In Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth he tells us that the first lessons he received about British customs on arriving in London were: Do not touch others’ possessions, do not ask questions from persons we have just met, do not speak too loudly, and never address gentlemen saying “sir” while talking with them, like in India, because only the servants and subordinates use that form of address.
During the Book Fair, held August 16-21, the Cuban writer was named Corresponding Member of the Panamanian Academy of the Language.
The Panamanian newspaper La Estrella described Leonardo Padura as a “rock star” of the 12th International Book Fair of Panama 2016, which on this occasion was attended by authors from 16 countries, in addition to the representation of the guest country, the United States.
Perhaps the strengthening of cultural ties between Cuba and the United States will make it possible to appreciate on the island the work of this singular and authentic musical creator whose compositions are as enigmatic and universal as well as very Cuban.
Aurelio de la Vega can be considered an almost happy man. Not many artists can celebrate nine decades of useful existence. In his Californian home, together with his wife, the also musician Anne Marie Ketchum, he can collect recognitions from institutions, essays about his work written by prestigious authors and a wide-ranging list of records, to feel that his long life has not been in vain. However, together with those triumphs there is always a dull sorrow: in the country where he was born he is practically a stranger, even among his composer colleagues. For almost half a century his work was not played live, or broadcast on the radio’s cultural spaces, the island’s music history books ignored him. Less than 10 years ago his name started coming up in some concert programmes and some records even got to the CMBF radio station. But the authentic “thawing” of his work has not advanced too much.
A joke, which is already several decades old, says that in Cuba there are only three problems: breakfast, lunch and dinner, as if food were the only daily anguish. Transportation is also a long-time headache in the morning, afternoon and evening, as stressing as the power cuts and the fear that they could return, as if they were dark swallows.
