CUBA

Culture and Life!By Brett Bailey

Sources

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_art• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumba

ART• The first form of Cuban art is cave painting. Later testimonials included the cartographies of the

island, combined with impressions and myths developed by chroniclers. Unlike the other Latin American colonies, the island during the 15th and 16th centuries was very poor and neglected economically and therefore also of little significance culturally. Foreign artists streamed to Cuba, the "key to the New World", and a great number of paintings were brought from Spain to furnish chapels and churches. Art had a cult function before it became an expression of the culture in any real sense. In the colonial period, (which historically spans four centuries), only the 18th and above all the 19th centuries are significant in terms of the creation of Cuban art. This was the first time that art was thought of in Cuba as an occupation. The artists were mulattos or blacks - self-taught people who exchanged lessons with each other; they were regarded as craftsmen. José Nicolás de la Escalera y Domínguez is the first Cuban painter, with the exception of Tadeo Chirino from Santiago, who, although sixteen years younger, developed a work with more inaccuracies and primitivism.

ARCHITECTURE• The constructions erected in Cuba during the Spanish colonization are known as Cuban

Colonial Architecture, present in the island from the XVI century until the end of the XIX century. Today, there are only preserved constructions from the XVIII and XIX centuries. The Cuban Colonial Architecture has always seduced the travelers. There is a certain mystery in that outstanding survival above all obstacles, mainly time, that powerful enemy that destroys everything. The columns, arcades, rails, grills, stained-glass windows, and doors, became and endless part of the island’s atmosphere. This architectural style can be found mainly in cities like Havana, Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Camagüey and Santiago de Cuba, although is present all along the country. Nothing has been more transcendent and durable in Cuba than those constructions, except for the spirits and ideas. The only difference is that the last ones receive the impact of the social changes of our times, while the constructions last amazing and they still keep on adorning the Cuban atmosphere in an admirable way.

DANCE• Cuba is home to many types of music and dance which are very closely related to the

traditional forms of Cuban music. Most of these dances are derivatives of the traditional "son" music. One such popular dance is the mambo.The mambo is a dance which originated in the Haitian settlements of Cuba. The dance of the mambo is not found in Haiti, although Haitians brought the dance to Cuba. In Haiti, a voodoo princess is referred to as the Mambo (meaning conversation with the gods); she is the village counselor, healer, exorcist, soothsayer, spiritual advisor, and organizer of public entertainment (Barendrecht 1).The music of the mambo has both African and European characteristics. The European influences can be traced back to the seventeenth century dances, including England's country dance, France's contredanse, and Spain's contradanza. These European influences later arrived in the eighteenth century in Cuba becoming known as the danza and eventually becoming the national dance.

MUSIC• In the 19th century, the symphonies, operas, and piano music of Cuba was first

classical then became mainly Romantic. Antonio Raffelin (1796-1882) wrote a mass, many symphonies, and chamber music works in a Classical expression. Robredo Manuel Samuel, a productive composer, refined the contradanza with its typical dotted-figure attendant music, characteristic of the later habanera, danzon and other Latin American popular dance rhythms. Laureano Fuentes (1825-98) wrote sevaral chamber works, sacred pieces, a symphonic poem America, an opera Seila and many zarzuelas. Nicolas Ruiz Espadero (1832-90) wrote master piano pieces in a style derived from Liszt and Gottschalk, similar to his Chant du Guagiro. Gaspar Villete studied at the Paris Conservatoire and three of his operas were given their first play in Europe.