The Spanish Footprint Festival was created in the 1980s and has been a special moment for the ongoing exchange between Cuban and Spanish culture. Its Honorary President is the distinguished ballerina Alicia Alonso.

This year, 2010, the festival was dedicated to the Principality of Asturias (previously to Valencia, the Canary Islands, Galicia, and Andalusia), which eagerly welcomed the proposals and presentations of exhibitions, dance, music, lectures, film, and theater. The 22nd edition of the Festival La Huella de España (The Footprint of Spain Festival) opened on Sunday, April 18th, in the García Lorca Hall of the Gran Teatro de La Habana (Paseo del Prado or de Martí, corner of San Rafael Street, Havana, Cuba).

Throughout the event, music was strongly represented by soloist Tina Gutiérrez, the La Flor choir, Chus Pedro and his group, Anabel Santiago and her group (traditional songs with a contemporary tone), and Mariluz Cristóbal, representative of the Asturian folk music. Highly anticipated were the Señaldá shows (Mariluz, La Flor, and dance and gaita groups from the Asturian Federation of Cuba), and the Fusion Gala (Tina, Chus, with the Cuban band Grupo Ecos, soprano Johana Simon, and pianist Sunlay Almeida).

Among the leading Cuban artists present at this year’s festival are singer-songwriter Liuba María Hevia, the Spanish Ballet of Cuba, Schola Cantorum Coralina, singer Omara Portuondo, and the Charanga Típica de Rubalcaba.