Here’s to a great AtoZ!
Join in the FUN. |
This year I traveled to Cuba. You know, it’s that little island that’s spitting distance from Florida and should not be visited without special dispensation. I wanted to see it before MacDonald’s arrived. I’m so glad I did. I learned a lot and I met some wonderful people. It seems they like us. Now there’s a change!
I’ll add a short T/F quiz to each post the same as I did last year about Burma, and I’ll post the answers to the questions the following day.
FALSE 1. The average teacher in Cuba doesn’t make anywhere near $100 a month. The information I got while there was they make about $15 a month.
Two extra people stepped in to have their picture taken! |
Q is for Quartets
The Cubans are nothing if not musical, and everywhere you go you’ll find groups playing great and very danceable music. Usually I found Quartets and they always had CDs available for sale. $10 seemed to be the going price. The quality of the home-made CDs is rather tinny, but the rhythm can’t be beaten.
The history of Cuban music is amazingly complicated. Spain brought its rhythmic flair. African slaves created many percussive instruments they remembered from their homeland. They formed social clubs called the cabildos and gathered together to play their music as well as socialize. Santeria, the religion from Haiti, added it’s influence. The native folk music had its influence as well, and anthropologists are still tracing many of these early musical roots by talking to musicians today. They want to know what passed from Great-Grand Father to Grand Father to Father to Son. This crossroads of the Caribbean is a musical treasure trove of history.
Answers tomorrow.