Cuban Deputy Culture Minister, Fernando Rojas, says that the Caribbean Festival set for Santiago de Cuba in early July is dedicated to Ecuador.

Upon announcing the Caribbean gathering, also called Fire Fiesta, Rojas said at a news conference that the Ecuadorian delegation will enrich the event that shows the region’s popular cultures.

For his part, the Director of the Caribbean House, Orlando Vergés, who organizes the festival in Santiago de Cuba added that dedicating it to the South American nation is due to the festival’s founding fathers’ idea that the Caribbean goes beyond its geographic borders, and a gesture to a sister nation which has recently been hardly hit by a devastating hurricane.Vergés pointed out that the Ecuadorean delegation is made up of 21 people and students from that South American country studying on the island.

More than 600 foreign participants from 22 countries and nearly 2 000 Cuban artists are set to gather in 40 areas in the city of Santiago de Cuba, from July 3rd through 9th, at the 36th  Fire Fiesta, scheduled to provide a space for the region’s artistic traditions.