- published: 17 Sep 2011
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Cienfuegos is a city on the southern coast of Cuba, capital of Cienfuegos Province. It is located about 250 km (160 mi) from Havana, and has a population of 150,000. The city is dubbed La Perla del Sur (Pearl of the South). Cienfuegos literally translates to "Hundred fires".
Near the entrance to Bahia de Cienfuegos (bahia meaning "bay") is Castillo de Jagua (full name Castillo de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles de Jagua), a fortress erected in 1745 for protection against Caribbean pirates.
Cienfuegos, one of the chief seaports of Cuba, is a center of the sugar trade, as well as coffee and tobacco. While sugarcane is the chief crop, local farmers grow coffee.
The downtown contains 6 buildings from 1819–50, 327 buildings from 1851–1900, and 1188 buildings from the 20th century. There is no other place in the Caribbean which contains such a remarkable cluster of Neoclassical structures.
In 2004, the municipality of Cienfuegos had a population of 163,824. With a total area of 333 km2 (129 sq mi), it has a population density of 492.0 /km2 (1,274 /sq mi).
Camilo Cienfuegos Gorriarán (February 6, 1932 – October 28, 1959) was a Cuban revolutionary born in Lawton, Havana. Raised in an anarchist family that had left Spain before the Spanish Civil War, he became a key figure of the Cuban Revolution, along with Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Juan Almeida Bosque, and Raúl Castro.
In 1940 Camilo enrolled in the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro", but soon after had to quit his studies due to financial problems. During this period he started working as an apprentice in the "El Arte" fashion store in downtown Havana.
Around 1948 he started to get involved in political issues, taking part in the popular protests against the rise of the bus tariffs.
In 1954 he became an active member of the underground students movement against Dictator Fulgencio Batista. This involvement led him to be wounded by firearm on December 7, 1955, during a popular protest organized to honor Cuban independence hero Antonio Maceo. After being harassed by police and without a job, he decided to leave Cuba and travelled again to the U.S., in particular to New York. He was later expelled from the U.S., when his residence permit expired, and relocated to Mexico.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈtʃe ɣeˈβaɾa]; June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia within popular culture.
As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout Latin America and was radically transformed by the endemic poverty and alienation he witnessed. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to conclude that the region's ingrained economic inequalities were an intrinsic result of capitalism, monopolism, neocolonialism, and imperialism, with the only remedy being world revolution. This belief prompted his involvement in Guatemala's social reforms under President Jacobo Arbenz, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow solidified Guevara's political ideology. Later, while living in Mexico City, he met Raúl and Fidel Castro, joined their 26th of July Movement, and sailed to Cuba aboard the yacht, Granma, with the intention of overthrowing U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to second-in-command, and played a pivotal role in the victorious two-year guerrilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime.
Actors: Julia Ormond (actress), Alberto Iglesias (composer), Rodrigo Santoro (actor), Yul Vazquez (actor), Jorge Perugorría (actor), Benicio Del Toro (producer), Guillermo Ríos (actor), Demian Bichir (actor), Luis Alberto García (actor), Benicio Del Toro (actor), Gerardo Albarrán (actor), Jsu Garcia (actor), Bruno Bichir (actor), Jose Manuel Ballesteros (miscellaneous crew), Steven Soderbergh (director),
Plot: The Argentine, begins as Che and a band of Cuban exiles (led by Fidel Castro) reach the Cuban shore from Mexico in 1956. Within two years, they mobilized popular support and an army and toppled the U.S.-friendly regime of dictator Fulgencio Batista.
Keywords: 1950s, 1960s, adult-illiteracy, agrarian-reform, american-sailor, armed-forces, army, assault, battle, bazookaActors: Raúl Méndez (actor), John Altman (composer), Carmen Zapata (actress), Tony Plana (actor), Gael García Bernal (actor), Jorge Zárate (actor), Ken Jenkins (actor), Diego Luna (actor), Fernando Becerril (actor), George Lopez (actor), Roger Cudney (actor), Guillermo Díaz (actor), Hector Elizondo (actor), Denise Blasor (miscellaneous crew), Cassandra Barbour (miscellaneous crew),
Plot: Fact-based (?) drama about the rise of Fidel Castro from a respected lawyer in Cuba to rabble-rousing dissident to power-hungry ruler of his nation. One wonders about the facts in this very homogenized presentation though. The story goes something like this: Fidel meets future wife, gets married, has a child, political aspirations get in way of family, Fidel has a politically-motivated affair, gets thrown in jail, gets expelled from the country, comes back and fights out of the jungle for a few years, casts then leader Baptistsa out of power and seizes leadership. Once seizing power, he kills everyone who opposes him or disagrees with him - although once again this aspect is very watered down. The promised idea of a free election is also quickly dismissed as not in the people's best interests. Fidel's immense popularity with the people at the time of his coming into power is depicted, but the anti-Castro thought is only briefly touched upon in a discussion with a former restaurant worker with whom Castro comes in contact and in follow-up notes at the film's end. The film may have been more successful if it ended at his rise to power as there are way too many unanswered questions about the years that follow. The Cuban missile crisis is only briefly touched upon and Castro's belief that he will be able to work with President Kennedy appears totally naive.
Keywords: character-name-in-title, che-guevara, communism, cuba, cuban, fidel-castro, government, one-word-title, revolutionActors: Richard Fleischer (director), Joe Gray (actor), Lalo Schifrin (composer), Omar Sharif (actor), Woody Strode (actor), Rodolfo Acosta (actor), Jesús Franco (actor), Sid Haig (actor), John F. Kennedy (actor), Robert Loggia (actor), Abraham Sofaer (actor), Paul Picerni (actor), Jack Palance (actor), Cesare Danova (actor), Sy Bartlett (writer),
Plot: Biography of Argentinian revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who helped Fidel Castro in his struggle against the corrupt Batista regime, eventually resulting in the overthrow of that government and Castro's taking over of Cuba. The film covers Guevara's life from when he first landed in Cuba in 1956 to his death in an ambush by government troops in the mountains of Bolivia in 1967.
Keywords: ambush, asthma, balcony, blood, bolivia, bolivian-army, bolivian-history, brandy, bullet-riddled-body, bullet-wound