From Agustin Blazquez:

This is the first preview of my new documentary series ARTS & POLITICS.

The Castro regime’s official artists are given venues, press coverage and glowing reviews to make an impact on the American public. Cuban American artists, with few exceptions, are ignored. The current Cuban regime continues to advance its agenda using the arts. This series will give Cuban American “politically incorrect” artists the opportunity to break the barrier of silence.

In Spanish with English subtitles.

Stunning! Emotional! Rivetting! A musical, artistic portrait of a great international singer! 63 songs! Distributed by Cubacollectibles.com.

My plan is to not disclose the name of the star of this production until about two weeks before the premiere.  There will be other previews coming.  Feel free to forward this information.

I just received permission to add Actor, Comedian and Artist Joey Infante to the “Literature” list. I created his page where more can be learned about him and his book “Escape From Paradise.” He’s an accomplished “Everything”, so there might be more on him in the near future. Here’s Joey’s page.

In case anyone missed it,  Silvio Canto interviewed Carlos Eire on Blogtalkradio.com:

Guest: Carlos Eire, Cuban American. Carlos is a professor at Yale, a member of the “Peter Pan children” who came to the US in the early 1960s and author of “Learning to Die in Miami: Confessions of a Refugee Boy”. His previous book is “Waiting for snow in Havana.” Learn more about Canto Talk

Here’s the interview:

Cubanarama on Blogtalkradio.com:

Cecilia Rodriguez Milanes was born in New Jersey to Cuban parents. Author of “Marielitos, Balseros and Other Exiles”  published in 2009 and most recently “Everyday Chica”  Music and More  2011

As Latinos/as we struggle to define and redefine ourselves, works like ‘Everyday Chica” are indispensible in our search for a new identity. Although Cristina Milanes’s work is fresh and new, it brings an air of the old Country’s classical storytelling that has been lost through the decades. By listening to her poetry we become aware of our new identity being a mixture of the Ancestral…..Listen to Interview

The Book (Review):

The everyday chica in Cecilia Rodriguez Milanes’ Everyday Chica is Jersey girl, disco queen, and quinceanera as well as keen cultural critic. Rodriguez Milanes came of age within and apart from two cultural traditions, and her all-too-brief collection of coming-of-age poems takes us from New Jersey to Cuba and back again, with forays into family and cultural history, in language which is exuberant, funny, and tender. –Stephanie Brown

Cecilia Rodriguez Milanes cuts away at long-time standing myths and masks of Cuban@being: the internal and external colonalismos. We read about the exiles, nostalgias, body fantasias, and all those nasty anthro–love turista inventories. Yet, there is love, prayer, a deep caress of mainland and isla and most of all, of self–’without conditions. ‘ Applaud this tender fire coming at you spoken and sparkling. –Juan Felipe Herrera

‘The seed of exile sprouted me,’ writes Cecilia Rodriguez Milanes in Everyday Chica, and her poems examine that seed and its shoots. The poems take us on a journey of generations, a ‘reverse exodus’ from the poet’s ancestry in Cuba to growing up Cuban American, a poetic archeology which which she works to unearth ‘the right language,’ something worked for, earned, and jarred loose from the culture she embraces and interrogates…..Learn More

Her CD Album:

Poignant and polished, Everyday Chica, Music and More explores what it means to be exile’s daughter, to work within and against traditions, and carve out spaces of resistance, wholeness, and integrity. Peeling back layers of gender, racial, and class oppression, Cecilia Rodriguez Milanes situates her story within that of her family and people, and in so doing answers a call issued forth from the generations before her. The llamada echoes across lugares and gentes, from Cuba to Jersey and Florida, a succession of women and men, laboring and loving, struggling making song, sowing sisterhood. An important contribution to womanist literatures, poetically building on the traditions and interventions of a generation of mujeres…The CD Album link

Cecilia has a personal page on Cubatradition and here own blog also.

With an outstanding knowledge of his roots, Molina takes you to the magical world of Afro Cuban folklore and shows you the serene and proud beauty of the Cuban country people. Every time we look at one of his paintings we are filled with immense joy and optimism. It comes through the effective brushstrokes, bright colors, and the riveting beauty of his subjects…..Go to personal Page

Here’s my friend, the leading Cuban-American documentary filmmaker you’ve never heard of, presenting CHE: The Other Side of an Icon to Dr. Mary Grabar’s class on March 16th.

When working as an actor in the Cuban film industry as a young man, filmmaker Agustin Blazquez met Che Guevara personally. The revolutionary legend had come to shake hands with the cast and crew of his film, and Blazquez was among those granted an audience. Not too long afterwards, Guevara was dead in the jungles of Latin America…and Blazquez subequently fled as a political exile–a story I hope he will one day tell on film, as it is as gripping as any novel. So he knows about Che, both as a Cuban culture worker for the revolution, and later as a refugee from Communism.

