which are homes where people rent out modded consoles filled with games by the hour. For Rivas, that meant endless hours playing Super NES titles and the like.\n\nI ask Rivas if he has any concerns or regrets that all of the games he plays are pirated, something that would be illegal in the U.S.\n\n\"Actually,\" he says. \"The only regret that we have is when the copyrights come to Cuba. That would be the time to regret something.\"\n\nThere are some who believe that piracy doesn't hurt just the economy and the people who create the products, but that the prolonged normalization of piracy can hurt the people who participate in it as well.\n\n\"People assume everything is free. The same thing happened with television,\" says Sebastian Arcos, associate director of Florida International University's Cuban Research Institute. \"Three generations have been raised under the assumption that the state will pay for everything you have and the state will assign everything you have.\"\n\nArcos refers to this lasting way of thinking as a sort of anthropological damage done to Cubans by the Cuban Revolution.\n\n\"It's the erosion of personal integrity, of the work ethic,\" he says. \"Of the morals. It\u2019s not that Cubans are immoral; they\u2019re not. It\u2019s that they are amoral. They live in a state that forces them to behave like that.\"\n\nTo become a full member of the global social and economic community, Arcos says, Cuba needs to not just rebuild its infrastructure and economy, but the way its people views things like ownership and copyright.\n\n\"I think that there is a concept that anthropological damage has happened to certain notions in Cuba, like private property, like stealing in certain context, though in general it is morally frowned upon,\" says Ted Henken, a Latin American studies professor at Baruch College who has researched and written about Cuba's small businesses and internet. \"In Cuba, economic crime is ubiquitous. It's ubiquitous for a lot of reasons.\n\n\"There's an old saying: It's one thing to destroy socialism and a whole other thing to build capitalism.\"\n\nYou just read one entry in Polygon\u2019s 12-part series on video games in Cuba. Check out the rest on our hub." + }, + { + "title": "Bunny Rabbits and Havana Rum - Roads & Kingdoms", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Bunny Rabbits and Havana Rum - Roads & Kingdoms" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMicEFVX3lxTE90SkI3ZWJfNUROODFFTVJSTUxWV000OVloTEt0Zkt3bG0tMUZlaXlyZWMyeEV3TXVmZVlrMGQyeWk4MVBFUExxSXJSbWZqVjY5aUNyX0thaUJLc01wUU00Y09hTEZuNWoxMTd3ZnBKUFE?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://roadsandkingdoms.com/2017/bunny-rabbits-and-havana-rum/", + "id": "CBMicEFVX3lxTE90SkI3ZWJfNUROODFFTVJSTUxWV000OVloTEt0Zkt3bG0tMUZlaXlyZWMyeEV3TXVmZVlrMGQyeWk4MVBFUExxSXJSbWZqVjY5aUNyX0thaUJLc01wUU00Y09hTEZuNWoxMTd3ZnBKUFE", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Thu, 04 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 4, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 3, + 124, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Bunny Rabbits and Havana Rum  Roads & Kingdoms", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Bunny Rabbits and Havana Rum  Roads & Kingdoms" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://roadsandkingdoms.com", + "title": "Roads & Kingdoms" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 403, + "response": "Error: HTTP 403" + }, + { + "title": "Cuba\u2019s Proxy War in Venezuela - 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While elements of those embargoes have come and gone over the years, the trade embargo, which limits American companies from conducting business in Cuba or with Cuban interests, remains in effect, making it the longest held trade embargo in modern history.\n\nThat embargo, coupled with Cuba's own customs regulations that banned importing things like DVD players and game consoles, technically blocked most games from the country.\n\nBut game consoles still managed to show up in the country. Gaming in Cuba was driven by a black market that brought consoles in from the U.S. by Cubans with a legal reason to travel between the countries. Often ambassadors, commercial pilots, government importers and others would smuggle in the systems and games and then charge a premium to the game-hungry Cubans.\n\nAntonio Pablo Martinez, who makes a living modding and repairing consoles, says the country's growing gamer population coupled with the inability for most to buy the systems led to a golden age of Cuba's own take on the arcade.\n\n\"The pilots' sons had video games and consoles because of their parents, and people that [had] those consoles started renting them because they knew not everyone [could] afford or have access to it,\" he says through a translator. \"So they started making a business renting their own system.\"\n\nInitially, people opening their homes to friends and neighbors and charging them to play was a rarity. But by the mid-'90s, the Super Nintendo (called the Super Famicom in Cuba, as in Japan) brought with it an explosion of home-based arcades, he says.\n\nNext came the Nintendo 64. Known in Cuba as the Nintendo Ultra, the system quickly spread across the country. By 2000 those systems were being replaced by the PlayStation and eventually the PlayStation 2, and with those systems came another wave of home arcades.\n\nThere was a brief period of time when video game arcades were sort of legal. In 2010, Cuba president Raul Castro announced that more Cubans would be allowed to work for themselves and hire employees, a stark contrast to the country's communist economy. That led to licenses for certain businesses and people finding loopholes to create things like arcades that weren\u2019t specifically allowed.\n\nBut by 2013, the government decided that the private business licenses issued for such work were at times being abused. The country cracked down on home-based movie theaters and video game parlors.\n\nBut some of those neighborhood gaming centers prevailed, despite being illegal.\n\nIt was these backroom video game parlors that helped shape a whole generation of gamers in Cuba. More often than not, today's twenty-something gamers grew up playing games side-by-side with friends in a stranger's home for pocket change. And the country's youngest generation often breaks up its free days spent playing in the streets and countryside of Cuba with visits to darkened gaming rooms.\n\nTalking to more than two dozen people in Havana who study, sell, play and create video games, I always ask them what the first game was they played. Their answers help to paint a picture of a Havana gaming scene that grew up around different sort of influences than you might find in other gaming countries.\n\nFor the older, first-generation of Cuba gamers, Pong is a common answer, followed closely by the original Zelda.\n\nVictor Agrelo, who now helps to organize DOTA 2 tournaments in Havana, laughs when I asked him about his introduction to gaming as a child, and then seems almost embarrassed to admit that the game was Pong.\n\n\u201cThe most primitive tennis you can find,\u201d he says through a translator.\n\nHis first console game, he says, was the original Zelda.\n\nCuba\u2019s best pro StarCraft 2 player also lists Pong and Zelda as his first two games. He was 8, maybe 9 when he started playing, Javier Vidio Hernandez says.\n\n\u201cThe first game was probably Pong,\u201d he says. \u201cBut what I remember the most is the first Zelda.\u201d\n\nBoth the 20-something gamers I speak with and those who are well into their 40s mention Nintendo games as among their favorites.\n\nWhere the U.S. received the Nintendo Entertainment System in the '80s, Cubans from that era grew up playing on Nintendo\u2019s Family Computer smuggled in from Japan.\n\nRepairman Martinez says his first system was the NES and so does Rafael Rivas, who works at a store that sells pirated games. Rivas started playing when he was maybe 5, he tells me.\n\n\u201cI used to run out of my place,\u201d he says. \u201cMy mom didn\u2019t know. I used to go three block away from my place where they used to rent Super Nintendo, and I would stay there, just watching while they played.\u201d\n\nEventually, Rivas, now 26, convinced his mom to give him money on occasion so he could rent time with a game system.\n\n\u201cI would ask her and she would tell me, \u2018Well, I\u2019ll give you one hour for you to play and then after that you have to study,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cI didn\u2019t complain about that.\u201d\n\nInitially Rivas stuck to fighting games like Killer Instinct because those games were the ones with the best graphics. Eventually, he transitioned to games like Mario Kart and Star Fox.\n\nThe developers I tracked down often seemed to get their start on computers or hybrid systems.\n\nJorge Romero, who was part of one of the country\u2019s oldest indie game development groups in the early '90s, says his first gaming system was the MSX, a home computer system designed by Microsoft and released in the early '80s. It mostly gained a following in Japan, attracting games from the likes of Konami and Hudson Soft.\n\n\u201cIt had a Z80 CPU,\u201d he says. \u201cI played games on it using a cassette player.\u201d\n\nHis favorite MSX title was Galaxian.\n\nWhile both Josuhe Pagliery and Johann Hernandez, two of the country\u2019s first modern indie game developers, currently play computer games, they both started out on consoles when they were kids.\n\nPagliery has fond memories of playing games like Demon Attack, Astrosmash, Tron and BurgerTime on an Intellivision.\n\n\u201cA close friend of mine, his father was a foreigner, they had a console in like 1985 or 1986,\u201d Pagliery says. \u201cThat was not common at all in Cuba. Then I had the luck to have almost all of the consoles that came out later. But my golden days were in the '90s with the Super Nintendo.\n\n\u201cThat was really what made me see the possibility of someday making a game. I really looked at things differently from that point on.\u201d\n\nNowadays, Pagliery says he likes to play games on his PlayStation 4.\n\n\u201cI like a lot of games like Bloodborne, like the Dark Souls series,\u201d he says. \u201cI played The Last Guardian because Fumito Ueda is like the best director ever. Even with his bad controls and bad camera, I don\u2019t care.\u201d\n\nWhen he was younger, like most Cubans, Pagliery got most of his games through an extended network of friends and fellow gamers. Once a game was finished he would trade it with someone for a chance to play something different.\n\nWhile Pagliery recently returned to Havana from the U.S., he didn\u2019t buy any games.\n\n\u201cHonestly, I didn\u2019t,\u201d he says, when I ask him. \u201cMy family [living in Miami] presented me Uncharted 4 and Bloodborne when I [visited]. It was nice, I got it for free, man.\u201d\n\nHernandez, who is co-creating a game with Pagliery, says he grew up playing Mario games on the Famicom.\n\n\u201cThen I jumped to PC video games and that moment happened when games were still on MS DOS and were prehistoric, like Prince of Persia, that kind of thing,\u201d he says. \u201cFrom that point on, I began to only, only play video games on PC.\u201d\n\nThe group of young journalists running Cachivache Media fondly remembers playing games like Kung Fu Castle and Circus Charlie on the MSX. Later, most of the grew transitioned over to the Famicom and it\u2019s slew of famed Nintendo titles featuring Mario and Zelda. Eventually, several of them transitioned over to computer games.\n\n\u201cI used to go to my father\u2019s work and play games on his computer,\u201d says Rafa Gonzalez, one of the editors of Cachivache. \u201cThat was pretty common, kids going to their father\u2019s work and playing games there.\u201d\n\nAmong his favorite games from that time were classic role-playing games like Day of the Tentacle and The Secret of Monkey Island.\n\nWhen they entered college, most of them stopped playing games, at least temporarily. But they\u2019ve all returned to it. Cachivache even hosts regular meet-ups for its readers, where they can gather to play video games on a large projection screen.\n\n\u201cPeople went crazy with it,\u201d says Daniella Fernandez, the publication\u2019s community manager. \u201cThey loved it. People who have never, who haven\u2019t played a game for a long time, they reconnected with it and they loved it.\u201d\n\nOn one day in March I follow along as a small group of gamers walks me through the side streets and alleyways near central Havana.\n\nThey take me to homes where they heard a local arcade was running. It's not until our second or third stop that we find what we are looking for.\n\nA middle-aged woman opens the door after one of my guides knocks. She eyes us suspiciously, but after speaking with my guide quietly for a few minutes she welcomes us into her home.\n\nInside the lights are dimmed, the drapes drawn.\n\nThe small front room is empty with the exception of a couch and two gaming stations. Each station consists of a twenty-something-inch television, an Xbox 360 and a loveseat facing the setup.\n\nTwo young teens sit in front of one of the televisions lost in a game of FIFA. A younger boy sits at the other television, absentmindedly scrolling through an extensive list of games already loaded on the Xbox 360, trying to decide what to play next.\n\nA third station set up further back in the house is temporary home to another FIFA match and two teens.\n\nThe woman, who declines to give her name because of the legality of the arcade, describes herself as a neighborhood mom. She tells me through a translator that the setups aren't actually her's. They are managed by someone who maintains the three televisions, the Xbox 360s and the systems' games.\n\nShe runs the place, she says, from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day, charging about 50 cents an hour. Children in the neighborhood tend to run around playing outside until it's their turn for an hour on the machine, she says.\n\nEveryone involved seems happy with the arrangement.\n\nThe children zipping around outside, lost in play, seem completely oblivious to the time that needs to pass before they can get on the machines and despite being an arcade, the home inside is pleasantly cool and almost eerily silent.\n\n\"This,\u201d she says, \u201cgives them somewhere to hang out during the day.\"\n\nYou just read one entry in Polygon\u2019s 12-part series on video games in Cuba. Check out the rest on our hub." + }, + { + "title": "Cuban man carrying U.S. flag rewrote monotonous script of Havana\u2019s annual celebration - Miami Herald", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuban man carrying U.S. flag rewrote monotonous script of Havana\u2019s annual celebration - Miami Herald" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMijwFBVV95cUxNNjZ4MEpNdU8zcWFsdGFKZ0NMdWJDWDdGQVdacjhka1dIa0k0Ql8ydVd3S0pUZ0thelROU0RVTHRWcVVtbW4zQzN4czdfN05KdkF2T3FTVVNNZUJjM21JMGlhbkR0Z1h5ellreFpxWUdIMnl4Q0FMOEdXa2dKcjNGdVdkcHlOSWo2Zkl2cktEMNIBkAFBVV95cUxPQ2RXY0VLR3VkNnhPMkJFUVh4TlpfVXphYk42RTFvSU5HeVh3c2FZandpSmluSGxhR2xxQzg4Q3BTVW1KZmtQMjUwY3BfMUVzSEJBUHFnSDJ2Y1d6dFh4RzBfRjZtRURpSHJZU3dWaE8wTnFCaVRzbjBkS1lMZk5NcThrX3VycTRVOVR5bXBDUUU?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/05/20/what-could-a-mysterious-us-spy-know-about-the-jfk-assassination-215143", + "id": "CBMijwFBVV95cUxNNjZ4MEpNdU8zcWFsdGFKZ0NMdWJDWDdGQVdacjhka1dIa0k0Ql8ydVd3S0pUZ0thelROU0RVTHRWcVVtbW4zQzN4czdfN05KdkF2T3FTVVNNZUJjM21JMGlhbkR0Z1h5ellreFpxWUdIMnl4Q0FMOEdXa2dKcjNGdVdkcHlOSWo2Zkl2cktEMNIBkAFBVV95cUxPQ2RXY0VLR3VkNnhPMkJFUVh4TlpfVXphYk42RTFvSU5HeVh3c2FZandpSmluSGxhR2xxQzg4Q3BTVW1KZmtQMjUwY3BfMUVzSEJBUHFnSDJ2Y1d6dFh4RzBfRjZtRURpSHJZU3dWaE8wTnFCaVRzbjBkS1lMZk5NcThrX3VycTRVOVR5bXBDUUU", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Mon, 08 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 8, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 0, + 128, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Cuban man carrying U.S. flag rewrote monotonous script of Havana\u2019s annual celebration  Miami Herald", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuban man carrying U.S. flag rewrote monotonous script of Havana\u2019s annual celebration  Miami Herald" + }, + "source": { + "href": "http://www.miamiherald.com", + "title": "Miami Herald" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 403, + "response": "Error: HTTP 403" + }, + { + "title": "What Could a Mysterious U.S. Spy Know About the JFK Assassination? - 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Reuters", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "U.S. lawmakers reintroduce bill to end restrictions on Cuba travel - Reuters" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiuAFBVV95cUxOVnFWR1BhMjB2RjZsbUVUbGlyaVA4aTYtanpoUHdsQnVmSjg5a2ZXNWkzcnlGb01LdWNWS1IzQkV1azVHaVp0NkRVQ3lNVHFKb09Ec2llcFpWNFFfVFNpZnFENEJraDhSdnE2T00zbi1UMFlOME0ybHh1U0NMTDBubWdJSllhMnpXRF9QUVBUQTZpRGxZYTVYalZkRkg0MzBYSmtGem91OWtvc2k5Ynd4MDRWcFd6NFBY?