Author: Dariela Aquique

In pre-revolutionary Cuba, these functions were widely practiced and some attractive women changed their fates as a result of them. After 1959, these events gradually disappeared. The government eliminated what it called such remnants of bourgeoisie life.

Jose Miguel Gomez was a soldier and a Liberal Party politician who was elected as Cuba’s second president, an office he held four years (1908 to 1912) until he resigned.

For some time I’ve been a passive spectator of the debate flying back and forth between Elio Delgado Legon (a recent writer with Havana Times) and another colleague and personal friend Alfredo Fernandez. Plus, I’ve read the many comments sent in from readers regarding each of the writers’ posts.

I heard a report by journalist and sports commentator Julita Osendi on the TV news recently. She was a alerting us about how the Cuban population was losing its passion for baseball, which is designated as the national sport.

Four or five years ago, daring to speak openly in Cuba of political change or transition, as some call it, was tantamount to self-crucifixion and virtually nobody dared expose themselves to that. But now, it is striking how many fellow citizens broach the subject with the greatest nonchalance.

Euphemisms (which are of course words and expressions used for replacing other ones that are considered bad sounding, distasteful or inappropriate), are commonly used in Cuba, especially by those seeking to avoid “annoying interpretations.”

The campaign against the Aedes aegypti mosquito is the priority of our country’s Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, which is under the Ministry of Public Health. Hoards of work crews are engaged in the campaign against this carrier of dengue fever, yellow fever and other diseases.

US professor Ted Henken, who is doing work on gender and the online media, developed a questionnaire for some of us Havana Times bloggers to give our opinions. I want to share with you some of my views regarding certain focuses in the professor’s survey.

Catholic symbolism is being erected for the visit of the Pope to Santiago de Cuba, with crucifixes and machetes superimposed in such a paradoxical visual context that Christians and revolutionaries seem to have never held any antagonisms.

“People who work honestly, whatever their jobs, they deserve to be well regarded. No work is denigrating!” Those were the words my brother and I used to hear from our late grandfather.