Havana, Cuba.- With the attendance of representatives from more than 15 nations, the twenty-fourth edition of the Ibero-American Culture Festival has begun this Wednesday in the eastern city of Holguin and will be extended until October 30.

The international meeting will gather some 200 participants from Chile, the United States, Canada and Mexico, among others, who together with their Cuban counterparts will share conferences, exhibitions, creative workshops and concerts on the region’s culture and identity. According to Eduardo Avila, director of the Casa de Iberoamerica (‘House of Iberoamerica’), the celebration will be dedicated to the 25 years of existence of the Casa, responsible for the projection, social and cultural impact generated in the national and international community.

According to the program, one of the main attractions is the Ibero-American Congress of Thought, which will meet prestigious intellectuals and researchers from the continent to discuss the challenges in defense of the traditions of our peoples.

For the celebration, several venues have been set up, including the Iberian Cultural Center, the Latin American and Caribbean Cultural Center and Casa Taita, which will host activities for the event.

This year, the Jose Manuel Guarch Delmonte Prize will be awarded, which for the past ten years has recognized research work in the promotion of historical, economic, cultural and social issues in the region.

The main incentive of the Ibero-American Culture Festival is to commemorate the landing of Christopher Columbus in the Bay of Bariay (October 28, 1492), a date of historical, sociological and anthropological significance marking an encounter of two cultures.

For this reason and in Avila’s opinion, it will continue to be a space for reaffirming our Cuban identity and for recognizing those indigenous cultures, indispensable parts of what we are now as a nation.