Reviewing 'Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know'

Julia E. Sweig's book, "Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know," is reviewed by the Los Angeles Times' Marjorie Miller, who writes:

"For most of Cuba's history, and certainly since the revolution that brought Fidel Castro's Communist government to power, U.S. policy has penetrated nearly every facet of life in Cuba, making it virtually impossible for average Cubans to forget about the superpower next door. 

"This is driven home in `Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know,' Julia E. Sweig's forthcoming portrait of the country, where even chapters on domestic issues are as much about Cuba's relationship with the United States as they are about Cuba itself. Beginning with the Cuban war of independence from Spain through the end of Castro's rule in 2006, the long arm of the United States has reached across to the island."

You can read more from writer Sweig in the Washington Post earlier this month, where she wrote: 

"President Obama has promised to shut down the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, seeking to erase a blot on America's global image. He has also reached out to Cuba, easing some travel and financial restrictions in an effort to recast Washington's approach to the island. These two initiatives have proceeded on separate tracks so far, but now is the time to bring them together. Hiding in plain sight, the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay is the ideal place for Obama to launch a far-reaching transformation of Washington's relationship with its Communist neighbor."

--Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Orbitz gets on campaign trail to open travel to Cuba for Americans

As President Obama's administration considers lifting the ban on travel to Cuba for Americans (this poll on The Times' "Opinion L.A." blog shows sentiment leaning toward lifting the ban), travel companies have started to get on board.

Orbitz, the online travel company, has launched its own "Open Cuba" campaign asking for the travel ban to be lifted.

From the site's mission statement:

"Orbitz believes that Americans should have the freedom to travel the world, because our journeys lead to cross cultural understanding and stronger ties between citizens of all nations. The beaches of Cuba were once a premier Caribbean tourism destination for Americans, and they can be once again!"

The company and IPSOS carried out a survey on American views on the issue and report that 67% of Americans favor allowing Americans to travel to Cuba, and that 72% feel that expanding U.S. travel to Cuba would positively impact the lives of the Cuban people.

Not to mention that opening travel could help Orbitz's bottom line.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Castro makes his presence felt through blogging

Blogging isn't just confined to the young in Cuba, and someone other than the island's star blogger, Yoani Sanchez, is generating attention abroad with their cyber-scrawls.

The 82-year-old former President Fidel Castro may be out of the real-life spotlight, but his public musings are alive and well in the online world, as Bruce Wallace reports here on Foreign Exchange.

"Castro blogs with the frequency and energy he once devoted to his exhaustive and exhausting speeches," Wallace writes. "His Reflections by Comrade Fidel is translated into seven languages, and remains a fascination for Cuba watchers trying to measure the island's political mood -- though the extent of his remaining influence is unclear."

Click here to read extracts from Castro's online writings.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: Fidel Castro. Credit: Associated Press

*Edited Friday 6:25pm Mexico City time - AP video embedded.

Mexico on high alert for Obama; Americas summit awaits

Mexico City is on high alert this morning as it awaits the arrival of U.S. President Barack Obama, expected here today in his first official visit to Mexico.

Cuban blogger accused of 'provocation' against the country's revolution

Cuban authorities accused blogger Yoani Sanchez of "Generacion Y", one of La Plaza's linked blogs, of dissidence and "provocation against the Cuban Revolution" after she publicly spoke against Cuban censorship during an arts performance in Havana, Reuters reports.

The Knight Center for Journalism's "Journalism in the Americas" blog reports that Sanchez spoke during an event in the Havana Biennial arts festival and read a manifesto stating that the Internet was creating a "crack" in government control. She then added: "The time has come to jump over the wall of control."

"Since microphones are not abundant, I just took the opportunity," Sanchez wrote in her blog about the event.

Sanchez's blog is critical of the Cuban government and widely read abroad, but her Cuban readership is limited because Internet access is restricted on the island.

