Cuba’s Tropicana celebrates 70 years of sequins and showgirls

HAVANA (AP)— When the Tropicana nightclub and casino opened its doors in a leafy Havana garden on Dec. 30, 1939, World War II was raging in Europe, Gone With the Windhad just hit U.S. theaters and a rebellious youngster named Fidel Castro had just turned 13.

So much has changed in the 70 years since — but not the Tropicana show, which offers those willing to pay the price an intoxicating peek at an era when Cuba was America’s naughty island playground, a place where nearly anything was possible, and legal.

The club marked its big anniversary this week with the same celebration of glamour and kitsch, sin and sensuality, sequins, feathers, showgirls and Latin beats that has made it one of the world’s most famous — and infamous — nightspots.

In a gala that stretched past midnight Monday, about 850 tourists, government officials and special invitees watched tributes to Tropicana legends such as Nat King Cole and Rita Montaner and listened to pulsating salsa, samba and son music. There was a big band, a contortionist act, an a-cappella rendition of The Banana Boat Song and a two-man acrobatics team in skintight leotards.

And then there were the showgirls.

Havana Tropicana

Showgirls wearing elaborate butterfly costumes; showgirls dressed up like Spanish bullfighters; showgirls sporting faux crystal chandeliers (with working lights) on their heads, gold and silver sequined string bikinis on their bodies.

It was as it has always been at the Tropicana, which bills itself as a slice of “paradise under the stars.”

The club “remains an iconic location that is known the world over,” said Maria Elena Lopez, Cuba’s vice tourism minister, who turned out for the show. “It is one of the most important tourist destinations in Cuba and … it has no equal.”

David Varela, who has been the Tropicana’s director since 2003, said the club drew a record 200,000 visitors in 2008. He expects that to drop to about 150,000 this year as a result of falling tourism amid the world economic crisis and the global swine-flu pandemic.

The club can seat as many as 1,500 people, though the normal capacity is 850. Tickets to a show cost about $80 including dinner — by far the most expensive night out in Havana. Shows start about 10 p.m. and go late into the night.

The Tropicana club was started by Italian-Brazilian show-biz producer Victor de Correa and two casino operators, but it became famous about a decade later when it fell under the sway of American mobsters Santo Trafficante Jr. and Meyer Lansky, who along with their frontmen drew big-name talent and hired the voluptuous cabaret girls known the world over as “Goddesses of the Flesh.”

Among the stars who played the main stage, under a lush canopy of trees: Celia Cruz, Paul Robeson, Liberace, Orfelia Fox, Carmen Miranda and Yma Sumac. Many nights the audience was just as famous. Marlon Brando, Sammy Davis, Jr., Greta Garbo and other Hollywood stars came to the Tropicana, making it the ideal place to see and be seen.

There was even a Cubana airlines plane with live music and a wet bar to take patrons from Miami for the show and return them early the next day.

Shortly after Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, the Tropicana and other famous Cuban hotels and casinos were nationalized, and many of the gaming houses, brothels and strip clubs never reopened.

But the Tropicana endured — minus the gambling — sticking with the showy costumes, cabaret dancers and exorbitant prices that it was founded on, even as Cuba embraced a new communist ethos of egalitarianism, efficiency and sacrifice.

Most of the club’s patrons have always been deep-pocketed foreigners, but some lucky Cubans were able to get in at deeply discounted prices, usually as a reward for excelling at work. The practice continued until late 2008, when President Raul Castro said the cash-strapped government could no longer afford the subsidy and others like it.

Attendance is down at the club, but Cuba’s tourism industry as a whole is strong. The government recently said about 2.4 million vacationers will visit the island by the end of 2009, up 3.3% over last year’s record — though overall industry revenues have slumped due to package deals and travelers making shorter stays.

And despite its high prices and 70-year-old act, the Tropicana still attracts a pretty big crowd.

“I couldn’t come to Cuba without seeing the Tropicana,” said Italian tourist Antonio Conti, 47, who was at the show with his wife and some friends, all of whom clapped and shouted along with the rest of the audience. “To miss this would be impossible.”

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Kool & the Gang in concert in Cuba

Times LIVE:

American R&B pioneers Kool & the Gang helped Cuba get its funk on, bringing their eclectic mix of sounds to an open-air stage a stone’s throw from the sparkling waters of the Caribbean.

