Author: Danae Suarez

The man came up to her to ask her for directions and minutes later a police patrol car pulled up. Without asking for any explanation, they picked Gaby up and took her down to the station. “I was caught on camera and they hauled me in,” Gabriela tried to explain to me later on.

This animal, according to the researchers, has become a threat to the Cuban ecosystem because it feeds on any type of animal that is lower than itself on the food chain, including fish that are eatable by humans.

It is not only Cuba’s youth who have been feeling the bitter consequences of this decline in values. The elderly are also seeking ways to adjust to a society where “anything goes.”

No matter where I might find myself in the future, one thing I’ll always want to do is spend New Year’s in my Havana.

Could it be that this theater — once the center of scathing social criticism expressed in hilarious brushstrokes of authentic Creole humor — today generates fear in certain circles?

It is no longer politically incorrect to celebrate Christmas; and most Cubans — anxious to find a reason to rejoice and celebrate more than compelled by the faith and its solemnity — welcome the new opening enthusiastically.

On a first reading, it seemed that this option certainly satisfied a need that a Cuban supported by their wage couldn’t. However, when we analyze the system of taxes they’ll have to shoulder, we realize that the life of the average Cuban will continue to be hard.

The factors at play against providing good service to the public are as varied as they are questionable. These range from the lack of competitive markets (Cubans, in any case, have to shop at stores that are essentially the same) to a system of distorted and an “inverted social pyramid” [where those with the least skills are on top].

Just a few days ago I had water problems for some mysterious reason. The valuable resource stopped running in my apartment so I had no other alternative but to go look for a plumber.

Previously, a lackluster program was aired on television every night precisely before the popular telenovela so that everybody would see it. Its main point was to nag us every week about our forgetting to turn off our lights.