Cuba Ireland

Irish President Michael Higgins receives President Díaz-Canel

Irish President Michael Higgins receives President Díaz-Canel
The President of Ireland, Michael Higgins rtoday received the President of te Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez

Author: Digital news staff | informacion@granma.cu
october 21, 2019 10:10:01

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Photo: twitter.com@Presidencia Cuba
The official welcome ceremony for the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, was held this morning in Áras an Uachtaráin, official residence of the President of Ireland, located in Phoenix Park, north of the capital.

During the ceremony, Cuba’s national anthem was heard, and Díaz-Canel spoke with children there, mentioning the existence in Cuba of a street that bears the name of an Irishman, and a plaque that was visited by their President reading: “Two island towns in the same sea of struggle and hopes.”

According to the Cuban President’s Twitter account, the reception featured several highlights, including the planting of an oak tree, a traditional Irish symbol of friendship.Díaz-Canel expressed his gratitude, saying, “Thank you very much for the warm welcome, the attention given during my stay and for the frank discussion we just held…

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Photo:Presidencia Cuba
“Peace and independence have been precisely the principles that have guided the Cuban revolutionary process since 1868 and are still the principles we defend today.” he added.

“It is these principles which unite us to Ireland, a friendly people who, like Cuba, have been obliged to fight for their sovereignty.“We return to the green and patriotic Ireland, that of Che’s ancestors, the one that accompanied Felix Varela, the one described by Martí, the one that generated Fidel’s admiration.

“Let us toast today for peace and independence, for friendship between the peoples of Cuba and Ireland, so that we may always continue in the same sea of ​​struggle and hope,” he said.

Cuban ballerina Alicia Alonso dies

World famous Cuban ballerina Alicia Alonso dies

World famous Cuban ballerina Alicia Alonso dies
Cuba’s most internationally acclaimed ballerina, Alicia Alonso, passed away today at the age of 98, the National Ballet of Cuba (BNC) announced
Author: Prensa Latina (PL) | informacion@granma.cu
october 17, 2019 17:10:54f0025733

 

 

 

 

 

The legendary dancer, founder and director of the BNC, also participated in the founding of the American Ballet Theatre, in the early 20th century.
Alonso’s talent was legendary, offering technical and interpretative virtuosity in classical works, while her resolve to continue dancing despite her progressive loss of vision and will to remain active on the stage until a very advanced age was widely admired.

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The prima ballerina assoluta directed the BNC and staged shows until her death, as well as the International Ballet Festival of Havana.
“Art can contribute to understanding and dialogue between peoples as it shows some of the highest and purest coincidences among all human beings,” she once told Prensa Latina.
The Cuban ballet school founded by Alicia, Fernando and Alberto Alonso is unique in the Americas and one of the six recognized in the world.
The BNC created by the three of them in 1948, was distinguished by the Cuban government last year as Cultural Patrimony of the Nation
Alicia served as a model for maestro Fernando when he wrote the methodological bases of the Cuban school and starred in many of Alberto’s choreographies, the first great defender of national identity in the choreographic field.
Con profundo dolor los escritores y artistas cubanos despedimos a la gran Alicia Alonso. Miembro de Honor de la UNEAC, a Alicia la recordaremos siempre muy cercana a nuestra organización.

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Alonso was awarded Cuba’s National Dance Prize, Spain’s Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts, and the ALBA Prize for the Arts, awarded to recognized personalities of the continent.
In 2000, the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba granted Alonso the highest decoration of the island, the Jose Marti Order and, in 2015, the same body decided to add her name to Havana’s Grand Theater.
Precisely in the foyer of the Alicia Alonso Grand Theater of Havana stands a bronze statue of the artist dancing her favorite classic, Giselle.
In 2003, the then president of France, Jacques Chirac, presented Alicia with the National Order of the Legion of Honour, and in 2017, she was invested as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.
In addition, UNESCO officially created the Alicia Alonso Ibero-American Dance Institute in 2018, attached to the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid, Spain.
Since January 2019, she has shared the artistic direction of the BNC with one of her disciples, first dancer Viengsay Valdes. As such, the very school that Alonso founded has contributed to guaranteeing her continuity.
The legendary artist received many more awards throughout her lifetime, including the Star of the Century award from the Latin Institute of Music for having been a true promoter of Latin cadence in classical dance.
However, no award is comparable to the mark she has left as the leading paradigm of dance in Cuba, a legacy that lies with all Cuban ballet dancers today. (PL)

