The fire of the Caribbean people is not extinguished
There are just a few hours left before the fire of the Caribbean peoples is lit again in Santiago de Cuba city, with the inauguration this Wednesday, July 3, of the thirty-ninth edition of the Festival of the Arts of the region.
In the afternoon, the Heredia Theatre will host the opening gala, where the Casa del Caribe International Prize will be awarded to the sonero Eduardo Tiburón Morales, the emblematic voice of the Son 14 band, by virtue of the excellence with which he has defended the Cuban musical tradition.
Faithful to a conceptual line developed by the founder of the event, the remembered intellectual Joel James Figarola, Fiesta del Fuego 2019 will once again widen its geographical margins to enhance the dimension of the cultural contributions of enslaved Africans and their descendants in other parts of the continent, such as Uruguay, the country to which the festival will be dedicated on this occasion.
From the South American nation, 135 artists, intellectuals and cultural promoters will travel to Santiago, according to Eduardo Lorier, Uruguay’s ambassador to Cuba.
The diverse expressions of that nation’s culture can be appreciated starting Thursday night at the headquarters of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples and Saturday 6th through a show that will rise to the stage of the Heredia Theater.
As usual, all participants will star on Friday 5 at 5:00 p.m. in the Snake Parade, from Plaza de Marte to Parque Céspedes, and will bid farewell to the festival on Tuesday 9, at nightfall, with the Burning of the Devil at the Alameda.
Although guests from 18 countries will attend, the main animators of the Fiesta del Fuego, said Orlando Vergés, director of the Casa del Caribe, will be the bearers of demonstrations and popular cultural practices from several territories of the island.
For them,” he said, “this party is being held because they are symbols of our cultural resistance, of our will to be what we are and nothing will prevent us from being, neither the hostility of the current U.S. administration nor the outdated dreams of those who want Cuba to be a Yankee neocolony.
(Taken from Granma in Spanish)
Written by Radio Grito de Baire
