Portal:Cuba

In 1978 negotiations known as El Diálogo (The Dialogue) occurred between Cuban exile groups and the Cuban government that resulted in the release of political prisoners.

The dialogue came after increasing calls for better diplomatic relations to Cuba from young Cuban American groups, and US President Jimmy Carter's new human rights oriented foreign policy. The negotiations originated with Jimmy Carter meeting in secret with Cuban officials in New York and Havana. After the talks resulted in prisoner release, Carter refused to publicly acknowledge his involvement, and the Cuban government decided to publicly invite Cuban exiles to negotiate with them for a prisoner release. The Comite de los 75 (Committee of 75) formed as the 75 Cuban exiles who would be allowed to negotiate with Cuba. The dialogue and eventual prisoner release came with a new friendlier attitude from Fidel Castro in addressing Cuban exiles. While previously he referred to them with the epithet "gusano", he now referred to them as the "Cuban community abroad". The dialogue also spurred intense internal debate among Cuban exiles about the ethics and usefulness of the dialogue, and it resulted in violent attacks against dialogueros. (Full article...)

• ... that the 1919 foxtrot song "I'll See You in C-U-B-A" was an example of Cuba being perceived as "America's playground"?
• ... that after his release from a hospital for the criminally insane, Richard Dixon burgled $16 from a credit union and hijacked a jet to Cuba?
• ... that a hypothesized land bridge may have allowed some fish species to migrate from South America to Cuba?
• ... that after his movement's victory in the Cuban Revolution, television broadcasts showed Camilo Cienfuegos freeing parrots from birdcages, declaring that the birds had "a right to liberty"?

Charles Ashenoff (born Carlos Santiago Espada Moises; January 6, 1964), better known by his ring name Konnan, is a Cuban-born American professional wrestling personality, manager, and former professional wrestler. He is signed to Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA) and serves as a member of the creative team. During a career spanning almost three decades, he has wrestled for independent and national promotions in the United States and Mexico, and held fifteen title belts in nine promotions. He was also involved in the creation of Lucha Underground, where he was supposed to serve as a writer and producer, but ended up in an on-camera role as manager to Prince Puma throughout the first season. Outside of wrestling, Konnan is an occasional rapper.

He is best known to United States audiences for his run in World Championship Wrestling as part of the nWo stable and as part of The Filthy Animals. He also formed the 3 Live Kru for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in the early 2000s and later the Latin American Xchange (LAX) stable there. In Mexico, Konnan was the first-ever CMLL World Heavyweight Champion, and the leader of the Foreign Legion in AAA when they were the top stable. (Full article...)

Marta María Pérez Bravo (born 1959) is a Cuban artist who is best known for her black-and-white self-portraiture, in which she often uses her own body as the central subject-object to express her own belief in - and practice of - Afro-Cuban religions, particularly Santeria and Palo Monte. Much of her art is informed by this practice, and engages with the themes of ritual, motherhood and femininity, expressed through the highly stylized posing of her body, which is placed in relation to personally and ritually significant objects in her self-portraits. (Full article...)

• ...that soon after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, Fidel Castro pledged to underwrite the debts of the Havana Sugar Kings baseball team, by playing an exhibition contest between his own pickup squad Los Barbudos ("The Bearded Ones") and a military police team?

• ...that Organopónicos are urban Hydroponic units in Cuba that provide on the average 215 grams of organic vegetables per day to Cuban city dwellers?

• ...that the Cuban National Center for Sex Education is a government-funded body headed by Mariela Castro, daughter of Raúl Castro, which advocates tolerance of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and transgender issues on the island?

• ...that Narciso López fled Cuba for New York City in 1848 after a failed attempt to create a revolt among Cuban planters, and attempted three times to raise filibuster expeditions to invade Cuba from the U.S.?

• ...that Cuban Olympic athlete Alberto Juantorena's second name literally is Danger, and he is the only man to win an Olympic gold medal in both the 400 metres and 800 metres track events?