Friday, July 10, 2009

Cuba con Leche

A native of Miami, Florida, Garcia has been an artist since he first began to draw on a daily basis at the age of 9. During his teen years, Garcia discovered a strong connection to the mind and images of the Spanish master of surrealism, Salvador Dali. Obsessed with the incredible images and the technique of the master, Garcia had found his direction in art. He soon enrolled at the Art Institute of Miami under the direction of artist Elwin Porter, and began to develop his natural ability to draw. Cuba con Leche™ is a continuing series of paintings which pays homage to Rick Garcia's Cuban roots. In each painting, he combines wild, vivid images of Cuba with the beauty of the language. The images draw from the past and the present, combining old with the new to create what he likes to call "modern nostalgia". You can see the entire collection and find out more about Cuba con Leche™ at: www.cubaconleche.com

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Countdown to a long journey home


We finally received the good news about our visas for traveling to Cuba the other day. They are in the mail to us and our flights are booked to follow Victor's journey back home after more that 40 year.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Santa Fe's oldest Restaurant & Cantina


El Farol, the coolest place for great food and hot music, home of Victor's Savor band every Friday evening. “El Farol has one of the best bars on earth!” New York Times, Dec, 2005
Do not miss an evening at El Farol when you visit Santa Fe.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

The local grocery store


Food in Cuba is not easy to find, and when you find it the selection is dimm.
Cuban cuisine has been influenced by Spanish, French, African, Arabic, Chinese, and Portuguese cultures. Traditional Cuban cooking is primarily peasant cuisine that has little concern with measurements, order and timing. Most of the food is sauteed or slow-cooked over a low flame. Very little is deep-fried and there are no heavy or creamy sauces. Most Cuban cooking relies on a few basic spices, such as garlic, cumin, oregano, and bay laurel leaves. Many dishes use a sofrito as their basis. The sofrito consists of onion, green pepper, garlic, oregano, and ground pepper quick-fried in olive oil. The sofrito is what gives the food its flavor. It is used when cooking black beans, stews, many meat dishes, and tomato-based sauces. Meats and poultry are usually marinated in citrus juices, such as lime or sour orange juices, and then roasted over low heat until the meat is tender and literally falling off the bone. Another common staple to the Cuban diet are root vegetables such as yuca, malanga, and boniato, which are found in most Latin markets. These vegetables are flavored with a marinade, called mojo, which includes hot olive oil, lemon juice, sliced raw onions, garlic, cumin, and little water.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Hutton Broadcasting



Listen to the interview with DJ Honey Harris, recorded live on Friday June 25th: listen

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Going Home


The Albuquerque Journal North published a front page story about Victor Alvarez, Savor and the film project. The article can be downloaded here: Going Home

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

La Bodeguita del Medio


This was not only Ernest Hemingway's hangout, but also Victor's daycare center, school and second home. From the musicians playing at the bar, Victor learned the tricks of playing guitar and drinking rum at an early age.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

First-Hand Aid


In September 1999, Robert Cacicedo and Marc Bohland met a young Cuban physician in their work at Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Dr. Eddie Marcial had escaped from Cuba with two other physicians — both of whom, sadly, drowned crossing the straits of Florida in inner tubes. Dr. Marcial was rescued and continues to practice medicine in the U.S.

Bob and Marc later agreed to travel to Cuba on Dr. Marcial's behalf to bring supplies to his family in Havana. That first trip was the genesis of First-Hand Aid. Their exposure to the extreme need for medical necessities was overwhelming and motivating.

From very modest initial efforts to make more trips, bring more medical supplies, involve more travelers, and connect with more people in Havana, First-Hand Aid has now grown into a well-organized effort to bring directly and personally delivered aid to the people of Cuba. Free of any political agenda, First-Hand Aid is now licensed for our trips by the U. S. Treasury Department and the U. S. Commerce Department. Volunteer travelers serve as human vehicles for transporting medical supplies and aid, and deep relationships are formed.

