News Archives - 2003

Experiencing the Cultural Side of Cuba

A group of Augsburg student writers and musicians traveled to Cuba to experience and study the Afro-Cuban religions traditions.

A group of Augsburg student writers and musicians traveled to Cuba recently to experience and study the Afro-Cuban religions traditions. The writers composed prose poems in collaboration with the music students. They steeped themselves in the Cuban culture and created a series of prose poems in which they mingled their own traditions with those of Havana and the Cuban countryside.

The group traveled for 10 days, writing every day while visiting such sites as the Barrio de la Regla, where Catholic and Santeria traditions come together, and other religious sites outside of Havana in sugar cane country. They were also invited to listen to drumming ceremonies and watched as religious dances were performed.

They visited neighborhoods, markets, museums and jazz clubs, and talked with musicians, artists and university professors and Cubans on the street about the Cuban culture.

One of the highlights for the students was a dance lesson from “Dulce Marie” at the Hotel Ambos Mundos where Ernest Hemmingway used to spend time. They also visited his home outside of Havana and walked the streets of the town where he first heard the story of "The Old Man and the Sea."