Author: Dariela Aquique

In movies and novels, endings are always important. The last image is what sticks in one’s mind. Real life is like that too. The last impressions we retain of someone or something frame what we remember about them – for good or bad.

La película de Ana tells another story of our harsh reality. It belongs to that long list of Cuban films of the last decade that chronicle a society in crisis. Ana, a television actress, is forced to pose as a prostitute named “Ginette,” and she agrees to be filmed by foreigners.

Thanks to TeleSur, a few days ago I learned about a photo published in the Spanish newspaper El Pais that showed President Chavez in poor physical condition and connected to breathing apparatus. A whole program of discussion and debate regarding the incident was presented.

“Don’t yell at me, it doesn’t make what you’re saying any more right”, goes a line from one of Beatriz Marquez’s songs. It was popular in the 1980s, when I was a teenager. That little refrain sticks with me like a ring on my finger whenever I read some of the comments in Havana Times.

“Hey, have you read the horoscope for 2013?” “No, what do things look like for this year?” “Wonderful, my friend. The predictions are excellent. They say that this is the year of travel.” This was the conversation I overheard between two women.

Obviously the health of Hugo Chavez has to be more delicate than what is being said. This can be deduced from the absence of photos of the recovery of the populist leader. That is why the Venezuelan opposition is speculating about this in maintaining their media campaign against the president.

From an early age students go through the process of recommendation, being selected from the classroom as being those who according to “certain rules” comply with the requirements to be members. But on reaching the age of 32, the young associates are expected to move on to the ranks of the PCC.

This past Saturday night, as people sat in front of their TV’s watching the Brazilian telenovela, a voice suddenly cut in. An announcement came on saying the broadcast was being interrupted for a live report with important information from the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, Venezuela.

“El Monumento al Cimarron” (the Monument to Runaway Slaves), a towering sculpture created in bronze and iron, was built on a hill near the town of El Cobre, in Santiago de Cuba Province, to honor one of the earliest slave revolts that took place in the country.