CubaPLUS Magazine

Perhaps to some people it may seem impossible to paint at the bottom of the sea. But it is true, at the Punta Perdiz International Diving Center, about 11 kilometers from Playa Girón, on the southern coast of the province of Matanzas, in those beautiful seabeds you can find an art gallery and a workshop studio, where the plastic artist Sandor González Vilar is ecstatic, creating his art with fish and other marine species.

Cuba on Wednesday ratified in the voice of its highest sports authority, Osvaldo Vento, the commitment to promoting sports as an instrument of inclusion and a boost to sustainable development.

MESOL Gestión Hotelera Turística, importing entity of Meliá Hotels International, will be in charge of facilitating the management of the establishments managed by that Spanish company specialized in the Caribbean island, it was reported in Havana this Tuesday. Established at the beginning of this year, under the MESOL brand, the new institution will work numerous product lines, including food, beverages, artistic media, sporting, recreational and entertainment, lingerie, gastronomic supplies, kitchenware, cleaning items, means of protection and supplies related to the maintenance and technical services, according to the press release by Meliá Cuba.

Canada establishes itself as the first source of vacationers to Cuba, while the second position belongs to Cubans residing abroad, followed by the Federation of Russia, the United States, Germany, Mexico, France, Spain, Argentina and Italy, according to a report published by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).

The Country Brand Council was officially established this Monday, during a solemn ceremony held at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, which also received the status of brand ambassador for being a flagship hotel facility in the largest of the Antilles. The first vice president of the Cuban Association of Social Communicators, Humberto Juan Fabián Suárez, was appointed as head of the council by the president of the Institute of Information and Social Communication, Alfonso Noya.

The beautiful Hershey Gardens, very close to the town of Santa Cruz del Norte in the beautiful province of Mayabeque, they contain a great legend, because in that area more than a century ago, the construction of a sugar mill began, the rise of a town and the electric train service, the only one of its kind in Cuba, which linked Havana with the town of Casa Blanca and the province of Matanzas.

The Cuban government announced during the debates of the sessions of the National Assembly of People's Power (parliament) a set of actions and measures that will mark from the week that begins today the country's economic roadmap. Prime Minister Manuel Marrero reiterated in his speeches during the current legislature that the Cuban nation is facing a scenario of “war economy”, which worsens the socio-economic situation derived from a tightened blockade by the United States.

Anyone who has not lived with a dog as a pet surely does not know the most unconditional and faithful friend of man. That statement is not a belief, it is, without a doubt, a great reality demonstrated through all time. This four-legged animal that whoever decides to have at home, becomes another member of the family, because if there is joy at home, he is happy, but if there is sadness from some unpleasant event, the dog also feels and expresses it. It does not matter if these animals are of one race or another –there are 534 races in the world divided into 10 groups. according to the International Cynological Federation (FCI) -whatever its size.

The Russian Culture Festival was inaugurated in the well-known Hermitage Garden of the Russian capital. Latin America and the Caribbean, as confirmed by Prensa Latina.

The ninth edition of the Nelson Mandela-Fidel Castro World Peace Race was held in the Cuban capital, in a 10-kilometer circuit starting and finishing at the Sports City.

The best of Cuban popular music will be heard and experienced again from next August 18 to 25 in Varadero and Matanzas, respectively, with the well-known and anticipated Festival Varadero Josone: Jazz and Rumba. They are for the pleasure of residents and visitors. As the organizers recently announced, this important meeting will feature what is most valuable and shining in Cuban music, some of them have already confirmed their participation, among them, of course, the president of the Festival, Isaac Delgado and his group ¨Con Tumbao¨.

It can be said that perhaps one of the best-known small streets in Havana is called Callejón de Hamel, where art and traditions live every day of the year.

The Varadero Gourmet International Festival will be held from September 11 to 13 in its usual headquarters in Plaza América with the objective that professionals linked to the gastronomy are informed about the latest developments in the sector in the largest of the Antilles, an occasion that It will also allow to publicize the news regarding products and services.