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.pbs.org/video/cuban-lung-cancer-drug-gives-some-u-s-patients-hope-1494372654/", + "id": "CBMiuAFBVV95cUxOVnFWR1BhMjB2RjZsbUVUbGlyaVA4aTYtanpoUHdsQnVmSjg5a2ZXNWkzcnlGb01LdWNWS1IzQkV1azVHaVp0NkRVQ3lNVHFKb09Ec2llcFpWNFFfVFNpZnFENEJraDhSdnE2T00zbi1UMFlOME0ybHh1U0NMTDBubWdJSllhMnpXRF9QUVBUQTZpRGxZYTVYalZkRkg0MzBYSmtGem91OWtvc2k5Ynd4MDRWcFd6NFBY", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Thu, 25 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 25, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 3, + 145, + 0 + ], + "summary": "U.S. lawmakers reintroduce bill to end restrictions on Cuba travel  Reuters", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "U.S. lawmakers reintroduce bill to end restrictions on Cuba travel  Reuters" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.reuters.com", + "title": "Reuters" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: PBS News Hour | Cuban lung cancer drug gives some U.S. patients hope | Season 2017\nurl: https://www.pbs.org/video/cuban-lung-cancer-drug-gives-some-u-s-patients-hope-1494372654/\nhostname: pbs.org\ndescription: A promising lung cancer treatment from Cuba is getting attention from U.S. patients.\nsitename: PBS News Hour | Cuban lung cancer drug gives some U.S. patients hope | Season 2017\ndate: 2017-05-09\n---\n# Cuban lung cancer drug gives some U.S. patients hope\n\nClip: 5/9/2017 | 6m 48s\n\nA promising lung cancer treatment from Cuba is getting attention from U.S. patients.\n\nA promising lung cancer treatment from Cuba is getting attention from U.S. patients, some of whom are already traveling there to try the drug in hopes of stopping their cancer from growing. American doctors can't prescribe CIMAvax because the Food and Drug Administration won\u2019t approve it until U.S. clinical trials can prove its effectiveness. Special correspondent Amy Guttman reports.\n\nProblems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback\n\nProblems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback\n\nMajor corporate funding for the PBS News Hour is provided by BDO, BNSF, Consumer Cellular, American Cruise Lines, and Raymond James. Funding for the PBS NewsHour Weekend is provided by...\n\n# Cuban lung cancer drug gives some U.S. patients hope\n\nClip: 5/9/2017 | 6m 48s\n\nA promising lung cancer treatment from Cuba is getting attention from U.S. patients, some of whom are already traveling there to try the drug in hopes of stopping their cancer from growing. American doctors can't prescribe CIMAvax because the Food and Drug Administration won\u2019t approve it until U.S. clinical trials can prove its effectiveness. Special correspondent Amy Guttman reports.\n\nProblems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback\n\n## How to Watch PBS News Hour\n\nPBS News Hour is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.\n\nProviding Support for PBS.org\n\nLearn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipCollins: Comey\u2019s firing \u2018perhaps inevitable\u2019\n\nJudy Woodruff speaks with Sen. Susan Collins about what may have led to the firing. (10m 1s)\n\nComey firing may center on Clinton email case handling\n\nTrump fired James Comey Tuesday, after receiving recommendations from Rod Rosenstein. (15m 6s)\n\nHow South Korea's new president change his country\u2019s course\n\nPresident-elect Moon Jae-in will assume control of a deeply divided government. (7m 45s)\n\nNews Wrap: U.S. may boost troops in Afghanistan\n\nTrump administration reportedly considering military expansion in Afghanistan. (5m 56s)\n\nRep. Swalwell: Comey firing \u2018disturbing for our democracy\u2019\n\nEric Swalwell joins Judy Woodruff to discuss his concerns about the Trump administration. (4m 39s)\n\nProviding Support for PBS.org\n\nLearn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- News and Public Affairs\nFRONTLINE is investigative journalism that questions, explains and changes our world.\n\n- News and Public Affairs\nToday's top journalists discuss Washington's current political events and public affairs.\n\n\nSupport for PBS provided by:\n\nMajor corporate funding for the PBS News Hour is provided by BDO, BNSF, Consumer Cellular, American Cruise Lines, and Raymond James. Funding for the PBS NewsHour Weekend is provided by..." + }, + { + "title": "Cuban lung cancer drug gives some U.S. patients hope - PBS", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuban lung cancer drug gives some U.S. patients hope - PBS" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMikwFBVV95cUxQdWVfUF9uZzJibXBwSHhCcnVkYTdQeE9tU2hiTjZIRmpIWXVjeE8xMHZFcTllT09fdTljTk1kNjdMMGs2cjl1Ym1SQlQtaFVZTGRpcmlHMHVFRmRCTGxBRVNkd2hXWjdjeE55bEI0Q095VHdYU0pseVZ6MkxuSlFNU05kdmNXNnFKVS1sbVJyUDdKSnc?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.thegentlemansjournal.com/article/last-days-cuba/", + "id": "CBMikwFBVV95cUxQdWVfUF9uZzJibXBwSHhCcnVkYTdQeE9tU2hiTjZIRmpIWXVjeE8xMHZFcTllT09fdTljTk1kNjdMMGs2cjl1Ym1SQlQtaFVZTGRpcmlHMHVFRmRCTGxBRVNkd2hXWjdjeE55bEI0Q095VHdYU0pseVZ6MkxuSlFNU05kdmNXNnFKVS1sbVJyUDdKSnc", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Tue, 09 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 9, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 1, + 129, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Cuban lung cancer drug gives some U.S. patients hope  PBS", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuban lung cancer drug gives some U.S. patients hope  PBS" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.pbs.org", + "title": "PBS" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Travel: The last days of Cuba\nauthor: The Gentleman's Journal; Byass Group\nurl: https://www.thegentlemansjournal.com/article/last-days-cuba/\nhostname: thegentlemansjournal.com\ndescription: We visited the glorious location of Cuba where the smell of rum and cigars fills the atmosphere \u2013 but is this the end of Cuba as we know it?\nsitename: The Gentleman's Journal\ndate: 2026-03-19\n---\n# The Last Days of Cuba\n\nWe visit this vibrant and intoxicating country of rum, cigars and pastel-tinged culture - before it's too late\n\n- Words: Jonathan Wells\n\nA bead of sweat is rolling down my forehead. The sun beats down as it drops from my brow and falls into the glass of dark rum I\u2019m gently turning between my thumb and forefinger. It is February. It is Cuba. It is 31 degrees.\n\nUnder the far-reaching boughs of a mango tree, I am drinking at two \u2018o\u2019 clock in the afternoon in a rural Cuban restaurant \u2013 although the establishment barely merits that title. The kitchen is a half-built shed, my chair a steel beam propped up by breeze blocks, and my fellow diners a small cadre of squawking chickens.\n\nBut that\u2019s the way they like it. Not the chickens \u2013 rather the employees of the local rum distillery. This nameless eatery, miles from the nearest town, may be licensed as an official restaurant, yet it serves \u2013 almost exclusively \u2013 the distillers, blenders and bottlers of Cuba\u2019s most spirited spirit: Havana Club rum.\n\nA pig roasts on a vast homemade barbecue, and dogs wander freely about my feet as Rudolfo, the softly-spoken proprietor, explains that the large sheet of metal acting as a table-top is the same steel used to build the rum distillery\u2019s stills.\n\nRum is the lifeblood of Cuba. It sits in the cupboards of every house and atop every drinks menu, enjoyed by the young and the old alike. And these workers, who fill up barrels and bottles at the North Cuban distillery, in turn fill themselves up with Rudolfo\u2019s roasted yuca, pulled pork and plantain chips. It\u2019s a rustic meal, but one I\u2019ve just enjoyed nonetheless.\n\nThis particular restaurant may be basic \u2013 it sits amidst a small jungle that snakes its way up through rusting agricultural equipment \u2013 but I am acutely aware that Cuba, for the most part, is rapidly outgrowing its reputation of rural simplicity. So, as I drain my drink and board a bus back to Havana, I reflect on the future of this rum-soaked, ramshackle and completely entrancing island.\n\nA complex country, Cuba has resisted change for many decades. But, several years ago, trade embargoes between the Caribbean nation and other countries \u2013 most notably the United States \u2013 were relaxed to allow for an increase in travel and trade. Government-issued permits were no longer required to leave the country, political prisoners were released and returned home, and just last November, Fidel Castro, the iconic revolutionary leader of modern Cuba, passed away.\n\nAs a result, Cuba has begun to modernise \u2013 not that these changes are evident out here in the countryside. Outside the major cities, it is business as usual. Away from the heady urban sprawl of Havana, the bus carries me past lush fields and thickets of swaying palms. City-bound on cement slab roads, egrets eye us from atop languid cows. Municipal workers, the only figures we pass, seem oblivious to the changes coming to Cuba as they cut back the grass on the highway embankments \u2013 with machetes.\n\nI reflect on the future of this rum-soaked, ramshackle and completely entrancing island\n\nTourism may not be new to Cuba, but the industry has grown exponentially over recent years. With the embargo lifted, thousands have been attracted to the island \u2013 and the influx of visitors is starting to show. The country now walks a tightrope, caught in a balancing act between pandering to the tastes of tourists, and trying to retain the charm and tradition that attracted these visitors to Cuba in the first place.\n\nPart of this problem is a lack of accommodation. The major hotels are state-owned and filled to capacity all year round. As such, the keys in my pocket are not for a room in the Hotel Nacional or Melia Habana, but rather for one of the many \u2018homestays\u2019 that have sprung up to handle the holidaymakers. Essentially bed-and-breakfasts, these low-budget alternatives promise a genuine and culturally-rich insight into Cuban life \u2013 but only if you like cold showers.\n\nMy homestay, a single-storey house in the West Havana district of Vedado, is owned by Leonardo Reyes de Dios, a man who makes up in heart what he lacks in teeth. The elderly Cuban lived with his friend Ibelis, several angry dogs, and Ibelis\u2019 father \u2013 a man who sat so close to the television when the baseball was on that I feared a rogue ball might actually hit him.\n\nYet, despite inevitably drawing cries of pain from some tourists, the lack of WiFi, safe drinking water and adequate air conditioning will pale into insignificance once you step outside of your door. When I had first explored the city several days earlier, all the mobile phone signal in the world couldn\u2019t have tempted me to take my phone out of my pocket. Except to take pictures, that is.\n\nAs I strolled the curious capital of this country, I became more and more intensely aware that there is nowhere else quite like Havana left in the world. Simply put, it is intoxicating \u2013 and that\u2019s before I even touched the rum.\n\nI saw pastel paint flake from the Spanish colonial architecture like snow. 1950s-era saloons crashed through the streets. Fruit sellers pushed carts stacked high with guava, bananas and tropical papaya. A sleepy Cuban street performer played \u2018The Girl from Ipanema\u2019 on a piccolo.\n\nI smelt rich cigar smoke, burning engine oil and thick, old rugs. People stood in long queues to use payphones and even longer queues to withdraw cash from the banks. Havana may be a city living in the days of black-and-white, but it is a place of spectacular colour. Red snapper, white rum and black fumes. Vivid green limes and the dusky yellow of faded taxi cabs.\n\nBuses barrelled past stuffed with commuters, and those who couldn\u2019t squeeze on grabbed breakfast from a roadside shack \u2013 paying pennies for a bread roll and sharing apple juice from a chipped glass. Cats climbed onto balconies, motorbikes with sidecars shot across intersections and fat cigar stubs sat pretty in sandy roadside ashtrays.\n\nCigars, like rum, are an integral part of Cuban culture. And, although the rest of the world has curbed its Cohiba consumption for the sake of health, medical science doesn\u2019t quite seem to have made it to the streets of Havana yet. Ten per cent of all Cuban exports take the form of these tightly-rolled, tobacco-filled \u2018habanos\u2019, and the second largest cigar factory can be found in the centre of the capital.\n\nUpon stepping inside the H. Upmann factory, I was confronted by a huge Cuban flag \u2013 20 feet of sagging silk hanging four storeys high in the atrium. Up to 7,000 cigars a day roll out of the factory, with 5 types of leaf \u2013 from filler to binder \u2013 used by workers to create up to 150 \u2018habanos\u2019 per shift.\n\n1950s-era saloons crashed through the streets. Fruit sellers pushed carts stacked high with guava, bananas and tropical papaya. A sleepy Cuban street performer played \u2018The Girl from Ipanema\u2019 on a piccolo\n\nBut, considering the modernisation sweeping across Cuba, there was something a little too old school about the factory. As I walked around, over strewn cigar butts and tobacco leaf offcuts, the workers tried to sell me cigars underhand. Wearing baseball caps and smoking as they nimbly rolled Cohibas, Partargas and Montecristos into existence, I was told that the workers are given five free cigars at the end of every shift \u2013 extras they are encouraged to sell to supplement their salaries.\n\nFans whirred overhead as the stogies stacked up, and I was refused both the information about how much the workers were paid, and an explanation of why some seemed so curiously young. A patriarchal figure frequently reads to the room, as many of the workers can\u2019t read themselves \u2013 despite Cuba having one of the highest literacy rates in the world \u2013 at 99.8%.\n\nI got the feeling that something less than reputable was going on in the H. Upmann factory. But, for all the literal and figurative smoke blowing, it was clear that this is one industry where the country\u2019s newfound progress will be welcome.\n\nThe positive changes brought about by Cuba\u2019s modernisation are numerous, but these benefits are tempered by the jobs and businesses that will become obsolete once the country catches up. Down the bustling street from the cigar factory was one such victim; the studio that once printed the revolution\u2019s propaganda posters.\n\nNow, the studio is quiet. When I walked in, the machines were still, and a silent black-and-white film played on a crackly television in the corner. Laurel and Hardy darted animatedly about the screen, but the workers were taking their time. After the rebel victory, this space became the workshop of the Institute of Cuban Cinema. These days, it is used for graphic design and the printing of album covers \u2013 much less provocative.\n\nBut, although the revolution is over, political unrest endures in Cuba. Locals say that police arrest those singing protest songs to this day. Even Castro\u2019s final years were peppered with a series of strange political stand-offs.\n\nLast decade, the American embassy building by the Malecon \u2013 or sea wall \u2013 installed a scrolling screen to display statements and news that belittled the national regime. Castro, with no power over US soil, took the innovative step of erecting 138 individual flagpoles around the building instead \u2013 and flew black flags to obscure the screen.\n\nTimes have changed, and it has been years since the last propaganda poster flew out of the studio. Instead, the machines are left to groan indignations of underuse. The television stuttered as a man sitting on a bench used his credit card to eat a pint of ice cream.\n\nThe one dynamic presence in the old studio was Edel Rodr\u00edguez, a hip young designer who zipped about the space on rollerblades. As one of the rising stars of the capital\u2019s art scene, Rodr\u00edguez told me how Havana Cultura \u2013 an initiative for the promotion of contemporary Cuban culture backed by Havana Club Rum \u2013 is breathing new life into old institutions.