The Canadian airline WestJet opens high tourist season in Holguín with its first flight corresponding to winter season, which is scheduled until next April.

The airplane coming from Toronto arrived with more than 170 passengers at the international airport Frank País, as traditionally from 2009 when it started operations in this area.

This Canadian tour operator keeps two flights weekly on Mondays and Saturdays, from November until April, when there are more tourists visiting the greater of the Antilles. 

WestJet is the biggest and most popular Canadian airline with regular traffic to Cuba, specifically Holguín, bringing many repeaters who talk about the hospitality and good service received in hotels of this tourist area.

Yusandra Sánchez, commercial deputy director of Viajes Cubanacán, informed that WestJet along with the Russian tour operator Pegas Touristik, which has direct flights to Holguín since December 25th, 2017, have achieved the biggest operations with this Cuban agency in Holguín tourist area each year.

Nowadays, the Holguín airport receives between 40 and 45 flights weekly, but in high tourist season there are about 70. Mostly, they are coming from Canada, Germany, Russia and the United States, the latter owns American Airlines (AA) and JetBlue, which will not be able to flight anymore to Holguín departing from December, due to the extreme measures imposed by the American government of Donald Trump against Cuba, regardless three year of having established regular flights between both destinations.

The ceramics of Chulucanas, representative works of the artisanal traditions of Peru, deserved the Iberoarte-2019 Grand Prix awarded by the Cuban Fund of Cultural Property (FCBC) during the International Craft Fair, held in the city of Holguín from October 11th to the 26th.

The event with permanent headquarters in the eastern city since 2001 counted on this occasion with the participation of more than 60 foreign exhibitors and around 40 Cubans, who marketed several articles of the different manifestations of manual art.

Peruvian artist José Antonio Núñez said that Chulucanas pottery is conceived out of special clay, which is only found in that town belonging to the department of Piura, located in the north of Lima, capital of the South American nation.    

The pieces, he explained, are sold in more than 60 countries and are considered the flagship product of that Andean country because of its traditional nature based on ancestral practices.

Colors are achieved naturally, with banana and mango leaves, for which they perform seven types of baking until conceiving the expected nuances with a predominance of black tones, he added when referring to the creation process.

The individual award for the best textile works was received by artists Joaquín Teodosio and Ernesto Fonseca, who proved mastery of the techniques of fraying and hand embroidery, typical of the city of Trinidad, belonging to the province of Sancti Spíritus, considered a World Artisan City, to which this fair edition was dedicated.

During the event, the collection of art books was also recognized, presented by the Holguín publisher Cuadernos Papiro, whose work is distinguished by the use of manufactured paper, typologies of the eighteenth century besides American machinery dating from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

In the category of fashion shows, the award went to the Sublime Collection of the designer María del Carmen Aguilera for her creation of nice, comfortable and current garments departing from the combination of techniques between two and crochet-knitted tips.

The jury was chaired by the architect Carmen Hernández Torres from the Holguín branch of FCBC, while Manuel Hernández Ramos, director of that entity, announced the call for the 2020 edition, which will take place again in the eastern city.

Ernesto Santiesteban Velázquez, first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba in Holguín, and Julio César Estupiñán Rodríguez, president of the Assembly of People’s Power at that level, attended the closing ceremony of the craft event.

Each year the Iberoarte international craft fair is one of the most popular events among Holguín people and foreigners. National and foreign artists bring their styles to this city to turn it into the city of Ibero-american art and fashion.  

On this occasion, the chosen fairgrounds were ExpoHolguín and Plaza de la Marqueta. Our aldia.cu team reached these places to show you a little bit what it was about. We invite you to make this tour with us.

This edition had more than a hundred stands destined for the sale of dissimilar articles. Art works, fabrics, handicrafts from Peru, the main exhibitor country, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Ecuador, India and Spain were exhibited at the sales tables. In addition to the articles with Cuban seal, which arrived from nine provinces of Cuba.

This year the event was dedicated to the textile craft, the city of Trinidad as an artisan city, also Gibara for its creative movement linked to tourism, besides the 300th anniversary of Holguín.

After 18 years of creation, Iberoarte is a space for artistic reaffirmation, traditions, cultural exchanges and unity among peoples.

Fotos: Hiran Ricardo