Santa Clara, capital of the Cuban province of Villa Clara, is an industrial city, with scientific and cultural development, and also stands out in other branches of the nation’s socioeconomic life. The festivities began with the mambisa reveille and the traditional symbolic meeting at the La Cruz Bridge, under the shade of a tamarind tree between the Belico and Cubanicay rivers, with a representation of the families of Remedios, the first inhabitants of the city.

If we are going to talk about wonders of the Cuban capital, it is important to mention the National Botanical Garden (JBN), belonging to the University of Havana, located about 25 kilometers to the south of the city, with approximately 550 hectares of magical landscapes, some with plants brought from the tropics and different parts of the world. What were once livestock farms are today part of a great collective dream that became reality thanks to the effort and dedication of many.

Havana, one of the seven wonder cities of the modern world for eight years now, will celebrate its 505th anniversary next November, which is why it is celebrating practically throughout 2024 that important date for the people of Havana and all the Cubans in general. It is for this reason that starting this month, when the island's summer holidays begin, we will be talking about multiple places in the city, not because they are sometimes very well-known, cease to be of interest to both foreign and national visitors.

The delegations that will represent Cuba in the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games received the Cuban flag at a ceremony held at Havana's Revolution Square.

From July 26 to August 11, the 2024 Olympics will take place in Paris, France. the participation of delegations from 206 countries, with approximately 10,500 athletes who will compete in 48 disciplines of 32 sports.

At the top of the Castle of the Royal Force, in Old Havana, is installed a beautiful bronze statuette, about 110 centimeters high, La Giraldilla, which for everyone means the symbol of the Cuban capital since almost five centuries ago, but in addition, it represents paying tribute to two important human conditions: love and loyalty. For Cubans, this small statue located in front of the entrance canal to the Havana bay is like a guardian of the city, for which it was built this fortress in 1539. The story goes that Charles I, king of Spain, appointed Don Hernando de Soto Captain General in 1538 of Cuba and Florida, who would reside, together with his wife Doña Isabel de Bobadilla, in the aforementioned castle, with the purpose of guarding the bay and defending the city from possible attacks by privateers and pirates, very common then. The sovereign entrusted this mission to De Soto because he had earned the trust, for the courage and audacity displayed in the Castille expeditions for gold (Panama) and in the conquest of Nicaragua and Peru. After taking office in Cuba, De Soto left on a mission to Florida in 1539 with nine ships and 900 soldiers. For this reason he left his wife in charge of the Island. According to historical documents, De Soto toured several territories of the current United States. He crossed Georgia and Alabama, where he discovered the Mississippi River. They say that at that time there was a legend that in the vicinity of the river there was a “Fountain of Youth” and De Soto wanted to take over so precious treasure that, in his opinion, would fill him with riches. But like every legend, what the arrested Spaniard finally found was nothing less than his death by suffering a lethal fever. Notes from the time indicate that Doña Isabel de Bobadilla, faithful and loving De Soto's wife, spent hours sitting in the tower for endless years at the castle looking towards the horizon, to the entrance of Havana Bay, looking for a hopeful sign of some ship that could return her husband to her. But, unfortunately, this never happened and for this reason they say that Doña Isabel died of love. A few years later, inspired by such a beautiful love story, the artist Gerónimo Martín Pinzón, of Canarian origin, sculpted the statuette in memory of that loyal woman. Subsequently, the governor of the city, Don Juan Bitrín Viamonte, sent the sculpture cast in bronze and place it, like a weather vane, on the tower added shortly after to the castle and baptized it with the name Giraldilla, in memory of the Giralda of her hometown, Seville. The beautiful figure, whose original is currently in the Museum of the City, is a woman who holds in her right hand a palm that only preserves its trunk, and to the left of it, on a pole, the Calatrava Cross, order to which belonged the governor. On her chest appears a medallion with the name of the author of the sculpture and she has her skirt gathered up over her right thigh . Such a beautiful story has been passed down for centuries from word to mouth and from generation to generation, to the present day, which converted Doña Isabel, without having imagined it, into a symbol of the Cuban capital as a sign of love and loyalty.

July is a month rich is a month rich in dates that call us to protect our planet. July 3, for example, is International Plastic Bag Free Day, when we are called to reduce consumption of those bags to better care for the planet. On the first Sunday of this month, July 7, for example, it is exhorted to conserve soils, an essential resource for the survival of all species, including man.