The New Cuba

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The New Cuba Journal

  • Guantanamera

    Inspiration for the day: As you know, I’m a fan of playing different covers of “Guantanamera” on The Sugar Barons Show every Wed, 4-6pm on Radio Lily. Here’s a version from the Queen herself — Celia Cruz. Sung at Zaire in 1974, with an introduction announcing Cuba’s epic poem turned song: “Para Africa!” Watch the… Read more

  • Cuba’s Twitter & Millennials

    The battle for minds of Cuban Millennials has begun. Well, technically the hunt is for digital folk in Cuba, but as we all know, it’s the youth culture that has this language on lock. There has been all this controversy this week from the left to the right, to the moderates on this issue of… Read more

  • Sugar Barons Show: Osiel Rojas & Shie Moreno

    (Painter/DJ Shie Moreno and Sugar Barons Host Jauretsi) I’m finally posting this Sugar Barons Show since the playlist was so unique. On this day, DJ Shie Moreno (who is also a painter) allowed me to take a break DJ’ing while he got on the turntables to play his own Cuban stash of magical gems. In… Read more

  • A New Cuba Mix

      Curated by Adam Kvasnica, some of the songs on this mix features tracks by Gilles Peterson’s Havana Cultura Band & Danay Suarez, Obsesión, Harold Lopez Nussa, Cuban Jazz Combo, Danay and more… One of the producers of this Gilles Peterson album is Edgar Gonzalez, who recently appeared on the Sugar Barons show and brought… Read more

  • The TV in Cuba

    During broadcast hours, all TVs in Cuba are on, no matter if they are being watch or just serving as background noise. Simone Lueck is a Los Angeles based photographer originally from St. Paul, Minnesota who visited Cuba and captured TV culture, for better or worse. The photo essay is a hardcover 80 page book.… Read more

  • Moment on the Malecon

    Photographer Paul Chan snapped this photo on the Malecon, in Havana. It was during the Spring quarter of his second year at UC Davis that he studied abroad in Cuba for two and a half months. This would be the first year in which Fidel Castro ceded his presidency to his brother, Raul. You can… Read more