Auch reference may have come too closely, but the facts it is all the way round. When local playwright Yunior Garcia was visiting Brazil, tried to explain to a local the location of his Cuban City of the Parks. On the improvised map of the island, the artist looked for a reference to the tourist center of Guardalavaca, a coordinate that the Brazilian rejected when he said, "yes, I know: that's the city of the Romerias".

The Romerias de Mayo festival distinguishes Holguin in the world more than its white sand beaches. The event that is celebrated every May is sponsored by the Hermanos Saiz Association, an orgqanization of young artists.

For one week, from 2nd to the 8th of May, the artistic youth of the world will share traditions and news, because as the slogan of the festival reads, "there is no today without yesterday". Holguin city is "taken" by culture with dances in public spaces, performances, exhibitions, concerts for all tastes, and even spaces for the socialization of research to preserve "Our Memory". It is an integrating event where perhaps the most colorful and attractive facts are the parades of inauguration and closing and the ascent until the hill Loma de la Cruz, symbol of the city, of the Axe of Holguin, a modern way to defend the tradition.

In February "the most beautiful land" is baptized as "capital of humor" when the Festival of Humor for Young People and called Satiricon is celebrated. Despite its short existence -four editions-, the event is consolidated as a kind of "pre-Aquelarre", the biggest event organized by the Humor Promotion Center. The curatorial proposal with the best groups and comedians in the country is appreciated by a public that crowds the halls of the Eddy Suñol Theater.

When the laughter still echoes, the City turns into a huge Youth Theater. There, the art stage is prestigious with many groups like the Guiñol de Holguin (muppets), Alasbuenas and Trebol Teatro, the latter hosting the festival that attracts audacious proposals, recognized groups, critics and a good theme to reflect on the art stage.

The festival of reading remains beyond March, when the Book Fair takes place, as Holguin is a city with a strong publishing tradition. This is where books are born under the label of Ediciones Holguin, one of the oldest provincial publishing houses in Cuba. The magic of manufacturing paper, the mysticism of the ancient machines, the literary exquisiteness and artistic presentation of the texts involve the productions of Cuadernos Papiros. Ediciones La Luz illuminates its readers with its proposals and historians come to La Mesquita to preserve the memory in their own volumes.

Gibara becomes " the film star" in April with the celebration of the International Festival of Low Budget Cinema, created by filmmaker Humberto Solas who fell in love with the charms of a city of the sea with its Spanish colonial look. The event, assumed today by director and actor Jorge Perugorria is reinvented and adopts the name of Gibara International Film Festival. Nevertheless, the aspiration is to preserve the Renaissance spirit that Solas gave on the Festival, by combining excellent cinematographic proposals with diverse artistic manifestations that turn Gibara into "a town of film".

In September Holguin adopts the title of "dancing capital" when the North Atlantic Dance Competition and the Grand Prix Vladimir Malakhov take place. The contest is sponsored by Codanza, a distinguished group of the territory, and Ukranian Vladimir Malakhove, star of the world ballet, who seek to stimulate the work of young Latin American dancers. In addition to the competition nights where classical, neoclassical or contemporary dance becomes the only language, there are workshops, master classes, panels and other activities by renowned figures.

Destiny wanted this to be "the most beautiful land" according to the Genoese admiral Christopher Columbus, an event that occurred on October 28, 1492 and that five centuries later inspired in Holguin the Festival of Latin American Culture. The House of Latin America is the institution that every October sponsors a new edition to celebrate the encounter between the Old and the New World with congresses of thought, fairs of crafts, the intervention of all the manifestations of the art and the participation of Latin American and Iberian friends.

Fake wanted Holguin to be "the most beautiful land" according to the words by Genoese admiral Christopher Columbus, an event that occurred on October 28, 1492 and that five centuries later inspired in Holguin the Festival of Latin American Culture. The House of Latin America is the institution that every October sponsors a new edition to celebrate the encounter between the Old and the New World with congresses of thought, fairs of crafts, the intervention of all the manifestations of the art and the participation of Latin American and Iberian friends.

Music lovers also find a musical palace in Holguin. The ninety year old Concert Band and its open air concerts, the Concert Week starring the Symphony Orchestra every June, a Lyric Theater with laudable interpretations of the operetas of La Traviata and Cavalleria Rusticana, and an Orfeon Holguin choir with more than half a century of life are the main courses of a banquet that is enhanced with the seasoning of the music of Los Guayaberos, the Aviles Orchestra and other popular groups.

Holguin always arrived with bronze to the distribution of Cuba: third province in economic and tourist development, in number of inhabitants, in size... Nevertheless, by the trajectory of its artists, its ample system of events and the office of the institutions it aspires to be the gold medalist as capital of the culture. Or better yet, preserve the baptism that writer Lourdes Gonzalez gave it 25 years ago: "province of the universe".

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