\n\nOther benefactors include Acosta Danza, Carlos Acosta\u2019s exclusively Cuban ballet company, and Galeria Taller Gorria, an art space in a gentrified area of Havana. Upon visiting said gallery, Ad\u00e1n Perugorr\u00eda LaFuente, the senior curator, revealed that the neighbourhood was the capital\u2019s red light district not one decade ago. In the time since, it has been transformed into one of the worst ganglands in miles and rendered completely desolate before becoming the affluent arts hub it is today.\n\nThe positive changes brought about by Cuba\u2019s modernisation are numerous, but these benefits are tempered by the jobs and businesses that will become obsolete once the country catches up\n\nThe city is scattered with similar success stories, all bolstered by Havana Cultura. But, as is only to be expected in this country of contradictions, where some businesses have benefitted from modernisation, others have lost their way.\n\nSeveral days before my lunch at Rudolfo\u2019s, I had delved into the Old Town for a drink at El Floridita. A bastion of Cuban tradition, the bar sits on the corner of Obispo and Monserrate, and this year celebrates its bicentenary. But, despite being the favoured Cuban hangout of Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound and Graham Greene in the past, the historic cocktail bar seems to be struggling to adapt to the modern world.\n\nIt was clear, as I sat with my rum-heavy Daiquiri in front of me, that even though my cocktail wasn\u2019t watered down, the experience of drinking in El Floridita was. There is undoubtedly still a sparkle to this den of decadence, but tourism is taking its toll. A large man wearing a stars and stripes belt buckle bumps past me as I sip, as if to reinforce my point.\n\nEl Floridita is also, tellingly, one of Havana\u2019s only WiFi hotspots. It has been invaded by the posing and pretentious MacBooks-in-Starbucks types \u2013 aspiring novelists tapping out their \u2018masterpieces\u2019 in the shadow of Hemingway, whose bronze statue props up the end of the bar.\n\nMany of Cuba\u2019s institutions, such as El Floridita, need to rail against progress to maintain their appeal and magic. Sadly, many have not. One that has \u2013 to the extreme \u2013 is La Guarida. An emblem of Havana, this dilapidated mansion is supported by joists and beams. Entire walls have completely given away, statues stand smashed and strings are strung across the rooms as if the whole place is rigged for demolition. But La Guarida won\u2019t be falling just yet \u2013 for it is one of the most famous paladars in Cuba.\n\nPaladars are the culinary equivalent of homestays. Like hotels, many of the official restaurants in Cuba are state-owned, forcing aspiring gastronomers to set up shop in their own houses or outbuildings. The number of seats should be limited, but in a city swarming with illegal taxi cabs and a burgeoning black market, another chair at the table is hardly something to quibble over.\n\nAfter El Floridita, the austere honesty of La Guarida was refreshing \u2013 and the marlin tacos, lobster and rich chocolate delicious. With food finished, another couple of journalists and I snuck up to the roof \u2013 cocktails in hand. Up a metal spiral staircase we were met by the sight of the city and a sideways moon \u2013 the moon waxes and wanes from top to bottom by the equator.\n\nWe enjoyed our sobremesa \u2013 a traditional period of relaxation after a meal, during which diners enjoy a cigar or drink \u2013 and looked out over the moonlit capital. A patchwork city, Havana\u2019s horizon is dotted with buildings old and new \u2013 the country\u2019s cultural confusion no more evident than when viewed from above.\n\nThunder rumbled and our sobremesa was cut short. But these were not the only storm clouds gathering over Havana. Progress looms, and this frantic city\u2019s cracks are starting to show.\n\nThe Dodges and Pontiacs and Chevrolets that drive the streets have been bastardised with generations of make-do repairs. A Gucci boutique will soon make its way onto the island \u2013 marking one of the first few forays of major brands and chains into Cuba. Even living statues are cropping up \u2013 the scourge of tourist traps the world over.\n\nThunder rumbled and our sobremesa was cut short. But these were not the only storm clouds gathering over Havana. Progress looms, and this frantic city\u2019s cracks are starting to show\n\nSoon, the floodgates will open to wash away the last few vestiges of individuality this country is clinging to.\n\nThis is a nation on the brink of cultural crisis. And, as the grassy fields give way to the sea, and my bus skirts the seafront, I wonder just how long Cuba has before it finally gives way to the modern world. Because, as we plunge back into the heart \u2013 the bellowing, colourful hive of Havana, it is clear that there is nowhere left like this in the world.\n\nStray dogs run circles in empty fountains. Elderly women in traditional dress smoke fat cigars from the front steps of brightly-painted houses. Horns blare, people sing and laundry flaps from open windows.\n\nSimply put, this is a nation of old. Vinyl still spins. Classic cars are everyday drivers. WiFi is a dirty word. But not for long. The future is creeping in. And that may be a good thing, it may be bad. But this disorganised, muddled and unforgettable echo of the past has firmly \u2013 and irreversibly \u2013 pressed fast-forward on everything from its music to its motors.\n\nSo, if you want to catch this country before the country catches up, get here fast; for these are the last days of Cuba." + }, + { + "title": "Empress of the Seas Expands Cuba Sailings for 2018-2019 Season - Travel Agent Central", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Empress of the Seas Expands Cuba Sailings for 2018-2019 Season - Travel Agent Central" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMinwFBVV95cUxNNGxEUFRnRGo3TjBsSG53enFmV0FTZEY2b2IxN1JkQ2JDTFpGUkdTUFE2X01MempyMFNkWjV2ZE9QV0hJNE12czAwVC1xRkxwN1ZjTVlnMmFwcGpEc00yOTZTSW11M1JqMVRBTzJYeUpnSy04QWwxNkpSWEZ2c3dEc0J6MzJlVTF2MUJCR29iWm5PTzgyanlnZW1qU0U0Rk0?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.reuters.com/article/world/us-lawmakers-reintroduce-bill-to-end-restrictions-on-cuba-travel-idUSKBN18M01U/", + "id": "CBMinwFBVV95cUxNNGxEUFRnRGo3TjBsSG53enFmV0FTZEY2b2IxN1JkQ2JDTFpGUkdTUFE2X01MempyMFNkWjV2ZE9QV0hJNE12czAwVC1xRkxwN1ZjTVlnMmFwcGpEc00yOTZTSW11M1JqMVRBTzJYeUpnSy04QWwxNkpSWEZ2c3dEc0J6MzJlVTF2MUJCR29iWm5PTzgyanlnZW1qU0U0Rk0", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Wed, 10 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 10, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 2, + 130, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Empress of the Seas Expands Cuba Sailings for 2018-2019 Season  Travel Agent Central", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Empress of the Seas Expands Cuba Sailings for 2018-2019 Season  Travel Agent Central" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.travelagentcentral.com", + "title": "Travel Agent Central" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 401, + "response": "Error: HTTP 401" + }, + { + "title": "Travel: The last days of Cuba - 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Havana Times\nauthor: Circles Robinson\nurl: https://havanatimes.org/interviews/wendy-guerra-stays-in-cuba-and-writes-banned-novels/\nhostname: havanatimes.org\ndescription: Cleo is a young poet who lives in Havana, a writer under suspicion. State Security and the Ministry of Culture believe that her success has been built by \u201cthe enemy\u201d as a weapon of destabilization, a CIA invention. However, some intellectuals living in exile believe Cleo is actually a spy for Cuban intelligence services.\nsitename: Havana Times\ndate: 2017-05-23\ncategories: ['Culture', 'Interviews']\n---\n# Wendy Guerra Stays in Cuba and Writes Banned Novels\n\n*\u201cYou resemble your country, and the more you reject it, the more you resemble it.\u201d*\n\n**Por Hector Gonzalez** * (Aristeguinoticias)*\n\nHAVANA TIMES \u2014 Cleo is a young poet who lives in Havana, a writer under suspicion. State Security forces and the Ministry of Culture believe that her success has been built by \u201cthe enemy\u201d as a weapon of destabilization, a CIA invention. On the contrary though, some intellectuals living in exile believe Cleo, with her critical nature, is actually a spy for Cuban intelligence services.\n\nTrapped in this swaying of fantasies, banned and ignored in Cuba, she is the controversial, but successful, author who has had her work translated into several languages and makes those who read her work outside of Cuba shiver.\n\nDrawing from the main character in *Domingo de Revolucion* (anagrama), some of Wendy Guerra\u2019s (Havana, 1970) personal traits can be seen. \u201cI am interested in the politics of intimacy. Cleo has a piece of my soul in this respect, yes. Like in all my novels, politics come in through the window,\u201d the writer recognizes, who is also the author of books such as *Todos se van, Posar desnuda en La Habana *and *Negra*, among others.\n\n**The complicated relationship between Cubans and their country is a subject that follows you, why?**\n\nIt must be because I am still here. Now that we have seen the adjustments that have been made after Fidel Castro\u2019s death, I ask myself whether all of us Cubans don\u2019t have a tiny part of him in our blood, for better or for worse? I believe that we have inoculated the problem. I don\u2019t believe it follows me, it\u2019s something that\u2019s inside of me and it comes out in literature, where you can\u2019t lie. Literature is a blood test.\n\n**In your novel, you speak of a writer who won a poetry competition, is any resemblance to reality purely coincidental?**\n\nYes, but that\u2019s not my case. In my novel, I\u2019m talking about an excessive prize and a lot of money. My experience was different. When I won my first prize from the University of Havana, with my poetry book \u201c*Platea oscura*\u201d, I was 14 years old and I shared it with Alex Fleites, a brilliant poet, journalist and human being. Then there were those who said that it was my mother who wrote my poems; that when she died, they thought Garcia Marquez or Eliseo Alberto wrote my books. I had a lot of credibility issues with the exile community, especially in Mexico.\n\n**Why?**\n\nThey thought that I had been trained by Cuban State Security. These are confusing mental processes or resources that only take place in a Cuban person\u2019s mind, someone who has lived under this closed-off system. In order to protect myself from these attacks, I used them to write about Cleo, my protagonist.\n\n**In Domingo de Revolucion, you speak about politics but from a personal standpoint. **\n\nI am interested in the politics of intimacy. Cleo has a piece of my soul in this respect, yes. Like in all my novels, politics come in through the window. Even if you close the house, reality is more overbearing. Truth, pain and suspicion always come in through the window.\n\n**The character of the maid comes back, in this sense, puzzled by the ambiguity that surrounds her.**\n\nYes, that\u2019s right, because she doesn\u2019t know whether it will save her or watch over her. My relationship with Cuba is the same, I don\u2019t know whether it will save me or drown me, but the price that Cleo and I paid is the same, we stay to defend the things that are in our blood and aren\u2019t foreign to us. That\u2019s my politics.\n\n**At the beginning, you mentioned that Cuba has a part of Fidel inside; in Mexico, we say that we all carry a part of the PRI with us too. To what extent are leaders the reflection of their society?**\n\nYou resemble your country, and the more you reject it, the more you resemble it. If I were to reject my relationship with Cuba, I\u2019d be rejecting a truth just like Cuba rejects many of its unspoken truths. I share the untamed, solitary and independent nature with my country. I resemble it in its best and worst. Of course, now Cuba is becoming more and more distanced from its children and is beginning to have more abnormal reactions. We speak less and less about the system that our parents and grandparents wanted to create. Cuba begins to resemble itself and we begin to leave or write these kinds of books. Utopian ideas and the Left have abandoned us.\n\n**Without Fidel Castro, how will Cuban literature reconfigure itself?**\n\nFidel is inoculated into the fiber of this country. The Cuban Revolution is a reality and it\u2019s hard to escape.\n\nWe all receive programming." + }, + { + "title": "Wendy Guerra Stays in Cuba and Writes Banned Novels - Havana Times", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Wendy Guerra Stays in Cuba and Writes Banned Novels - Havana Times" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMikAFBVV95cUxQV2ZFV0oybUEzdWJrd2hndG5WUndwSm1yNktlTHI4ZmN6LVZTeHdBeXloUUJyY0RKY1MwQkNtOS1wcElBN1JENi1tRmRxTlR4MmdSWUMyLWdqNDZXLXhYZzh6U3FNdnJoU1BEX0w4a1h3VTZqZFpBVWowWnR1aGZLYzdoVlU1aFMxekprX0NOZlA?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.surfertoday.com/surf-spots/cuba", + "id": "CBMikAFBVV95cUxQV2ZFV0oybUEzdWJrd2hndG5WUndwSm1yNktlTHI4ZmN6LVZTeHdBeXloUUJyY0RKY1MwQkNtOS1wcElBN1JENi1tRmRxTlR4MmdSWUMyLWdqNDZXLXhYZzh6U3FNdnJoU1BEX0w4a1h3VTZqZFpBVWowWnR1aGZLYzdoVlU1aFMxekprX0NOZlA", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Tue, 23 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 23, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 1, + 143, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Wendy Guerra Stays in Cuba and Writes Banned Novels  Havana Times", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Wendy Guerra Stays in Cuba and Writes Banned Novels  Havana Times" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://havanatimes.org", + "title": "Havana Times" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 403, + "response": "Error: HTTP 403" + }, + { + "title": "Havana Now Has A Luxury Mall. 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MLB.com", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Brewers sign Cuban prospect Martinez Jr. - MLB.com" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMihwFBVV95cUxQcUdhdXgxYmVfMXoyYkhjbjNuQnUxUC1yOEEtcmhDNmtqNXBNTVFJX3JwMFY5VzdOckpieW52V09wamxUelM4S3ZkcFhfSU1nLVFPV0dVQ2txMEVvUjhzbm9fcnJCczNDcWlzaWNFVU9uS2lzMGNGN053Q3FaVnVvU1BZTkxid03SAZMBQVVfeXFMTVFaOWlmT1pOek1KeERyaHN0dUNmcEFIQUlKR183bU1zclFLTVFraWx1NVlUSmwzdHFHSVZJbUlWNldtYTQzOTV2R2hERmp2aU1PcExWcUMwVzBWanZLM1h2NUVrUHpodnpGZjBGNnQ1dVdYMU90U2ZwYUN0dFVUbS14b0Y2MmxtUnNnckRzVEd0bThV?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/09/cuba-luxury-hotel-business-poverty-manzana-de-gomez", + "id": "CBMihwFBVV95cUxQcUdhdXgxYmVfMXoyYkhjbjNuQnUxUC1yOEEtcmhDNmtqNXBNTVFJX3JwMFY5VzdOckpieW52V09wamxUelM4S3ZkcFhfSU1nLVFPV0dVQ2txMEVvUjhzbm9fcnJCczNDcWlzaWNFVU9uS2lzMGNGN053Q3FaVnVvU1BZTkxid03SAZMBQVVfeXFMTVFaOWlmT1pOek1KeERyaHN0dUNmcEFIQUlKR183bU1zclFLTVFraWx1NVlUSmwzdHFHSVZJbUlWNldtYTQzOTV2R2hERmp2aU1PcExWcUMwVzBWanZLM1h2NUVrUHpodnpGZjBGNnQ1dVdYMU90U2ZwYUN0dFVUbS14b0Y2MmxtUnNnckRzVEd0bThV", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Sat, 27 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 27, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 5, + 147, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Brewers sign Cuban prospect Martinez Jr.  MLB.com", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Brewers sign Cuban prospect Martinez Jr.  MLB.com" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.mlb.com", + "title": "MLB.com" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: New luxury mall in socialist Cuba pits state consumerism against the poor\nauthor: Associated Press; Guardian staff reporter\nurl: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/09/cuba-luxury-hotel-business-poverty-manzana-de-gomez\nhostname: theguardian.com\ndescription: Military\u2019s business arm has transformed Manzana de Gomez mall into an opulent spectacle that both fascinates and alienates Cubans: \u2018I can\u2019t buy anything\u2019\nsitename: The Guardian\ndate: 2017-05-09\ncategories: ['World news']\ntags: ['Cuba,Americas,World news,Luxury goods sector,Business']\n---\nThe saleswomen in L\u2019Occitane en Provence\u2019s new Havana store make $12.50 a month. The acacia eau de toilette they sell costs $95.20 a bottle. Rejuvenating face cream is $162.40 an ounce.\n\nA few doors down, a Canon EOS camera goes for $7,542.01. A Bulgari watch, $10,200.