Avant-Garde Modern Furniture Blog: Cuba, an Island misinterpreted from the outside

About Alexander Calzadilla

Alexander Calzadilla is a Cuban male originally from Philadelphia, who has happily called Miami his home since moving here at the age of 15. He attended Southwest Sr. High School and Florida International University, ultimately receiving his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration. While in college, he began working as a paralegal for the Law Offices of Jeffrey E. Reichenbacher, a position he kept for seven years after graduation. He subsequently worked at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius Associates before landing at Costa Nursery. After distinguishing himself with many accomplishments, he was promoted to the position of Director of Specialty Products, which included the orchid, bonsai and lucky bamboo departments. When Alex was first put in charge of the three departments, they ranked near the bottom. By the time he left Costa after seven years, Alex had transformed the floundering departments into unqualified successes, posting record earnings, sales and profitability. In 2008 Alex was named the Costa Employee of the Year. Alex now puts his formidable prowess as a businessman into his newest venture, Avant-Garde Home Furnishings, LLC, serving as Managing Partner.

About Avant-Garde

We offer home furnishings and decor for every area of your home,both inside and out, always striving to bring you the most current design elements being used by today's top designers, at a fraction of their retail cost. Whether you are completely redecorating an area of your home, looking for the perfect accent piece to finish off an existing room, shopping for a unique gift, or simply "window shopping" to get design ideas, Avant-Garde is the place to go for everything modern & contemporary for your home.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Cuba, an Island misinterpreted from the outside

Day 3 Cuba....My grandmother´s 105th birthday is today

It was an uneventful night in Santa Clara Cuba. I finally found a way of getting photos sent to all of you and will have them up by this afternoon. (Hopefull). Anyway last night was raining as does everyday here around 3 PM as we are in the tropics and the afternoon thunderstorms tend to roll in everyday at the same time. I think its great since it coold the island down by about 10 to 12 degrees and the breeze before the rain and after is something I would rather have then live without.

We went shoping yesterday and the unthinkable happened. The stores were full of products from the USA, Raisen Bran, Lucky Charms, Cheereos, to name a few cereals and just about everything food wise was made in the UDA. Incredible.. Of course most items were way to expensive for the average cuban family. But no matter most again seemed to get by and honestly I love the island and the people are very friendly and even the government really ahs not done anything wrong to us or anyone around us so a lot of the stories you hear on Cuba are just that stories..

Its safe, secure, the government does go out of its way to show tourists a good time, and you feel very secure where ever you go. So no matter what you have herd, don´t always believe because it might not be true, and more then likely it is not..

We ate early around 600PM and I was in bed by 1100 in a nice clean air conditioned hotel room in the middle of the colonial beautiful city of Santa Clara.. Where everyone seems to be super friendly toward tourists and there are quite a few of them here.. from Europe, Canada, United States, and a slew of other countries. The room includes breakfast which is fantastic buffet style or a la carte with just about everything you can possibly imagine for breakfast...

Well today we are busy getting ready for the big party tonight.. it promises to be a great time and evening.. more on that later and hopefully with some pictures..

Pictures found below.. just A FEW ...