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  • First Friday Hawaii
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  • Pacific Traditions Gallery - Cuban Culture

  • Type: Exhibit
    Date: Friday - 12/5/2008
    Time: 6PM - 9PM
    Location:
    19 N. Pauahi Street
    Honolulu, Hawaii 96817
    Chinatown
    (808) 741-4612
    View Map
    Cost:
Please join us. Come send personalized Art Cards to Our Warriors!

Pacific Traditions Gallery –19 N. Pauahi Street, and Louis Pohl Gallery – 1111 Nuuanu Avenue have come together to bring some joy into the lives of wounded Service Women and Men who are in Medical Facilities during the Holidays.

Holidays can be very lonely when you are confined in a hospital far away from home and loved ones.
The Galleries have Art Cards, stamps and addresses for you to purchase. You may personalize the cards and send to our Warriors. Just this card can raise the quality of life for individuals, families and communities. Please show the Aloha Spirit!

“Art is the triumph over chaos”. ~John Cheeve

TOYS FOR TOTS
First Friday, December 5th
For people who are coming to the Arts District on First Friday, please bring a new unwrapped “Toy for Tots” and drop off at The Hawaii Peace Center @ Pacific Traditions Gallery – 19 N. Pauahi Street
The mission of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program is to collect new, unwrapped toys during October, November and December each year, and distribute those toys as Christmas gifts to needy children in the community.

Now in its 61st year, Toys for Tots provides joy and a message of hope to economically disadvantaged children through the gift of a new toy during the Christmas holiday season. Our gifts offer these children hope, recognition and a positive memory they will cherish for a lifetime. Many of the gifts we provide, such as books, games and sports equipment, make a significant contribution to the educational, social and recreational development of these children. In 2007, Marines distributed gifts to 7.5 million children in over 600 communities nationwide.

Cuban Culture
First Friday, December 5th

Keeping tradition and history close is Puerto’s passion. Often encountering a lack of awareness about Cuba and its culture, Puerto strives to help that awareness grow. Jesus Puerto, owner of Soul de Cuba Café on Bethel Street here in the Arts District of Chinatown has graciously allowed us to explore the culture of Cuba through paintings, music, food and films for the month of December 2008.

The Soul de Cuba Café concept is rooted in the idea of promoting and preserving Afro-Cuban culture through sharing traditional Cuban and African food and art.

Cuban culture is a colorful, interesting, an often extraordinary mix of people, music, food and religions. Traditionally, Cuba is a meeting point of European, African, and continental North American cultures.
Traditional Cuban food is, as most cultural aspects of this country, a syncretism of Spanish, African and Caribbean cuisines, with a small but noteworthy Chinese influence. Most popular foods are black beans, stews, and meats. Coffee is of high quality and grown mainly for export, the common coffee drunk in Cuba is imported from Africa.

Cuban Art: From the mid 19th century onward, taste and the appreciation of painting developed in Cuba at the same pace as the intellectual environment of the island was infused with new activities. Cuban art from 1959 to the present represents the Revolutionary period. The serigraphic heritage was adopted by the Revolution in the first few months of 1959.

Cuban music has its principal roots in Spain and West Africa, but over time has been influenced by diverse genres from different countries.

The roots of most Cuban musical forms lie in the cabildos, a form of social club among African slaves brought to the island. The cabildos were formed from the Igbos, Araras, Bantu, Carabalies, Yorubas, and other civilizations/tribes. Cabildos preserved African cultural traditions, even after the Emancipation in 1886 forced them to unite with the Roman Catholic Church. At the same time, a religion called Santer’a was developing and had soon spread throughout Cuba, Haiti and other nearby islands. Santer’a influenced Cuba's music, as percussion is an inherent part of the religion. Each orisha, or deity, is associated with colors, emotions, Roman Catholic saints and drum patterns called toques. By the 20th century, elements of Santer’a music had appeared in popular and folk forms.

December 17th: Yoruba/Santeria feast of Orisha Babalu Aye, Healer of Deadly Diseases
Cuban History: The largest island of the West Indies group (equal in area to Pennsylvania), Cuba is also the westernmost—just west of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and 90 mi (145 km) south of Key West, Fla., at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico. The island is mountainous in the southeast and south-central area (Sierra Maestra). It is flat or rolling elsewhere. Cuba also includes numerous smaller islands, islets, and cays.

Arawak (or Taino) Indians inhabiting Cuba when Columbus landed on the island in 1492 died from diseases brought by sailors and settlers.

By 1511, Spaniards under Diego Vel‡squez had established settlements. Havana's superb harbor made it a common transit point to and from Spain.

In the early 1800s, Cuba's sugarcane industry boomed, requiring massive numbers of black slaves.
A simmering independence movement turned into open warfare from 1867 to 1878. Slavery was abolished in 1886. In 1895, the poet José Marti led the struggle that finally ended Spanish rule.
An 1899 treaty made Cuba an independent republic under U.S. protection. The U.S. occupation, which ended in 1902, suppressed yellow fever and brought large American investments. The 1901 Platt Amendment allowed the U.S. to intervene in Cuba's affairs, which it did four times from 1906 to 1920. Cuba terminated the amendment in 1934.

In 1933 a group of army officers, including army sergeant Fulgencio Batista, overthrew President Gerardo Machado. Batista became president in 1940, running a corrupt police state.

In 1956, Fidel Castro Ruz launched a revolution from his camp in the Sierra Maestra mountains. Castro's brother Raul and Ernesto (Ché) Guevara, an Argentine physician, were his top lieutenants. Many anti-Batista landowners supported the rebels. The U.S. ended military aid to Cuba in 1958, and on New Year's Day 1959, Batista fled into exile and Castro took over the government.

In 1956, Fidel Castro Ruz launched a revolution from his camp in the Sierra Maestra Mountains. Castro's brother Raul and Ernesto (Ché) Guevara, an Argentine physician, were his top lieutenants. Many anti-Batista landowners supported the rebels. The U.S. ended military aid to Cuba in 1958, and on New Year's Day 1959, Batista fled into exile and Castro took over the government.

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