20 years
celebrating national identity
The Festival of Cuban Identity
(Fiesta de la Cubanía) returns for the 20th
year to its usual home of Bayamo, from October17-20,
with a celebration including a variety of
activities.
This year’s festival is dedicated to
the 145th anniversary of the burning of Bayamo and
the Constitution of the Republic in Arms, and will
include conferences, a craft fair, visual arts
exhibitions, music, literature, film, theater, dance
and traditional cooking.
According to the Cuban News Agency (AIN),
Carlos Rodriguez, executive secretary of the event
organizing committee, said in a press conference
that the Festival will open on the 17th with a
concert by Descemer Bueno, while its closure on the
20th will see Los Van Van pay tribute to their
leader Juan Formell.
Rodriguez also added that the 21st
Theoretical Conference on Cuban Nationality will
also take place during the festival; a space in
which researchers, scholars and specialists from
Bayamo and other regions of the country will come
together, in addition to guests from Mexico and
Dominican Republic.
He noted that an interactive forum
for the return of the three Cuban antiterrorist
fighters unjustly imprisoned in the United States
will also take place.
The festival will also honor the
Hermanos Saiz Association (AHS) on the occasion of
its 28th anniversary, and will see the
awarding of the Prize of Honor, the highest
distinction conferred by the AHS on personalities,
intellectuals and artists.
The Festival of Cuban Identity was
created thanks to Armando Hart Dávalos, who came up
with the idea; with the first edition was held in
October 1994.
