Roamings of a Leo: Cuba February 14-21st

The trip with the UCLA Alumni Association to Cuba for a week was wonderful. We were guided to and from Cuba by outstanding UCLA guides, Jackie and Linda. Nelson was our excellent Cuba guide and the answer man for our 10,000 questions. Julie, our London born hostess, was our logistics expert and arranged for great fun, and Alex was our intrepid bus driver.

Here are a few pictures of the art I enjoyed in Cuba. It was a great week!

Our first stop at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba built in 1930 designed by McKim, Mead and White.

View from the Hotel Nacional de Cuba along the Malecon, sea wall.

The Hotel's pool

A hotel poster showing the guests who stayed there in the 1930's ad 1940's.

The Hotel Bar Music

Here I am with statues of Clark Gable and Nat King Cole in the hotel bar.

Fidel at the hotel in 1961.

While strolling along Prado Boulevard I enjoyed the work by artists selling their work.

This is Ismael Garcia, artist, holding the painting I purchased from him. I loved the folk art that I saw in Cuba.

The 1940's and 1950's cars are works of art.

The Capitol building is on the left and the opera house is the beautiful building on the right

My dad had a Plymouth from about that year...but no convertible.

Wonderful Music along the avenue

Sculpture on the Plaza

Some great Traditional Cubano Music

Time for a little cigar shopping

It's nice to sip a daiquiri with the essence of Ernest Hemingway at the Floridita Restaurant and Bar

This is some art I saw in the window while roaming down Obisbo Street in Old Havana

"El Abrazo" by Artist Carlos Vazquez

"Renaciendo en tu jardin" by Yoanis Gil Gonzalez

"Los Musicos" by Carlos Vazquez

A lady singing and selling peanuts with our Cuban guide, Nelson

Books for sale in a square in a Sunday afternoon

"Ritmo Cubano" sculpture by F. Gelabert, 1957 in the Riviera Hotel

Riviera Hotel's Mid Century Modern Lobby

"Buddy Bears" decorated from 128 nations to promote tolerance and understanding among nations, cultures and religion. These were located in the San Francisco plaza in old town.

A sculpture on a grave marker at a cemetary.

A painting on the wall of a building in Old Havana.

Creative art.

A night at the Tropicana founded in 1939. This outdoor spectacular show was great fun with amazing singers, music, and dancers.

We were guided to an amazing one block street that has been transformed by a non profit that succeeded in getting permission to close off the street and rehab the buildings. The street hosts three restaurants, art galleries, and a barber museum, shop, and barber school. They have used their earnings to provide two meals a day for the poor elderly in the neighborhood and built a wonderful playground for the children. The first paintings below are by the artist whose name is on the above sign.

Here is a view of the inviting one block long street.

This is the entrance to the barber museum/shop on the third floor.

The amazing salon. One from our group had her hair stylishly coiffed there for about $5.00.

Here is our guide through this amazing neighborhood.

The Figaro cafe where we enjoyed lunch

A ceramics studio where we purchased our gems.

Another art studio around the corner where a women has converted her apartment to a studio selling her creations and those of others.

These are scenes from inside the art gallery.

Notice the interesting 9-11 bill on the wall of the studio. This reflects the ambivalent feelings about the USA.

The play ground created by the neighborhood association.

This photo and the two below are from the Revolution Plaza where Fidel gave many 4 hour inspiring speeches to thousands. These are government buildings with Fidel and Che sculptures.

Between the Revolution Museum and the Palacio of Bellas Artes is a square of symbols of the revolution that ended in Fidel Castro's defeat of the Cuban military. There is also the original Granma boat that Fidel and Che took to Cuba from Mexico in 1956 to join the fighters in the mountains of Eastern Cuba.

A painting in the loby of the Art Museum.

A mosaic inside over the front door of the museum.

The museum courtyard. The museum was completed in 1954 and designed by Rodiguez Pichardo.

"Forma, Espacio y Luz," sculpture of Rita Lona

"La Cafedral," 2002-2003 by Roberto Fabelo, born Guaimaro, Camagiley, Cuba 1950 (note the aluminum coffee makers).

A sculpture designed by Roberto Fabelo. This is one of many that were installed in 2009 on the exterior of the building for an exhibit that is no longer there. Note the head of the sculpture....it is like the head of the artist.