After a huge success in Havana City, the Party of Letters spreads its wings to the rest of the Cuban provinces, taking as seats 34 cities of the country. The XIV International Fair of Book is one of the major cultural events of the island, it's a valuable gift for all, favorable appraised by Cuban people.

According to the organizers, more than half a million of people visited the Morro-Cabaña Fairground, exactly 638 869, while more than a million, 172 thousand books were sold, boasting a wide diversity of options and a high literary and cognitive level. The Cuban writers Nancy Morejón and Ángel Augier will be the honor luminaries for the next edition in 2006.

The XIV Fair of Book honored this time the National Prizes Abelardo Estorino and Jesús Orta Ruíz "El Indio Naborí", being Brazil the Honor Guest country. We are featuring here fragments from the interview made to Jesús Orta Ruiz , El Indio Naborí by journalist Ahmel Echevarría, published in La Jiribilla.

In an interview, narrator, critic, essayist and journalist Reynaldo González expressed: “Vocation is growing inside with us, conforming us, definitely appearing afterwards. Literature's path is hard, is demanding a complete devotion''. You discover the oral poetry first, the one that is improvised, to dig afterwards in the written one. How did Jesús Orta Ruiz discover this great universe that is Literature?

Your first question is coming from a trustable source, from a writer who I admire and respect. I'm agreeing with his viewpoint about the literary development and its permanent rigor. I was 18 years old when I presented my first book of poems to Juan Marinello and Mirta Aguirre. Both masters arrived to the same conclusion: ‘'There is poetry in your book. Keep on reading all the time. The rest will come alone''. As you can imagine, I never sleep before reading an interesting book since then.

Some people think that the improvised poetry is poetry without net. It's a real ‘'jump to the emptiness'' where, like a mattress, there's only the word under it. What could you say about this kidnap which we could call suicide?

I admit that in some improvisers, this ‘'fall into the emptiness'' is evident. But some others managed to avoid it because they're real poets boasting the gift of ‘'repentismo''. These latter artists have achieved an assault to the heaven, that's why is not fair the generalization of your concept.

There's a moment in your work when you decide to make another jump to the emptiness with the written poetry. How and why did you decide to try the written language also?

In one of my usual readings of The Master I found this wise advice: “Each emotion brings its metric''. These words took me to understand that poets must not limit their talent to a single verse, but achieving the complete domain of all of them, to feed the poem with the necessary tones. That's why I didn't sing to The Triumph of the Revolution in decima but in dactylic non-metric verses under a trisyllabic base, mixing the epic and the lyric.
It doesn't mean to abandon the decima, but leaving it for its tonal use.

The act of reading tends to sharp the creator's critic eye; it's just there where new topics appear to shape new works. You published researches about the Gaucho, Criolla and Siboney poetry, decima and folklore. What type of dialogue did you attempt to establish with writers in the island taking these essays as starting point?

It was not my goal; indeed, I just wanted to know more about myself in these philological studies. Decima came to me through oral tradition, being 12 years old I became interested in its origin.

Juan Marinello said: ‘'Cuban Decima is a treasure we have to refine''. In our memory are still present diverse Jornadas Cucalambeanas, Iberoamerican Festivals of Decima, essays and the opening of the Iberoamerican Center of Décima. Taking into account all this work focusing on Decima, can we state it is healthy and sheltered?

The triumph of the National Campaign of Alphabetization, ending in the universalization of culture, demolishing the barriers between the countryside and the city brought about the lexical and metaphoric wealth of our popular decimistas. Cucalambé Prize, conferred by Jornada Cucalambeana, has fueled the emergence of the Cuban Decimario with amazing contributions. This phenomenon is also present in the improvisers, although Repentismo – the feat of thinking and singing a decima in a minute- has sometimes the logical risk of falling into the emptiness.
The Iberoamerican Center of Décima and the improvised verse have contributed to enhance the knowledge of diverse popular repentistas about some other overseas places from Bravo River to La Patagonia, the Spanish Peninsula and Canarias Islands. Brilliant festivals of improvisation have been accomplished.

Raymon Carver said once that when all is said and done, words are the writer`s unique treasure.

See whole text in La Jiribilla.

"Chapeando"


The latest record of Van Van Orchestra under the title Chapeando is boasting interesting texts where the outstanding Cuban intellectuals Miguel Barnet and Rogelio Martínez Furé reflect on the importance of folklore within the national culture and the promotional role of this notable team headed by Juan Formell as one of the most popular musical bands of the island.

Words by Miguel Barnet
Again Juan Formell and his Van Van ‘'Chapeando'' the forest and clearing the bad herbs off the path.
Juan Formell with his ‘'garabato'' opening new courses for the Cuban music, escorted by Osain and the Ibeyis, Formell like an Elegguá inaugurating new scales, new tessitures, new tunes.
Brilliant, versatile and deep musician, he has known how to register the incidences and the fortunes of the Island and has been the best chronicler of his time; a convulsed and dramatic epoch to which he has given with his creative grace and accent of the happiness and humour.
The whole magic of the forest -the house of the Orishas- all its mystery and its power lives in Juan Formell`s work.
The Cubans and the rest of the world, but mainly the Cubans of this time, will always be in debt with the tribute that this extraordinary composer and interpreter has bequeathed to the music of Latin America.
Van Van will always go forward, heading the retinue of an Olympus that ceased to be ours, to be of all. And its creator, Juan Formell, faithful performer of the charm of Iroko, with his ‘'garabato'' and his machete will continue opening new roads singing and ‘'chapeando''.

