2023-12-14 14:56:00
Culture is destined to never stop, no matter how many obstacles it finds in its path, and this year, although it was showered with setbacks, there was also good news, any of it worthy of “refreshing” in this annual summary.
It is fair, as always, to begin with the most important cultural event of all: the Book Fair, which was dedicated to two significant creators: the historian Reveca Figueredo and the writer Mireysi García Rojas.
Among the most notable moments of this event was the panel dedicated to the Nueva Trova Movement, the beginning of the tributes to the group Yawar and its director Rolando Méndez, with 50 and 70 years of life, respectively.
Also striking was the tribute paid to a significant group of deceased Artemiseño authors: Alberto Rodríguez Tosca, Carlos Jesús Cabrera, Paco Myfriend and Marilú Rodríguez Castañeda, a passionate, deeply sincere woman with a lifetime dedicated to writing and supporting young authors.
The Book Fair, along with other events such as El Jolgorio a Polo Montañez in Candelaria, the XXIII International Biennial of Humor in San Antonio, the In the Traces of Orígenes workshop in Bauta and the reopening of its municipal library, the provincial version of the University Festival of Books and Reading (FULL), nurtured a diverse cultural panorama, where there was no shortage of galas and tributes in keeping with the most important dates in the history of the province.
In the universe of visual arts, authors such as the caricaturist Brady Izquierdo stood out, with another significant sum of international awards, Denys San Jorge, winner of the XXXI Provincial Hall of Plastic Arts Eduardo Abela, with the work Between warp and weftand Oniel Rodríguez López with his second place in the Outdoor Quick Painting Contest, City of Lugo, in Spain.
Denys was the co-star, along with photographer Sonia Almaguer, of the acclaimed exhibition The Havana that they have given me, the Havana that I left youinaugurated at the Hotel Nacional and where important figures of local and international culture gathered to enjoy it, as well as at the Antonio Maceo Library, in Bauta.
Exhibitions like Palante in Bautadedicated to this historic humorous publication with 62 years of existence, enjoyed wide preference among the public of this municipality with a strong tradition in the visual arts.
From the Artemisa Uneac came the news that the writer Miguel Terry Valdespino had earned the Artemisa City Foundation Scholarship thanks to his book project Shadow of all fearswhich Miguel Ángel Ortega obtained with Spring the Rubén Martínez Villena Poetry Prize and Elena María Obregón the Sonnets Scholarship for the project The taste of silence.
Thanks to their fruitful work, 13 new Artemiseño creators obtained the right to be part of this organization: José Alberto Nápoles, Reveca Figueredo, Osvaldo de la Caridad Padrón, Daniel Suárez, Dimarys Águila, Reinier del Pino, Eric García, Raúl Solano, José Sisto López, Emilio Soto, Rolando Aguilar, Yaremis Verde and Jonnie Martínez Nieves.
In the midst of transformations to improve its structure and reason for being, the Uneac headquarters did not stop hosting various events, clubs, concerts and tributes throughout 2023, nor did it stop electing its Working Commission with a view to the next Congress of the organization.
A new management team came out of the provincial assembly of the Hermanos Saíz Association, headed by the musician Jorge Raymel Quiñones, replacing the one who gave him so much oxygen, the musician José Sisto López, both present as delegates at the IV Congress of this artistic association -youth, along with the dancer Dorys Cabrera, the vocalist Amanda Fernández Graverán and the promoter and vocalist Odelín Núñez Travieso.
The renowned narrator Olga Montes, for the second time, once again touched the sky of the Ciudad de Matanzas Foundation Award with her novel coffee womenalmost on the verge of becoming a soap opera, while the repentista Sergio Reyes returned from the Jornada Cucalambeana in Las Tunas with the Justo Vega National Repentismo Award.
