It seems that a day cannot go by without an article in the MSM declaring that “Cuba is opening up to the world.” There’s a lot of tricky logic going in such statements, and this past Sunday’s Concert for Peace without Borders organized by Colombian pop star Juanes can help us to reflect on this a bit, and also to act to change United States restrictions on travel by Americans to Cuba.

For some time now, when in Cuba, and especially in Havana, people talked about “The Concert,” it was understood to be the one that took place at the Revolution Square, on Sunday, 20 September, under a blazing sun and before a gigantic audience of over one million people. Organized by the 38-year-old, 12-time Latin Grammy winner, Colombian singer Juan Esteban Aristizábal—better known as Juanes...

“I have 206 bones in my body, one head, two eyes that blink 25 thousand times a day. I have a tongue that is the most potent organ in my body. I have a heart that beats three thousand times a day, two kidneys that are worth a fortune, 96.500 kilometers of veins and arteries, two feet that could take me anywhere, 50 million cells, 100 billion neurons, but my bull is dead, what will become of me?” With these words, Marcelo

If you are in Havana over New Year, and are looking for the best party in town, then Toby Brocklehurst’s annual extravaganza is the place to be. While this does not come cheap at CUC 150 (US$ 162), we think that it is well worth the expense.

Havana, Cuba is the venue for the International Festival of new Latin American cinema in the Caribbean since 1979. Biarritz, France is another superb venue in Europe. It lies on the bay of Biscay ,on the Atlantic coast ,in south- western. It is a luxurious seaside town and is popular with tourists and surfers.

The Royal Ballet’s first ever trip to Cuba marked many milestones and ticked many boxes but above all it was a triumphant homecoming for the magnificent Carlos Acosta (the Cuban lorry drivers son now a star with the Royal Ballet in London) and a tribute to the legendary Alicia Alonso (iconic Cuban legend and current artistic director of the principal Cuban Ballet). Above all, perhaps it was simply a magnificent treat for the Cuban ballet aficionados.

Imagine yourself in front of a 16th-century fortress facing the Malecon in Old Havana, Cuba. The fortress occupies a vast expanse of land with a wall that extends the length of the fortress, surrounded by a deep moat, once legend to have been filled with crocodiles. The fortress is comprised of underground tunnels, old dungeons and hundreds of ancient cannons. It is rumored to have been built to resist pirates, buccaneers and corsairs. Every evening, since the 18th century, there is a symbolic firing of the cannons at 9pm.

Absent for several years from the big stages in Havana—its usual venue is the Favorito, a converted movie house with quite uncomfortable conditions for both audiences and dancers—the company founded and directed by dancer and choreographer Narciso Medina returned to the Mella Theatre with a program that included two new dances plus the piece that has been his trump card for more than two decades—Metamorfosis.

For approx a month now, a delightful herd of elephants and a strange plague of revolting insects have seemed to capture the interest of Habaneros. “I wonder where the elephants are today.” “Did you already see the roaches?”

Anyone who climbed around, crouched under, or peered above the herd of inflated metal elephants that made its way around Havana during the first week of the 2009 biennial is familiar with the work of Jose Emilio Fuentes Fonseca (also known as JEFF). His name was on the tip of the tongues of those who visited with the elephants—along with those who murmured about their gargantuan size or wondered just how they’d been ...

This week, this majestic dame of a city plays hostess to the 30th International Festival of New Latin American Cinema. Hundreds of film producers, actors and participants alike have flown in from across the globe, mostly from South and Central America, though there have been eminent European and American visitors here too, with names such as Mike Leigh and Benicio del Toro crowning the list of heavyweights who are familiar to Western audiences.

There were no Hollywood stars or attendant paparazzi. Hype, glamorous red carpet photo shoots and posh after-parties were also nowhere to be seen at the 5th International Cine Pobre Festival, in the eastern Cuban town of Gibara this past April. But don't take Cine 'Pobre' too literally—while even many Cubans may struggle to find this picturesque fishing village on a map, the International Low-Budget Film Festival has ...

During the first two weeks of December, a virulent plague takes hold of Havana. Immunisation is impossible and there’s no option but to surrender. The consolation is that there are so many fellow-sufferers with whom to compare notes on symptoms, cures and pulling extended sickies from work.

Blind but beady-eyed, beaky-nosed, old, imposing and profoundly glamorous, Alicia Alonso stands in a single spotlight at the front of the dress circle of the Gran Teatro de La Habana, bathed in waves of applause. Whenever she appears in the audience, everyone in the theatre—not least the prima ballerina assoluta herself—considers a standing ovation her due. The epitome of a Grand Dame, Miss Alonso holds the Ballet Nacional de Cuba in thrall.

Like all the best fishing stories, mine began in a bar. One evening in Havana, I was introduced to a man called Stewart, an affable commercial manager in a London building firm. It turned out he was part of the English team in this year's Hemingway fishing tournament. In fact he was the only Englishman on his boat, and he was taking on recruits.

Maybe someone was having a quiet joke. Perhaps it was a coincidence. But for one reason or another, Havana’s Karl Marx theatre was the setting for the inaugural night of celebrations in honor of that great capitalist prop, the hand-rolled cigar.

What have you got in your fridge, right now? Prosciutto, black olives, clotted cream, Parmesan, smoked salmon, strawberries, Dom Pérignon? A long-forgotten, green-furred can of something that ceased to be fit for human consumption decades ago, a bottle of vile-smelling solidified milk and some distressing-looking wizened objects, obviously organic but now unrecognisable? Your clothes? ...

Havana is music. From first thing in the morning till last thing at night it pours out of houses, bars and cafes, echoes down narrow alleys, reverberates from balconies, blares from radios, booms from cars and wafts round squares. “Where can we hear some real Cuban music?” incoming innocents ask their taxi driver as they head from the airport into the city. “Where can we not hear it?” might be a more appropriate enquiry.