El Tumbao Cubano - El Blog de Cuba en el Exilio

Tropicana Nights

Join us for a reading by the author – Rosa Lowinger and Ofelia Fox.
Monday October 17, 2005 @ 7:00 PM at
The Half King= 505 W 23RD ST
NEW YORK, NY 10011
TEL: 212.462.4300

From Publishers Weekly
Tropicana opened in 1939 at Villa Mina, a six-acre suburban Havana estate with lush tropical gardens. It's still going strong, after a number of setbacks, not the least of which was Fidel Castro's squelching of nightlife and other social outlets. After Martin Fox took over in 1950, choreographer Roderico "Rodney" Neyra staged spectacular shows in the club's newly constructed Arcos de Cristal, parabolic concrete arches and glass walls soaring over an indoor stage. Headliners included Josephine Baker, Nat King Cole, Celia Cruz, Xavier Cugat and Carmen Miranda; and celebrity visitors ranged from Brando and Durante to Hemingway and Piaf. Tracing the evolution of this "paradise under the stars" against the backdrop of Cuban culture, politics in pre-Castro Cuba and mob connections, journalist Lowinger (Latina) interweaves the personal stories of Fox and his widow, playwright-teacher Ofelia Fox, who recalls, "It was a life set to music. What could be better?" The superb talents of Cuban music's Golden Age were resurrected in the Oscar-nominated film Buena Vista Social Club (1998), but Lowinger's scintillating chronicle offers an overview—not found in that film—of the florid, splashy era when "Cuba was an endless party, and Tropicana was its epicenter." Photos. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

From Booklist
Lowinger and Fox tell the story of Havana's notorious Tropicana nightclub, the template from which Las Vegas was made after the corrupt Batista regime collapsed, and the Tropicana was closed. In its day the Tropicana was a prime site for gambling, elegance, seeing and being seen--a resort of choice for international gangsters and jet-setters. Readers who enjoyed Anthony Haden-Guest's "biography" of Studio 54, The Last Party (1997), will enjoy comparing the differing modes of showmanship, decadence, and ostentation current in the Tropicana's 1950s heyday to those of 1970s New York's debauched disco scene. Fox married Tropicana owner Martin Fox in 1952 and helped him run it until 1962, when they decamped to Miami. She and Lowinger take pains to establish that the Tropicana was hardly a sleazy Mob hangout but rather a world-class entertainment venue that discriminating gangsters happened to enjoy frequenting. An excellent resource on Cuban popular culture, lavish entertainment, and everyday life just before and just after Castro, this is also an exciting and rewarding read. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Hemingway’s collection of Evans’ Cuba photos on exhibit in Boca

LINK  Published Sunday, September 11, 2005 1:00 am.  by By Jonathan Del Marcus.

“Ernest Hemingway and Walker Evans: Three Weeks in Cuba, 1933,” a nationally traveling photographic exhibition currently on display in the Boca Raton Museum of Art, displays 46 vintage black and white photographic prints by Walker Evans found among Ernest Hemingway’s possessions after his death.

This set of prints, having never been exhibited until recently, were images that Evans left with Hemingway in Cuba after the three weeks they spent together there. They chronicle the undercurrents of political unrest in the country as well as common Cuban families, children and social landscapes, according to materials provided by the museum.

Evans met Hemingway for the one and only time in Cuba in 1933 after having been sent there on assignment to take photographs for “The Crime of Cuba,” Carlton Beal’s book about Cuban dictator Gerardo Machado. Hemingway traveled to Cuba frequently while living in Key West, said Wendy Blazier, senior curator at the museum. ..

Review: Bebo Valdés - Bebo de Cuba

LINK   Posted by Robert Burke on September 03, 2005.

Far greater than the best Cuban cigar, Bebo Valdés is without a doubt in my mind, the finest export to ever leave Cuba. The now 86-year-old pianist and composer was a house bandleader in the 1930s and 1940s at the famous Tropicana Nightclub in Havana. He inspired bassist Israel “Cachao” Lopez, who would go on to develop a new musical style called Mambo. Bebo was/is probably the most critical element in the development of Afro-Cuban music and is credited for the Batanga rhythm. He left Cuba as the political climate became dire in 1960 and ended up in Sweden with no money or prospects, but his talent helped him make a living playing piano in hotel bars. In the year 2000 the Madrid-based director Fernando Trueba brought Bebo back from obscurity in the fantastic documentary film Calle 54, which includes Latin music greats like Tito Puente and Chico O'Farrill. It also featured the reunion of Bebo and his famous musician son Chucho Valdés who did not leave Cuba as Bebo did during Castro's revolution. Trueba introduced Bebo to Diego El Cigala, a talented Spanish Flamenco singer. The two collaborated on the 2003 disc “Lagrimas Negras", which ended up being a smashing critical and commercial success. It won two Latin Grammy’s and five Spanish Grammy's.

