Fidel Castro is Dead! Over the years, news of Fidel Castro’s demise circulated in the Hispanic media and was gossiped about in Miami’s Cuban community: Se murió Fidel was a comment often heard in Calle Ocho, the center of what is known in Miami as Little Havana–the announcement turned out to be a hoax every […]
While waiting for the results of the International Latino Book Awards, for which my book, Cuba, Adios, has been nominated in two categories (Best First Book, and Best Autobiography), I was delighted to read the following editorial review of the book (the awards will be announced on September 8th, so keep tuned in) Cuba, Adios […]
Is music a form of spirituality? With the top of the convertible down, the “Flower Duet” from Lakme poured out from the car into the cool breeze of the South Beach evening. The soprano producing such vocal gymnastics was Joan Sutherland. The mezzo, Huguette Tourangeau. The duet reached a melodic height so luscious and liquid, […]
It is time to give thanks, and I want to offer my gratitude to a program that took care of more than 14,000 Cuban children between the years 1960 and 1962: Operación Pedro Pan. Without this program, we—I was among those children—would not have received the love we experienced when we arrived on American shores, […]
Why did I write a memoir? At 18, my life took an unexpected turn. Up to that point, I had aspired to become a pianist, a dream my family and friends had helped me shape since I was a child. “You’ll be like your Abuelo Clemente,” mamá’s father, a respected musician who died before I […]
Arturo Sandoval On August 8, 2013, President Barack Obama announced that Cuban Arturo Sandoval will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in this country. It recognizes individuals who have made “meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private […]
Today, I have the pleasure to showcase Fernando “Fernán” Hernández, author of The Cubans: Our Footprints Across America and The Cubans: Our Legacy in the United States. I met “Fernán” through a Facebook group composed of Pedro Pans, persons who participated in an exodus of Cuban children to America in the early 60s. Welcome, Fernando. […]
LORENZO PABLO MARTINEZ 