Caribbean Festival opens with a call for brotherhood and solidarity

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba, July 4 (ACN) The 44th edition of the Caribbean Festival kicked off on Thursday with a tribute to Africa as its founding land.

This event pays tribute to Curaçao's popular culture and the 510th anniversary of the founding of Santiago de Cuba.

El Cobre Steel Band, with its steel drums, traditional music, and dances, the excellent Voces del Milagro choir, various folk groups with their imagery and traditions, and the fire that cleanses and saves, demonstrated the diversity, resilience, and spirit of brotherhood of the region's peoples at the Heredia Cultural Complex in this city.

The guest of honor brought to the stage of the imposing theater an artistic performance that fused sounds, Afro-descendant dances, and ceremonial singing, as a living expression of the multicultural heritage of the so-called black continent.

Alongside them, local creators offered moments of deep folklore, reinforcing the bonds of unity that inspire the encounter and the excellent relations between the two nations.

Orlando Verges, director of Casa del Caribe, highlighted Curaçao's firm and long-awaited desire to express itself as a country and to assert its unique expressions, steeped in Creole culture and authenticity.

For her part, Zuláika Modk, director of the Economic Development and Innovation Sector of the Ministry of Economic Development of Curaçao, expressed her gratitude for the dedication, which is a recognition that fills them with pride, as it symbolizes the brotherhood and unity of the people.

"We celebrate the cultural richness of the Caribbean and the living history of both countries, and how this closeness has been strengthened over the years with new exchanges and collaborations," she concluded.

At the event, the 2025 Casa del Caribe International Award was presented to Jorge Berenguer Cala, who has been associated with the institution for more than four decades and is the author of several research projects on the French presence in this untamed province.

Until July 9, the Caribbean Festival will fill the streets, plazas, theaters, and cultural centers of the capital city with parades, concerts, discussions, workshops, exhibitions, and the emblematic burning of the devil, a symbol of closure and spiritual renewal.