Robert “Kool” Bell,” his brother Khalis Bayyan, saxophonist Dennis Thomas and drummer George “Funky” Brown became one of the few U.S. musical acts to perform in Cuba in recent memory, amid Washington’s travel restrictions and the ambivalence of the island’s communist government about rock ‘n’ roll, hip hop and other kinds of American music.

“We are all about the music. We travel the world and our message is love, understanding and unity,” Bell, a singer and bass player, said before taking the stage for a performance authorized by the U.S. government. “We don’t come as politicians, we come as musicians.”

With thousands of spectators stretching down Havana’s storied Malcon coastal boulevard, the band played at the open-air Anti-imperialist Plaza, which sits in front of the U.S. Interests Section. Fans, many of them middle-aged with children in tow, danced and jumped up and down to the music while tenants in nearby apartment buildings watched from balconies.

The band heads next to Miami — where many in the Cuban-American community still hold deep resentment toward Cuba’s government.

Offering a hybrid of funk, disco, R&B, dance and soul, Kool & the Gang came into its own in the 1970s and ’80s. Its “Celebration” has been a mainstay at sports stadiums across the United States for a generation, and another hit, “Jungle Boogie” enjoyed a renaissance when it was featured in Quentin Tarantino’s cult smash “Pulp Fiction.”

The most recent show by a U.S. group was the heavy-metal band Audioslave’s thundering concert before thousands at the same amphitheater in 2005.

But most American rockers, rap artists and other musical acts have kept away. Cuban officials often cite pop-rocker Billy Joel’s indoor performance as a rock ‘n’ roll landmark in Havana, and that was in 1979.

Still, Sunday’s show was more evidence that while the Obama administration and the government of Raul Castro talk tentatively about improving chilly relations, the entertainment world is already well into a thaw.

Omara Portuondo, Cuba’s sultry-voiced diva of the Buena Vista Social Club, was granted U.S. Treasury Department permission to play U.S. concerts and recently accepted a Latin Grammy in person, while singer-songwriter Carlos Varela performed in Washington this month.

Salsa specialists Charanga Habanera have scheduled a year-end concert in Miami, and longtime island favourite Los Van Van have announced plans to put on 60 U.S. concerts in 2010.

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Tropicana discotheque is to open

Soycubano: GRAND OPENING of the Cuban nights at TROPICANA Discotheque (Alginet-Valence) next December 11, presenting live concert of PASCUALITO CABREJAS Y SU TUMBAO HABANA, a contemporary popular dance music orchestra composed of young talented musicians graduated from schools of art, who, to the rhythm of its contagious and rhythmical “tumbao”, will turn the TERRAZA SALSA into a unique and special option to dance salsa, bachata, merengue, son, cha- cha- cha and every rhythm that characterizes the present day Cuban music.

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U.S.-Cuba postal talks seen as test for future ties

HAVANA (Reuters) – The United States and Cuba will discuss on Thursday the possible resumption of long-suspended direct postal service in another small step toward seeking better relations after 50 years of hostilities.

Experts say that, like most things between the longtime ideological foes, there are potential obstacles and the outcome is uncertain. But the talks in Havana may serve as a barometer for the future of U.S.-Cuba relations, said Dan Erikson at the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington.

“This is a test of whether the U.S. and Cuba can deal with each other at all,” he told Reuters. “If the two sides can’t deliver the mail, then all bets are off in terms of improving other aspects of the relationship.”

The U.S. delegation to the talks will be led by Bisa Williams, assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, and the most senior U.S. official to visit Cuba from President Barack Obama’s administration.

The delegation will include representatives of the U.S. Postal Service.

“These are really exploratory talks and they are very technical in nature … We see it as a potential avenue for improving the communication between our two countries,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in Washington.

“We hope the talks will lead to consistent use of direct mail transportation between the U.S. and Cuba,” he said.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez was asked about the meeting in a Wednesday news conference, but did not respond.

The United States invited Cuba in May to discuss postal services as part of efforts by Obama to improve relations that became hostile soon after Fidel Castro took power in Cuba in a 1959 revolution. Castro, now 83, has handed over the presidency to his younger brother Raul Castro, 78.