LIves are being transformed in Cuba with each trip... thanks to a trip made on an inner tube by a courageous doctor.
http://firsthandaid.org/

Cuban Street People



Sunday, June 7, 2009

Havana as seen from inside a Lada



Tell friends you have just been to Cuba, and depending on the circles in which you travel, you may be rewarded with a lot of envy. Cuba is hot, and we're not talking about the tropical weather.

The old cars still on Cuban streets decades after they disappeared into junkyards elsewhere intrigue and delight some. Curiosity about a neighboring country that is the final American Cold War adversary certainly sparks interest.

Forbidden fruit is another factor. Because of restrictions imposed by the U.S. government, Americans are not free to travel to Cuba as they are to nearly any other country in the world. You must fit into narrow categories to legally qualify and receive a Cuba travel license from the U.S. Treasury Department.

The only direct air service between the United States and Cuba involves charter airline flights that whisk you from Miami to Havana in 45 minutes. That is how 26 other Americans and I, our Treasury Department licenses tucked into our hand luggage, recently made the trip on a humanitarian mission.

In as long as it takes to fly from Milwaukee to Chicago, we were on the ground in Havana after an overnight stay in Miami, and quickly thrust into a country and society that confirmed some of our preconceptions and exploded others.

The biggest false myth is that Cuba, the Caribbean's largest island, has been frozen in time since the Castro brothers assumed control of the government on New Year's Day 1959. It's in a time warp, with street life looking like old movies from the 1950s and '60s, a surprising number of writers and travel industry folks will tell you.

Wrong. Just as many of those old cars have Russian diesel or Japanese replacement engines in them, Cuba's quaint vintage look is not much more than skin-deep.

The interiors of two big hotels built in the '50s, the Habana Libre and the Riviera, do appear to be forlornly stuck in time. The Libre opened as the Havana Hilton in 1958, and when dictator Fulgencio Batista fled the island later that year, the Castro-led revolutionaries moved in to make it their headquarters.

Very little appears to have changed in the intervening 50 years. Photos on the lobby walls show the olive green-clad fighters lounging on the furniture, documenting the lack of a decorating update.

The Riviera, built by American mobster Meyer Lansky in '57, epitomized the Mafia influence on the island, and its lobby and adjoining outdoor swimming pool have a retro appearance and feel that is cooler than the Habana Libre's. Lobby wall photos chronicle the old entertainers who once performed at or stayed in the hotel. The casino closed with the arrival of the Castros, and the cabaret space appears to have changed little.

But Havana also boasts new upscale hotels, including a series of beautifully appointed boutique lodgings that are being opened on the narrow streets of the old city.

New cars, including vans and some sport utility vehicles, are on the road, with Hyundai appearing to have captured the largest share of the market. New articulated buses built in China cruise through Havana, providing public transportation.

The old cars are easily divided into two categories. Probably half of them are boxy and tinny Russian-made Ladas, a vestige of the Soviet Union's close relationship with Cuba for more than 30 years. Ugly when they rolled off the assembly line, they are now rolling and rusting eyesores.

But the flip side of the coin is the incredible array of pre-revolution vehicles dating back to World War II that continue to provide transportation on the island. Most are American-made, with a preference for flashy fins, but ancient European cars are also still in use.

The oldies can be seen in all degrees of disrepair and restoration. Some are on the road for purely utilitarian purposes; others are clearly being maintained with car-collector loving care. A brand of taxis exclusively features well-restored old models, many of them convertibles.

Traffic watching on the curb of the Malecon, the busy thoroughfare running along the Havana seawall, provides some of the best entertainment on the island. And picture an Edsel loaded with people flying toward you on a divided four-lane highway in the country. You don't have to be a car buff to be tickled by that.

The U.S. may have a 47-year-old commercial and financial embargo against Cuba, but in today's shrunken world, nobody can impose a cultural embargo. Havana residents are current and fashionable in their appearance, right down to having the right tattoos in the right places. Move them and their wardrobes to any American city with a sizable Latin population, and they would fit in perfectly.

