Havana Artists Market with Bill King

Musician Bill King takes us on a tour of one of his favourite places, the Tacon Artists Market in Old Havana.

video: Stephen Smith
http://www.mycompass.ca
http://twitter.com/mycompasstv

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• old
• havana
• habana
• cuba
• libre
• cuban
• art
• artists
• artist
• artisan
• markets
• market
• tacon
• color
• colour
• colors
• artist's
• canvas
• canvases
• brush
• colours
• vendor
• vendors
• paint
• painters
• painting
• music
• jazz
• soprano
• sax
• saxophone
• musician
• bill
• king
• mycompass.ca
• cubano
• cubanos

[dbmountain1]

I was in Cuba this March. I didn't go to this particular market, I went to an indoor one in somewhere in Havana. They have very talented artists there

[mycompasstv]

@dbmountain1 They just moved this artisan market into a newly renovated massive marine building on the harbour. Many of the same artists exhibit their work there and it's much cooler in the heat of summer, but it has lost the street vibe of the original old market.

[canonicus1]

@USAHavana Have you heard of the term "extraordinary rendition?" It's when the CIA transfers prisoners to other countries so they can imprison, interrogate and torture them. If the prisoner survives they end up in Guantanamo, Cuba.

[canonicus1]

@USAHavana "Human rights violations" really? That's rich coming from the USA. 

[USAHavana]

Amazing how it came to be that the 'civilized' world completely ignored the crimes committed by the longest DICTATORSHIP in modern history. How our northern neighbors never gave a crap about the executions, concentration camps (UMAPS), the political prisoners and the largest DIASPORA in the history of our hemisphere. Merci, Canada! You managed to focus the world's attention on the 'evil embargo' and got them to TOTALLY IGNORE all of the human rights violations commited by that police state!

[USAHavana]

You parrot state propaganda and IGNORE THE ACCOUNTS OF PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY LIVED IN CUBA BEFORE AND AFTER THE REVOLUTION! Would you believe the Nazi's and ignore the accounts told by holocausts survifvors? Are you COMPLETELY mad? Has your hatred against the USA blinded you so much that you'd side with a murdering tyrant before even listening to an actual eye witness? Miami is filled with FREE CUBANS, I AM ONE OF THEM. Would I ever lecture YOU on Canada? Hell no! You are Canadian, I am not.

[USAHavana]

@canonicus1 The USA again? WOW. Cubans are forbidden by law to engage in ANY commerce or posses hard currency. They are paid in worthless Cuban pesos, while U tourists shop with CUC's suporting tyranny.Empty out your bank account and convert to it Cuban pesos, I dare ya! Hypocrite. A megalomaniac imposes an IINSANE collectivized economic system that has had a 52 yr stranglehold over the Cuban economy and u blame the USA? The same lunatic who wasted billions in Soviet/East-bloc aid. Wake up!

[canonicus1]

@USAHavana

No wonder Cuba and Fidel are extremely popular in Africa and that Mandela has always defended Fidel in public.

While Dick Cheney and most Republicans in the US were voting against the release of Mandela accusing him of being "a terrorist", Cuban troops were dying on African soil in the struggle to put an end to apartheid.

And then some people have the nerve to claim to be the owners of the word "freedom".

[canonicus1]

@USAHavana Since my friend, you are interested in South African apartheid - very few Canadians or Americans know of the role of Cuban troops played in helping defeat the South African army in southern Angola in the battle of Cuito Cuanavale in 1987-1988. The South Africans retreated, Namibia declared independence from South Africa in 1990, and shortly thereafter South Africa had to release Nelson Mandela, a chain of events triggered in part by the SADF defeat in Angola two years prior. cont...

[canonicus1]

@USAHavana Yes, German cars, french cheeses, Italian pasta, Spanish ham and a myriad of other luxury goods are all now available in Havana, to those with money. Unfortunately, do in part to almost 50 years of punishing vindictive American trade policy, the vast majority of Cubans are terribly poor. Yet, Habana will one day rise again to the prominence it once held as a great cultural capital of the world. But it will need help from the world, including its former friends the Americans.