President Miguel M. Díaz-Canel Bermúdez

Díaz-Canel: No one is going to take from us the confidence in the future

Díaz-Canel: No one is going to take from us the confidence in the future which we owe our children
Inaugural speech by President of the Republic Miguel M. Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, in the National Assembly of People’s Power, yesterday October 10
Author: Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez | internet@granma.cu
october 11, 2019 12:10:31
Speech by the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel M. Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, during his inauguration for this position, in the Fourth Extraordinary Session of the IX Legislature of the National Assembly of People’s Power, in Havana’s Convention Center, October 10, 2019, Year 61 of the Revolution
(Council of State transcript – GI translation)
Dear Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee;
Dear comrades of the historic generation;
Compañero Esteban Lazo, President of the National Assembly of People’s Power and the Council of State; members of the Council of State;
Deputies;
People of Cuba:

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Photo: Jose M. Correa
Today is October 10 and we Cubans must congratulate each other. “…the first day of Cuba’s freedom and independence,” as Carlos Manuel de Céspedes said, is by all rights one of the most celebrated on our national calendar, given its powerful resonances, from that minute in 1868 until this one, as we have reaffirmed our oath of unconditional service to the homeland.
Although the nation would later go on to experience legendary episodes, the first inspiration came from that day, when the shackles were broken and the flag made by a woman waved in new hands.
Together embracing an ideal, for the first time, blacks and whites, women and men, almost all young people, and as the protagonists, the youngest Cubans. This was the first October 10, full of transcendental meaning.
They say that a 20-year-old boy named Emilio Tamayo was the first to wave the flag made by Cambula, in the camp erected at La Demajagua. And that the Father of the Homeland said, as he admired it unfolding, “Die before you see her dishonored.” It is also said that the plantation’s bell was rung by another very young man from Bayamo, Manuel García Pavón, who would be the last survivor of the historic uprising. Continue reading Díaz-Canel: No one is going to take from us the confidence in the future →

Being like Che

Being like Che, today and tomorrow

Being like Che, today and tomorrow
On the 52nd anniversary of Ernesto Guevara’s death, we recall the question posed by Fidel: “What do we want our children to be?” And the answer: “…Like Che”
Author: Dilbert Reyes Rodríguez | informacion@granma.cu
october 8, 2019 10:10:56

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“I am” or “I will be” is perhaps the most recurrent personal dilemma, in terms of revolutionary ethics, that Che’s memory provokes.
This challenging question weighs heavy in the hearts of conscious individuals, well aware of the living force of Ernesto Guevara’s impeccable example.
It is clear, first of all, that this is not a question for everyone, since he does not mean the same thing for everyone. A man becomes a symbol only for those who share his dreams, while for others he is simply an historical figure, albeit a renowned one.
Che speaks to us in many ways, as a legend, a leader, soldier, companion, father, a natural man.
Nothing in his life or work needs an explication to defend its value. He did not need it when he was alive, when his posture and acts spoke for themselves, even as a developing young man. Much less later, after his ascension from the world of the living, to that of those who live forever.
From Rosario’s boy to Bolivia’s guerrilla leader, he constantly took on colossal challenges. He responded to his asthma by climbing mountains. To heal the sick? He swam across a jungle river. To understand the pain of his people? He rode a motorcycle across the feverish continent. To help remedy this pain? He gave himself in battle, embarked on an overloaded yacht, fought, and succeeded, making the Revolution that would begin the continental rebellion, in which he already knew he would die.
His unreachable, impossible goals were as legendary as the man, but nonetheless, for mortal revolutionaries who understand him, he left an ample legacy of challenges for daily practice, a framework for the human and the virtuous.
Fidel posed the question: “What do we want our children to be?” – those who we are now, and our own. “We want them to be like Che.”
This is the issue today: Asking ourselves if we are or will be like him, is to understand that the question is not to choose today or tomorrow, but to always be frank, bold, industrious, supportive, critical, decisive, and of course, sensitive dreamers committed to the common good, because seeking individual happiness in itself is not genuine. It is only true when, like the world’s eternal guerrilla, it has a collective soul and a vocation for humanity.