• Submitted by: admin
• Arts and Culture
• 07 / 03 / 2007

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With a lecture on culture and globalization, Marcio Veloz Maggiolo, an intellectual from the Dominican Republic, will inaugurate the theoretical colloquium of the forthcoming 27th Caribbean Festival in Santiago de Cuba, the most important eastern city in the country.

Under the title "The Caribbean That Unites Us," this academic forum will be held from July 4 to 7, in the Heredia theatre, and will deal with issues connected to the history and culture of the peoples in the region. A major emphasis, though, will be made on popular culture in the Dominican Republic.

Veloz Maggiolo will share with the audience his visions on topics of interest nationally and worldwide. At the same time, he will be paid tribute by those who consider him as one of the most outstanding voices in the Dominican Republic and Caribbean culture.

Born on August 13, 1936, in Santo Domingo, this writer, poet, essayist, literary critic, archaeologist and anthropologist received the National Literature Award in his country in 1996.

His creative work in poetry, novels, and short stories has been widely recognized. With the short story "Alladins Real Story," he earned the Childrens Literature distinction of the Annual Literature and Music Awards 2006-2007.

Part of his narrative work and essays have been translated from Spanish into English, Italian, French and German, and he is one of most prolific and famous writers of the Dominican Republic.

According to tradition, the Festival will open on July 3rd, and the colloquium will begin the next day. This time the topics will be related to the history, culture and identity of the Caribbean people, as well as identity and migratory movements in the region. It will also include cultural relations between Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

In the framework of regional integration programs, hegemony and proposals of regional integration for the Caribbean will be discussed. Caribbean thinking and integration processes in the contemporary world will be also included.

Workshops on popular theater, popular religion and Caribbean music will be held. Poets, oral narrators and young writers will meet to exchange experiences as well.

Also known as the Fiesta del Fuego (Fire Fest), this festival will be attended by more than 2,000 artists, writers and theorists from about 20 countries. An special moment of the festival will be a homage paid to the United States people and culture, in occasion of the 231st anniversary of the Independence of that country, to be celebrated next July 4.

Source: By Cesar Lopez Gil, Granma