Buena Vista Social Club now on YouTube Movies

I just came across another movie about Cuba that you can check out for free at YouTube Movies: Buena Vista Social Club.

I haven't seen the film myself, but I'll be starting it right now. You can see it by clicking here.

Cuba: The Ireland of the Caribbean?

From Wired:

Clive Thompson on Cuba's Potential Tech Boom

By Clive Thompson

....

Cubans also have a hacker mindset. They've needed it to handle the constant privation. They keep 50-year-old cars running with cobbled-together parts. They cadge gray-market Internet access by making friends with local officials—among the anointed few the government allows online. When Soviet food supplies vanished, Cubans turned to urban gardening.

Click here for the whole story.

Alfredo Rodríguez finds success early

From Gibson.com

Cuban Piano Prodigy Takes U.S. by Storm

Gabriel J. Hernandez | 06.08.2009

Cuban piano sensation Alfredo Rodriguez had a feeling he could find success playing music in the United States. He just didn’t think it would happen so fast.

Born in Havana, the 23-year-old pianist had built a solid reputation as a special – and very gifted – player by the time he was in his early teens by playing and collaborating with some of today’s most celebrated Cuban artists, including Gaston Joya, Michael Olivera, and several musicians from the renowned Buena Vista Social Club.

Click here for the whole story.

In this clip, Rodríguez plays a new song called "Crossing the Border"

Tampa kids build bridges with common experience

From The St. Petersburg Times:

Tampa refugee children express their new lives

By Saundra Amrhein, Times Staff Writer

TAMPA — Lorenzo Diaz is 12. He lives in Tampa with his parents. When he left his native Cuba two years ago, he left behind his grandparents and his friends. He misses them. "And my house," Lorenzo says. Tuesday, he doted over a drawing on a poster board: the skylines of Miami and Havana, separated only by a thin patch of blue water. This artwork meant something to him. "We can be closer some day and be together," the boy explained.

Click here for the whole story

A Cuban school's class reunion... and their Yiddish alma mater

From The Miami Herald:

Havana Jewish school's class of 1959 reunites in Miami Beach

The Centro de Israelita de Cuba class of 1959, Havana's first and only Jewish school, held its 50th reunion in Miami Beach.

BY BRITTANY LEVINE AND LYNETTE ZILIO

blevine@MiamiHerald.com

''Our school is our pride . . . our Yiddish school should live eternally,'' sang the first graduating class of Havana's first and only Jewish high school. The year: 1959.

Fifty years later, they were singing the same song again -- only this time in Miami Beach.

Click here for the whole story.

Cuban Bloggers Unite!

An article from CubaEncuentro.com said hundreds of Cuban bloggers and web pages have agreed to come together to denounce the unjust practices of the Cuban government via their web portals. 

This date was supposed to be yesterday, June 1st. No word has come yet if these efforts have been accomplished. Please comment with any recent news. 

From CubaEncouentro.com:

Blogueros convocan a una movilización por las libertades en la Isla

Varios blogueros y páginas web cubanas han convocado a una movilización general en internet para el próximo lunes primero de junio, a favor de las libertades en la Isla, señala un comunicado de los organizadores.

Según la nota, hasta el momento se han sumado cientos de sitios con "el objetivo de concientizar a la opinión pública internacional sobre la realidad cubana, y presionar al régimen de La Habana".

Click here for the full story.

A Midwest editor gives dissident journalists their due

From the Columbia Missourian:

For jailing journalists, Cuba is the little island that can

Friday, May 29, 2009 | 12:01 a.m. CDT

BY Tom Warhover

Dear Reader,

Albert Santiago Du Bouchet Hernández has been convicted on charges of disrespect. Twice.

The first time, in 2005, he served a one-year sentence. On May 12 the director of the independent news agency Habana Press received another three years. He was not allowed a lawyer at the trial. His family couldn’t witness the conviction.

Click here for the whole story.

Fotingos

Normally, I just post stories directly related to Cuba. In this case, I made an exception — as cars from what many would call Detroit's "golden age" are as much icons in Cuba as they are in the U.S.

Anything to make a Cuba connection!

From the Los Angeles Times:

When cars were America's idols

By Dan Neil

If you were to walk up to a typical New York executive in the 1960s -- think Don Draper in AMC's "Mad Men" -- and tell him that General Motors Corp. would be in bankruptcy by 2009, he would have thought you were delusional, or perhaps a Communist.

Click here for the whole story

Moving toward a new kind of relationship

From The Washington Post:

Cuba Agrees to Resume Immigration Talks With U.S.

By Mary Beth Sheridan

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 1, 2009

SAN SALVADOR, May 31 -- Cuba has agreed to restart talks with the United States on immigration and has signaled its willingness to cooperate on issues including terrorism, drug trafficking and even mail service, a sign that the island's communist government is warming to President Obama's call for a new relationship after decades of tension, U.S. officials said Sunday.

Click here for the whole story.