For his seventh documentary on Cuba, his beloved homeland, Blazquez compares the legend of Che with the reality of his legacy. Although Cuban-American audiences have been exposed to this side of Che before, much of it was new and surprising to me, a non-Cuban viewer. …….Read More

Just added Enrique Encinosa and his book “Unvanquished: Cuba’s Resistance to Fidel Castro”:

This book will likely be dismissed by the Castrophiles on the academic left who paint the Cuban exile community as a collection of ignorant fascists. Those who approach the text with moral sobriety and decency, however, will be moved by Mr. Encinosa’s tribute to the Cuban martyrs who were either murdered, or suffered in Castro’s gulags, while having been ignored by the world press. The romantic delusion that Cuba represents a good faith attempt to create a socialist society while defending itself against evil capitalists has been refuted over and over again by the brutality and mendacity of the system. Like Che Guevara’s false archetype of the saintly revolutionary, the revolution itself was a pathetic lie and Cuba eventually became the playground for Castro’s egocentric fantasies. I should know. During the revolution my father fought against Batista in the Escambray front and my maternal grandparents ran one of the largest safe houses…...Enrique’s Page

Hello Fellow Artist,

The Miami Beach Sister Cities International Program is a celebration of Miami Beach’s multicultural and pluralistic heritage. Programs involve people of all interests and backgrounds and foster a comprehensive and all-encompassing relationship between the City of Miami Beach and its partners abroad.

In 2011 the City of Miami Beach will be hosting an international art exhibition in celebration of the City’s 11 …sister cities, which represent the following countries: Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Peru, and Spain.

The exhibition will be held in Miami Beach from May 16 through June 28, 2011. RODEZ Art Gallery will be curating the exhibit and is currently seeking visual artists working in painting and sculpture and having been born in, born to parents from, or living in: Brazil, Canada, Israel, Italy, and Peru. (Artists representing Colombia, Japan, Mexico and Spain have already been chosen).

If you are interested in applying, and work in sculpture or painting, and were born in, born to parents from, or living in: Brazil, Canada, Israel, Italy or Peru, please submit the following:

• Three low-resolution images of current works that could be selected and used in the exhibition;
• Details of each artwork submitted, including title, dimension, medium, and value; and
• Bio, and include nationality and heritage either in bio or in the email.

Submit the requested information by March 31, 2011 to: info@RODEZart.com

Important Dates:
Application Deadline: March 31, 2011
Notification of Selection: April 7, 2011
Receipt of Artwork: April 23 – 30, 2011
Vernissage: May 16, 2011
Closing: June 28, 2011

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO PASS ALONG THIS INVITATION TO ANY OTHER ARTIST YOU FEEL MAY QUALIFY AND MAY BE INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING. Go to Facebook page

I have just added Damien Cruz to Cubatradition:

I was born in Havana, Cuba, and lived there until 1999, when I emigrated to
the United States.  Currently I live and work in Miami, Florida.

As a child  I would spend long hours drawing.   At 16,  a professor of Art  saw
some of my paintings and decided to help me further my career by accepting
me in his workshop.  A few years later I entered the prestigious San Alejandro
Academy of Fine Arts, where I was placed directly at the fourth-year level of
the program.

In my paintings I reflect my experiences and my emotions.  In most cases the
subject matter is based on both my memories of Cuban landscapes and my
imagination.  The present collection is a sample of works created over the past several years…..Go to Damien’s Page

Elena Maza is constantly updating her Blog, here’s one of her latest post:

The weather has turned quite cold and I haven’t been motivated to endure the freezing temperatures outdoors, so I am continuing to experiment with painting from photos.

One afternoon a couple of weeks ago I went out to the McKeldin area of Patapsco State Park. With the season’s shorter days upon us, there wasn’t enough time to complete a painting before dark, but I had just enough time to further explore some of the trails where I have been painting, looking for new locations for next year. I took my camera with me in case I came across some interesting sights.

I made a circle from the Rapids Trail to the Switchback Trail down to the North Branch and walking back up the hill, came across this six point stag browsing the vegetation. I was able to take several shots before he heard the shutter and turned around to look straight at me. After a few seconds of staring, he took off with a flick of his tail, running down the hill. I followed, but by the time I got back to the river, he was crossing the stream too far away for a good shot………Continue Here

And familiarize yourself with her website

I posted this email that was sent to me on Babalu and thought someone would be interested

Most recent political caricatures by Florida artist Jim McNalis

FIDEL CASTRO: Old Boca Grande

Meet Fidel Castro, old Boca Grande himself. The sculpture* captures his (as opposed to his audiences) enthusiasm in imparting wisdom during rambling 8 hour speeches. Attendance mandatory and god help you if you leave during this dissemination of wisdom. El Mentiroso is presenting his big, big carrot of Libertad and Freedom to an enthusiastic Cuba but spin him around and we discover that El Enganoso is actually delivering a huge surprise to his island nation. *Boca Grande is a new caricature in the series, The Dictators: Cheap Tin soldiers.  All original sculptures are in clay. Clay is dirt. How appropriate.
Sculptures are copyright jmcnalis 2010.

The Many Faces of CHE GUEVARA*

1. A key figure in deposing the Batista regime.
2. A key figure in the New regime. Appointed Minister of Industry and President of the National Bank. Unqualified and inept, Che crippled the Cuban economy which resulted in food rationing.
3. Che reassigned. Che the vengeful. Che the butcher…..Continue Here