Mexico and Cuba join voices in music festival

We have a common language, similar needs and a brotherhood history, said Jorge Antonio Garcia, oral storyteller from Mexico during the opening of the 3rd Edition of the Te- Conte Festival in this western city, which has Mexico as guest of honor.

At the Jose White Concert Hall, a varied cultural gala where the Jose White Camerata, the Matanzas Chamber Choir, the Nova Danza Company, singer-songwriter Alfonso Llorens and storytellers from Cuba and Mexico converged, kicked off the event that will commemorate World Children's Day and World Environment Day until June 9.

The event will include workshops, presentations in communities and educational institutions with emphasis on the formation of audiences and the promotion of the habit of reading, in a participatory format that makes children and young people an active part of each story, each tale and each shared reflection.

Francisco Leonardo Angeles Santiago, oral narrator of the guest country, highlighted the expectations of knowing, in this his first trip to the Caribbean nation, schools, cultural centers, and to influence the approach to reading, because, he said, oral narration can lead children and young people to refer to the text, the author, the book and thus discover new worlds.

Sponsored by the Directorate of Culture in the territory, the Cuban Writers and Artists Association (Uneac by its Spanish acronym) and the Provincial Council of Performing Arts, Te- Conte proposes in its third edition an inclusive and intercultural look, with actions also in neighborhoods and alternative spaces such as parks.

This festival is a platform that integrates voices, accents and generations that defend the art of storytelling as a bridge between communities, and that find in orality a tool for learning, inclusion, the rescue of traditions and the celebration of the magical act of listening to a story.