“You son of a bitch!” the young man yells, lunging at the other fellow at the crowded bus stop. “You’re the one who’s been peeping at my wife through the bathroom window for days now!” He raises a fist, ready to pound the other man’s face with all his pent-up fury.
Read More“I have a secret I can’t tell anyone.” Saying this, Katy looks at my niece – her friend – knowingly. They are both 10. What is it?” asks Carla, trying to clear up the mystery. “No, I can’t. He made swear I wouldn’t say anything.”
Read MoreWhen I was a teenager, I used to hear people repeat that there was no racism in Cuba. At school, teachers would insist we all had the rights, duties and opportunities. This is what I believed when I studied at the tourism entertainment school, graduated and started working.
Read MoreIn the distance, I make out the shadow of someone holding a sack over his shoulder, walking slowly between the sea and river. Is it a tired man? From time to time, he places the load on the ground and crouches. He seems to be looking for something, but what?
Read More“Leandro, I want you to iron-out my hair and give me a haircut like yours. And don’t worry, I have money.” The person addressed, on hearing the word “money”, began taking out the gear. My neighbor then asked: “Can you do it?”
Read MoreGregorio has no money, not even enough to put food on his table. This is reflected in his mood. That’s why he never goes out; so that people won’t notice the dire financial straits he is in. This is one of the many sad situations we see today of people who worked their whole lives.
Read MoreMany people in Cuba dislike the popular frase echar un palo (“to throw someone a stick”). In their view, this idiom – which all of us understand – is a rather vulgar way of referring to the sexual act. Recently, I had a chat with Paula, a cultural journalist, and we tried to get to the bottom of the said phrase.
Read MoreThe promotional message which ETECSA sent to mobile users recently illustrates why I don’t own a cell phone. The message read, verbatim: “If you add 20 CUC (Cuban Convertible Pesos) of credit to your line from April 15 to 19, you will receive 40 CUC of credit.”
Read MoreThe large bus substitute people in Cuba call “camels” – a means of transportation created in the 1990’s to address a critical period of shortages in the country – are a dying species. Once, Havana was teeming with these two-humped lorries with noisy doors which were always packed with passengers.
Read More“Out on the street with my kids, helpless, I started to yell outside the apartment Roberto and I had bought. The lady in the apartment took pity on us and offered me and the children a room to stay in while I looked for a place to settle,” my friend Lila tells me.
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