Camaguey, Cuba - A lecture taught by Reynaldo Echemendia, director of the Camaguey Folklore Ballet, qualified the closing of the 7th Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development in this Cuban center-eastern city.

The investigators discussed about African dances and music, a topic proposed by Echemendia, who talked about the importance of the legacy of black slaves who brought their culture to Cuba, and spread it, to lay the foundations of national identity.

Echemendia, also the president of the Olorum Festival -recently celebrated in Camaguey- expressed that this kind of event is a chance to extol the values of traditional popular culture and folklore.

The member of the Committee of Experts of Casa del Caribe (Caribbean House), Rafael Lara, was in charge of delivering the National Award of Culture Houses to Camaguey's conga group Los Comandos, the only group of its kind in Cuba that has received such an award.

In the closing of the event, coinciding with the Day of Africa, declared by UNESCO, the last edition of local magazine 'A Las Raices' (To the Roots) published by the National Council of Culture Houses, was at the disposal of the participants, and a book titled 'Voces Negras desde la Plantacion Esclavista' (Black Voices from the Slavery Plantation) written by Lazaro Estenoz, talking about slavery in Cuba and its implication in the 19th Century, was also presented.

The closing activity was vital for the preservation of national patrimony, and investigators met each other in a dialogue focused on the respect to the different cultural manifestations of the peoples.