CUBAN LIFE

 FIESTA A CALLE OCHO

Some people know how to use their spare time and consequently be happy. So are the Cubans in Florida, especially in South West, Miami.

Anyone has something to do there when the working day is over. To begin: those who are not satisfied to relax at the shade of the old-centuries trees back to Ponce de Leon 's times join the elderly around tables on the famous Calle Ocho. Calle Ocho want to express its identity through this ebullient and exciting way of life that characterizes everything which is Cuban.

So, on Friday night, middle-age women and men , some of them turning their  sixties and seventies gather in crowded places, seeping the famous expresso, this strong Cuban coffee with a special flavor. There is no time for melancholia apart the moving one that the music brings back. A pianist is his late fifties recreates more or less the fiesta Cubana. This fiesta also consists of spicy food: rice and beans, steak with onions, coffee con leche. Hung  on walls, Cuban paintings and pictures complete this exotic scenery that  makes the Cuban experience so unique, so original. 

Tasting good food is a tropical-like environment is not the only ingredient of the Noche Cubana. Dancing is also part of the game. ? Cuban, some people say, are born to dance as well as Dominicans. Cobblestone and pedestrian streets serve as ballroom. Here feverish music, thunderous megaphones, exciting couples jammed by a still active avenue, make the Cuban week end a frenzy party.

there is a mix of Latin American dances  such as salsa and the European imported rhythms, say danzons that flourished in the first half of the 20 th century, Mostly popular among people from Batista times, those dances still echo Hispanic feelings and grace, save that other ones are practiced more by Latin American natives with various and fast figures. So is the music of hot countries and passionate fans. Calle Ocho comes up with such a whole on week ends. This is a place where Cubans go to forget hard times and think about future  good ones. 

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hen they want  to chat and talk about what happens at home, Cubans go to Versailles where the gentry reunites.  A little bit aristocratic and conservative, Versailles opens late at night. By 6 and 12 PM, all of the Cuban politics is there. Workers in jeans, ladies wearing eardrops and necklaces listen to the last news form their native island while swallowing teas, scrambled eggs and waiting something they wish to happen. A very relaxing place, Versailles displays TV interviews and VIP visitors, some of them ready to make news and maybe history. Once at Christmas, we had to stand long before being seated. 

Calle Ocho is part of the so-called Little Havana, as much as the semblance with the remote and crumbling Havana is more a desire than a fact. It is considered the core of the Cuban political life. A sometimes quiet neighborhood, Calle Ocho conserves the touch of tropical countries. More than 40 years later, nostalgia and memoires of the past is lively. Everything you see or watch has not completely move out of this pst. 

History is everywhere present in Calle Ocho.

Versailles Restaurant

Elderly are delighted to recall these memories . bay of Pigs' veterans, prisoners freshly released and finally settled in the US, opponents watching every move in the island... There are a lot who mix the exploratory Cuban future and the turmoil of a past time. It is behind their windows and at the shadow of the oversize trees that Cubans dream of their countries. Once again, a relaxation feeling is not absent.  As if in the midst of more serious questions Cubans keep their sense of humor and hedonistic life philosophy. The 1900-like resorts or guest houses lining the famous avenue bring as much relaxation as nostalgic frame of mind to the Little Havana being modernized.

Nevertheless, good times, farniente or not, what really matters and what people are expecting is the coming of a few Cuban generation still linked to their island and raised  in the shadow of a  free America. Many expect the real change would take place now. This is not in vain that some Cuban voices are talking about Miami as the capital of sun, exile and anticommunism.  The last one, they add with pride, is well a Cuban job.

El Pub, "donde la Cuba de ayer se vive hoy"

FOR THE BEAT OF MY HEART

DANCE TO THE BEAT OF YOUR HEART

In Northern  Africa, where begin the Sahara desert and its sands, Sudan continues to offer the aspect of a war-torn country. Diplomats, warriors, extremists still fight to find out a way out to this lengthy trouble. But, so far, blood and sand are the answer to these uneasy times linked to apparently impossible dreams. But, in America, a Sudan woman keeps telling  another story.

Politics by the way has its up and downs. On the other side, art such as music , paintings and even life style continue to achieve a sort of untelling way to make it. Stiletto has the physical aspect of Sudan, because  her skin tone, profile and  until to this  childish smile of hers refer to Africa and its unexplored mysteries. I ran into her by  Greenwich Village, at twiliight. She offered  the image of the Nubian girl who use to  fetch water in the nearby well.   However she looked   like a queen at the Manhattan dusk

I asked her if she minded to be photographied  for  our blog (Globeadventureshorizonsblogpost.com). Stilletto paused a while and agreed. As a result, I got four and more shots you can watch here. Stilletto, like a lot of Africans, feel  comfortable  themselves, their clothes and tatoes, left alone those boubou wrapped around with so much grace and elegance. Surprising Africa. !

Compared to a lot of countries defining themselves by weapons and PNB, Africa  used to shape an identity of her own through singing, dancing and drumming.  I’ve  learned  that day Stilletto had to dance for Rolls Royce, the 2014 version with a built-in system of sounds. I went to a nearby place, two days later. Stilletto was there with another model dancing  at the beat of her dj machine for Rolls Royce.

A Sudanese voice for Rolls Royce

Stilletto works as a part time model for famous companies back up by a husband who affirms himself through 18th century fashion. But, as she mentions in her business card,  the sounds resonate thouroughly to the heart, as  an enduring staccato. It was an irresistible one.  Life also is a matter of sounds and beat.  Stilletto was right when she was saying : Dance to the beat of your heart.

Back in past, I was thinking about the magic of drumming, the secret of  Africa future

Thank you Stilletto…