\n\nIn the heart of the capital of a nation founded on ideals of social equality, the business arm of the Cuban military has transformed a century-old shopping arcade into a temple to conspicuous capitalism.\n\nWith the first Cuban branches of L\u2019Occitane, Mont Blanc and Lacoste, the Manzana de Gomez mall has become a sociocultural phenomenon since its opening a few weeks ago, with Cubans wandering wide-eyed through its polished-stone passages.\n\nOlder Cubans are stunned at the sight of goods worth more than a lifetime\u2019s state salary. Teenagers and young adults pose for Facebook photos in front of store windows, throwing victory signs in echoes of the images sent by relatives in Miami, who pose grinning alongside 50-inch TV sets and luxury convertibles.\n\nThe Cuban armed forces\u2019 business arm has become the nation\u2019s biggest retailer, importer and hotelier since Gen Ra\u00fal Castro became president in 2008.\n\nGaviota, the military\u2019s tourism company, is in the midst of a hotel building spree. The military corporation Cimex, created two decades ago, counts retail stories, auto rental businesses and even a recording studio among its holdings. The military retail chain TRD has hundreds of shops across Cuba that sell everything from soap to home electronics at prices often several times those in nearby countries.\n\nThe military-run Mariel port west of Havana has seen double-digit growth fueled largely by demand in the tourism sector and the armed forces last year took over the bank that does business with foreign companies, assuming control of most of Cuba\u2019s day-to-day international financial transactions.\n\nOn a recent weekday, Oswell Mendez and the members of his hip-hop dance group De Freak posed for their Facebook page in the center of the Manzana, on the spot where a bust of early 20th century Cuban communist leader Julio Antonio Mella sat before it was removed in the building\u2019s multi-year renovation.\n\n\u201cThis is a high-end spot, really nice,\u201d said Mendez, 24. \u201cIt\u2019s something we haven\u2019t seen before.\u201d\n\nThe five-story Manzana sits off the Prado, the broad, tree-lined boulevard that divides the colonial heart of the city. The upper floors are a five-star hotel opening in early June that is owned by the military\u2019s tourism arm, Gaviota, and run by Swiss luxury chain Kempinski. Along the bisecting galleries of the Manzana\u2019s ground floor, TRD Caribe and Cimex host the luxury brands along with Cuban stores selling lesser-known but still pricey products aimed at Cuba\u2019s small but growing upper-middle class, like $6 mini-bottles of shampoo and sets of plates for more than $100.\n\nA few blocks away, working-class Cubans live in decaying apartments on streets clogged by uncollected trash. With state incomes devastated by long-term stagnation and inflation, there\u2019s barely money for food, let alone home repairs or indulgences.\n\n\u201cThis hurts because I can\u2019t buy anything,\u201d said Rodolfo Hernandez Torres, a 71-year-old retired electrical mechanic who lives on a salary of $12.50 a month. \u201cThere are people who can come here to buy things but it\u2019s maybe one in 10. Most of the country doesn\u2019t have the money.\u201d\n\nL\u2019Occitane, Lacoste, Mont Blanc and the Cuban military\u2019s business wing did not return requests for comment.\n\nWith its economy in recession and longstanding oil aid from Venezuela in doubt, the Cuban government appears torn between the need for market-based reforms and the fear of social inequality that would spawn popular dissatisfaction and calls for political change.\n\nWith other sectors declining, Cuba\u2019s increasingly important tourism industry is under pressure to change its state-run hotels\u2019 reputation for charging exorbitant prices for rooms and food far below international standards. The Manzana de Gomez Kempinski bills itself as Cuba\u2019s first real five-star hotel, and the brand-name shops around it appear designed to reinforce that.\n\nThe hotel is earning positive early reviews but many tourists say they find the luxury mall alongside it to be repulsive.\n\n\u201cI was very disappointed,\u201d said Jeannie Goldstein, who works in sports marketing in Chicago and ended a six-day trip to Cuba, her first, on Saturday.\n\n\u201cI came here to get away from this,\u201d she said. \u201cThis screams wealth and America to us.\u201d\n\nThe Prado boulevard was the scene of Cuba\u2019s previous record for a state-sponsored display of exorbitant consumerism. Last May, the government closed the boulevard for a private runway show by French luxury label Chanel for a crowd that included actors Tilda Swinton and Vin Diesel and supermodel Gisele Bundchen.\n\nThe temporary privatization of a street for an international corporation built on exclusivity and luxury generated widespread revulsion in Cuba and an unusually angry reaction among writers and intellectuals. Cuba\u2019s culture minister resigned two months later, with no reason given for his departure.\n\nMany other Cubans were delighted by Chanel and adore the Manzana de Gomez, saying it\u2019s the sign the country knows its future depends on opening itself to foreign wealth.\n\n\u201cThese stores are for millionaires. Attracting tourists with money, that\u2019s development, capitalism,\u201d said Maritza Garcia, a 55-year-old airline office worker. \u201cEverything that\u2019s development is good. Bit by bit the country is lifting itself up. We\u2019re a socialist country but the economy has to be a capitalist one.\u201d\n\n## Comments (\u2026)\n\nSign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion" + }, + { + "title": "New luxury mall in socialist Cuba pits state consumerism against the poor - The Guardian", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "New luxury mall in socialist Cuba pits state consumerism against the poor - The Guardian" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMingFBVV95cUxQSEdXNldWcHVUMUxYTXhWbVZPWVUxT2xEVDJzV1E2QjNfTm44eHJIN3JHZERId1FPeTBOVnBGeXlmMjdfNUdIa2FRZFNkamxDdTF4elFTdTVfM2s2VDJQNk9vdk5mRVlOX2NieU9SR1JiODFMd2laN3BVcC1rNENyVndvc3h6Y0hRcE91b1dKMTNzR1pseTBqbU85eXJzUQ?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.mlb.com/news/brewers-sign-cuban-prospect-ernesto-martinez-c232764676", + "id": "CBMingFBVV95cUxQSEdXNldWcHVUMUxYTXhWbVZPWVUxT2xEVDJzV1E2QjNfTm44eHJIN3JHZERId1FPeTBOVnBGeXlmMjdfNUdIa2FRZFNkamxDdTF4elFTdTVfM2s2VDJQNk9vdk5mRVlOX2NieU9SR1JiODFMd2laN3BVcC1rNENyVndvc3h6Y0hRcE91b1dKMTNzR1pseTBqbU85eXJzUQ", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Tue, 09 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 9, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 1, + 129, + 0 + ], + "summary": "New luxury mall in socialist Cuba pits state consumerism against the poor  The Guardian", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "New luxury mall in socialist Cuba pits state consumerism against the poor  The Guardian" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.theguardian.com", + "title": "The Guardian" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Brewers sign Cuban prospect Martinez Jr.\nauthor: Adam McCalvy\nurl: https://www.mlb.com/news/brewers-sign-cuban-prospect-ernesto-martinez-c232764676\nhostname: mlb.com\ndescription: MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers made it official on Saturday, announcing a deal with 17-year-old Cuban outfielder and first baseman Ernesto Martinez Jr., made possible by a trade with the Orioles last month.Martinez's $800,000 bonus fell under the 2016-17 signing period. The Brewers acquired $885,300 of extra funds for that period\nsitename: MLB\ndate: 2017-05-27\ntags: ['MLB, Baseball, Major League Baseball']\n---\nMILWAUKEE -- The Brewers made it official on Saturday, announcing a deal with 17-year-old Cuban outfielder and first baseman Ernesto Martinez Jr., made possible by a trade with the Orioles last month.\n\nMartinez's $800,000 bonus fell under the 2016-17 signing period. The Brewers acquired $885,300 of extra funds for that period in the April trade that sent relief pitcher Damien Magnifico to Baltimore.\n\n\"Our scouting staff did a great job identifying and evaluating Ernesto,\" said Brewers assistant GM Matt Arnold in a statement. \"Mark [Attanasio, the Brewers' principal owner] and [GM] David [Stearns] have been very supportive of our international scouting efforts, and this signing is consistent with that message.\n\n\"Ernesto comes from a baseball family and understands the challenges ahead. He is a very smart player and plans to work very hard to reach his goal of becoming a Major League player.\"\n\nMartinez, a 6-foot-6 left-handed hitter, was born June 20, 1999 in Holguin, Cuba. He played for Team Cuba in the 2014 U-15 World Championship before leaving the island for France, where his father played professionally, and joined the French national team that participated in the 2017 World Baseball Classic Qualifier.\n\nHe had been training in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic since the fall at a facility run by former Major Leaguer Fernando Tatis.\n\nMartinez was at Miller Park on Friday to undergo a physical exam, and was in uniform with the Brewers during early batting practice.\n\n\"The more the better,\" said Brewers manager Craig Counsell. \"He is very impressive, physically, and for a young kid he has a good head on his shoulders as well. He has some English down, which for a young man from Cuba is pretty incredible.\n\n\"He was a pleasure to meet and talk to. I think his father played professional baseball, and you kind of got that sense from him, that there was baseball in him.\"\n\nMartinez is expected to begin his pro career in the Dominican Summer League, which opens play June 3." + }, + { + "title": "Collecting games in Cuba, when new releases cost a month's salary - Polygon.com", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Collecting games in Cuba, when new releases cost a month's salary - Polygon.com" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMifkFVX3lxTE9HMmsxdl8xUnlHMUhXaWZHSkJvbWg4cWxMSDdrN0lVMFlRcDVwdW0xUTFPVUp0Q2lheldwU3MzenE2dVMxaG8xd0FvRThRRFRmSkE4T0JET2N4QXlkREJibEVVNFRTMEpyaE1WbDhBTl91aUVQTGpUTjNiNG5WUQ?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.polygon.com/features/2017/5/15/15628570/cuba-game-collecting/", + "id": "CBMifkFVX3lxTE9HMmsxdl8xUnlHMUhXaWZHSkJvbWg4cWxMSDdrN0lVMFlRcDVwdW0xUTFPVUp0Q2lheldwU3MzenE2dVMxaG8xd0FvRThRRFRmSkE4T0JET2N4QXlkREJibEVVNFRTMEpyaE1WbDhBTl91aUVQTGpUTjNiNG5WUQ", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Wed, 17 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 17, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 2, + 137, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Collecting games in Cuba, when new releases cost a month's salary  Polygon.com", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Collecting games in Cuba, when new releases cost a month's salary  Polygon.com" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.polygon.com", + "title": "Polygon.com" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Collecting games in Cuba, when new releases cost a month's salary\nauthor: Brian Crecente\nurl: https://www.polygon.com/features/2017/5/15/15628570/cuba-game-collecting/\nhostname: polygon.com\ndescription: Cuban millennial culture is seeped in gaming\nsitename: Polygon.com\ndate: 2017-05-15\ncategories: ['Feature', 'Resident Evil', 'Resident Evil', 'PlayStation', 'Sega Dreamcast', 'Nintendo Entertainment System', 'Shenmue', 'Nintendo GameCube']\n---\nCuba will likely always be a country seeped in the throwback car culture aesthetic of bullet-nosed, tail-finned 1950s classics, lovingly maintained objects of teen angst and tourist transportation. But more recently another sort of avidity is beginning to grip the island nation, bringing with it a whole new sort of tech-fueled mores to Cuba.\n\n\u201cIn other countries, your dream as a teenager might be your own car or something like that,\u201d says Havana game console repairman Antonio Pablo Martinez. \u201cBut for us, here in Cuba, it's simple: [A] video game console would be enough.\u201d\n\nMartinez is quick to add that he doesn\u2019t see game culture replacing car culture anytime soon, but that it has become a significant, important part of being a Cuban of a certain age.\n\n\u201cFor us, when we were kids, we wanted a console,\u201d says Martinez, now 45. \u201cAnd now all of the children can afford it.\n\n\u201cSo when we grow up, we still have that wish. When we can, after we are earning enough money, we buy it or someone gives us one. So that\u2019s why it can be the same as a car for a teenager.\u201d\n\nMartinez spends his days and nights repairing other people\u2019s consoles, making sure that Cuban gamers can eke out just as much life from a gaming system as the country\u2019s gearheads famously get from their cars. His view is particularly game-oriented.\n\nBut it\u2019s hard to spend time in Havana and not see the growing popularity that video games have in the country. And, as with cars, the combination of a communist government, decades of trade embargoes and the country\u2019s thriving hacker culture have led to a sort of alternative history of gaming here.\n\nThe country\u2019s government had, until relatively recently, banned the importation of personal electronic goods including video game consoles. But Cuba\u2019s black market, fueled by sailors, pilots, ambassadors and frequent travelers smuggling in goods as a side job, has become so ubiquitous it not only serves as the way to buy just about anything banned from the country; it essentially sets the real currency value in Cuba.\n\nThe chief obstacle today to getting a game console isn\u2019t a question of legality; it\u2019s of money, a common issue in a country where the average on-the-books income is about $25 a month. But people, especially the younger generation now hitting their 20s, still seem to find the money and a way to land the games they want to play. Often that includes working a side job, trading and borrowing from friends and a level of piracy so prevalent in the nation that even the government officially participates in it.\n\nOwning a game console or a gaming PC is much more common these days in Cuba than it used to be, and most systems are modded to run pirated games. Games can typically be purchased from any number of entrepreneurs who travel the city with a terabyte\u2019s worth of the week\u2019s pirated television shows, movie releases and video games loaded onto a flash drive called the paquete. Stores even carry the content, selling something like a copy of Resident Evil 7, weeks after its release, for about 25 cents.\n\nBut much less common are the people who seek out not just a copy of the game, but an authentic copy.\n\nGabriel Huie, 25, tells me he started collecting video games about six years ago, first focusing on Japanese role-playing games and game consoles. He funds his purchases by buying and reselling games and systems he\u2019s not collecting.\n\nThe first system he purchased for himself was a PlayStation Portable. Soon he was grabbing up any consoles he could find. Most of them, though, were broken or broke soon after he purchased them. He played his PSP, he tells me, for about four years, until the battery inside gave out.\n\nAs we talk, Huie begins to pull open desk and dresser drawers in his bedroom and bring out console after console. Not all of his games and consoles are here, he says.\n\nI gingerly pick up a DS, looking it over. Huie tells me it works, but that the screen doesn\u2019t. I hold up another and he says it works.\n\nSometimes he picks up used systems and manages to sell them for a bit more than he paid. Sometimes he pays someone to bring one back into the country for him. His friends also give old consoles to him as gifts, when they\u2019re done with them, he says.\n\nThe Sega Dreamcast, Huie says, is his favorite system.\n\n\u201cThe Dreamcast was not a successful console here,\u201d he tells me. \u201cNo one brings games in, like for the other systems.\u201d\n\nHe has one system he keeps in his collection and another that is modded to play both pirated and original games.\n\nOf all the games he\u2019s played, among the original titles he strives to still collect is Shenmue, his absolute favorite.\n\n\u201cI was a kid the first time I saw the game,\u201d he says. \u201cIt really impressed me.\u201d\n\nHe told me that as a child, his father would buy a game system, like the original Nintendo Entertainment System, and then keep it until he could get a newer system. When the new thing was available, he\u2019d sell the current system so he could afford the new one for the family.