Like many other festivals of this type in Cuba, the charangas (popular son-influenced Cubanmusic that began in the 1940s emphasizing flute, violin and piano orchestra) are related toChristmas celebrations, when white Catholics and black slaves would take to the streets withtheir musical instruments to pay tribute to their deities. Eventually, they divided into twogroups: La Musicanga, which gathered the criollos (freed blacks and slaves); and Los Malayos(representing the Spaniards). Thanks to the fusion of cultures that characterizes Cuban identity,racial and class differences were lost with time, and belonging to one or another side was simplydetermined by each person’s preference. Rivalry between both sides today - now named LaCeiba de Plata and La Espina de Oro - consists in the ability to construct the most colourful andstriking floats. The traditional music of the orchestra Los Tambores de Bejucal accompanies thisfestivity now attended not only by the inhabitants of the town, 20 km south of Havana, but byhundreds of visitors who enjoy the fantasy and creativity of designers, engineers, painters,musicians, choreographers, and dancers whose talent guarantees the vitality of one of the oldestpopular celebrations in Cuba.

Held as a way of expressing the identity and cultural diversity of different countries, this fairhas promoted arts and crafts attracting thousands of visitors each year. Lectures, exhibits,fashion shows, sales and the crafts themselves offer an opportunity for interaction and exchangebetween artists and the public. In its 11 previous editions, the original treatment ofcontemporary design in handicrafts has been remarkable, in pieces which, without losing theirancestral nature, exhibit an undisputable touch of modernity, whether applied to textiles,fibres, leather, precious and semiprecious stones, metals, clay, or any other material ready tobe fashioned and beautified through the sensitivity of craft artists.

Since 1979, Havana has been the venue for the New Latin American International Film Festival,which has served as a launch pad for Latin American cinematography and become one of theleading film festivals of the region. Awards are given in categories that include animation,documentary, fiction, first work, unpublished script and poster, as well as best direction,screenplay, actor, actress, art direction, photography, music, film editing and sound. Numerousprofessional workshops and seminars also take place during the festival, plus the much awaitedscreenings of international contemporary cinema.

Legend has it that during the 1820s, a young priest officiating in Remedios—the eighth townfounded by the Spaniards in Cuba—decided to have a group of children make a noise withwhatever they had to hand in an effort to awaken lazy parishioners to attend mass in the chillymornings of 24th December. From then on, neighbours would go out into the streets on the nightsprior to Christmas for music and merrymaking. From 1871, a competition or “parranda” betweentwo neighbourhoods—El Carmen and San Salvador—took place, each with its own hymn, colours,kites and lanterns. In 1875, complicated floats lit by flares and fireworks were paraded by eachside at the town’s Plaza de Armas (town square). To this day, the two neighbourhoods continuewith a rivalry characterized by the beauty and originality of these floats, as well as by theamazing pyrotechnics that from 9 pm on 24th December to dawn on 25th December, illuminatethe city sky. Both sides keep their floats secret from each other during the course of the yearwith even members of the same family on either side of the fence sworn to secrecy against eachother. Although these festivities have spread to other nearby localities of Guayos and Camajuaní,the Parrandas de Remedios are the oldest and most well known on the island.

Initiated in Havana in 1960 to draw attention to the most significant literary production in LatinAmerica—and at a later date, the Caribbean, too—in the genres of poetry, novel, short story,essay, theatre and testimony, as well as works in other languages spoken in the region, the Casade las Américas Literary Award has gathered outstanding figures of contemporary writing,including Miguel Ángel Asturias, Mario Vargas Llosa, Julio Cortázar, Alejo Carpentier, AllenGinsberg, Nicolás Guillén, Nicanor Parra, Jaime Sabines, Alfredo Bryce Echenique, GuillermoCabrera Infante, Eduardo Galeano, Paco Ignacio Taibo II, José Lezama Lima, Italo Calvino, CamiloJosé Cela, José Saramago, to name a few. Throughout the years, many of the prize-winningworks have become classics of the continent’s literature; thus, each year’s announcementcreates great expectations among the public, who also have the opportunity to attend collateralactivities programmed during the event.