| 4. | Cuba
DVD directed by Richard Lester featuring Sean Connery, Jack Weston & Denholm Elliott. Academy AwardÂ(r) winner* Sean Connery (Entrapment) and Brooke Adams (Gas Food Lodging) lead an all-star cast in this sweeping story of two old flames caught up in the chaos, fury and exhilaration of Cuba's revolution. Directed by Richard Lester (A Hard Day's Night) andwritten by Charles Wood (The Charge of the Light Brigade), Cuba is an exciting and "intelligent thriller" (Roger Ebert). Havana, Cuba. 1959. A tropical island paradise is on the brink of revolution. Robert Dapes (Connery), a cynical British mercenary, comes to the country at the request of one of Batista's most corrupt functionaries, General Bello (Martin Balsam). But once there, Dapes finds himself unable to ignore the brutality and depravity of the Batista regimeand unable to resist Alexandra Pulido (Adams), an old lover now married to a wealthy Cuban landowner. Surrounded by volatile guerilla fighters and the human vultures present at all coups, he must come to terms with his shifting views if he has any thought of getting out alive. *1987: Supporting Actor, The Untouchables
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| 5. | Cuba
Audio CD. The music of Cuba developed from a unique set of historical and social circumstances. African slaves, brought to work on the Spanish sugar plantations, soon outnumbered the European colonists. The attitude of the Spanish political and religious institutions towards African culture, while undeniably oppressive, was more open than in some other colonial societies. Catholic priests did their best to convert the Africans to Christianity, but they overlooked their worship of African deities as long as they gave them Christian names. In fact, santeria, a religion that combines Catholicism with African deities and rituals, is still a key part of Cuban spiritual life.
Most of the songs on this collection are a style called son, (lit. "sound") one of the most popular and influential Cuban musical forms. Son developed around the turn of the century in Oriente, a region in eastern Cuba. Migrating musicians brought son west to Havana in the 1920s, where it exploded in popularity. The fundamental element of the son is a rhythmic pattern called clave (lit. "key"). Played on two wooden sticks, called claves, this repetitive beat is the foundation upon which all of the other musical elements are structured. It gives son the propulsive swing that has endeared it to people around the world. Most contemporary salsa is based on son.
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| 7. | The Bay of Pigs: Cuba 1961 (Elite)
Paperback by Alejandro Quesada. In early 1961 President John F. Kennedy gave the go-ahead to an existing plan for Cuban exiles to return to overthrow Fidel Castro's communist regime. While the CIA helped in the planning stages, the attempt would not be assisted by any US armed forces. On the night of April 16, 1961, a force of 1,400 exiles, known as 2506 Brigade, landed at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba, supported by a few World War II vintage aircraft flying from Nicaragua. While they succeeded in knocking out some of Castro's small air force on the ground, the remaining Cuban aircraft sank two of the exiles' support ships, and the beachhead became isolated. Fighting continued for three days before Castro's army overwhelmed the landing force. Most of the exiles were captured and suffered a harsh imprisonment before the US negotiated their release. This episode, followed by the installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba, led directly to the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, and continues to affect US/Cuban diplomatic relations to this day. This book, written by the nephew of a surviving 2506 Brigade veteran, includes detailed color plates, unpublished photographs, and interviews with veterans.
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