Sustainable peasant agriculture, which first arose in Cuba in response to the economic crisis in the early 1990s, has been going from strength to strength. A recent study, carried out jointly by ANAP (the Cuban National Association of Small Farmers) and La Via Campesina, shows that the involvement of the peasant farmers themselves, that results from the Campesino-to-Campesino social process methodology, is a key element in accounting for this success.

The French beverage and liquor company Pernod Ricard expressed satisfaction last week at a Spanish court ruling in its favour on its rights to the Havana Club trademark.

Ian FitzSimons, legal director for Pernod Ricard, said in a press release that the Spanish Supreme Court decision to reject Bacardiâ�Ös challenge against Pernod's and Cuba's ownership of Havana Club confirmed the transparency of the French company's actions.

British musician Jimmy Page, former guitarist for the legendary rock band Led Zeppelin, made a surprise visit of several days to Cuba, it was confirmed here Tuesday.

Prensa Latina learned that the 67-year-old rocker left Cuba on Monday after a visit that included tours of historic sites, and purchases of souvenirs such as the famous photograph of Che Guevara taken by Alberto Korda and albums by local artists.

Rene Francisco has just received the 2010 Visual Arts National Award, the highest distinction that is granted in Cuba within that artistic field.

The Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies at University College London, in association with the Escuela International de Cine y Television in Cuba and Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada, is pleased to offer an intensive, hands-on Documentary Summer School in Cuba next summer, running from Monday 27 June until Friday 22 July 2011. The workshop will be held at the world-famous Escuela Internacional de Cine y Television which is situated just 30 miles outside Havana in San Antonio de los Baños. Founded in 1986 by Gabriel García Marquez, the International Film and Television School — known as a 'Vatican for Film-Makers' — is now directed by Tanya Valette, one of the first generation of graduates from the school in 1990.

The course will be taught by one of the School's regular professors, Enrique Colina, who has been making innovative documentaries and films for over twenty years, gaining many international awards for his work. He is also well known in Cuba as the host of an enormously popular TV show about cinema of the 1970s and 1980s called "24 x Segundo" (24 Times a Second). One of his recent films, Entre ciclones (Between Cyclones, 2003), was shown to great acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival. Professor Stephen Hart of the Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies at UCL, is the co-ordinator and co-instructor of the course and he will be travelling with the group from London to the Film School.

Santiago de Cuba is preparing to celebrate a great party dedicated to music and dance lovers in May 2011, during the 15th Cubadisco International Fair, a tribute to Son and to this city.

The 2011 International Book Fair in Cuba will feature a new assortment of the best history and literature of the Latin America and the Caribbean in the last 200 years, the ALBA Bicentennial Collection.

Watch this great video about the music of the Creole Choir of Cuba and the making of their recent album Tande-La.

One of the most enjoyable – and surprising- hits of the last couple of years in the UK was the success of this phenomenal choir, whose repertoire consists of traditional Haitian songs sung in a style suggesting that they hail from the island of Haiti itself. And yet they are all Cuban, from the city of Camaguey, which does not even boast a ‘tumba francesa', the old cultural centres for the Haitian descendents which still survive in Santiago and Guantanamo.
Indeed, much of the music on this recently released album does not sound ‘typically Cuban' at all- it is often intense and full of passion, with soulful solo singing set against a pulsating and rhythmic chorus and typical Haitian drums.

When Carlos Acosta and Tamara Rojo run onto the stage of the O2 arena in June next year, the Royal Ballet's greatest stars will be following in the footsteps of Gary Barlow, Roger Federer and, last week, Arcade Fire's Régine Chassagne. Dancing Romeo and Juliet, they will be greeted by more than 13,000 fans and will be playing their part in a ballet boom that looks set to sweep Britain in 2011.

Enter the Cuba50 competition now

The director of Hello Hemingway, Madagascar, Life is to Whistle and Suite Havana, among other films, won the Colon de Plata to the best art direction in the Festival Iberoamericano held in Huelva, Spain, with Jose Marti: The Canary's Eye, his most recent feature film.

Alfredo Guevara, president of the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema has announced that no less than 515 full- and medium-feature films, documentaries and animations are to be screened in Havana from December 2 through 12, and "although quantity is not always synonymous with quality, it speaks volumes for the diversity that we are seeking and which is dependent on every country’s annual production, not on the Festival."

An Afternoon in Havana – Piano Music from Cuba
Eralys Fernández, 2010

This is a delightful CD of Cuban piano music played and produced at the Guildhall Music School in London by the exceptionally gifted young Cuban pianist Eralys Fernández.

AfroCubism
Womad festival legend has it that the most exiting music was always played backstage as the various musicians met over a drink and shared their ideas and styles with each other. This album takes this idea to its extreme in that World Circuit has finally united some of the greatest musicians in the world for a session exploring the best of both traditions.