Latineos - Latin America, Caribbean, arts, culture

Cuba is the land of some of the best boxers in the world, and the Havana Boxing Academy is the boarding school where the most promising kids are trained from an early age. Their motto: "Victory is a duty." From nine years old, they are immersed in an intense routine of training, discipline and deprivation. Cristian 'The Old Man’ Martínez has the shadow of his father, Luis Felipe, Olympic medallist and Cuban boxing legend, over him. Santos ‘The Singer’ Urguelles has been boxing since his mother died; his fists are his therapy to relieve pain, and sweet pastries are his guilty pleasure. Junior 'The Dalmation" Menéndez wonders if he can be number one while showing compassion in the ring. Sons of Cuba offers a warm gaze on one of the legendary institutions of Cuba during the days when Fidel resigned.

Santiago Gamboa (Bogotá, 1965) is one of the finest Latin American writers of his generation. Last September he was awarded the La Otra Orilla Literary Award for his novel Necropolis. La Otra Orilla is a literary imprint within Grupo Editorial Norma that focuses on Hispanic literature. The prize has been offered since 2005 and it rose from $30,000 to $100,000 in 2009. It is given to an unpublished novel and it guarantees the publication of the work in Latin America and Spain.

Non-fiction cinema has a long tradition in Latin America. Probably the first deliberate attempts of registering reality not just to preserve it on film or as an experiment  –but to express a point of view about the situations that were taken place– date back as far as 1910 during the Mexican Revolution. For instance, this social upheaval had a big impact in the development of cinema in the region and is considered to be one of the first historical events to be documented on film.

Sergio León spreads conviction and enthusiasm in every thought that he shares with me. He arrived to the UK 35 years ago; he was 27 years old, he was married and had a son. Life was going normally for Sergio in Chile. He was working as a TV producer and he was part of the team that made the advertising campaign for the government of Salvador Allende.