We have always had important figures inside literary and popular fields, in our main article we will tell you about some of these characters who constitute a cultural attraction in our country like Faustino Oramas, El Guayabero, of whom you will know a little bit more. The XX anniversary of ARTex is still a reason to celebrate in SoyCubano. If you wish to know more about Cuba’s cultural traditions visit our stores where you could find everything you need. Visit us!   

Cuba’s popular and literary characters like the Caballero de Paris and Cecilia Valdés are new cultural proposals included in a research developed by the Center of Preservation, Restoration and Museology (CENCREM). 

Luis Benito Cintado, specialist from that entity, pointed out that characters like the Caballero de Paris –that one with severe rabbi profile-, as it was described by Eusebio Leal, Historian of the City, constitute cultural heritage values that can be more diffused.

Also it can be mentioned Cecilia Valdés, the beautiful mulata protagonist of the most famous novel of the XIX Century in Cuba, created by Cirilo Villaverde and which main character and plot have inspired playwrights, musicians and poets.

On the comprehensive research of the CENCREM are included other characters with a remarkable historic attraction, such as American writer Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), Nobel Prize on Literature 1954 and famous Cuban poet José Lezama Lima (1912-1976).

It also appear novelist Alejo Carpentier (1904-1980), Cervantes Prize 1977 and precursor of magic Latin-American realism, among others.

The research includes proposals like Rutas y Andares (Routes and Travels), a choice for Cuban family where people can know about the city and its cultural values through museums, project organized by the Patrimony Department from the Historian of the City Office.

There are others programs that can be successfully inserted within cultural tourism like Café Route, Slave Route, Cigar Route, Cuban Indian Route, Thematic Parks Route and Afro-Cuban Council Route.

Also Cuban Music Route which highlights values like famous signer Benny Moré (1919-1963) and Arsenio Rodríguez (1911-1970), among others.

Taken from an article of Prensa Latina published at Cubarte

ARTEX´s birthday

Artex S.A, the Artistic and Literary Promotions Agency, will celebrate its XX anniversary next year. It was created in 1989 and it is the main promoter and marketer agency of Cuban cultural products and services embracing a wide spectrum of the national artistic creation.

We have a headquarters and eight agencies and divisions gathering the main business lines of our company plus twelve offices controlling the commercial centers distributed within the national territory.

Our wide Commercial Net, formed by Shops and Cultural Centers is extended along the whole country, having a strong presence in the main cities and tourist places. Our products are the result of a charming combination of usefulness, aesthetic value and the most genuine representation of Cuban culture.

Our cultural centers provide the most genuine services and products from Artex and are located in the main cities and tourist places of the national geography. They are classified according to the genre defined in its artistic performances: Trova Houses, Folk Centers and Show Centers, they are designed to typified the region in which they are located achieving a distinctive feature in each cultural place.

We have a wide importing and exporting capacity allowing the presence of a varied products and services portfolio on the diverse business lines of the enterprise.

Outstanding exponents from plastic art participate on the design and creation of a varied range of cultural products included in our most distinctive projects.

Pioneer of the commercialization of the compact disk in Cuba, our Record Label Bis Music, was the first one along the entire island to win a Grammy Award for its CD LaRumba Soy Yo, which was acknowledged in 2001 as the Best Folkloric Album

We are also responsible for the first steps in the E-Commerce in Cuba, having an agency devoted to these activities, offering a complete range of cultural products and services (www.soycubano.com).

Paradiso is the only Cultural Tourism Agency from Cuba aimed to serve as the official accepter of the most important cultural events and festivals, with a wide offer of academic and specialized services in all manifestations of Cuban culture.

The greatest orchestras and groups of Cuban popular music are included in our Artistic Representation Agencies´ catalogs . Soycubano congratulates this group of professional and devoted workers who has brought Artex on a par with our time.

Taken from artex s.a

Guayabero: Holy word!

Sitting next to the statue that has just been unveiled at the Provincial Center of Music and Shows, he had a quick glance to the full-sized piece and appreciate it impassively: He looks like me. Let me knock on wood.  And he knocks his cheeks.

While it is listening to A mi me gusta que baile Marieta (one of his most famous songs) as background then you wonders if any other artistic manifestation would be able to catch, as music did, the quintessence of this extraordinary artist, known by all Cubans like El Guayabero.

Because of the saucy lyrics on his songs he is called The King of the double meaning, but when he is questioned about this issue he always makes it clear: I have not said anything. It is people who jump to conclusions. 
The same happens with his age. He was born on June 11, 1911, in Holguín and he always manages to prove persuasively how, according to modern Math he has just turned 59 years old and not 95.

However it is said that his biological age is 103 and thanks to a delay on his birth registration Faustino has won some more Junes from those cold identity documents.

This time he is not wearing a suit, he is wearing a white guayabera and his straw hat, or fried egg, as it was called at that time. It is not sold any more. It was my favorite. I have been to Holland, Paris, Spain, five times to Mexico and I tried to buy one like this one, but there was not any, he complains.

He does not bring his guitar either, but everybody knows it is like an extension of his long extremities and with its strings he has strummed each humorous vibration of the land he walks on.

In 2005 his artistic life begins to grow again. After performing from time to time at the Trova House, name after him, he traveled around different Spanish cities where he was applauded like an idol. 

And all this is what captivates us from Faustino Oramas Osorio, like the light of an elderly candle made to light up our good sense of humor.

Fragments taken from Juventud Rebelde of an interview to Faustino Oramas, El Guayabero, made during the 2007 Trova Festival, moment in which the musician was sick and could not attend the event