The exhibition Amanece en Haití (Dawn in Haiti), by the Cuban plastic artist Bertha Dora Lemus that includes from the oldest rites and ceremonies until the popular customs is exhibited here at the Mariano Rodríguez Gallery of the Casa de las Américas.

The exhibit, sponsored by the Cuban Casa de las Americas as a tribute to the Bicentenary of the American independence struggles, includes 13 pieces.

Aurora Díaz Valdivia, director of the center, discussed during the opening ceremony, about the sad situation of the Caribbean country after the earthquake that took place last 12 of January, which devastated the capital city and some neighboring cities.

"This exhibition will be useful to give the Haitian people a hoping world, full of colors", she indicated. Lemus warned that her interest for the Haitian art, culture and religion start from her childhood, when she traveled through the Cuban countryside, which were full of Haitian immigrants.

"I had to research in an exhaustive way the Haitian art in order to reflect its soul and essence, in many cases expressed in their religion. Nowadays Cuba is leaving a strong mark there, as they did it here in some other times.