They follow American politics, have detailed knowledge of President Barack Obama and his background and are excited about the prospect of him improving relations with Cuba. Obama campaign buttons and T-shirts are prized possessions that can be openly worn.

Internet access is restricted by the government, but clandestine connections and email accounts are not unusual.

I traveled through the Soviet Union, including stops in some far-flung places, in the '70s, and I was eager to see if parallels existed between the two Communist countries that were close allies before the fall of the Iron Curtain. Political sloganeering on huge public banners and signs is common, as are giant portraits of Communist heroes.

My informal count has Che Guevara slightly ahead of Fidel Castro in Havana iconography. Interestingly, non-communist José Marti, the George Washington of Cuba who died fighting Spain for independence in 1895, also gets a lot of face time on posters, signs and sculpture.

Shortages of essential items, the bane of so many communist and some socialist countries, is a vexing problem in Cuba. Rice and beans are the dietary staples, and meat is a treat. Everyone gets a monthly ration book to parcel out things such as bread and sugar.

Farmers markets that resemble those in Milwaukee supplement the diets of people with the cash to buy bunches of fat carrots, heavy watermelons and red meat hanging from hooks. An entire pig carcass was being pushed in a wheelbarrow toward a market in a residential section of Havana on the Saturday morning we visited.

The Cuban health system, free to all citizens, has so many physicians that the island exports them to other countries. But when your doctor gives you a prescription, the state-owned pharmacy may not be able to fill it. I brought a large suitcase filled with prescription drug samples and disposable syringes for a free pharmacy that the Havana Jewish community opens to the public two days a week.

Foreign newspapers were impossible to find in Havana's international hotels, and although tourists can watch CNN, ESPN and European television channels in their rooms, Cubans don't have that access.

Fidel Castro's high priority on eliminating illiteracy has yielded a well-educated population, but a paradoxical economy does not always reward high skills and abilities. A hotel bellman may be an engineer who has found he can make more money carrying luggage.

Housing is in extremely short supply. Newly married couples must move in with parents, usually the wife's. The divorce rate is alarmingly high.

Cubans sympathetic to the revolution blame the economic problems on the American embargo.

As challenging as everyday life may be, the clenched-jaw grimness on Russian faces during the Soviet era is nowhere to be seen in Cuba. The dull drabness of the Soviet existence is visible only in the monolithic concrete architecture of buildings erected while the Russians were on the island.

Warm smiles, laughter, kids playing stickball in the front yard and music - so much music - fill the streets of Havana. These are not desperate people.

A 30-something woman with a rambunctious 5-year-old son she called "Denny the Menace" explained. "We have hopes, we have dreams, but we know how to be happy with what we have."

By Damien Jaques of the Journal Sentinel

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Barber is in the house

Do you have a electric shaver? If you answered YES, just do what this guy did in Habana Vieja, open the door, put down a stool and start cutting.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Havana Noir

To most outsiders, Havana is a tropical sin city: a Roman ruin of sex and noise, a parallel universe familiar but exotic, and embargoed enough to serve as a release valve for whatever desire or pulse has been repressed or denied. Habaneros know that this is neither new--long before Havana collapsed during the Revolution's Special Period, all the way back to colonial times, it had already been the destination of choice for foreigners who wanted to indulge in what was otherwise forbidden to them--nor particularly true. Get the book at Amazon

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Follow the drums


Walking around Havana is an inspiration to all senses. You can hear music from every corner and many open doors and windows. And if you are lucky and follow the drumming like I did, you can come across a Santeria celebration, get invited and feel Cuba.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Springtime in Havana

Just returned from a humanitarian mission to Havana with my friend and guide Marc, made me realize how much we complain about everything and nothing. Our Cuban friends seem to manage their lives despite the embargo but are full of hope and good spirit.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

View from the inside


Many cars in Havana are leftovers from the Russians. These "Ladas" are sometimes more than 25 years old and it shows. Since gas is expensive, most drivers shift into neutral the moment the street goes downhill. All you have to do is pray that he can shift back into gear....

