by the El Reportero’s staff
Members of the Cuban National Ballet. (PHOTO BY REUTERS)Seven members of the Cuban National Ballet defected during a recent tour in Mexico and all but one have crossed the border into the United States, a Miami-based news Web site reported.
Six of the defectors crossed the U.S.-Mexico border into Texas and have been in Miami since last Friday after petitioning for political asylum, the Cafe Fuerte Web site said.
“It’s the toughest decision I’ve ever made, but we’re not thinking about the past, just the future. We decided to seek out a better artistic life and economic wellbeing for our families,” Annie Ruiz Diaz, a 24-year-old dancer, told Cafe Fuerte.
In addition to Ruiz, Ariadnni Martin, 20; Randy Crespo, 22; Luis Victor Santana, 23; Edward Gonzalez, 23; and Jose Justiz, 20, also have arrived in Miami.
A seventh member of the group, Alejandro Mendez, 20, is still in Mexico, Cafe Fuerte said.
The members of the Cuban National Ballet traveled to Mexico on March 17 at the outset of the company’s 2013 international tour.
New album for Latin Grammy-winning Bajofondo
Latin Grammy-winning band, Bajofondo have released their new album ‘Presente’, March 5, via Sony Masterworks. Presente is an epic 21-track high-energy tour de force that blends a multitude of traditionally dichotomous genres seamlessly. Gustavo Santaolalla, winner of a Golden Globe, 2 Oscars, 2 Grammys, and 12 Latin Grammys, describes the album as “a trip that takes you from the most magical to the most epic urban moments.”
The North American tour has offered crowds a chance to see one of the most acclaimed live acts in the world that recently drew hundreds of thousands at an outdoor performance in Buenos Aires.
Juanes’ autobiography will include “a Tour of Obscure Memories”
Touching stories about his beginnings, what influenced his music, the burden of fame, his relations with God and even the death of his father – Juanes’ first book is an intimate door to his life.
“I gave myself the job of writing and this was what came out – a tour of obscure memories” from 40 years in the life of this Colombian artist and compiled in Chasing the Sun (Persiguiendo el Sol), which hits bookstores on Tuesday in both English and Spanish.
In an interview with Efe, Juanes explains what it meant for him to sit down and write an autobiography, a task that took him around six months and which actually began as a book of photos for which he intended to write some explanatory captions and comments.
“It was a very special way to travel back to the beginning,” said Juanes, who, with the help of those photos, many of them never published, recalled “everything that affected me in a positive way.”
Writing this book “was an exercise that allowed me to tell a little about who I was and who I am today,” said Juan Esteban Aristizabal Vásquez, who has sold more than 16 million discs and who admits that his mind went blank the first time he sat down in front of his computer.
Six months later the book has been published, though he has no ambitions to be considered a writer. “This was a first-time exercise, I had never written so much altogether,” the winner of 19 Latin Grammy Awards and two Grammys said.
He speaks openly about how he felt at the death of his father, and even about the importance of religion in his life.
“I have a very personal interpretation of God,” he said, “and for me it’s essential to have faith. It’s very hard not to have it. Every time I have wandered away from that core belief, my life hasn’t worked and I learned that we don’t have to question everything.”
