Author: Dariela Aquique

Perhaps my level of suspicion concerning government strategies has become overblown, but since this is what we’ve gotten used to over the course of years, there aren’t many reasons to be trusting.

This past Wednesday, the Cuban television program “La Mesa Redonda” dedicated a broadcast to commemorate the sports hero, boxer Teofilio Stevensen who died on June 11th. I had expected a program that would show highlights of the personal and sports life.

Visiting Havana, there are several artistic choices that are hard for me to pass up. The 11th Biennale of Visual Arts was showcasing fabulous exhibits where installations, digital art and collages are integrated in such a way that post-modernism is now invading the city.

Speaking of politics (an unavoidable topic for Cubans), a friend of mine expressed what in my opinion was an odd reflection – though sharp at the same time. He said we Cubans have conformed to our situation so much that we’re like women who suffer anorgasmia.

I was left perplexed with that anecdote. This woman, being a teacher, had established an analogy between the arguments used by her peers and passages from a well-known historical event in our struggle for independence.

There has still not been any official announcement concerning the enactment of new laws regarding immigration policy, but it has been leaked that in meetings with party activists and with agents of State Security that in the coming days the media will be reporting the status of the updated laws.

Whenever we hear about these videos games in the news, it always seems they’re referring to some foreign phenomenon, something happening elsewhere. We see classic lines like: “The evils of the capitalist world are suggesting to youth a universe filled with horror and sensationalism.”

In the early years of the Cuban Revolution — with the creation of so many offices, departments, organizations and ministries to implement the strict and bureaucratic control over individuals — this method of using abbreviations was exploited without end.

Busy and centrally located Heredia Street in Santiago de Cuba contains much of our history – especially that which relates to culture, since still located there is the house of Jose Maria Heredia, the writer of the classic song “Niagara.”

Early this morning, when I was opening the windows of my apartment, I saw a young man throwing a piece of wood at the lavish foliage of a Majagua tree.