Author: Irina Echarry

Alamar is unsettled, news of a rapist running around on the loose through the neighborhood’s streets interrupts any conversation, outshining the increase in agro-market prices and livening up lines. There are so many different versions; sometimes, dates get mixed up, the number of victims varies, but the reality is that people are very stressed about this issue.

Every day, I watch urban city bus drivers from my balcony overlooking the terminal we use to travel in Alamar. They work hours and hours. They must also have partners, even a dog at home.

Concerned about the intense summer sun, I paid 8.40 CUC for an umbrella. When I was at my most happiest, a friend reminded me that the umbrella might give me shade but, it doesn’t completely stop ultraviolet rays passing through.

Today (Sunday 30/7), should be an important day for Cuba. Venezuela, the country which our fleeting oil peace depends on, is going through a process which could trigger something negative at any moment.

Naomi can never sit still for a second: she crosses the street from one side to the next, she makes up adventures with her friends, she wriggles around to the beat of her neighbor’s music, she has been wearing make-up for two years now, she is a natural born leader who brings other kids from around the block together.

It’s 9 PM and the P3 bus hasn’t come yet. I’ve been waiting for half an hour already. Alamar’s dark streets make it easy for masturbators, drunks and attacks; yup, it’s definitely better to wait for the bus than go out there and tempt the devil.

Just a week ago, the Cuban Association for the Defense of Animals called for a collection of signatures rejecting the crime that took place in Manzanillo. Almost 2,000 signatures were collected in just six days and there are still people who are interested in signing the petition so that animal abuse becomes a punishable crime.

For a few days now, there’s been a video that’s being going viral on social media: young people in Manzanillo burned a dog alive, in the middle of the street. Because of the precarious situation we have with the Internet, I haven’t been able to see it, but the truth is, I really don’t want to.

We are at a critical juncture in history, the world is living through uneasy times. In Cuba, which many people consider a calm place where they would like to live if it weren’t for the depressed economy, we don’t escape serious problems either.