Obama has taken steps to ease the 47-year-old U.S. trade embargo against the communist-run island and to reopen dialogue that was shut down under his predecessor, George W. Bush.

Rodriguez on Wednesday described Obama as “well-intentioned” but chided him for not doing more to end the long-standing U.S. trade sanctions against the island despite his public promise to seek improved ties.

Obama says the embargo will stay in place until Cuba releases political prisoners and improves its human rights — issues Havana says are strictly internal matters.

LONG WAIT FOR MAIL

Washington cut off direct mail service to Cuba in August 1963 as part of its Cold War campaign to undermine Castro’s communist government.

Cubans say they remember fondly when, in the years immediately after the revolution, their relatives in the United States would put small luxuries like chewing gum and new razor blades in the mail, and they would arrive shortly afterward.

At present, mail between the United States and Cuba must go through third countries and can take as long as two months.

That makes it difficult for families separated by just 90 miles of ocean to maintain communication or send packages in a timely manner.

Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits have taken to sending items with travelers, often for a hefty fee. E-mail and electronic messaging are rare in Cuba because few have access to the Internet, which is controlled by the Cuban authorities.

While Cuba has agreed to the talks, in the past it has had strong reservations about restarting direct mail service.

Analysts say the government has been worried that opponents in the United States would take advantage of direct mail to send in arms, ammunition or technology that could be used against it, or subversive literature to incite the people.

It also fears whatever money it might earn in the United States for mail service could be diverted to pay off hundreds of millions of dollars in legal judgments awarded in U.S. lawsuits filed against Cuba, mostly by the exile community.

Cuba also has insisted in the past that direct mail service must be accompanied by the resumption of regularly scheduled commercial flights from the United States. Currently, only charter flights are permitted.

Given the complexities, the talks “seem very unlikely to bear fruit,” said Washington attorney Robert Muse, who specializes in Cuba issues. “I may be wrong, but Cuba has never shown any interest in this at all.”

At best, he said the two sides might agree to some sort of limited express courier service such as that provided by FedEx or UPS, which cannot operate in Cuba because of the embargo. Foreign competitors do operate on the island.

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Western Union eases rules on Cuba money transfers

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Money transfer agent The Western Union Co. said Wednesday it will implement new rules on sending money to Cuba.

The new rules allow people in the U.S. to send money to “close relatives” in Cuba, including aunts, uncles, cousins and second cousins who are Cuban nationals.

The rules also remove the limit on the total amount and frequency of money sent to Cuba.

The Englewood, Colo.-based company said the rules were issued by the U.S. Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Western Union has been providing money transfer services from the U.S. to Cuba since 1999, in accordance with OFAC laws. Western Union currently has 3,000 locations authorized to send Western Union money transfers from the U.S. to Cuba, and more than 100 Agent locations in Cuba.

Shares of Western Union rose 11 cents to $18.31 during afternoon trading.

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Cuba helps fight dengue in Sri Lanka

IANS:

Colombo, Aug 16 : Cuban epidemiologists have arrived in Colombo to help Sri Lanka fight a dengue fever outbreak, using a bio-insecticide programme developed in Cuba.

Cuban experts will present the Sri Lanka health ministry a detailed report on the use of Bacillus Thuringensis Israelensis (BTI), a bacterium that kills the larvae of the mosquito transmitting the dengue disease.

Sri Lanka public health director Palitha Maheepala said the government will implement the Cuban bio-insecticide programme after studying the report.

Two Cuban experts have toured the country to gather information on the dengue outbreak.

A total of 232 people have died due to dengue in Sri Lanka this year.

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Obstacles to Buying Food from U.S. Are Increasing for Cuba

Cuba News Agency: The drop in imports is the result of Washington’s unilateral sanctions against Cuba that set obstacles for trading, which makes import actions unsafe, and also the lack of credit lines, explained Alvarez.

Pedro Alvarez, president of Alimport, Cuba’s trading enterprise, told the Opciones weekly newspaper, that food purchases from the US had keptan increasing rate until 2005 when they started to fall against all expectations, as both countries were highly benefiting from commercial deals.

The Cuban official noted that, for this reason and in order to buy the products that used to be imported from the US, Alimport has been forced to look for safer markets that do not have any impediments to trade with Cuba and that do extend lines of credit, which is very important considering the increase in food prices as a result of the international economic crisis.

