Latest news with #AlienFernandez
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Elderly Cubans hit the dance floor to ward off blackout blues
By Anett Rios and Alien Fernandez HAVANA (Reuters) -Cuban grandmother Ana Mirta Sanchez was not about to let an unexpected blackout in Havana on a weekday morning cramp her style during a regular group dance with 30 or so of her friends and fellow seniors. "Sure, the power went out, and yes, we're soaked in sweat, but we're having fun," said Sanchez, 87, stepping away from the dance floor in the sultry Caribbean heat. The program is meant to be a fun and healthy distraction for seniors in a country facing an economic crisis that has left many families short of food and medicine, said Lizt Alfonso, director of the Havana dance company named after him. "The power went out in the middle of the class," Alfonso said in an interview on the second floor of his studio overlooking the breezy Straits of Florida. "But we didn't stop. Nothing can take away these moments of joy." Such opportunities are few and far between in Cuba, where a fast-growing senior population has few leisure options beyond the home. Cuba is the most elderly nation in Latin America and the Caribbean, with over one-quarter of the population aged over 60 according to statistics agency ONEI, thanks to a plummeting birthrate and fast-growing migration, largely to the United States. The dance program is a breath of fresh air, said Antonio Viart, a 71-year-old Havana resident who shook his hips to the beat. "We are an increasingly elderly country. We can't turn back the clock, but we can try to maintain our quality of life."
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ancient Cuban flatbread makes comeback as economic crisis bites
By Alien Fernandez and Norlys Perez HAVANA (Reuters) - A bustling restaurant in old Havana offers diners a blast from the distant past - small circular flatbreads made from ground yucca served alone or topped with any combination of onion, tomato, pork and garlic. The dish, known locally as casabe, has been around for over a thousand years, historians said. More recently, it has mostly been relegated to field hands and Cuban country outposts. Now it may be making a comeback. Cuba's dire economic crisis has vastly reduced the import and production of such basics as wheat flour, sugar and salt. This has prompted some to give the simple flatbread another look. Its only ingredient is locally grown yucca root, also known as cassava. 'In a time of food crisis like the one we're currently experiencing, we believe cassava bread can help," said Yudisley Cruz, co-founder of Yucasabi, a small business and restaurant that promotes yucca-based products. Her small restaurant in touristy old Havana sells a single casabe for 15 pesos (4 cents), making it nutritious, delicious and affordable for both tourists and locals alike, she said. Cruz's restaurant - the only one in Cuba dedicated exclusively to yucca - is trying to popularize the flatbread in urban areas. But in the countryside, peddlers on foot, bike and moto-taxi sell casabe at even lower prices, a rare foodstuff nearly everyone can afford. Its near universal appeal, simplicity and cultural roots - it was first cooked on hot rocks by the indigenous Taino people in Cuba and elsewhere in the Caribbean - prompted the United Nations last year to add the food to its intangible cultural heritage of humanity list. Yucasabi, which features paintings of Tainos in Cuba's lush countryside on its walls, has given the ancient bread a modern spin, in hopes of attracting a new and larger clientele. "Casabe from Cuba, 100% artisanal, vegan, zero gluten," reads its advertising on social media. Simplicity, however, remains the flatbread's top selling point, says Julio Cesar Nunez, an 82-year-old traditional casabe producer who lives outside Havana. Nunez oversees the harvest, peeling, drying, grinding of the yucca root. That is formed into tortilla-like discs and cooked on sheet metal over flames. 'Anyone who takes the time to learn can do it," he said. (Reporting by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Cuba stages May Day rallies as tensions mount with US
By Alien Fernandez HAVANA (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Cubans gathered in Havana's Revolution Square for the traditional May Day march on Thursday, amid a grueling economic crisis and as tensions ratchet up with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. Raul Castro, 93, dressed in a military uniform and referred to as the leader of the revolution begun by his brother Fidel Castro in 1959, and President Miguel Diaz-Canel presided over the march. Diaz-Canel, in a message earlier this week, had called on residents to turn out despite the hard times in a show of unity in the face of increased U.S. pressure. The first Trump administration imposed new sanctions on the communist-run country on top of the decades-old trade embargo. The government says that action was the main cause of the current crisis, which has seen the economy shrink more than 15% over the last five years. "Everyone knew that they had to come because it is a moment of revolutionary reaffirmation in these convulsive and difficult times, and especially with imperialism intensifying its policies against Cuba," Diego Fernandez, 42, said as he marched in the Cuban capital. Other national leaders fanned out across the country to similar events, where large numbers of residents braved blackouts, poor transportation and a scarcity of basic goods to march. "This celebration of Labor Day in Cuba is a new demonstration of the respect of the Cuban People for their revolution," Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, president of the Cuban Federation of Workers, said as he opened the Havana event. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has promised to "get tough" with Cuba, his parents' homeland. Mauricio Claver-Carone, the U.S. special envoy for Latin America, recently stated that new sanctions were being prepared and he believed a change of government in Cuba could be imminent. Cuba's foreign ministry this week blasted U.S. Chief of Mission Mike Hammer for using his office to foster "subversion" and arrested high-profile dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer, one of a number of government opponents the U.S. diplomat has visited recently. (Additional reporting by Marc Frank and Nelson Acosta; Editing by Paul Simao)
