Strolling through a record store in Sag Harbor, I bumped into this precious find, a collection of readings by Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway was an elusive figure in Havana, partaking in all the macho rituals of the Latin man — booze, women, hunting, and fishing… did I mention, drinking? If you visit his home in Cuba, Finca… Read more

(Photo by Andrea Bruce for The New York Times) Read more

(Photo: from John Glenn school) I’ll admit it, I have not written on my Cuban blog for a few months. I’ve been truant on my own mission of trying to stoke the fires of change — to help foster the reconciliation of US/Cuba relations, and work towards a free (yet sovereign) Cuba. Yet the radio… Read more

If you listen to the Sugar Barons show, you’d know that I am a fan of a good cover track. One of the songs I play often, in all its different incarnations in Piel Canela (meaning “Cinnamon Skin”). It was originally written by Puerto Rican artist named Bobby Capo, who recorded an English version in… Read more

Ana Sofia Pelaez feels life through her food. Raised in Miami as the great niece of the avant-garde painter Amelia Pelaez deCasal, her childhood dinner table was surrounded with stories of Cuba, culture, and family. Ana finally moved to New York and flipped the recipes with her Brooklyn markets, while launching a food blog called… Read more

Cuban-French Twin Sisters Ibeyi were raised with music and history. Their father, who passed in 2006, was a Cuban jazz percussionist named Anga Diaz of the legendary band Irakere. Their name itself, “Ibeyi” is Yoruban word for twins. Here they are performing an invocation song entitled “Barasu Ayo” in Yoruba (Nigerian language). Read more