The directive noted that with so many inconveniences, import volumes from the US to Cuba are not likely to grow in spite of the American companies’ willingness to do business with Cuba, the high-quality products and the geographical closeness between the two countries.

He explained that any American company to initiate personal contacts with Cuba is required to have a travel license from the US Treasury Department.

Then, if an agreement is reached, the American entrepreneur most obtain another license from the US Trade Department before signing the deal with Cuba and, once it is closed, a Cuban bank most send a Letter of Credit to an European bank and the latter to the corresponding US bank and finally to the provider’s bank in that country.

The participation of at least three or four banks in the transaction generates additional charges and a higher margin of error in the management of the documentation, explained Alvarez. In addition, the bank in the third country is also required a license from the US Treasury Department to operate with Cuba.

Likewise, the shipping companies need a permit also issued by the Treasury Department to transport the goods to the island and once they unload in a Cuban port they have to return empty because the US administration does not allow the import of Cuban products. As it if were not enough, a recent regulation allows coastguards to intercept and search ships carrying goods to Cuba on the arbitrary
grounds that the Caribbean country does not have the necessary control mechanisms set to avoid possible terrorist acts.

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Compulsory Rural Boarding School Quietly Disappearing in Cuba

IPS: The rural boarding school system emerged nearly four decades ago, but only became compulsory for 10th, 11th and 12th grade students in the early 1990s, as part of a government strategy aimed at linking studies with work. Now, this is gradually going to change again.

The news, which had been going around the schools for some time as a rumour, was confirmed at the end of the school year by Education Minister Ena Elsa Velásquez.

She said the process would begin in Havana with 10th grade students, who in the 2009-2010 academic years would be assigned to schools within the city limits.

After 9th grade, students in Cuba opt for either technical-vocational high schools or pre-university schools – which are boarding schools in rural areas.

The mandatory nature of the boarding schools for baccalaureate – 10th, 11th and 12th grade – students and the overall decline in the educational system have been a source of concern to families and sectors of civil society, as well as social researchers, who underlined the indispensable role played by parents during adolescence.

Under the new changes, students in the 11th and 12th grades will complete their baccalaureate studies in rural pre-university schools in Havana province, near the city.

“A restructuring has been carried out, and the students will be regrouped in those schools that have the best installations,” Velásquez told the press.

The minister added that baccalaureate students in the rest of the country would gradually be incorporated into the new plan, depending on the conditions in each area and the state of the school buildings.

“There will always be boarding school students, because there are regions in the country where young people live in isolated geographic areas,” said Velásquez.

She also clarified that the system would maintain the “school to the countryside” programme, in which all students must spend a month and a half in rural areas every year working in agriculture.

The rural boarding school system emerged nearly four decades ago, but only became compulsory for 10th, 11th and 12th grade students in the early 1990s, as part of a government strategy aimed at linking studies with work.

The decision was controversial. “Either you went to pre-university school in the countryside or you gave up the idea of going to the university. I had a really good grade average, but I decided to go to a technical school. It took me a little longer, but I was able to study at the university, where now I am a professor,” a 29-year-old woman who declined to give her name told IPS.

The technical school option is chosen by a significant number of students, while others simply drop out.

“My daughter decided to go to pre-university school, but we had to give her a lot of support, visiting her during the week and bringing her food. Don’t even ask what we spent during those years,” said Nilda González, whose daughter went on to study engineering.

But several professionals who attended high-quality boarding schools for the maths and sciences, which are for gifted students, told IPS that the experience of living away from their families and combining work and study had a positive influence on their lives.

“If the schools have the same conditions that they had in my time, I wouldn’t have any objections in the case of my daughter, because it helps you become independent, and you learn to live with all kinds of people. It’s like a rehearsal for real life,” said a 40-year-old journalist who has a 12-year-old daughter.

Along with the gradual return of baccalaureate students to urban schools, education officials announced that as of the next school year, a stricter, more demanding grading system will be put in place, which will also raise the bar for admission to university.

For the 2009-2010 school year, baccalaureate graduates applying for university will have to earn at least 60 out of 100 points on exams in three common subjects: Cuban history, Spanish and math.

