{"id":251607,"date":"2026-04-04T12:45:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T12:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/251607\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T12:45:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T12:45:36","slug":"cuba-keeps-dancing-despite-trumps-oil-blockade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/251607\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuba keeps dancing despite Trump’s oil blockade"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HAVANA\u00a0\u2014\u00a0After another nationwide blackout debilitated Cuba, electricity began flickering back on in parts of Havana on a recent Sunday afternoon. As cell signal returned, Alberto Gonz\u00e1lez\u2019s phone buzzed nonstop with messages.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill you open today?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIs there power?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGood afternoon, brother. Will there be dancing?\u201d<\/p>\n

Until now, it wasn\u2019t a question people needed to ask. Of course there would be dancing.<\/p>\n

For decades, Gonz\u00e1lez and his wife, Mercedes Cruz, have run a popular weekly dance night in a historic social hall in one of Havana\u2019s oldest neighborhoods, a few blocks from the Caribbean Sea. Both 72, they call the event Los Tradicionales \u2014 \u201cthe traditional ones\u201d \u2014 because their goal is to help preserve Cuba\u2019s rich dance heritage, from rumba to timba to casino, an ancestor of salsa. <\/p>\n

They have continued to host the party in recent months amid power failures and food and water shortages \u2014 the result of a near-total U.S. blockade on oil shipments to Cuba.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

The Vedado neighborhood of Havana goes dark during a nationwide blackout on March 21. Power outages are common as Cuba weathers a U.S.-imposed oil embargo. <\/p>\n

(Natalia Favre \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

Many here lack water to bathe and flush toilets. They have become accustomed to rising from bed whenever the electricity blinks on, no matter the hour, to cook and do laundry. The party is a break from all that \u2014 and from constant worrying about what President Trump has planned for the island (\u201cCuba\u2019s next,\u201d he warned after bombing Iran).<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, you don\u2019t think,\u201d Cruz said of the party. \u201cYou dance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without a fan to keep the heat and mosquitoes at bay at home, she had barely slept. But once it became clear there would be electricity, she styled her blond hair and slipped on a floral dress while Gonz\u00e1lez phoned up the cast of characters that powers Los Tradicionales: the lanky ticket-taker, the stylish deejay, the man whose single job is to coax popcorn from a finicky machine. <\/p>\n

Then the couple walked down a famed boulevard named after the father of Cuban independence, Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed, to the old building that houses Havana\u2019s community center for Cubans of Arab descent. Like so much here, the space had a vintage feel, with old tile floors and walls hung with faded photographs of a visit to Cuba by Yasser Arafat, the long-deceased Palestinian leader.<\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

\"Alberto <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

\"Mercedes <\/p>\n

3 <\/p>\n

\"Mercedes <\/p>\n

1. Alberto Gonz\u00e1lez put on shoes for a night of dancing. 2. Mercedes Cruz looks at photos of one of her sons on her phone in Havana. She and Gonz\u00e1lez have two children living in Florida whom they have not seen in four years. 3. Cruz rests her hands on a table in the hall where the weekly dance gathering takes place in Havana. <\/p>\n

\"Alberto <\/p>\n

Alberto Gonz\u00e1lez speaks with a security worker before dancers arrive at Havana\u2019s community center for Cubans of Arab descent.<\/p>\n

\u201cHola, mi amor!\u201d Cruz called out to the bathroom attendant reporting for duty. She and Gonz\u00e1lez had cranked the air conditioner way up, filling the hall with cool air, and she took a moment to enjoy it. <\/p>\n

The building is on the same electrical grid as a local hospital, which means that unlike most parts of the island beset by rolling daily blackouts, it loses electricity only if the nationwide power grid collapses.<\/p>\n

By sundown, a line had formed outside. Gonz\u00e1lez, sporting a baby blue polo shirt and the sort of jaunty hat favored by golfers in the 1970s, greeted the guests one by one, helping several nattily dressed older women climb up a steep marble stairway.<\/p>\n

The first track boomed, a Bad Bunny number remixed with a salsa beat, and people started filing in.<\/p>\n

Yaima Pacheco Mu\u00f1oz, 37, was the first person to start dancing, along with a friend, M\u00edosoti Bell Leon, 52. As a parade of people streamed in, many stopped to kiss the women on the cheek.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really a family here,\u201d Bell said as she and Pacheco took a break at a table draped in red cloth.<\/p>\n

\"Nurys <\/p>\n

Nurys N\u00fa\u00f1ez Arellano, 61, gently touches her partner, German Fern\u00e1ndez Miranda, 66, who is eating popcorn and watching the dance floor. <\/p>\n