Read more on Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Pedro Zamora: from 'Real World' to legend

Choire Sicha writes about Pedro Zamora, an HIV-positive Cuban American gay man who died of AIDS the day after 1994's "The Real World: San Francisco" television season finale aired.

Zamora has inspired an MTV biopic, due to air Wednesday night.

"The young HIV educator -- he was 22 when he died -- was always on message. He brought a scrapbook of his education work to show his cast mates, immediately lectured them on HIV transmission and took them along on his speaking gigs. And he and his boyfriend, Sean Sasser, had a tear-jerking commitment ceremony before the cameras.

"That anyone who saw that season's 'Real World' cannot get Zamora's story out of their minds has led us to 'Pedro,' a biopic by MTV and 'Real World' creators Bunim-Murray, directed by Nick Oceano — and written by Dustin Lance Black of Oscar-winning 'Milk' fame. It airs on MTV Wednesday at 8 p.m., although some members of Congress are getting a sneak-peek screening earlier in the day. That is how big Zamora was. The film also includes a reenactment of then-President Clinton's phone call of appreciation to Zamora and his family. (On MTV, Clinton will introduce the film.)," writes Sicha.

Click here for the full story.

— Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Image: Pedro Zamora, by Ken Probst / MTV Networks

Guadalajara International Film Festival underway in Mexico

The Guadalajara International Film Festival, one of Mexico’s most important film events, kicked off Thursday.

The festival, which runs until March 27, is expecting visits from such figures as Gael Garcia Bernal, Mexican director Guillermo del Toro and actor and director John Malkovich, who was recently in Mexico overseeing the production here of the play “The Good Canary.”

Serbian director Emir Kusturica, who along with Garcia Bernal will be honored with one of the festival’s top prizes, is expected to unveil his documentary on Argentine football legend Diego Maradona.

Colombia is the guest of honor this year. Documentaries and both short and long film features by Colombian directors will be screened at the event.

The festival received more than 650 film entries seeking to compete for its coveted prizes.

A number of Mexican films will premiere during the festival, and the festival will also celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC).

Check in here for reporting from the Guadalajara International Film Festival on La Plaza. You can check out the festival's YouTube channel here.

See a review of one of the films showing at the festival -- writer-director Cary Joji Fukunaga's "Sin Nombre" -- here in today's Los Angeles Times.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: The poster for this year's festival. Credit: http://www.guadalajaracinemafest09.com/es/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/cartelficg24rgb.jpg

Singer Raul Malo emerges from musical melting pot

Raul Malo, a son of Cuban immigrants, grew up in the 1960s and 1970s in Miami, reveling in the pan-American sounds that washed over him from radio, television and out of the city's many nightclubs, writes Randy Lewis.

It turned him into a living, breathing testament to the wonders of the musical melting pot, in the '90s fronting the eclectic country-rock band the Mavericks and for most of this decade as a solo act. He is now widely regarded as one of the most gifted singers to emerge in the last two decades.

Read the full report here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: Raul Malo. Credit: Stefano Paltera / For the Times

Buena Vista Social Club bassist Lopez dead at 76

The Associated Press reports that Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez, considered the "heartbeat" of Cuba's legendary Buena Vista Social Club for his internationally acclaimed bass playing, died Monday of complications from prostate surgery, fellow musicians said. He was 76.

Lopez, a founding member of the band brought together in the 1990s by American guitarist and producer Ry Cooder, died in a Havana hospital several days after surgery, said Manuel Galban, a Cuban musician who played with Lopez for decades.

"We have lost a great companion," said Galban.

Read the rest of the report here, and you can enjoy a solo by "Cachaito" in the video below, grabbed from YouTube.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Cuban who banned Beatles dies

Reuters reports that the man who banned the Beatles from communist Cuba's radio and television stations has died.

According to the wire service, Cuban state television reported Tuesday that Jorge "Papito" Serguera had died at the age of 76.

Serguera, who at the time was president of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television, pulled Beatles music from the airwaves in the 1970s, but he later acknowledged that he enjoyed listening to it in private.

Read the full Reuters report here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City