\n\nSo, for a brief moment as a child, Huie owned Shenmue, but then, as with all of the other systems and games, it passed on to another gamer.\n\nToday he spends a lot of time hunting for the game.\n\n\u201cI really want Shenmue,\u201d he says. \u201cOne time someone called me and told me they had it. I offered around $15, $16 for it, but they didn\u2019t want to sell it.\u201d\n\nHis collection is as eclectic as it is enviable. For instance, while he\u2019s missing out on Shenmue, he does own 44 different Atari games including a copy of the infamous E.T.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s not as bad as people say,\u201d he says.\n\nGame collector Huie doesn\u2019t have a proper display for his vast game and game system collection because he\u2019s currently living in his mother\u2019s house, a fairly common situation for Cubans when they leave college and struggle to come up with the money needed to purchase a home.\n\nHe tells me his collection is actually spread out between his mother\u2019s home, where he lives, and his father\u2019s home. Finding the pieces in his collection has been time consuming because there are no stores he can go to to pick up a console. So he lists his number and willingness to buy and simply waits for people to come to him. He often buys what people have and then sells off the stuff he doesn\u2019t want or need. He says between the two homes he has all of the Nintendo consoles, all of the PlayStation consoles and even a few Xbox and Sega systems.\n\nAfter watching him dig through his room, extracting systems and games from the closet, desk drawers, dressers and boxes to proudly show to me, I ask Huie why it was that he was paying a premium for the retail versions of games that he could get so cheaply if he was willing to make do with pirated copies.\n\n\u201cIt's a way to give respect to the designer of the game and the developers,\u201d he says.\n\nWhere pirated copies of these games can run from loose change to maybe a dollar, Huie has paid as much as $35 for a single used, retail game.\n\n\u201cBut I think,\u201d he says then, smiling, \u201cI think I will pay $200 for an original Shenmue game.\n\n\u201cI haven\u2019t played Shenmue again because I don\u2019t want to play a hacked game. I want to play the original Shenmue game.\u201d\n\nYou just read one entry in Polygon\u2019s 12-part series on video games in Cuba. Check out the rest on our hub." + }, + { + "title": "Royal Caribbean Pegs Empress Of The Seas For More Cuba Sailings - Travel Market Report", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Royal Caribbean Pegs Empress Of The Seas For More Cuba Sailings - Travel Market Report" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMitgFBVV95cUxNZjF0Y09XTTFjTDNBb2FMeTVWNmFYTll4U1kwZ1V4VUo0QWVTcDJsN3Z3YzJkVzRMZzVFWTAyRFpQemFVVl85bjFMRXRfOGt6dHpWTXktYklzZFQ5dndOUDZkREhfeTZWSFRFUFBvUXZxLWJaTVdUMmItdmd3VU9iZkN6czVFTzFzd1pOTnhCTjFsT0FQSHRTZldwSkotN0piQnU3NmU5Q2NuaVlQMTZyV01VMGp0QQ?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.travelmarketreport.com/cruises/articles/royal-caribbean-pegs-empress-of-the-seas-for-more-cuba-sailings", + "id": "CBMitgFBVV95cUxNZjF0Y09XTTFjTDNBb2FMeTVWNmFYTll4U1kwZ1V4VUo0QWVTcDJsN3Z3YzJkVzRMZzVFWTAyRFpQemFVVl85bjFMRXRfOGt6dHpWTXktYklzZFQ5dndOUDZkREhfeTZWSFRFUFBvUXZxLWJaTVdUMmItdmd3VU9iZkN6czVFTzFzd1pOTnhCTjFsT0FQSHRTZldwSkotN0piQnU3NmU5Q2NuaVlQMTZyV01VMGp0QQ", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Thu, 11 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 11, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 3, + 131, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Royal Caribbean Pegs Empress Of The Seas For More Cuba Sailings  Travel Market Report", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Royal Caribbean Pegs Empress Of The Seas For More Cuba Sailings  Travel Market Report" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.travelmarketreport.com", + "title": "Travel Market Report" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Royal Caribbean Pegs Empress Of The Seas For More Cuba Sailings\nauthor: Daniel McCarthy\nurl: https://www.travelmarketreport.com/cruises/articles/royal-caribbean-pegs-empress-of-the-seas-for-more-cuba-sailings\nhostname: travelmarketreport.com\ndescription: Empress now has 58 scheduled sailings to Cuba.\nsitename: TravelMarketReport\ndate: 2017-05-11\n---\n# Royal Caribbean Pegs Empress Of The Seas For More Cuba Sailings\n\nby Daniel McCarthyRoyal Caribbean International is building on the positive reaction it received from its inaugural Cuba cruise season, with a new schedule of sailings on Empress of the Seas for winter 2018.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ve seen the excitement of our guests when sailing into Havana and the passion they have for the city at sail away,\u201d Royal Caribbean president and CEO Michael Bayley said.\n\nRoyal Caribbean will send Empress of the Seas to Tampa in the summer of 2018, where it will sail four- and five-night cruises to Key West, Costa Maya, Cozumel and Havana. Empress will then homeport in Fort Lauderdale for the winter, from where it will continue with a season of short Caribbean itineraries.\n\nEmpress will sail from Tampa to Cuba from now until Nov. 4, when it will move to Miami for the winter. Out of Miami, Empress will sail Cuban itineraries that include stops at CocoCay and Nassau.\n\nGuests will be treated to cortaditos and caf\u00e9 con leche in Caf\u00e9 Royal, and salsa music and dancing in the Boleros Latin lounge, along with other onboard activities \u201cdeveloped to bring the spirit of the island to life throughout the entire journey.\u201d\n\nIn total, Empress will now sail 58 four- or five-night sailings between January 2018 and March 2019. More than half of those will stop in Havana.\n\nThe sailings already are open for booking." + }, + { + "title": "Major Lazer\u2019s Cuba Documentary Isn\u2019t Another \u201cGringo on Vacation\u201d Film - VICE", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Major Lazer\u2019s Cuba Documentary Isn\u2019t Another \u201cGringo on Vacation\u201d Film - VICE" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMihAFBVV95cUxQN1JrZHRLaVFVdWdBSjJGTTJCR2E1SVJhQlJLbllxMGUtMVQ1X2JkWnRlUUllMVV2cDNmbTNCYlE3OFAtbWozUWh4UzVxb3J4TkVwWFdaOXc1NlVMcFo4cU15bXJWdWs4MWlLUXk0X09yRlc4azYwdWtqcEUtdFVBQVMyV0Q?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.vice.com/en/article/major-lazer-give-me-future-cuba-doc-interview/", + "id": "CBMihAFBVV95cUxQN1JrZHRLaVFVdWdBSjJGTTJCR2E1SVJhQlJLbllxMGUtMVQ1X2JkWnRlUUllMVV2cDNmbTNCYlE3OFAtbWozUWh4UzVxb3J4TkVwWFdaOXc1NlVMcFo4cU15bXJWdWs4MWlLUXk0X09yRlc4azYwdWtqcEUtdFVBQVMyV0Q", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Mon, 08 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 8, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 0, + 128, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Major Lazer\u2019s Cuba Documentary Isn\u2019t Another \u201cGringo on Vacation\u201d Film  VICE", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Major Lazer\u2019s Cuba Documentary Isn\u2019t Another \u201cGringo on Vacation\u201d Film  VICE" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.vice.com", + "title": "VICE" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Major Lazer's Cuba Documentary Isn't Another \"Gringo on Vacation\" Film\nauthor: Tina Hassannia\nurl: https://www.vice.com/en/article/major-lazer-give-me-future-cuba-doc-interview/\nhostname: vice.com\ndescription: 'Give Me Future' director Austin Peters discusses the challenges of shooting the globe-trotting trio's historic 2016 Havana concert.\nsitename: VICE\ndate: 2017-05-08\ncategories: ['Music']\n---\nIn March 2016, Major Lazer traveled to Havana, Cuba, to perform a historic and unprecedented concert. Following then President Barack Obama\u2019s restoration of American-Cuban relations, the electronic trio were one of the first major US acts to perform in the communist country in this new era (British rockers the Rolling Stones would perform there shortly after). Despite having low expectations, 500,000 people turned out to see Diplo, Jillionaire, and Walshy Fire\u2019s free show outside the American embassy, which is captured in NYC-based director Austin Peters\u2018 new documentary * Give Me Future*.\n\nThe real stars of the film, however, are the Cuban people. It connects with the country\u2019s youth culture and its music scene, which teems with resourcefulness, energy, and collaboration in a land without virtually any internet connection. The doc also showcases the Cuban phenomenon of * el paquete semanal* (which translates to \u201cthe weekly package\u201d), the weekly terabyte of online information\u2014news, TV shows, music, films, and other data\u2014curated by Havana native Dany Cabrera Garcia, and disseminated around the island via a vast physical sharing network of jump drives.\n\n## Videos by VICE\n\nAfter premiering at Sundance earlier this year, we spoke to Peters at Toronto\u2019s Hot Docs Festival about the making of * Give Me Future*, and his shared vision with Diplo to make something other than a \u201cgringo on vacation\u201d film.\n\n**THUMP: How did you get connected with the project?**\n\n** Austin Peters: **The Major Lazer team had seen my video for CHVRCHES [\u201cEmpty Threat\u201c] and really responded to it. Someone from Major Lazer\u2019s team called me up and said, \u201cHey do you want to go to Cuba with Major Lazer?\u201d I was like, \u201cYeah, cool man, to shoot a music video?\u201d and he was like, \u201cWe want to make a movie.\u201d So I had to come up with an idea for this film. My idea was you go to this kind of show for the experience. You don\u2019t go because you\u2019re seeing the best guitar player or singer in the world. You go to be with this big group of people experiencing the music and sharing in this experience together.\n\nI thought we should make a movie that was about the audience as much as it would be about the people on stage.\n\n** What did Diplo think of that when you talked to him?**\n\nHe was literally going through security in Mumbai airport. His tour manager put him in the phone and I was like, \u201cHey, it\u2019s Austin, this is what I think the movie is.\u201d You know, he\u2019s made a film before, he\u2019s gone to film school. So we talked about weird movies, we talked about * Soy Cuba*, this crazy Soviet Cuban propaganda film. He said, \u201cDon\u2019t make this movie about me. I\u2019m really boring. I don\u2019t want a \u2018gringo on vacation\u2019 film. That sounds like the worst thing ever.\u201d And I said, \u201cMe neither. I don\u2019t want this to be a fluff piece. You\u2019re cool, Major Lazer is cool, but Cuba is really interesting right now.\u201d\n\n**So that\u2019s where the focus on Cuban culture came into the film.**We wanted to make a movie that wasn\u2019t what you always hear about when you see Cuba, like baseball and cigars and old cars and the Castros. It\u2019s always represented in the same way, and in that moment, when everything was shifting and changing it felt important to do something else. You never hear what it\u2019s like to be a young person or an artist in Cuba. Or you only hear about Cuba in a geopolitical sense, a tourist sense, about how it\u2019s so beautiful.\n\nOne of the amazing things about Major Lazer is that they have a really strong team of collaborators. They were like, \u201cCool, let\u2019s make a concert film that\u2019s not about us\u2014let\u2019s make it about something else.\u201d But what that might be was very unclear [back then].\n\n** Right, so how did you do your research?**\n\nA big part of what I do for my music videos is casting real people, non-actors. It\u2019s really easy to find the weird kids on Instagram, because that\u2019s where people who don\u2019t fit in go online. But in Cuba there\u2019s none of that because there\u2019s no internet. I couldn\u2019t be in my apartment in New York researching this place like I can with any other city in the world. So I thought, it\u2019s gonna be about young people\u2014but * who *exactly, I\u2019m not sure. So I said, \u201cI need to go to Cuba right now!\u201d\n\nI got my team together and we were meeting all these people [in Cuba] and telling them what we needed, and they\u2019d all say \u201cOh, you should meet this person,\u201d and that person would say, \u201cOh, you should really meet this person.\u201d We were shooting 16-hour days meeting people, and everyone\u2019s on island time, so they\u2019d be 90 minutes late to a meeting. Then they show up and you realize, oh, this isn\u2019t right at all, this person isn\u2019t right for the film. There\u2019s so much footage that\u2019s not in the film, so many amazing characters and amazing scenes that broke my heart to take out of the film.\n\n**How did you find Dany Cabrera Garcia, the guy who organizes the **** paquete**\n\n**?**\n\nI\u2019d heard of the\n\n*paquete*, and I thought, this is fucking insane, who do I talk about this?\n\nWe got put in contact with him by Johnny Harris, a journalist from\n\n*Vox*who appears in the film, and [Dany] had to come meet us in the hotel to suss us out before he decided he wanted to be in the film. What he does is incredible. He\u2019s a genius.\n\n** But isn\u2019t it dangerous for him to be in the film?**\n\nThat\u2019s the first question everyone asks: Why did you show his face? It\u2019s an interesting situation. It\u2019s really complicated and multifaceted. The * paquete* is so big. It\u2019s such an integral part of life in Cuba that it would be very hard for the government to remove it. It would be very controversial. He knows that, and if he wasn\u2019t doing it, someone else would. You know, he\u2019s like a Hydra. You kill one, three more pop up. And the other thing is that because of the embargo, there\u2019s no business with the US. There\u2019s no copyright.\n\n** Let\u2019s talk about the concert\u2014there was no expectation it would attract that many people.**\n\nLeading up to the concert, we didn\u2019t know how many people were going. I remember thinking the day before, what if nobody shows up? What happens to the movie? How do we make it interesting? And of course as you see in the film, people had been there since 3 AM. I remember at one point standing next to one of the tour managers\u2014Major Lazer had just come from Islamabad, Pakistan, and they go all over the world playing insane shows where people don\u2019t ever play shows. We were standing together looking at all the people, and he said kind of to himself, \u201cI\u2019ve never seen anything like this in my entire life.\u201d\n\nWhen the film premiered at Sundance, the inauguration had just happened, and the day after someone put on the internet [photos of the crowds of] Major Lazer in Cuba and the Trump inauguration [laughs]. The people at the inauguration was such a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of the people at the Major Lazer concert.\n\n** How do you shoot something where you can\u2019t even predict how many people are going to show up\u2014and it ends up being half a million people?**\n\nIt was crazy! There was no way to know for us to plan to shoot something like that. We placed cameras where I thought Major Lazer would be. We had the Steadicam on stage. We had another guy in a tower, we had a jib. We had our Cuban DP who was supposed to shoot this master-wide shot from the tower, but then of course when it started he went rogue and started shooting whatever he wanted to. We gave a bunch of kids point-and-shoot cameras that we\u2019d bought from a CVS in New York, and told them to go shoot their experience.\n\n**The film does a good job of showing all the ripples of movement through the crowd, and how that infectious energy can become scary. Can you talk about that?**You can\u2019t put 500,000 people in one space anywhere in the world. That\u2019s illegal. It was like four Coachellas in one space. There were more people at that concert than there are people living in Miami. Everyone was pushing and we didn\u2019t know what kind of movie this was going to become. I thought, this is going to turn into\n\n*Gimme Shelter*[the 1970 Rolling Stones concert documentary captured numerous violent events and a death at the band\u2019s Altamont Free Concert] really quickly and that would suck.