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Bailout?

The Cuban car industry needs no bailout, this driver just bailed out to.... If this car needs anything, how about tires, windows, tail lights and maybe a front section.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Saturday, May 2, 2009

I can see my house from here?

At one point Victor Alvarez lived right next to the famous Bodeguita del Medio. Without a doubt, this is one of the most famous Cuban restaurants in the world, not only because it is an obligatory stop-off for all artists and writers who visit Havana, but also because Ernest Hemingway was a regular, at the Bodeguita del Medio, at Calle Empedrado, enjoying his mojitos. Legend has it that Victor was also introduced to Cuban ron....

Friday, May 1, 2009

Drive to Havana?

Cuba has banned passenger flights until midnight 1 May although it has made an exception if the airline is planning to only transport Mexicans wishing to leave Cuba and return home. Should we drive?

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Guayaberas



The origin of the name Guayabera may come from a Cuban legend that tells of a poor countryside seamstress sewing large pockets into her husband's shirts for carrying guava (guayabas) from the field. Guayaberamay also have originated from the word yayabero, the word for a person who lived near the Yayabo River in Cuba.

Today, they come in different colors, and are sometimes worn inside the pants. An original Guayabara is white like an innocent young girl!

Juan Lopez

Here is one of the few Havana brands which is offered only in handmade styles, started in 1876 by Juan Lopez Diaz. The range of sizes is limited, but the workmanship is first-rate and the flavor is considered to be medium to strong, with light and almost aromatic overtones. A sampling of this cigar may develop into a long term love for it.
I had the pleasure smoking a couple of them last week with a friend and need to get more, soon....

Saturday, April 25, 2009

It's not the camera, but who's behind the camera

Tony Gaye – An award winning photographer, his work is found in many permanent collections, including the prestigious International Museum of Photography at The George Eastman House in Rochester, NY, and Graphis in Zurich.

Tony was the first studio photographer to introduce high-resolution digital photography to the Philadelphia market in 1991. A Vietnam veteran and musician, he holds an MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology and is a member of the faculty at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. A specialist in commercial and location photography.

His hundreds of clients have included Martin Guitars, Winterthur Museum, Hewlett Packard, Anheuser Busch, Johnson & Johnson, Campbell Soup, Coca Cola, Crayola, Glaxo Smith Kline, Hershey, McDonalds, Panasonic and Sunoco. He is currently shooting on the PBS Production, "The Soundtrack Of Our Lives", the history of recorded music, that is scheduled to air in the Fall season 2010.

Tony is working on a multimedia book about Savor, and Cuban Harely riders called Harlistas, due this fall.

Tony has lived and worked on five continents. www.tonygaye.com

Friday, April 24, 2009

The Mulimedia Book

One among thousands
This large format book concept will combine stunning and emotional photography with music recorded live as the photos were taken. The book will give you the feeling of being right there in Havana, on street corners, in bodegas, performing live with who ever wants to join in with Victor Alvarez. The book is an emotional journey back to Cuba with a sensuous experience for your eyes and ears as never experienced before. Book chapters will correspond with audio tracks on the CDs to guide you through the streets of Havana.

Tracey Eaton - will be the writer on the multimedia project. Tracey was Havana bureau chief for The Dallas Morning News from 2000 to early 2005. A journalist for 25 years, he has covered guerrilla uprisings, presidential elections, riots, war, hurricanes and volcanic eruptions. He has written about everything from the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Pope in Israel to surfers in Brazil and snakes popping out of toilets in Florida. He has wide experience in Latin America. He was metropolitan editor for the Houston Chronicle before joining Flagler College as an instructor in 2007. Eaton holds a master’s degree in journalism from Temple University. He was a Fulbright scholar in Ecuador. He has conducted journalism workshops in Central America and has been an invited speaker at conferences in the U.S., Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica and Cuba. Eaton has been a staff writer at seven newspapers, including the Miami Herald, Tampa Tribune and Orange County Register. His work has appeared in more than 60 U.S. and Canadian newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Daily News, USA Today and Denver Post. He blogs when he should be mowing the lawn. http://alongthemalecon.blogspot.com/