Pacheco, an economist, said she had been without steady electricity at home for days. Like the battery on her phone and computer, she was drained. <\/p>\n

When a journalist asked whom she blamed for the problems, Pacheco closed her eyes and shook her head. \u201cNo,\u201d she said. \u201cNot here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunday nights \u201care therapy,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is the only place where I can relieve the stress.\u201d<\/p>\n

A dance hall track by Sean Paul started and she pulled Bell back onto the floor. <\/p>\n

Eugenio Leiva sat alone at a table by the bar, nursing a whiskey. \u201cThe enemy\u2019s drink,\u201d he called it, a joke about the United States. \u201cI do like rum,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I like whiskey more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Maurin <\/p>\n

Maurin Piedra Rodr\u00edguez, 52, speaks on the phone during a break at the weekly dance gathering in Havana.<\/p>\n

The dance night skews older \u2014 and draws about twice as many women as men. Leiva, 74, doesn\u2019t dance, but he likes watching.<\/p>\n

A writer, he once worked on cultural issues for Cuba\u2019s communist government, before moving abroad. He had recently returned from Spain, and said he was shocked by the conditions, which he blamed in part on U.S. sanctions and in part on mismanagement by the government. All but one of his five children had left the island because they didn\u2019t see a future there. <\/p>\n

Dancing, Leiva said, \u201cis one of the few things that they haven\u2019t taken from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leiva, who works at the community center\u2019s library one day a week, said the dancing reminds him that Cubans, even when things are hard, turn to one another for support. His neighbors, he said, offered him food daily, even when they barely had enough to eat. And on nights when the power went out, Cubans gathered in the street to play dominoes or sing classic songs a cappella. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in our worst crisis,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we\u2019re united.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roberto Rodr\u00edguez, 48, was one of the most proficient dancers. After each song ended, another woman looked to him eagerly, hoping for her turn to be twirled on the floor. He labors seven days a week as a construction worker, but goes out dancing every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. <\/p>\n

\u201cI dance, I have a beer, I talk with my friends, and then I\u2019m ready for whatever the week throws at me,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Some of his earlier memories are of dancing at family birthday parties or big public carnival events where the country\u2019s top orchestras would play. He plays salsa music at home constantly so his sons, 14 and 16, know how to move to it, too. \u201cDancing is a language,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is our mother tongue.\u201d<\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

\"Attendees <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

\"two <\/p>\n

1. Attendees at the \u201cLos Tradicionales\u201d record themselves dancing while a \u2018reparto\u201d song plays. 2. A woman who just gave her name as Susana joins Juan Mar\u00edn, 73, on the dance floor. <\/p>\n

\"Mar\u00eda <\/p>\n

Mar\u00eda Camejo pays for cookies at the bar during the \u201cLos Tradicionales\u201d gathering in Havana <\/p>\n

At 9 p.m., Gonz\u00e1lez called up the regulars who had recently celebrated birthdays so the crowd could serenade them. <\/p>\n

Then he led a large group in the \u201ccasino circle,\u201d a sort of Latin square dance that originated in Havana in the 1950s. Smiling pairs danced the same steps simultaneously, exchanging partners every few beats. <\/p>\n

For Cruz, it was a symbol of Cubans\u2019 connection to their history \u2014 and commitment to community. It\u2019s what she missed when she traveled to the United States, where her grandchildren live.<\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez put down the microphone and somebody turned down the lights. A reparto track came on \u2014 Cuba\u2019s version of reggaet\u00f3n. Gonz\u00e1lez made a beeline to his wife of five decades, and for the first time all night they did what they had come to do: They danced. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HAVANA\u00a0\u2014\u00a0After another nationwide blackout debilitated Cuba, electricity began flickering back on in parts of Havana on a recent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[111817,24086,9303,108961,217,15511,111819,52659,1073,48,52,51,47,50,49,111818,52874,1459,24696,4840,111820],"class_list":{"0":"post-251607","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-alberto-gonzalez","9":"tag-community-center","10":"tag-cuba","11":"tag-cubans","12":"tag-day","13":"tag-electricity","14":"tag-eugenio-leiva","15":"tag-havana","16":"tag-home","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-la-headlines","19":"tag-la-news","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","22":"tag-los-angeles-news","23":"tag-mercedes-cruz","24":"tag-pacheco","25":"tag-part","26":"tag-party","27":"tag-power","28":"tag-weekly-dance-night"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}