\n\nMajor Lazer paid for this show out of their own pocket because they wanted to be there. That\u2019s why they did a residency in Las Vegas, so they can pay for something like this, because it\u2019s meaningful. This is why you do music, to have this connection with people. When they saw that opening, they seized it.\n\n** How does it feel for the film to come out in a post-Trump era? **\n\nWe premiered the film the day after the inauguration. There was a Women\u2019s March in Sundance, and my mom and my girlfriend were at it, and I was doing press. It was blizzarding and it was one of the weirdest days of my life. [During the film\u2019s premiere] the second Obama\u2019s voice came on in the first five minutes, everyone just erupted cheering in the audience, because you know it\u2019s nice to remember what that was like before it was like * this*.\n\n** It already feels historical in a way.**\n\nI hope that our movie represents the antithesis of the current US administration. That\u2019s what we tried to do. Our movie is about empathy, about people coming together, about unity. If you go anywhere in the world, kids are basically the same. They all want to hang out with friends, listen to music, have a good time, be healthy. They just want these really simple things.\n\n* Tina Hassannia is on *Twitter*. *" + }, + { + "title": "Photo London: Nicola Lo Calzo on the Afro-Cuban legacy - British Journal of Photography", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Photo London: Nicola Lo Calzo on the Afro-Cuban legacy - British Journal of Photography" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiYkFVX3lxTFB5bjE2SFlPSjN2T3pkY3BRWHdDRGNuQUVMVXMxcGdQT3BlS3Zpbl9CV1VwcnJnZXBET1BMUHczd0cwSWtOclVuaHZtYlAtMkhkb2lkX09NLXc0cVMwV0dERUN3?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.1854.photography/2017/05/lo-calzo-regla/", + "id": "CBMiYkFVX3lxTFB5bjE2SFlPSjN2T3pkY3BRWHdDRGNuQUVMVXMxcGdQT3BlS3Zpbl9CV1VwcnJnZXBET1BMUHczd0cwSWtOclVuaHZtYlAtMkhkb2lkX09NLXc0cVMwV0dERUN3", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Thu, 11 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 11, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 3, + 131, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Photo London: Nicola Lo Calzo on the Afro-Cuban legacy  British Journal of Photography", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Photo London: Nicola Lo Calzo on the Afro-Cuban legacy  British Journal of Photography" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.1854.photography", + "title": "British Journal of Photography" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Photo London: Nicola Lo Calzo on the Afro-Cuban legacy\nauthor: Eoin Murray\nurl: https://www.1854.photography/2017/05/lo-calzo-regla/\nhostname: 1854.photography\ndescription: Examining the cultural, religious, and ceremonial practices passed down through generations of African descendants in Cuba, Lo Calzo highlights the variety of identities within the country, and the ways in which they complement one another. Cohabiting \u201cwithin a personal culture of exchange\u201d, he says, they \"borrow each other\u2019s visions, customs and narratives\u201d. He points to the \u201cprecarious balancing act\u201d between the familiar Cuba, largely defined by the communist revolution and the society born out of it, and the diverse communities that actually make up the country.\nsitename: 1854 Photography\ndate: 2017-05-11\ntags: ['African diaspora', 'CHAM', 'Cuba', 'Kehrer', 'Nicola Lo Calzo', 'Photo London', 'Photo London 2018', 'Regla']\n---\nFor the past seven years Nicola Lo Calzo has worked tirelessly on *CHAM*, a project exploring the enduring impact of colonialism and slavery on the African diaspora. In capturing different manifestations of these lingering memories of exploitation, and the fight against it, the Paris-based Italian has spent time in Benin, Togo, Ghana and Senegal (*Tchamba*), Louisiana and Mississippi (*Casta*), Haiti (*Ayiti*), Guadeloupe (*Mas*) and Suriname and French Guiana (*Obia*).\n\nMost recently he made four trips to Cuba to examine Afro-Cuban societies and communities which were previously ostracised and marginalised but now operate \u2013 mostly \u2013 freely. The resulting book, *Regla*, includes striking documentary photographs and portraits, images of iconography and archival objects, and insightful commentary.\n\nExamining the cultural, religious, and ceremonial practices passed down through generations of African descendants in Cuba, Lo Calzo highlights the variety of identities within the country, and the ways in which they complement one another. Cohabiting \u201cwithin a personal culture of exchange\u201d, he says, they \u201cborrow each other\u2019s visions, customs and narratives\u201d. He points to the \u201cprecarious balancing act\u201d between the familiar Cuba, largely defined by the communist revolution and the society born out of it, and the diverse communities that actually make up the country.\n\nSpending time among the Abaku\u00e1 all-male secret society, Freemasons, the Cabildos de Naci\u00f3n Africana black brotherhoods, the carnival comparsas, three Afro-Cuban religious communities, and the contemporary Afro-Cuban raperos of underground hip-hop, this work required intense planning and research, he says, and a different approach to *CHAM*\u2018s previous chapters.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s complicated to work in Cuba,\u201d he explains. \u201cIf you want to go beyond street photography and actually explore the lives of the people you meet it takes a long time, because you have this filter of the revolution and its ideology. It\u2019s difficult to break the wall between an outsider like me and the Cuban people. There\u2019s a kind of apprehension.\u201d\n\nOn previous trips for *CHAM* he worked with the support of local artistic institutions, but in Cuba he decided to go it alone \u2013 wary of being put under pressure to take a particular political stance. \u201cThe only way for me to work on the Afro-Cuban legacy, and research the freedom and the connections between all these communities, was to work alone and discretely,\u201d he says.\n\nBy way of an example he references the Abaku\u00e1, a secretive society which formed in 1836 in the port of Regla. Originally founded by slaves of south eastern Nigerian ethnicity, it was ostracised into secrecy until a decade ago, but has since become a popular group for young men, welcoming both African descendants and people with other heritage. Even so its followers remain reticent about strangers, so getting permission to photograph their ceremonies was enlightening but challenging.\n\n\u201cThere had to be trust,\u201d Lo Calzo explains. \u201cI presented myself as a photographer and showed them the work I had done in my previous journeys. When you work on post-colonial topics like this it\u2019s very important to be aware of your own position and approach, and the complexity of the reality you are working with.\u201d\n\nLo Calzo wanted to capture a wide variety of groups and societies, determined to show practices in Cuba that are rarely seen outside the country, but the access he was granted varied. He found it relatively easy to photograph members of the Santer\u00eda religion, for example, given its mainstream status, but could only get a small selection of photographs of the Cuban Freemasons, who run important schemes in food distribution, community service, and mutual aid with a \u201cnegotiated freedom\u201d from the state.\n\nWhen granted access, Lo Calzo took as many portraits as possible, keen to use the people he met as the \u201cpillars of the story\u201d he was trying to tell. \u201cBehind each portrait there is an interview,\u201d he explains. \u201cAnd these are very important stories for me to tell because most of the images that exist of Cuba are street photography. I respect that but, at the same time, it gives a kind of stereotypical image of the country. I want to be far from stereotype, from the *Dolce Vita*. To me that is the opposite of reality.\u201d\n\nLo Calzo\u2019s photographs show ceremonies and streets, individuals and groups of all ages, and could not be further from the \u201crevolutionary\u201d cliches he speaks of. There are photographs of the young men and women of the hip-hop movement such as La Reyna and La Real, a ceremonial Abaku\u00e1 masked dancer (\u00edreme), and many more besides. He believes that these societies and cultural movements, whether they\u2019re guided by rap or religion, allow Cubans a sense of individual expression and identity.\n\n\u201cThey give to Cubans the opportunity to express themselves as individuals, far from the state power rhetoric,\u201d he says. \u201cYou see there is no symbol of revolution in their ceremonies.\u201d\n\nWhat he finds interesting is the way these societies blend with one another, solidifying a broad Afro-Cuban legacy in these smaller pockets of society. \u201cThere\u2019s a crossover of the cultures,\u201d he says. \u201cIn Europe the crossover of religion and rap, for example, would be seen as contradictory but in Cuba not at all. You can be a Santero, an Abaku\u00e1 follower and a rapper at once.\u201d\n\nWith more chapters planned for Sicily, Columbia, Brazil and Angola, the anthology Lo Calzo is assembling is of mammoth proportions, but he feels it\u2019s acutely relevant today. He points to the work of French philosopher Edouard Glissant, who spoke of the need for global communities to \u201cremember together\u201d if \u201cwe want to share the beauty of the world, if we want to show solidarity with its suffering\u201d.\n\n\u201cWe remain with little knowledge about [the descendant African] legacies in the Atlantic World, but I deeply believe that we can not grasp the complexity of the present in which we live without an understanding of them,\u201d says Lo Calzo. \u201cI hope this project can show just how fragile they are but how important they are to preserve.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhen we think of memory we think of it as being in the past,\u201d he concludes. \u201cBut in my practice I\u2019m seeing memory that is still active today\u201d\n\n*Regla is published by Kehrer Verlag, priced \u20ac35 https://www.kehrerverlag.com/en/nicola-lo-calzo-regla https://www.nicolalocalzo.com/site/*\n\n*Kehrer Verlag will be at Photo London from 17-20 May https://photolondon.org/exhibitors/2018-2/kehrer-verlag/*" + }, + { + "title": "Samsung Opens its First Store in Cuba - Havana Times", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Samsung Opens its First Store in Cuba - Havana Times" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMidkFVX3lxTFBIWTBsajlxYnRwc1hqRF9abFJwSWRUS284TjcxZnZrblhtZ1A3UnRGeTBGYlY0SVltQllON3FtTl95UmVTb1kzdGkteFlwYzdEYnFyemwtQmNpcjlzdV9LaGpoZVR2UVBTeGhOSUNvZFQ0WGFuNmc?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://havanatimes.org/news/samsung-opens-its-first-store-in-cuba/", + "id": "CBMidkFVX3lxTFBIWTBsajlxYnRwc1hqRF9abFJwSWRUS284TjcxZnZrblhtZ1A3UnRGeTBGYlY0SVltQllON3FtTl95UmVTb1kzdGkteFlwYzdEYnFyemwtQmNpcjlzdV9LaGpoZVR2UVBTeGhOSUNvZFQ0WGFuNmc", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Tue, 30 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 30, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 1, + 150, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Samsung Opens its First Store in Cuba  Havana Times", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Samsung Opens its First Store in Cuba  Havana Times" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://havanatimes.org", + "title": "Havana Times" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Samsung Opens its First Store in Cuba - Havana Times\nauthor: Circles Robinson\nurl: https://havanatimes.org/news/samsung-opens-its-first-store-in-cuba/\nhostname: havanatimes.org\ndescription: Samsung Electronics Co. announced that it opened its first store in Cuba on Monday, which is a remarkable step for the international technological company as it aims to infiltrate the Caribbean market on a full-scale, reported Yonhap from Seoul.\nsitename: Havana Times\ndate: 2017-05-30\ncategories: ['News']\n---\n# Samsung Opens its First Store in Cuba\n\n**HAVANA TIMES** \u2014 Samsung Electronics Co. announced that it opened its first store in Cuba on Monday, which is a remarkable step for the international technological company as it aims to infiltrate the Caribbean market on a full-scale, reported Yonhap from Seoul.\n\nThe South Korean technological giant said that it opened up a store in cooperation with the Cuban retail chain, Caribbean TRD Retail Store Chain (TRD), which belongs to the Cuban Armed Forces.\n\nThe store will display luxury Samsung Electronics products, including smartphones, TVs and fridges.\n\nThe TRD retail chain owns over 50% of the Cuban electronics market.\n\nIn 2012, Samsung took part, for the first time, in an Electronics convention organized in Cuba and has been making an effort to penetrate this country\u2019s market further. The company has said that it hopes the store will help to improve the Samsung brand\u2019s reputation within the region.\n\nSamsung has made very good marketing decisions over the years. They have never asked for my help or critique and I understand why.\n\nThere is money out there in Cuba that we cannot envision and it is being spent. Our little municipality of Cueto in Holguin has around 35,000 citizens with an average income of $15 per month according to the last census. There is not a casa particular in the whole municipality. Yet our TRD regularly stocks and sells $900 refrigerators, $400 washing machines, $500 freezers, $600 split air conditioners, even $350 electric hot water heaters. I cannot identify this market. It appears to just be a big garlic farmer here, a bolita banker there, a camion owner here, someone who gets large remittances there. And it that is the situation in our municipality in rural Holguin, I can only imagine what it is in Havana.\n\nMany Cubans have Samsung phones. Are those that do all extraordinary ?\n\nHope springs eternal! I know of an Adidas shop in a Cuban city and young men will scrimp and save just to be able to have a garment or shoes with the three stripes. No doubt GAESA takes a cut!\n\nThey can\u2019t.\n\nHow on Earth can the ordinary workman/woman ever hope to save enough money to purchase from here?" + }, + { + "title": "71 UNGA: Cuba at the Forum on Financing for Development under the auspices of ECOSOC. - Cubadiplom\u00e1tica", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "71 UNGA: Cuba at the Forum on Financing for Development under the auspices of ECOSOC. - Cubadiplom\u00e1tica" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMirwFBVV95cUxNV1ZzQXdJbjlmajFQQkZxVWVfU2xkcXdDNEVrMzRHVnBISTkzWFJsV2lOdVRyeGx5WERRR1NWZUw5bVY0cU1VYXp2UHBLM3BIUHhldk5nV0FBMVVyZHhzOVU0bXNRZm9OODdhWXhYUjhlZUN5bV85OVl3X2lQc0xLYjdOOVFTcURKNmk3TGlsdXZMdWVvZS1XTFMwNjB0VWU4LVZ2SkhOU3BEZW1EeHhn?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://havanatimes.org/interviews/talking-about-santeria-in-cuba/", + "id": "CBMirwFBVV95cUxNV1ZzQXdJbjlmajFQQkZxVWVfU2xkcXdDNEVrMzRHVnBISTkzWFJsV2lOdVRyeGx5WERRR1NWZUw5bVY0cU1VYXp2UHBLM3BIUHhldk5nV0FBMVVyZHhzOVU0bXNRZm9OODdhWXhYUjhlZUN5bV85OVl3X2lQc0xLYjdOOVFTcURKNmk3TGlsdXZMdWVvZS1XTFMwNjB0VWU4LVZ2SkhOU3BEZW1EeHhn", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Tue, 23 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 23, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 1, + 143, + 0 + ], + "summary": "71 UNGA: Cuba at the Forum on Financing for Development under the auspices of ECOSOC.  Cubadiplom\u00e1tica", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "71 UNGA: Cuba at the Forum on Financing for Development under the auspices of ECOSOC.  Cubadiplom\u00e1tica" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://misiones.cubaminrex.cu", + "title": "Cubadiplom\u00e1tica" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Talking about Santeria in Cuba - Havana Times\nauthor: Circles Robinson\nurl: https://havanatimes.org/interviews/talking-about-santeria-in-cuba/\nhostname: havanatimes.org\ndescription: Darnelys Dominguez Pino is 42 years old and works as an attendant at a sports center. He has been directly linked to the Afro-Cuban religion known as Santeria for many years. He is a man of few words who is concerned about the path his religion is taking.\nsitename: Havana Times\ndate: 2017-05-16\ncategories: ['Interviews']\n---\n# Talking about Santeria in Cuba\n\n**By Miguel Arias Sanchez**\n\nHAVANA TIMES \u2014 Darnelys Dominguez Pino is 42 years old and works as an attendant at a sports center. He has been directly linked to the Afro-Cuban religion known as Santeria for many years. He is a man of few words who is concerned about the path his religion is taking.