Crowned Britney Miss Glamor Holguín 2011

By Amauris Betancourt.

Finalist participants.

Britney, from Holguín, was crowned Miss Glamour Queen Holguín 2011 in the 2^nd edition of this competitive event of transformism developed successfully last July 8 and 9 in the Holguín’s Salón Benny Moré.

 The contest, under the auspices of the CENESEX and ARTEX Holguín, was attended by participants from Villa Clara, Santi Spíritus, Guantánamo, Las Tunas and Holguín.

Miss Glamour is a gay beauty contest whose first edition was held in 2003 at the provincial headquarters of the National Center of Sexual Education (CENESEX) when local rep Grettel la Mare won the crown.  

There was a classificatory and a finalist night seasoned each by musical and performing varieties in addition to the competitive activities.  

Brenda from Villa Clara and Moraima Picasso from Guantánamo, were declared First and Second Lady, respectively.

Car Purchase-sale at the Corner in Cuba

By Amauris Betancourt.
 

Oldtimer on sale in Bayamo city.



The 6th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) would have been much more successful if, in its closing day, it had been announced immediately the car purchase-sale policy as well as the housing one, at least.  

I do not take away at all any political importance to the event, neither tone down the transcendental aspects discussed. I only remark the fact it has to do with two very hoped-for measures. They should have been checked earlier so that many illegalities would have been avoided.  

Their legal implementation urges despite the juridical difficulties it may run into. They should help dynamite other advertised changes, though caution proves to be prudent. Common sense will go its way putting it right  with time, as it has to be done with some other measures already implemented like the Supply and Demand Law applied to means of  transportation where the “who he offers rules”-policy reigns.

Oldtimers in Santiago de Cuba city.

 Oldtimers in Holguín city.

Fidel's Birthplace House Declared National Monument

Text and photo: Amauris Betancourt.

The plaque unveiled in the afternoon of February 5, 2008 marks the
official inauguration of Biran Historic Complex as a National Monument.Biran – birthplace to Fidel and Raul Castro Ruz, and the site where
they also spent their childhood- was opened as a museum in November 2002.The Spanish immigrant, Angel Castro Argiz, Fidel and Raul’s father,
founded Birán Farm after settling down in 1915 where he died in 1956.

The monumental complex includes eleven facilities at present, but it had
27 originally. The 16 remaining burned down in 1954.
Located 72 km away from the city of Holguín, capital of the homonymous
province, and approximately 844 km from Havana, at the municipality of
Cueto, it embraced besides a 10 000 hectares farming land, dedicated
fundamentally to the sugar cane harvest.

Hundreds of visitors from Cuban and abroad visit the site areas daily
from Tuesday to Saturday between 9:00 a.m and 4:00 p.m. and on Sundays
from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 m.
Main buildings:

Family burial ground: Burial site to parents and mother-side grandparents
from the Castro Ruz family.Rural Mixed Elementary School No 15: The school where Fidel and his
brothers received elementary education, transferred to the farm by Angel
Castro in 1920. Photos from the Commander in Chief Fidel Castro as well
as photos from the schools where Fidel made further studies (The La Salle,
Dolores and Bethlehem ), and pictures of his last visit to Biran are exhibited.Carts House: A 40 x 12 sqaure meters used to keep carts and others transportation
means.

Haitian Frame Houses: Replicas from huts used by Haitian immigrants
working as employees in the construction of the houses and in the sugar
cane lands.Butchery: Where meat was sold to the community then.

Fightingcock Ring: Replica of the original place to fight cocks between
the months of April and December.Cuban Royal Road: The Spaniards built it in 1862 to join the Nipe Bay to
Santiago de Cuba city, which brought about development and prosperity
for the community.The Telegraph House: Constructed in 1933, it keeps nowadays some of the
means used then for communication and a maquette with the image of the
farm in the 1950s.
House No 2. The Pigeon: It was made up of two floors and built in 1947. The ground
floor kept a billiard table, a bar, reserved places and a store; and the
second floor was built for lawyer Fidel Castro; however he never lived
in it.The family moved in to this house in 1954 when a fire destroyed the main
house. Some personal and technological objects from the 1950s are shown for the
public to see.