"Bebo de Cuba" is scheduled for a U.S. release of September 20th, although you can buy the import now. The album has been nominated for a Latin Grammy in the "Best Latin Jazz Album" category. Honestly, if this record doesn't win it would be a travesty. This is simply the best contemporary Cuban recording not only of the last year, but in my opinion, of all time. "Bebo de Cuba" contains two discs. The first, "Suite Cubana" includes a full big band and is a personal reflection on Bebo's homeland and life, while the second "El Solar de Bebo" is a free-form jam that includes a smaller number of incredible musicians who are free to solo over the perfect foundation that Bebo built. Both discs are a crystal clear triumph. Bebo's 85+ year-old fingers are as nimble as those 6 decades younger and his compositions are complex and beautiful masterpieces. The music was composed over the course of 5 years (between 1992 and 1997). And of course, you can certainly dance to many of them.= "Bebo de Cuba" is the kind of album you will never tire of. One I would be confident in calling "timeless". I don't just throw around 5 star reviews. In fact, this is the first 5 star review I have given in 2005. The 2 discs of music are enough to make this set worth 3 times its price, but much more is included. Every detail is absolutely first class. The packaging is a beautiful double foldout complete with a 52-page booklet and 23 minute DVD, which gives you behind-the-scenes insight into the recording sessions.

Even with embargo, Cuba Adds Mystique to Rum

LINK.
William M. Dowd.  Albany Times Union.  Jun. 2, 2005 12:00 AM.
The island nation of Cuba remains an enigma to most Americans.

Blocked off from the one-time Caribbean playground by a U.S. political and economic embargo that is nearly a half-century old, we're more familiar with its athletes, its cigars and rum, and the iconic face of Fidel Castro than any other aspects of Cuban culture.

St. Martin, Antigua and Puerto Rico have better resort facilities. Honduras produces cigars many aficionados say are just as good. And rum comes from so many places you may not think of Cuba first .= But that has not stopped producers of Cuban-"style" rum from building their latest consumer marketing plans around the legendary old mystique.

Grand Havana and Marti in particular are taking on the likes of such established brands as Bacardi and Captain Morgan (Puerto Rico), Angostura (Trinidad), Myers's (Jamaica), Gosling's (Bermuda), Demerara (Guyana), Pyrat (Anguilla), Cruzan (Virgin Islands), Malibu and Mt. Gay (Barbados), Montecristo (Guatemala) and numerous others.

Since rum is made from molasses, a derivative of sugar cane juice, it usually is produced in sugar-growing countries. However, respectable brands also come from such non-Latin American countries as Australia (Inner Circle, Bundaberg), Canada (Lamb's), France (Rhum Chauvet) and Nigeria (Rhum Nigeria)

Grand Havana has a strong, legitimate Cuban link. Although it is being made on the Caribbean isle of Grenada by Cuban-Americans from Miami, they are descendants of Don Tirso Arregui, a Cuban businessman whose rum distillery operated on the outskirts of Havana in the late 1800s. The Arregui family, who fled to the U.S. after Castro came to power, set out to create small-batch offerings under the Grand Havana name...

The Old House They Have to See

LINK
Visitors to Ernest Hemingway's former home near Havana were shocked to see it in such disrepair. Cubans and Americans are trying to restore the house.

HAVANA - Tropical fruit trees and manicured gardens greet visitors driving through Ernest Hemingway's sprawling estate on the outskirts of Havana, but the wooden home where the famed American novelist lived more than 20 years is falling apart.

Scaffolding covers the molding house, where much of the furniture has been removed due to moisture damage and to make room for restoration work. Americans in Havana for a forum on the late writer this week were surprised at the sight.

''It's not like what you see in the photographs,'' University of Pennsylvania professor Paul Hendrickson said as he peered through the windows of Hemingway's study, where a leopard skin still stretched across a couch but several other items were covered with plastic tarps. ``This is really in a more fragile state than I had guessed.''

Erosion, tropical humidity and botched repairs are threatening the house where Hemingway spent some of his happiest years and wrote the prize-winning classic The Old Man and the Sea. The hacienda that has served as a cultural bridge for Cubans and Americans has also fallen victim to politics...

