Author: Dariela Aquique

A painful incident occurred at the World Athletics Championships taking place in Daegu, South Korea. When showing the 110 meter hurdles race in slow motion, it was demonstrated that Dayron Robles of Cuba had interfered with the effort of his Chinese rival, Liu Xiang.

I found a disk by Bicer Kirov in the CD collection of a friend. Among those present (we were all contemporaries) this triggered an explosion of laughter, and a good part of the night became devoted to that Cuban habit of asking “Do you remember…?”

The overwhelming majority of the places here are not private. Social property makes things everyone’s but ultimately nobody’s. This can be verified easily in the difference of how private and public properties are maintained.

These days a certain enthusiasm can be noted among the residents of Santiago de Cuba because of the urban revival the city’s experiencing. What we’re seeing are restored parks, street fairs, bars, restaurants, pastry shops, markets, etc.

Habanastation gives a faithful reflection of today’s Cuban society. Its plot that travels from the up-scale life of one boy whose parents belong to a favored social group and is contrasted to the precarious living conditions of another classmate.

The spectacular cavalcades of choreographed dance troupes and conga bands and floats pack the streets and avenues – while in the lights of the fireworks, the people of Santiago de Cuba looked happy for more than a week.

What’s remarkable about this is that people are displaying their gratification over the fact that their personal property rights are now being recognized, ending an extended period of these rights being denied them for no logical reason.

I don’t believe that we write out of some cathartic necessity. I think that it’s a form of sincerely demonstrating the other faces of Cuba, neither those displayed in the official press nor those in the anti-Castro media.