\n\nHT: How old were you when you started out in this Afro-Cuban religion?\n\nDarnelys Dominguez Pino: Ever since I was born practically. I began because I wanted to, I was drawn to it by its sincerity and truth.\n\nHT: What do you really think about your religion?\n\nDDP: I believe it is something beautiful, human, when it is practiced honestly.\n\nHT: Why has this fever to become initiated into Santeria come about?\n\nDDP: Looking for different objectives: financial, to leave the country or to improve ones health.\n\nHT: Why would a person choose to do this?\n\nDDP: Look there are many reasons why: some are incited by other people who have done this; others, by their families or by their own inspiration, they believe that it will help them to progress or to be better.\n\nHT: Are health or life always necessary reasons in every case?\n\nDDP: I don\u2019t think so, there are special cases which draws people to santeria because of health problems, but not all of them. A lot of people approach the religion because they hope to be better off financially, that it will open new doors for them.\n\nHT: Why do they ask for so many animals, even money, in order to become a santero?\n\nDDC: It\u2019s true, you need animals, but sometimes you don\u2019t need as many as the santeria priest asks for; money? is something new too, in reality, what they ask for is a right.\n\nHT: Is everything that\u2019s asked for the initiation?\n\nDDP: No, it\u2019s not always like that, there are people who take what they can out of this for their own personal benefit.\n\nHT: Do they finally meet all the requirements?\n\nDDP: Some do, others don\u2019t, and everything depends on what is being done is in a loyal and pure way.\n\nHT: Do you think that all of those people who practice as santeria priests: babalao, palero, etc. do so in a truly dignified manner?\n\nDDP: No. There are people who do this just to make money, for their own benefit and wellbeing.\n\nHT: Was this religion in Cuba always like this?\n\nDDP: No, it used to be a lot more honest in the past.\n\nHT: What\u2019s the main difference?\n\nDDP: Before, people used to practice out of conviction while today they do so because of money a lot of the time.\n\nHT: Can anybody be initiated into santeria, even if they are a criminal, alcoholic or an immoral person?\n\nDDP: Yes, of course anyone can.\n\nHT: How\u2019s that?\n\nDDP: If you become initiated in an honest and proper way, santeria educates you and takes you out of the evil path, guiding you down new paths to what\u2019s good.\n\nHT: How would you define a person practicing Santeria?\n\nDDP: Somebody who doesn\u2019t fail to meet the precepts of Santeria.\n\nHT: Are you proud about your religion right now, about how it is being practiced here in Cuba?\n\nDDP: Yes, I am proud of it, but I\u2019m not proud of everybody who practices it. There are still a lot of people who respect it but it has become a scam in a lot of other cases, it isn\u2019t practiced as it should be and people take advantage of it for their own good.\n\nThe interview was very informative, especially coming from a Santero residing in Cuba. I am Iya\u2019losa) Omo\u2019Osun (initiated 1986) living in America.\n\nCharletons, hustlers, thieves, dis-ingenious phonies, etc. exist in EVERY religion on this planet. Ours is NO different in that sense. Eshu watches ALL\u2026and judgements awaits all.\n\nThere are also some awesome, righteous Aborisa (Orisa worshippers) initiated and in-initiated alike who LOVE this religion and practice Iwa Pele (righteous character and behavior).\n\nI am YeYe OlaOshun Lakesin and I practice the Isese\u2019Lagba path (traditional). This religion to me is beloved and very sacred, and I love the Orisa and proud to travel on this path for my spiritual salvation.\n\nLet the Cubans know that the worship of Orisa\u2019Ifa is officially recognized among the world\u2019s religions. Elder Babalawo Wande Abimbola, Awise Agbaye, chants Our sacred oracular liturgies (scriptures) of Odu\u2019Ifa beautifully, in the presence of other major religious leaders at the Vatigan in Rome.\n\nWe have come a long way, by the Grace of Ol\u00f3d\u00f9mar\u00e8, our various sects and traditions are exchanging dialogue especially in the Diaspora.\n\nBe Blessed,\n\nYeYe" + }, + { + "title": "Talking about Santeria in Cuba - Havana Times", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Talking about Santeria in Cuba - Havana Times" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMidEFVX3lxTE9yZExpTDJzbGZTd295di1WMmkyOEUxYU5kdTdQNHdtSHR2Nm5RVW5PMlhnMkhGTTNHejF6YTFnTlBCSXRQbk4yZXEyZEFQS1dTd1g1RTRLX1FDUnRveERDTGowSWZzcXl2TkhLRi1INlJId2Nv?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://misiones.cubaminrex.cu/en/un/statements/71-unga-cuba-forum-financing-development-under-auspices-ecosoc", + "id": "CBMidEFVX3lxTE9yZExpTDJzbGZTd295di1WMmkyOEUxYU5kdTdQNHdtSHR2Nm5RVW5PMlhnMkhGTTNHejF6YTFnTlBCSXRQbk4yZXEyZEFQS1dTd1g1RTRLX1FDUnRveERDTGowSWZzcXl2TkhLRi1INlJId2Nv", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Tue, 16 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 16, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 1, + 136, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Talking about Santeria in Cuba  Havana Times", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Talking about Santeria in Cuba  Havana Times" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://havanatimes.org", + "title": "Havana Times" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 0, + "response": "Error: HTTP 0" + }, + { + "title": "In New Orleans, a Festival Defies Trends and Welcomes Cuba (Published 2017) - The New York Times", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "In New Orleans, a Festival Defies Trends and Welcomes Cuba (Published 2017) - The New York Times" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMipgFBVV95cUxQZmVxLVJLLWRnMnNzU0pZNFpwZi13QTB1VHRLTl9oMWZsOFowN25zZVI2ektxMUZNSFpFRHloSXRFa1MwZDhNZTdCaWdfQ1RCbGMxVm1HTEtFeC1MZGo4dXhaNVA1Y2NvMjNRUU5GN2ZIWVhXcmZLWVVBdFV4SG93aTFGdXdTcFRjcFZKa29RRVZWTGZ1amZqQ2dnb0thTEpiT2VxZjJn?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/arts/music/new-orleans-jazz-heritage-festival-best-performances.html", + "id": "CBMipgFBVV95cUxQZmVxLVJLLWRnMnNzU0pZNFpwZi13QTB1VHRLTl9oMWZsOFowN25zZVI2ektxMUZNSFpFRHloSXRFa1MwZDhNZTdCaWdfQ1RCbGMxVm1HTEtFeC1MZGo4dXhaNVA1Y2NvMjNRUU5GN2ZIWVhXcmZLWVVBdFV4SG93aTFGdXdTcFRjcFZKa29RRVZWTGZ1amZqQ2dnb0thTEpiT2VxZjJn", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Mon, 01 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 1, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 0, + 121, + 0 + ], + "summary": "In New Orleans, a Festival Defies Trends and Welcomes Cuba (Published 2017)  The New York Times", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "In New Orleans, a Festival Defies Trends and Welcomes Cuba (Published 2017)  The New York Times" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.nytimes.com", + "title": "The New York Times" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 403, + "response": "Error: HTTP 403" + }, + { + "title": "Your Travel Guide to Old Havana, The Can't-Miss Neighborhood of Cuba's Capital - GQ", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Your Travel Guide to Old Havana, The Can't-Miss Neighborhood of Cuba's Capital - GQ" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMid0FVX3lxTE5mNUQ0bWFtbjhTR1F1Y2YwV2gwTTBFaGVTQ2hGR3gwSnotbVNBVlo1a29NQnNSRFAxVWxFYWdZS080UGJ2cUdCbWxIN0l0aE5lRG54WmJXdE5QSWJDRWJpaXlRN2FnbWhQbFE5X1NrUmF6SldwWjFJ?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.gq.com/story/old-havana-neighborhood-guide-travel-advice", + "id": "CBMid0FVX3lxTE5mNUQ0bWFtbjhTR1F1Y2YwV2gwTTBFaGVTQ2hGR3gwSnotbVNBVlo1a29NQnNSRFAxVWxFYWdZS080UGJ2cUdCbWxIN0l0aE5lRG54WmJXdE5QSWJDRWJpaXlRN2FnbWhQbFE5X1NrUmF6SldwWjFJ", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Fri, 12 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 12, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 4, + 132, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Your Travel Guide to Old Havana, The Can't-Miss Neighborhood of Cuba's Capital  GQ", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Your Travel Guide to Old Havana, The Can't-Miss Neighborhood of Cuba's Capital  GQ" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.gq.com", + "title": "GQ" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Your Guide to Old Havana, The Can't-Miss Neighborhood of Cuba's Capital\nauthor: Molly McArdle\nurl: https://www.gq.com/story/old-havana-neighborhood-guide-travel-advice\nhostname: gq.com\ndescription: Where to eat, where to drink, and where to people watch\nsitename: GQ\ndate: 2017-05-12\ncategories: ['culture']\n---\nOld Havana\u2019s streets are narrower than a broad alleyway and almost as old as Columbus. The ancient heart of the Caribbean\u2019s largest city, Old Havana\u2019s (or *Habana Vieja\u2019s*) original street plan was squeezed on one side by its harbor and on the other by heavily fortified walls. (Never forget that pirates are real.) Though the walls were knocked down in 1863 to make way for the city\u2019s expansion, the difference between more modern neighborhoods like Vedado\u2014full of broad, shaded avenues and stately mansions on roomy plots\u2014and Old Havana is striking. As both the oldest and the most walkable part of the city, it\u2019s also a popular place to stay for many visitors.\n\nThe contrast between spaces dominated by Cubans, and those reserved for visitors, is particularly noticeable here, where everything is so close together. Some blocks look straight out of a photoshoot, others like a half-completed construction site. Wherever you go, though, there\u2019s something worth looking at: whether a beautifully preserved church or a bucket-and-pulley system for exchanging items between upper and lower floors. Havana\u2019s topsy-turvy urban landscape, sometimes crumbling and sometimes gleaming, has this one consistency: it\u2019s very much alive and in use.\n\nThere is a nasty rumor going around that there\u2019s no good food in Cuba. This is just wrong. You will dream for weeks afterward of the tiny, impossibly sweet bananas you\u2019ll be served at breakfast; the sweet and dark coffee you\u2019ll drink with dessert; the mountains of crisp plantains, meat, rice and beans, and the near ubiquitous (and perfectly proportioned) flavors of garlic and citrus you\u2019ll encounter at dinner. It\u2019s very possible to order a subpar meal in Old Havana, just as it\u2019s possible to have bad pizza in New York. But shame on you for walking into a Sbarro\u2019s.\n\nThe best restaurants in Cuba are *paladares*, which are owned and operated by individuals rather than the state. Some offer a white tablecloth-style experience, others are more cozy and familiar. Where ever you decide to go, make your reservations well in advance and follow up upon your arrival in Cuba: space fills up quickly. The legendary Do\u00f1a Eutimia serves up the best ropa vieja (a stewed beef dish named after \u201cold clothes\u201d) in Havana, but their homemade ice cream deserves an equal spotlight. Paladar Los Mercaderes leans upscale, with one of the most refined, and romantic, atmospheres in the neighborhood. Grab tapas and a drink at the graffiti-covered El Chanchullero, which stays open till 1 AM. If you\u2019re staying in a *casa particular*\u2014private accommodations with a Cuban family\u2014ask about eating there too: you\u2019ll often find the best meals of the journey in your own kitchen.\n\nCuba has many claims to cocktail fame\u2014the daiquiri, the mojito, the Cuba Libre\u2014and their high temples can be found in Old Havana. A late-in-life Ernest Hemingway also haunts these bars: he maintained a house in Havana for over two decades, and if you\u2019re drinking around here, you\u2019ll find his aficionados--the kind of men who not only own a typewriter but are waiting tell you all about it. Though the writer\u2019s presence there is perhaps the most boring thing about Havana, whether a pre-Revolutionary bar was allowed to remain open often had a lot to do with whether or not El Papa liked to drink there. El Floridita is one of those spots\u2014you'll find a creepy statue of him in the corner there. The real reason to go is the daiquiri, which was invented there, and is still served up by waiters in red waistcoats.\n\nLa Bodeguita del Medio is another of the Hemingway haunts, a closet-like bar that abuts the street. They have a restaurant in the back, but La Bodeguita is most famous (deservedly so) for its mojitos. They are perfection: strong but not too rummy, thoroughly muddled, effervescent. Sloppy Joe\u2019s, a historic hotspot for American tourists but shuttered for nearly five decades until a 2013 renovation, is a good spot for a mid-afternoon Cubanito (a rum-based twist on the Bloody Mary) and squinting at black-and-white pictures of movie stars from the first half of the twentieth century. Though most of the city\u2019s best live music venues are outside of Old Havana, El Mes\u00f3n de la Flota features a great (and flamenco-heavy) program of live music throughout the day.\n\nIf you\u2019re big on museums, you\u2019re in luck: Old Havana has a lot to show off. (And if you\u2019re not, you have our full and hearty permission to start on the daiquiris early--it\u2019s a win-win proposition.) The Museo de la Revoluci\u00f3n, located in the former presidential palace, was once the setting of a failed 1957 assassination attempt on Batista\u2014and there are bullet holes in the stairwell to prove it. Though almost all the exhibits are in Spanish, the pictures and objects tell a compelling story of the Cuban revolution. Out back, take a look at the Granma Memorial, where the yacht that Fidel, Che, and Raul took from Mexico is encased in a glass box.\n\nIf you\u2019d rather look at paintings of blood than bloody shirts, the Museo de las Bellas Artes has two buildings of collections\u2014Cuban and international\u2014you can see for the price of a combined ticket. The more modern Cuban collection is across the street from the Granma Memorial, while the international collection is housed off Parque Central in a building that once belonged to a wealthy private society, complete with a grand ballroom, marble staircases, and stained-glass ceiling. Almost all of the art there are works left behind by rich Cubans after the Revolutions: some Canalettos, some Gainsboroughs, some Zurbar\u00e1ns, some Rubens, some Goyas, some antiquities. Next to the Capitol, the Museo de las Orishas is run by the Asociaci\u00f3n Cultural Yoruba de Cuba and aims to explain santer\u00eda, a five-century-old religious practice that overlaid Roman Catholicism with the Yoruba faith-system. (You can leave your Sublime jokes at the door, thanks.) The Asociaci\u00f3n welcomes the public to watch a religious drumming ceremony on Fridays and Saturdays at 6pm.\n\nOkay, first of all: don\u2019t go to a communist country to shop. While there\u2019s plenty of stuff to buy (and much of it is quite good), there are no grand avenues of stores like Fifth Avenue in New York or the Champs Elys\u00e9es in Paris. Still, Cuba is justly famous for its rum and its cigars, and it\u2019s worth making an effort to bring a bottle and a box home. In Old Havana, find cigars at Hostal Conde de Villanueva. The best place to buy rum is\u2026in a duty-free shop in the airport on your way out of the country. For souvenirs off the beaten track, the shelves of bookstore Librer\u00eda Venecia, the artist studios at Taller Experimental de Gr\u00e1fica, or the clothing racks of El Quitr\u00edn. A walk along Calle Obispo will also reveal some interesting shops.