Rumba dancers from all over the world are attending the Timbalaye Cuban International Rumba Festival 2011, that started on September 1 in Havana, and is being attended by musicians and researchers from Mexico, Italy, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Uruguay and Cuba.

The program includes dance and percussion workshops, shows, sales of books, presentation of magazines, popular fiestas in the streets and the First Theoretic Meeting La Rumba: cultura e identidad, on the work and thinking of anthropologist and second  discoverer of Cuba, Fernando Ortiz. 

The Casa de Africa in Old Havana is the venue of this meeting with the participation of writer and ethnologist Miguel Barnet; Dr. Maria Teresa Linares, National Music Award winner; musicologist Cary Diez, National Music Award winner; folklore researcher Gregorio Hernandez El Goyo and researchers Jose A Matos, Ulises Mora and Irma Castillo.

The president of the Fernando Ortiz Foundation and Association of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC), writer and anthropologist Miguel Barnet gave the inaugural address.

One of the most relevant attractions of the festival has been the presentation of the instrument collection of Fernando Ortiz exhibited in the Casa de Africa and the Timbalaye publication by musicologist Cary Diez, winner of the Latin Grammy Award  in 2001 as producer of the record La rumba soy yo con sentimiento manana.

Oustanding representatives of the musical genre in the island, such as Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Grammy Award winners in 2001;Los papines; El Solar de los seis; Columbia del Puerto,Yoruba Andabo; Tata Guines Jr, Ensila Mundo y los Nani who are participating in the dance and percussion workshops.

The America Theater, the Pabellon Cuba, the Salon Rosado de la tropical and the Palacio de la Rumba are the venues to be visited by the musicians.

The festival created in 2007 is organized and sponsored by the Fernando Ortiz Foundation, the Office of Havana’s Historian as well as the Timbalaye cultural project. The festival is paying tribute to the 50th anniversary of the creation of the UNEAC and the 25th anniversary of the Hermanos Saiz Association and it also part of the Cuban agenda for the Year of Afro descendants. 

Translated by: Daysi Olano