Sunday, April 19, 2009

The evil eye

"Regla de Ocha", commonly known as Santeria, is a religion widely practised in Cuba. Santeria is the result of the meeting of the cults coming mainly from Nigeria, Africa, and catholic religion; after their deportation in the New World, the slaves continued to profess their cults, hiding their gods behind the appearances of the catholic saints, and mixing their rituals with the ones of the religion brought by their dominators. Santeria, is practiced mainly in the houses of the followers; there, rites of sacrifice and of initiations, "rogacion de cabeza", "limpiezas" and feasts, known as "rites of possession", dedicated to the deities are performed; the feasts culminate with the "possession of some of the followers" by the deities, which, in this way, show themselves to the believers. 

Havana Cafe

Barbarito Torres has found a place among the finest folkloric musicians the island has to offer.
A master of the Cuban lute-like instrument called the laud, close to a mandolin, he was part of the Buena Vista Social Club. He presents the rich string tradition that exists inside Cuban music scene. On tour outside Cuba, Barbarito and Victor met in Santa Fe and became friends. Victor hopes to meet up with him during filming in Havana.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

¡Viva Street Music¡

“It’s a naturally happy place, and people are generally joyous there,” Havana-born Víctor Alvarez, Savor’s bandleader, says. “The island is such a paradise, with the sea, the flowers. Music in Cuba is in the streets.”Hearing Savor play is like being handed a gift. This is traditional Cuban music, straight from Havana’s fabled streets.
Alvarez’ mother taught him much of what he knows about music, but he was also educated by his childhood neighborhood. It helped that he lived two doors down from the legendary La Bodeguita del Medio, where well-known musicians were known to mingle with the likes of a guy named Ernest Hemingway. Inevitably, the musicians would pick up their instruments.
“They’d sit and play and I’d go down there and listen from the outside, memorizing the songs and ripping off their licks,” Alvarez says. “A lot of the licks I play today are from those days, from listening to those musicians.” Continue

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Festival del Cine Pobre de Humberto Solás

In a city by the sea, you're lured out of the spring sunshine and into a darkened cinema - but, no, you're not in Hollywood or Cannes. Don't expect to find any gala dinners or five-star hotels. No actors, directors, producers, distributors, promoters or sponsors are getting rich off the movie business. All the films showing here in Gibara were made for less (usually much less) than 300,000 dollars, and their value is not intrinsic to their potential to generate ticket sales or celebrity product endorsements.The Gibara film festival is dedicated to movies made against seemingly overwhelming odds. What's different this time around is that the odds have turned against the festival itself.

Bassist 'Cachaíto' López dies at 76

Buena Vista Social club member Orlando López died in a Havana hospital of complications from prostate surgery. The López family is a veritable musical dynasty whose specialty is the bass—any kind of bass, upright or acoustic, classical or pop or jazz. Cachaito’s father and uncle, Orestes and Israel (a.k.a. Cachaito, who earned international fame with a couple of amazing recordings in the early 90s), learned their craft from their father, don Pedro.

Friday, April 10, 2009

The Film

One among thousands is a sixty-minute HD documentary of the long journey of Victor Alvarez, a gifted cuban musician who left Havana at the age of 13. Fifty years later, Victor returns home, now an outsider, to experience his old world of cuban street music.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

The Cuban All Stars

Juan De Marcos Gonzales and his Afro-Cuban All Stars stopped in Santa Fe at the Lensic for a sold out concert. Juan De Marcos Gonzales, the unsung hero, arranger and co-founder of the "Buena Vista Social Club" and former leader of Cubas's premier son band SIERRA MAESTRA later hooked up with Victor and Stuart Ashman, Secretary New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.