\n\nCuban life is best experienced on foot. Because of the country\u2019s dual economies (with separate currencies for tourists and natives), there are few places where both extranjeros and habaneros mix, and fewer still on equal footing. The best antidote is walking, and Old Havana\u2019s great promenades are perfect for people-watching and admiring the city\u2019s crumbling kaleidoscope of architecture. You can loop through Old Havana\u2019s great public spaces in the span of an hour or two, or you can find them on your own time and in your own order. Start with the four plazas of Old Havana: Plaza Vieja, Plaza de San Francisco, Plaza de la Catedral, Plaza de las Armas. Then take Calle Obispo to Parque Central, a buzzing hub rather than an Olmstead-like oasis, which is located just north of Cuba's Capitol building. Take a turn up El Paseo, a grand avenue with a central, tree-shaded pedestrian walkway that runs north from Parque Central to the bay. Once you reach the water, you\u2019re on the Malec\u00f3n\u2014a walkway that hugs the ocean, and Havana\u2019s most varied and vital public space. On days where the water is particularly rough, waves sometimes spray up and over onto the pedestrians and sometimes even the cars. Everyone's out on the Malec\u00f3n: teenagers on dates, old men with fishing rods, tourists posing for pictures, kids paying, old couples on a stroll. Even the crew from the latest Fast and the Furious made it: you might recognize some sections from the first part of the movie, one of the first U.S. films to be shot in Cuba since 1958\u2019s The Old Man and the Sea.) Settle down with a bag of peanuts, aka mani, on the sea wall separating the walkway from the surf. There\u2019s no place more iconically Havana." + }, + { + "title": "Cuba gets its first luxury mall - South China Morning Post", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba gets its first luxury mall - South China Morning Post" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.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?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/2093748/chanel-mont-blanc-cuba-gets-it-first-luxury-mall", + "id": "CBMiswFBVV95cUxPbU80QnhjQm5iRFVxWmJ1Rm1MbTZMWlNBcWJCXzNtTmVTRzE2bzZ4M1Y4Um5xS1pJSzdCQVNEanRGWGs2SlFIa2xUZEE3R3YwMG4wS01YTzJpRHVpZUJIczI0M2dySWY1N2hCMWluWEF5eFN4Q0x6bWFSNGxNRVBjZ1o5T2tWb3dqNTYzQk9iTGNOZ3JLOERGa2FhNHY4Um13V2QxR0RPR0FSVnM5TkNxUDR2WdIBswFBVV95cUxOYlVTM3dWNHJ2YS0yQ0tmWGRjMV90NkNVZVl4czRXYVp0S3hyNzFHY0hsSmV0ZUwwZjVPaDZIWWpQQnZ1MUR1TklHbnJldmpKWmdvTHRrUklCcUZwUmZ6R0hxWTJVbUhjYXhYeW4tUmtsRXNWbDMzelFycjladUpYbFUzMEJ0N0Y2b1BPUlhvZmE1c01SeEVUajNEbVNBRWcwaHZFclRweUZmMFZFQlp5dGJZSQ", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Thu, 11 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 11, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 3, + 131, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Cuba gets its first luxury mall  South China Morning Post", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Cuba gets its first luxury mall  South China Morning Post" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.scmp.com", + "title": "South China Morning Post" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Cuba gets its first luxury mall\nauthor: Agence France-Presse\nurl: https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/2093748/chanel-mont-blanc-cuba-gets-it-first-luxury-mall\nhostname: scmp.com\ndescription: The Manzana de Gomez mall sits below a five-star hotel opening in early June that is owned by the military\u2019s tourism arm, Gaviota, and run by Swiss luxury chain Kempinski\nsitename: South China Morning Post\ndate: 2017-05-11\ncategories: ['News & Trends']\ntags: ['Chanel, Mont Blanc, Cuba, luxury goods, luxury shopping, luxury retail, capitalism, socialism, Havana, Kempinski, Manzana de Gomez', 'Cuba']\n---\n# With Chanel, Montblanc, Cuba gets its first luxury mall\n\nThe Manzana de Gomez mall sits below a five-star hotel opening in early June that is owned by the military\u2019s tourism arm, Gaviota, and run by Swiss luxury chain Kempinski\n\nThe saleswomen in L\u2019Occitane en Provence\u2019s new Havana store make US$12.50 a month. The acacia eau de toilette they sell costs US$95.20 a bottle. Rejuvenating face cream is US$162.40 an ounce.\n\nA few doors down, a Canon EOS camera goes for US$7,542.01. A Bulgari watch, US$10,200.\n\nIn the heart of the capital of a nation founded on ideals of social equality, the business arm of the Cuban military has transformed a century-old shopping arcade into a temple to conspicuous capitalism.\n\nWith the first Cuban branches of L\u2019Occitane, Mont Blanc and Lacoste, the Manzana de Gomez mall has become a sociocultural phenomenon since its opening a few weeks ago, with Cubans wandering wide-eyed through its polished-stone passages.\n\nOlder Cubans are stunned at the sight of goods worth more than a lifetime\u2019s state salary. Teenagers and young adults pose for Facebook photos in front of store windows, throwing victory signs in echoes of the images sent by relatives in Miami, who pose grinning alongside 50-inch TV sets and luxury convertibles.\n\nOn a recent weekday, Oswell Mendez and the members of his hip-hop dance group De Freak posed for their Facebook page in the centre of the Manzana, on the spot where a bust of early 20th century Cuban Communist leader Julio Antonio Mella sat before it was removed in the building\u2019s multi-year renovation.\n\n\u201cThis is a high-end spot, really nice,\u201d said Mendez, 24. \u201cIt\u2019s something we haven\u2019t seen before.\u201d\n\nThe five-story Manzana sits off the Prado, the broad, tree-lined boulevard that divides the colonial heart of the city. The upper floors are a five-star hotel opening in early June that is owned by the military\u2019s tourism arm, Gaviota, and run by Swiss luxury chain Kempinski. Along the bisecting galleries of the Manzana\u2019s ground floor, the military\u2019s retail arms \u2014 TRD Caribe and CIMEQ \u2014 host the luxury brands along with Cuban stores selling lesser-known but still pricey products aimed at Cuba\u2019s small but growing upper-middle class, like US$6 mini-bottles of shampoo and sets of plates for more than US$100.\n\nA few blocks away, working-class Cubans live in decaying apartments on streets clogged by uncollected trash. With state incomes devastated by long-term stagnation and inflation, there\u2019s barely money for food, let alone home repairs or indulgences.\n\n\u201cThis hurts because I can\u2019t buy anything,\u201d said Rodolfo Hernandez Torres, a 71-year-old retired electrical mechanic who lives on a salary of US$12.50 a month. \u201cThere are people who can come here to buy things but it\u2019s maybe one in 10. Most of the country doesn\u2019t have the money.\u201d" + }, + { + "title": "Jimmy's world shines light on Afro-Cuban culture of Matanzas - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Jimmy's world shines light on Afro-Cuban culture of Matanzas - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMivAFBVV95cUxPQkdwY2Z0dmR1UXFpODM1b3gtOEY0WTFHeUp4X0hTLWY3MUVNZVdDTksyRUU0R3hwOFhwbXNaaVlqRm1ZSDVwVzFyRklvY0xTS3RPQjZoYmJ1TnpRNGt0TlFNMmtRMHRsQWNiajA0eTRsaVZOazF1TDZhTDdURlFzNXB0NDhyZmJnekFfWk9CbVhmUElzc0JnZm5BTFVWVkJPNGdMMWpURlk1d0JMMlJRdkwyVmQ3R1E4RlEzRg?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.post-gazette.com/life/travel/2017/05/21/cuba-matanzas-pittsburgh-sister-city-afro-cuban/stories/201705210018", + "id": "CBMivAFBVV95cUxPQkdwY2Z0dmR1UXFpODM1b3gtOEY0WTFHeUp4X0hTLWY3MUVNZVdDTksyRUU0R3hwOFhwbXNaaVlqRm1ZSDVwVzFyRklvY0xTS3RPQjZoYmJ1TnpRNGt0TlFNMmtRMHRsQWNiajA0eTRsaVZOazF1TDZhTDdURlFzNXB0NDhyZmJnekFfWk9CbVhmUElzc0JnZm5BTFVWVkJPNGdMMWpURlk1d0JMMlJRdkwyVmQ3R1E4RlEzRg", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Sat, 20 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 20, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 5, + 140, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Jimmy's world shines light on Afro-Cuban culture of Matanzas  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Jimmy's world shines light on Afro-Cuban culture of Matanzas  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.post-gazette.com", + "title": "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Jimmy's world shines light on Afro-Cuban culture of Matanzas\nurl: https://www.post-gazette.com/life/travel/2017/05/21/cuba-matanzas-pittsburgh-sister-city-afro-cuban/stories/201705210018\nhostname: post-gazette.com\ndescription: A chance encounter with former history teacher in Cuba provides rare behind-the-scenes tour of Matanzas, Pittsburgh\u2019s sister city.\nsitename: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette\ndate: 2017-05-21\ncategories: ['life']\n---\n10:57AM\nObituaries\nPGe\nPG Store\nArchives\nClassifieds\nClassified\nEvents\nJobs\nPublic Notices\nPets\nMENU\nSUBSCRIBE\nLOGIN\nREGISTER\nLOG OUT\nMY PROFILE\nHome\nNews\nLocal\nSports\nOpinion\nA&E\nLife\nBusiness\nContact Us\nPublic Notices\nNEWSLETTERS\nMENU\nACCOUNT\nSubscribe\nLogin\nRegister\nLog out\nMy Profile\nSubscriber Services\nSearch\nSECTIONS\nHOME\nHomepage\nThis Just In\nChats\nWeather\nTraffic\nEvent Guide\nPG Store\nPGe\nVideo\nPhotos\nThe Digs\nRSS Feeds\nNEWS\nNews Home\nCrimes & Courts\nPolitics\nEducation\nHealth & Wellness\nTransportation\nState\nNation\nWorld\nWeather News\nObituaries\nNews Obituaries\nScience\nEnvironment\nFaith & Religion\nSocial Services\nLOCAL\nLocal Home\nCity\nRegion\nEast\nNorth\nSouth\nWest\nWashington\nWestmoreland\nObituaries\nClassifieds\nPublic Notices\nSPORTS\nSports Home\nSteelers\nPenguins\nPirates\n2026 NFL Draft\nSports Columns\nPaul Zeise\nPitt\nPenn State\nWVU\nPG Sports Network podcasts\nRiverhounds\nNFL\nNHL\nMLB\nNBA\nNCAA\nCollege Sports\nHigh School Sports\nOPINION\nOpinion Home\nEditorials\nPG Columnists\nSpecial to the PG\nInsight\nLetters\nOp-Ed Columns\nA&E\nA&E Home\nCelebrities\nMovies\nTV & Radio\nMusic\nConcert Listings\nTheatre & Dance\nArt & Architecture\nBooks\nEvents\nLIFE\nLife Home\nFood\nDining\nRecipes\nDrinks\nBuying Here\nHomes & Gardens\ngoodness\nRandom Acts of Kindness\nSeen\nOutdoors\nStyle & Fashion\nTravel\nHolidays\nBUSINESS\nBusiness Home\nBuilding PGH\nYour Money\nBusiness Health\nPowersource\nWorkzone\nTech News\nBusiness / Law\nOther Business\nConsumer Alerts\nTop Workplaces\nPGH Partners\nPGH Partners Home\nUPMC | Ask the Experts\nOTHER\nPGe\nNEWSLETTERS\nPG STORE\nARCHIVES\nCLASSIFIEDS\nPUBLIC NOTICES\nOBITUARIES\nJOBS\nCLASSIFIEDS\nEVENTS\nPETS\nCONTACT US / FAQ\nCONTACT US\nADVERTISING\nCAREER OPPORTUNITIES\nTOP\nEmail a Story\nYour e-mail:\nFriends e-mail:\nSubmit" + }, + { + "title": "On the Eve of Mother\u2019s Day in Cuba - Havana Times", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "On the Eve of Mother\u2019s Day in Cuba - Havana Times" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMif0FVX3lxTE82MWxtemlQRlhQTU9XUllpNkIwazZCRmJVVE1GRlBFd3pDUng5c0s1NXZoQS1JNmRvVUlWNHU3ckI4T0hRSUFNanlCSi0zazZ6Y0tTRDd3V0czVndJQ3dweS1xTGJZRHZmZm5UM3J4dWJGYnZ2U2xtY2oxTGt5cE0?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://havanatimes.org/other-galleries/on-the-eve-of-mothers-day-in-cuba/", + "id": "CBMif0FVX3lxTE82MWxtemlQRlhQTU9XUllpNkIwazZCRmJVVE1GRlBFd3pDUng5c0s1NXZoQS1JNmRvVUlWNHU3ckI4T0hRSUFNanlCSi0zazZ6Y0tTRDd3V0czVndJQ3dweS1xTGJZRHZmZm5UM3J4dWJGYnZ2U2xtY2oxTGt5cE0", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Sat, 13 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 13, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 5, + 133, + 0 + ], + "summary": "On the Eve of Mother\u2019s Day in Cuba  Havana Times", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "On the Eve of Mother\u2019s Day in Cuba  Havana Times" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://havanatimes.org", + "title": "Havana Times" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: On the Eve of Mother's Day in Cuba - Havana Times\nauthor: Circles Robinson\nurl: https://havanatimes.org/other-galleries/on-the-eve-of-mothers-day-in-cuba/\nhostname: havanatimes.org\ndescription: Today, Saturday, May 13, 2017, the festival of flowers is celebrated in anticipation of Mother's Day, on Calle 12 between 23 and Zapata. While the selection isn\u2019t very good this year, it\u2019s still a place to purchase a gift to take to mothers\u2019 homes on Sunday. (15 photos)\nsitename: Havana Times\ndate: 2017-05-13\ncategories: ['Other Galleries', 'Photo Feature']\n---\n# On the Eve of Mother\u2019s Day in Cuba\n\n**Photo Feature by Elio Delgado Valdes**\n\n\n**HAVANA TIMES** \u2013 Today, Saturday, May 13, 2017, the festival of flowers is celebrated in anticipation of Mother\u2019s Day, on Calle 12 between 23 and Zapata, a place known for the Cuban cinematheque, several food service outlets and the 23rd and 10th Street market.\n\nWhile the selection isn\u2019t very good this year, it\u2019s still a place to purchase a gift to take to mothers\u2019 homes on Sunday May 14.\n\n*Click on the thumbnails below to view all the photos in this gallery. On your PC or laptop, you can use the directional arrows on the keyboard to move within the gallery. On cell phones use the keys on the screen.*\n\nHAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all those who have cared and loved children, whether they were biological or passionate about caring for those young ones in need." + }, + { + "title": "Protests mark decade of LGBT activism in Cuba - dw.com", + "title_detail": { + "type": "text/plain", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Protests mark decade of LGBT activism in Cuba - dw.com" + }, + "links": [ + { + "rel": "alternate", + "type": "text/html", + "href": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMihAFBVV95cUxNaGNZY3prNHk5eE1oTXlHQVF1YTdUd3lmZ0lRNU9YYkpva1BnUkxaNDl1WVRkZktyR1lwdkt0LW1FMDF2MWt3eGcxcGdxMzBzR1RpN0cwTkhXRG5uemR2ajZQUTh3MXlsSTVfWVp2QW15VzJCY1dfYndhMzRxRlRnOFg1TTfSAYQBQVVfeXFMTXJPV3BpLWplOE9SS0lZSnpzaHhFbWpMVE5EZC1GVHJHWnNJb0xmb2Izd0dFSVI3X01nMHdrV3dOdnRTRnA2Rm1WTDdWSjRocGpqMEY4bmRmRHJ1U0pneERrNndXdHZxZDZNODAyWGF1c2pDRmVMY2FKVkdzV1JMUWM0eV9M?oc=5" + } + ], + "link": "https://www.dw.com/en/protests-mark-decade-of-lgbt-activism-in-cuba/a-38832293", + "id": "CBMihAFBVV95cUxNaGNZY3prNHk5eE1oTXlHQVF1YTdUd3lmZ0lRNU9YYkpva1BnUkxaNDl1WVRkZktyR1lwdkt0LW1FMDF2MWt3eGcxcGdxMzBzR1RpN0cwTkhXRG5uemR2ajZQUTh3MXlsSTVfWVp2QW15VzJCY1dfYndhMzRxRlRnOFg1TTfSAYQBQVVfeXFMTXJPV3BpLWplOE9SS0lZSnpzaHhFbWpMVE5EZC1GVHJHWnNJb0xmb2Izd0dFSVI3X01nMHdrV3dOdnRTRnA2Rm1WTDdWSjRocGpqMEY4bmRmRHJ1U0pneERrNndXdHZxZDZNODAyWGF1c2pDRmVMY2FKVkdzV1JMUWM0eV9M", + "guidislink": false, + "published": "Sun, 14 May 2017 07:00:00 GMT", + "published_parsed": [ + 2017, + 5, + 14, + 7, + 0, + 0, + 6, + 134, + 0 + ], + "summary": "Protests mark decade of LGBT activism in Cuba  dw.com", + "summary_detail": { + "type": "text/html", + "language": null, + "base": "", + "value": "Protests mark decade of LGBT activism in Cuba  dw.com" + }, + "source": { + "href": "https://www.dw.com", + "title": "dw.com" + }, + "sub_articles": [], + "status_code": 200, + "response": "---\ntitle: Protests mark decade of LGBT activism in Cuba\nurl: https://www.dw.com/en/protests-mark-decade-of-lgbt-activism-in-cuba/a-38832293\nhostname: dw.com\ndescription: Calling for same-sex marriage, Cubans have chanted \"revolution yes, homophobia no\" in the streets of Havana. Until the early 1980s, gays and lesbians were routinely rounded up and forced to work in labor camps.\nsitename: Deutsche Welle\ndate: 2017-05-14\n---\n# Protests mark decade of LGBT activism in Cuba\n\nMay 14, 2017Hundreds of Cuban nationals gathered in the streets of central Havana on Saturday to protest homophobia and demand the introduction of same-sex marriage.\n\nWaving the Cuban flag and rainbow banners, protesters chanted \"revolution yes, homophobia no\" as they marched down the seaside promenade of Malecon.\n\nMariela Castro, LGBT activist and daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro, joined the protesters, saying that a proposal to legalize same-sex marriage has been under discussion for years and could be introduced at the next Communist Party congress.\n\nMariela Castro, who heads the National Center for Sexual Education, said the government needed to do more for the LGBT community, given its history of persecution.\n\nFrom the 1959 revolution that marked the country's seismic transformation to a communist nation through to the early 1980s, gays and lesbians were considered deviants, routinely rounded up and forced to work in labor camps.\n\n**'Most important thing'**\n\nThe demonstration also marked the 10th anniversary of the Cuban Conference against Homophobia and Transphobia, which has pushed the government to officially recognize the LGBT community and secure its rights.\n\nFrancisco Rodriguez, LGBT activist and journalist at the state-owned newspaper Trabajadores, said while several issues still needed to be addressed, progress had been made over the past decade.\n\n\"Perhaps the most important thing that has been achieved in these 10 years is to make the public aware of the issue, and also to ensure that it is no longer politically correct in Cuba to be homophobic or transphobic,\" Rodriguez said.\n\nIn 2010, former Cuban President Fidel Castro, who led the country's revolution, described the repression of the LGBT community under his watch as a \"great injustice.\"\n\nls/cmk (EFE, dpa)" + }, + { + "title": "No more Cuban rafters, Coast Guard says - 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