The Palmares Pinar del Río Extrahotel Branch presented itself on November 28 at the Havana International Fair (FIHAV 2025) with an event dedicated to promoting Pinar del Río's culture.
However, what caught the most attention was not the pairing of rums or the Cohiba cigars, but a video shared by the entity itself showing several people dressed as Native Americans dancing an areíto to entertain the visitors.
The material that Palmares shared on its social media as a “great attraction” during its time at the fair was a showcase of “the representations of indigenous culture and cimarronaje, which are part of the characteristic shows at the Cueva del Indio and the Palenque de los Cimarrones.”
"More than just spectators, we have had participants!" celebrated the state-owned company, ensuring that the show was "very entertaining" and "wonderfully sensory."
The reaction of the audience on social media was very different
The journalist Mario J. Pentón shared the video with irony, pointing out: “Cuban aborigines perform an areito to attract foreign investment to Pinar del Río”.
User comments arrived quickly, describing the performance as "absurd," "shameful," and "another sign of the country's cultural decline."
"This seems like a parody of themselves," commented one internet user, while another summarized the general sentiment: "It's sad to see how they present something like this at an international fair where Cuba should showcase the best of its culture, not a caricature of it."
There were also those who believed that dance "is not areito, but rather the dance to repel mosquitoes on the island"; and some who warned that "the people of Pinar are getting ahead of what is inevitable, they are visionaries of what is coming for Cuba."
The folk show in Palmares ended up grabbing attention for all the wrong reasons, in a fair that should showcase Cuba's most competitive face to foreign investors.
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