• Submitted by: manso
• Arts and Culture
• 11 / 30 / 2010

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By: Raquel Maria Garcia Alvarez. martes, 30 de noviembre de 2010. Havana, Nov 30 (Prensa Latina) Director of Cuban National Ballet, prima ballerina assoluta Alicia Alonso, will be granted the Haydee Santamaría Medal by Cuba's State Council on Thursday.

 The award, at a request from the Ministry of Culture and Casa de las Americas, is part of numerous tributes paid to Alonso in her 90th birthday.

The agreement making effective the award highlights Alonso's career as "one of the most relevant figures in the history of dance and a leading figure in classic ballet in Ibero-America and her praiseworthy work in training several generations of Cuban dancers, for whom she has been inspiration and guide."

Instituted in 1989 on occasion of the 30th anniversary of Casa de las Americas, the Haydee Santamaria Medal is awarded to citizens and groups of Cuba and other countries who have contributed to materialize the objectives of Casa: enriching and defending cultural integration and the genuine culture of our America.

Nearly one hundred Latin American and Caribbean intellectuals and artists have been awarded the medal, including Antonio Martorell, Leon Ferrari and Carlos Colombino (2009) and Alfonso Soteno (2010), the author of The Tree of Life, that is one of the symbols of Casa de las Americas.

Previous laureates include Juan Bosch (Dominican Republic), Chico Buarque de Holanda and Thiago de Mello (Brazil), Mario Benedetti, Eduardo Galeano and Daniel Viglietti, El Galpon Theater Group (Uruguay), Pablo Gonzalez Casanova (Mexico), George Lamming (Brabados), Oswaldo Guayasamin (Ecuador), Volodia Teitelboim (Chile) and Augusto Roa Bastos (Paraguay).

Also laureates are Cubans Armando Hart, Pablo Milanes, Silvio Rodriguez, Eusebio Leal, Alfredo Guevara and Harold Gramatges.

Source: PL