The Arte Vivo Project, based in the Popular Council of Central Habana Libre, received the Neighborhood Award, the writer Enrique Garcés won the replica of the machete of Generalísimo Máximo Gómez, the poet Reinier Rodríguez reached third place in the Olivo Milenario-Oro poetry contest Líquido, in Spain, and two children from Mariela, Sofía Álvarez Cruz and Gabriel David González, were awarded by the World Hypertension League in the International Children’s Art Contest.
The fact that in several Artemis municipalities some variants of La Colmenita by Juan Carlos Cremata continued to be developed, a space where boys and girls grow spiritually and, both they and their parents, face the most difficult and beautiful challenges to realize any work on stage.
From Colombia to Cuba, and from Cuba to Colombia was the trajectory of a pair of theater masters and also members of Uneac: Dr. Miguel García Ordaz and the playwright Juan José Jordán. The first, as we are accustomed to, came to immerse himself in giving group workshops in various spaces in the province, while the second developed valuable literary promotion in the teaching and theatrical fields.
The III Danzapuentes International Event flew and sounded, with its main headquarters in Caimito and headed by Jonnie Martínez Nieves, director of the NC Dance company, and with the participation of NC and the companies Alma Mexicana and Esencia de México, capable of enchanting an audience that, for eight days, in theaters, parks and vulnerable neighborhoods did not stop following them for even a second.
The Artemisa Mestiza event, dedicated to the lute master Erdwin Vichot Blanco, also recognized with the Tropical Gypsy Distinction, in addition to a lot of music from the most renowned Cuban groups and soloists, gave away on behalf of the Aponte Commission, with the ethnologist and writer Miguel Barnet as a guest, a journey through everything that culturally represents the African and Cuban contribution to the national pentagram.
Miguel Barnet in the exhibition Los Tambores de Aponte
Laden with awards, the representatives of our province returned to the XXXIV National Radio Festival, held in Holguín, where it was announced that the young province of Artemisa will be the headquarters of the next Festival.
Directors Yusivan Lopez, Hernan Iglesias, Evelyn Gonzalez, Danielis Carmenate, Laura Maria Ortega, Gresimary Zamora and Mayda Ramon were responsible for nourishing this great crop of hits.
Months earlier, María Elena Luis, a curtida performer of Radio Ariguanabo, had walked out the big door at the theoretical event Caracol after winning the Cucumí Award, in the children’s category, for a novel version of Francisca and deathone of the most significant stories by maestro Onelio Jorge Cardoso.
The journalists also made themselves felt on the podiums thanks to Reinier del Pino, winner with his work Confessions of a literary Frankenstein in the VI Caridad Pineda National Time.news Contest in Memorial and Alejandro Lóriga with his National Rubén Martínez Villena Award from the AHS for his radio documentary Angerona: silence never againplus a mention in the hypermedia category in the national journalism contest July 26.
From the television program La Neurona Intranquila came the good news that an Artemis native, university professor Luis Enrique Domínguez, had taken the victory in its annual edition.
A truly memorable group from the Creole scene, Los Cuenteros, continued to deliver new projects and their art, without any distinction, both in spaces with better theatrical conditions and in the most diverse neighborhoods where our children reside.
Although it was regrettable the lack of spaces for literary promotion in municipalities such as Alquízar, where the literary talent of its avant-garde has been despised, in Artemisa, San Cristóbal, Caimito and Bauta in particular the contribution of its best writers has been encouraged, as as Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez has suggested.
When he still had a lot of creativity to give us, the Bautense painter and engraver Álvaro Pérez Medina passed away, an artist who knew how to find in the symbol of the fish a perfect messenger to bring his creative concerns to the public.
Almost miraculously, three creators from Bahiahonda, the troubadour William Montero, the poet Olga Lidia Oliva Peña and the narrator Javier Cruz, survived a tragic accident that did not prevent them, in less than a year, from returning again to the dreams of music and writing.
These achievements are part of what our creators have achieved in the past year. 2024 is already on the way. Surely the successes of our artists and writers will not stop, no matter how strong the wind of difficulties blows. Culture does not usually stop no matter how many winds it faces.
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