The grades they earn on these three exams, along with their overall academic records, will determine their ranking when it comes to selection for university admissions.

According to university authorities, the “political-ideological” training of students will also be strengthened, and will be taken into account in the selection process.

“Education has a huge task: guaranteeing the continuity of the revolution. Because the youngsters in the classrooms today will be the leaders in all of the country’s activities in 25 or 30 years,” said a high-level government official.

Education in Cuba, one of the main achievements of the socialist government, was hurt during the severe economic crisis of the 1990s, when many teachers left their profession for jobs where they could earn more, such as tourism-related activities. The shortfall of teachers since then has been frequently mentioned as one of the main causes of the decline in education.

Last year, the government authorised and urged retired teachers to return to the classroom or become tutors for young teachers. Nearly 8,000 retirees – mainly primary and secondary school teachers, as well as some professors – took the government up on its offer.

In addition, teachers’ salaries were raised early this month.

In the 2008-2009 school year, overall academic performance was marked by the fact that 4,342 schools were affected by three hurricanes that swept through the country in late 2008, causing a total of 10 billion dollars in material and economic damages.

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Thermal Water Resort in Western Cuba

Prensa Latina:

Cuban Spa Resort San Diego de los Baños, a health institution founded in the 19th century and located in Cuba’s westernmost province: Pinar del Rio, is ready to welcome again vacationers in search for its mineral-rich waters, after a total restoration in its infra-structure.

This Cuban medicinal resort hasn   t escaped the hit of hurricanes, but despite so this health institution is famous worldwide for its mineral-rich waters, excellent to treat gastrointestinal, metabolic, renal, dermatologic ailments. Its sedative properties make it excellent to treat stressed people.

This is one-of-a-kind service, not offered before by the institution since 2005, which will benefit Cuban and foreign patients, the director of the resort Dr. Dagoberto Blanco told Prensa Latina.

The fame of San Diego de los Baños dates back to 1632, the oldest of the country, built in the locality of San Diego, 43 miles west Havana, in 1844.

Celebrities like the wise German Alejandro de Humboldt and Dr. Francisco de Antommarchi, private doctor of Napoleon Bonaparte, corroborated the thermal waters of this infra-structure has medicinal ends.

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Celebrate Benny More’s 90th Birthday Organized in Havana

RHC:

The 90th anniversary of the birth of late great Cuban artist Benny Moré will be celebrated this year with a wide and varied program of cultural activities beginning August 1st, which will continue throughout the rest of year.

The first celebrations will take place from August 1st through the 24th –the day of Benny’s birthday- and will include concerts, a colloquium on his life and work, plastic arts exhibitions and film screenings, among other cultural activities.

Benny More

The program in honor of the late singer, composer and band leader, whose was born Bartolomé Maximiliano Moré, will begin with the presentation of the Conjunto Casino music group at La Pérgola club, in Havana’s Vedado neighborhood.

Another important moment will be the performances of the legendary Aragón Orchestra and the Roberto Faz Ensemble on August 2nd, at La Tropical’s Benny Moré Hall. There will be a special program on August 15th at Havana’s Hamel Alley, called La rumba para el Sonero Mayor (A Rumba for the Greatest Son Rhythm Performer), in which the group Clave y
Guaguancó, Gregorio Hernández (Goyo), Juan de Dios Ramos and Ernesto Gatel, among other artists, will participate.

Also scheduled is the screening of the documentary series Los Elegidos (The Chosen Ones), by producer Mayra Samada, on August 20th, at the Benny Moré Provincial Music Center, also in Vedado.

“Benny Moré, the genius of popularity” is the title of the colloquium that has been slated for August 21st at Havana’s Saint John Hotel, while from August 21st through the 23rd there will be three special galas at the América Theater, dedicated to the music genres the unforgettable artist interpreted -the bolero, guaracha and rumba.

And last but not least, a great tribute to Benny has been programmed for August 23rd at the Music House of Havana’s Miramar neighborhood, under the artistic direction of Danilo Bango.

This first stage of tributes will close with the inauguration of the web site Hoy como ayer (named after one of Benny’s most famous hits), by artist Santos Toledo, at Old Havana’s Government Palace.

www.bachelorpartycuba.com – Bachelor Party in Cuba