Birthplace House: It is a replica of the original house that burned down
accidentally in 1954. It was rebuilt under Celia Sanchez Manduley’s
supervision in the 1970s. It keeps nowadays some personal objects from
the Castro Ruz family.It has a Spanish and northerner architecture. It has 513 roof square
meters raised on 76 piles that make room for a basement used by the
family as a garage and to protect the cattle.

There is a lookout with the room shared by the Castro-Ruz parents, Angel
and Lina.

The Grandmother's House: Constructed for his grandmother in 1958, it shows
at present gifts made to Fidel by Cuban friends and from other parts of the
world.Motel: A wooden zinc-roof construction originally built for Angelita
Castro Ruz and finally used as a boarding house.

Baseball Starts Spectacularly in Holguín

By Amauris Betancourt.

Holguín's baseball team, alias the Pups, played yesterday the first match as Home Club against Metropolitanos in the currently Cuban National Baseball League.

The Major General Calixto García stadium, its headquarters, was sold out. The fans wanted to see the Olympic sub-champion star Luis Miguel Rodríguez pitch but the outstanding supersonic sub-world champion Aroldis Chapman did instead, though both are pillars in the team.
The game fulfilled expectations for followers of the provincial selection with only one defeat in six matches. The main course, the left-handed pitcher Chapman's 10 strikeouts; the best, the two homeruns by Leris Aguilera that helped score seven out of eight runs.

Leris Aguilera's first home run.

Pitcher Rolando Mella closed spectacularly and Holguin is glad with the team’s winning string.
Luis Miguel Rodriguez is expected today at the pitching hill.

The Báguano's Count, as they call him too, was granted before the game started, the Dignity's Microphone (micrófono de la Dignidad), an award from the Provincial Radio Stations Board in Holguín to personalities from different fields.

Photo Contest Awards around the New Trouba Music

The photo contest jury members around the New Trouba Music (Homage to El Plátano, allias from a a recently dead photographer who devouted part of his live to photographing trouba singers), integrated by photography director Raúl Rodríguez and the photographers Julio Larramendi and Alain Gutiérrez, after checking 23 participants's works, wishes to subscribe, first of all, the quality of the images as a serious approach to the photographic memory of Cuban Trouba Movement perceived by various photographers.

Troubador Silvio Rodriguez attended the photo exhibit.

The jury wishes to acknowledge this contest is an evidence of the efforts accomplished by the Pablo de la Torriente Brau Cultural Center to encourage and to spread out the artist's works from all generations and trends in the New Cuban Trouba. The photo contest shows too, the assortment and quality in the Island’s photographic world, and fosters involvement and historic documentation of concerts, gatherings and other types of events where Cuban troubadours play a starring role.

Cuban movie actor Jorge Perugorría.

The jury agreed unanimously, granting the following rewards, mentions and acknowledgment:

First: Picking up out of all sent photos those depicting the spirit of the Trouba Movement in an attractive and original way to be exhibited (jury selection). Such a decision favored the following photographers:

Joseph Ignacio Vázquez López

Yordanka Caridad Almaguer Delgado

Enrrique Smith Soto

Carolina Vilches Monzón
Alejandro Bueno García

Ricardo Rodriguez.

Jose Meriño.

Second: Granting mentions to the following photographers, due to the aesthetic and moral values as well as the treatment of the contest theme:

Amauris Betancourt Gómez

J. Gonzalo Vidal A.

George Daniel Villa Hernández
Third: Granting the three following awards according to the contest's bases:

Because he rescues and he keeps alive the memory of a generation and of a musical movement in a unpublished image, the third award is granted to:

Joseph Michael Carassou Morales
Because he gets across and is able to sum up in a single image the troubadour's passions and his greatness, the second award is granted to:

Kaloian Santos Cabrera.

Because of the subtle remark and simplicity of the image and the excellent general plane to suggest a message, the first Prize is granted to:

Richard Pérez de la Rionda