Words by Rogelio Martínez Furé
Chapeando, always chapeando…!
Amidst Cuban`s music wild forest, Juan Formell and his Van Van straighten up like Iroko, king of Caribbean trees. Powerful Ceiba tree that plunges its roots in popular traditions and extends its branches to the four winds of the most renewing and fecundating rains.

Formellian creations are chronicles and testimonies of what Cubans have lived during the last four decades. Always ‘'Chapeando'' new routes in the musical world of the Greatest of the Antilles in a round spiral, These creations and the legitimate heirs to chants, rhythms and dances sprouted out from Afro Cuban town councils and slaves` living quarters; from ‘'bateyes'', tenements and annex, huts and halls of ostentations.

They are the Daughters of Father Tambor and Mother Guitar of flutes, piano and violin, of ‘'claves'', ‘'maracas'', ‘'guiros'' and cowbells. Music of Cuban and Universal roots, where tradition and contemporaneity merge; the classical-popular is renewed and the most current sonority acquires the noble patina of ancestral . It is an identity-founding music.
An old Cuban Lucumi chant praising Iroko, the original Ceiba tree goes:

Gbangban: firm it`s firm
Iroko: The sacred tree Iroko
Gbangban: Is firm

With the audacity of a ‘'chapeador Elegbá'' I dare to paraphrase the classical text and emply the homophony between Gbangban (be firm in Yorubá language) and Van Van (name of our admired band) to sing this praise:

Firm , they are firm.. Juan Formell and Van Van... The are firm

Firm in the heart of Cuban music, ‘'chapeando''

Always ‘'chapeando''new paths, renovating cross paths, under the shadow of powerful Iroko, king of Caribbean trees.
Any doubt about this?

Van Van /Iroko/ Gbangban

Cuban Music in Digital Media

In the past International Fair of Music MIDEM 2005, held in Cannes, France, January 22-27, Mr. Franco Donato in the name of the International Federation of Independent Phonographic Producers (F.I.P.I) acknowledged www.cubamusic.com , a side cultural project between the ARTEX`s SoyCubano Agency and the Italian Sangy srl Enterprise, as the 2005 Best Online Site of Music.

This project is aimed at promoting and commercializing the Cuban music in digital format (MP3), having a catalog with a large quantity of works coming from major Record Labels Bismusic, Colibrí, EGREM and Unicornio.

Mr. Luigi Barion, Chairman of the Italian Association of Phonographic Producers, Sra. Cary Diez from Cuban Institute of Music and Organizer Member of Cubadisco Fair, Rafael de la Osa, Manager of SoyCubano Agency and some other artists such as Augusto Enríquez and Edesio Alejandro attended the delivering ceremony.

The Prize is very rewarding and fuels the development of this project, making possible the international promotion of Cuban music and our culture in general within the new panorama of the music industry growth through digital media.

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Artículo

Lázaro Ros, King of Yorubá Chants, one of the major exponents of the African tradition brought to the island and outstanding personality from our national culture who was nominated in 2002 to Latin Grammy for his Shangó phonogram under Unicornio Label, is now transformed into a legend.

Its virtuosity, wisdom and pasion for the best of Art and Traditions, present along his wide artistic trajectory since the foundation of Conjunto Folclórico Nacional and his journey through important groups as Mezcla , Síntesis and Olorun founded by him in 1992, are present now as a legacy for all followers of folkloric chants.

The title of Doctor Honoris Causa in art was conferred to Raúl Corrales Fornos, National Prize of Plastic Arts in 1996. The Rectoral Resolution granting this outstanding distinction to this Master of photography was proposed due to his remarkable labor as chronicler of the Revolution, contributing with his talent to enhance the national cultural wealth along many decades. In the ceremony, pianist Chucho Valdés and his quartet delighted the public with the world debut of piece ‘'Toccata and Fuga''.

SoyCubano salutes the Great Vedette of Cuba, Rosita Fornés, who along her entire artistic career has approached the most diverse genres of song and performance. Her talent has embellished the zarzuela, opera, drama and comedy, settings of theatre, radio, television and movie, being also major artist in diverse spectacles in Cuba and other countries. Her life devoted to art has been acknowledged with diverse titles such as: First Vedette of Mexico, America, Cuba and Spain respectively; also the National Distinction for Culture, Félix Varela Order of First Grade, Alejo Carpentier Medal, National Prize of Theater, the category of Miembro Emérito from National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba and National Prize of Television.

Fernando Ortiz Foundation will celebrate its tenth anniversary in this 2005 with an outstanding work in the study and preservation of the Cuban identity values, the revelation of his mixed nature and the socialization of contemporary thoughts about diverse edges of the popular creation. Its president, poet and ethnologist Miguel Barnet, stated that this institution has fulfilled the diffusion and investigation of the scientific knowledge present in Don Fernando Ortiz's work.

The institution acknowledged with the International Prize Fernando Ortiz to the Spanish Academician Luis Beltrán Repetton for his contributions to the African studies and the North American choreographer and anthropologist Katherine Dunham, live legend of the dancing art; the Publishing House also featured at the XIV International Fair of Book, Norteamericanos en Cuba: un estudio etnográfico by José Vega, published via La Fuente Viva collection.