To find tribute to Celia, follow the salsa sounds

LINK.   BY LYDIA MARTIN.
WASHINGTON - Celia Cruz is making a ruckus at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History -- and not everybody is doing a little rumba about it.
Whether you're checking out the walking cane Ben Franklin bequeathed to George Washington or you're wondering why you always thought Fonzie's leather jacket was black when it's actually brown or when you're on a different floor of the museum strolling through Julia Child's kitchen, you can hear that thunderous voice:
''Quimbara cumbara cumba quimbamba!'' -- the Spanish scat from one of Celia Cruz's biggest hits...

Dirty Blonde and Half Cuban

Dirty Blonde and Half Cuban, a novel by Lisa Wixon based on her “Havana Honey” series published on Salon.com, narrates a comic/tragic story of a young woman in search of her Cuban roots, only to find herself forced into the world of “jineteras,” or educated women who become prostitutes in order to survive.

In many ways the novel fails in its exaggerated portrayal of Cuba as a giant brothel. By the end, we realize that the novel is less about Alysia finding her father as it is about a woman finding herself.  (NY Post)

Art Deco Group Debating Whether to Hold World Congress in Cuba

Story             BY CASEY WOODS.
An international network of Art Deco design enthusiasts that has roots in Miami is grappling with another South Florida obsession: the bitter, seemingly endless, battle over how to deal with Cuba.

Members of the International Coalition of Art Deco Societies, a loose association of groups dedicated to preserving the streamlined architectural style, are locked in a battle over whether to hold the group's 2007 World Congress on Art Deco in the island nation.

Those who support the notion say that politics shouldn't thwart efforts to save the country's imperiled architecture. Others say it would be morally wrong to go and, for members from the United States, almost certainly illegal.

In recent weeks, the conflict has exploded into a hostile volley of e-mails -- one of which alleged that an ICADS member was accepting handouts from the Cuban government in exchange for striving to ''deliver'' the convocation. The accused member has threatened legal action in response.

The rancor has astonished members on both sides of the divide. Many wonder if their once-genteel organization, which has hundreds of members in countries as far away as New Zealand and Australia, is forever changed.

''It's been a mean two years, and I've never experienced anything like this in my 50 years doing volunteer work,'' said Rex Ball, the president of the Tulsa Art Deco Society, who has held the ICADS leadership post since 2003. ``Before, the organization was such a pleasant social comrades kind of thing, and I certainly hope this won't split it for good.''...

Below the Surface

Daydreams of Havana, and Other Cities, Too.
May 19, 2005.  By AMEI WALLACH

Walking the dilapidated streets of Havana, the Cuban artist Carlos Garaicoa imagined an alternative universe. He pondered the Art Deco facades behind which dogs prowled debris-strewn lots and the disintegrating columns that supported nothing but sky. In 1993 he began transforming those ruins into artworks that seem as evocative as the city itself.

He would pretend to prop up a building's walls with wooden beams and then photograph the results. On another photograph of a crumbling site he would superimpose absurd drawings or the outlines of utopian architectural structures. In 1996 he took his obsessions with cityscapes on the road, in an exhibition at the Art in General gallery in Manhattan that explored the relationship between Havana and New York. Several of the works featured an object photographed on the streets of both cities. Another juxtaposed a photograph of a young Cuban in Havana who literally wore his urban dream on his arm in the form of a tattoo of the World Trade Center towers with a photograph of the actual towers.

A growing number of artists around the world have begun looking at their city's streets as metaphors for politics, culture and history. Mr. Garaicoa's tragicomic view of Havana travels particularly well. At 37, he is a rising star of international art fairs who has translated his urban excavations into riffs not just on Havana but on cities as disparate as Moscow and Los Angeles...

Images

Beer Cans Bridge the Gap Between Global Pop Art and Cuban Kitsch

ART REVIEW
By KEN JOHNSON.  Published: April 20, 2005, Wednesday.

If globalism alters the landscape of contemporary art the way some people think it will, more and more artists in far-flung places will be learning to bridge the gap between their own cultures and the international art world.

Alberto Casado, a young Cuban artist who just might be on the threshold of an international career, is an intriguing example. His beautiful imitation folk-art paintings on glass were included in the 2003 Istanbul Biennial, and now Art in General, the alternative nonprofit gallery in Lower Manahattan, is presenting ''Alberto Casado: Todo Clandestino, Todo Popular,'' his second solo exhibition and his first in New York...