Author: osmel

The Dentist’s Chair & Soap Operas

I sat there thinking to myself: Young people have always been the same, with their virtues and defects, with passion and the ideals necessary to make societies advance, with their malleability that makes them conducive to change, and their inexperience that allows them to make understandable mistakes.

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Choices for Cuban Youth

In the “before” times, in addition to having variety of alternatives and plenty of places for recreation, people had a different concept of amusement.

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Crossing the ‘Gulfito’ Bridge

The changes in Cuba resulting from the Special Period crisis of the 90s, causing an opening to external influences, a gradual process of privatization of life began, if not at the institutional level (which has indeed begun to some degree) then at least in terms of family life. In this, Cojimar has been at the head.

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Reflections on Selfishness

Fidel Castro’s return to the Cuban television screen generated almost as much interest as the issue he was raising there: the imminence of war in Iran. The matter had to be very serious for him to interrupt his reclusive and prolonged retirement.

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My Luck of the Draw

Fortunately, my cement-block house was —like the third pig in the fairy tale— able to stand up to the huffing and puffing of our own big bad wolf. My uncle’s wooden place, however, almost fell down on him.

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My New Dragon

The fact that I loaned my arm to my cousin so that he could begin his career in the art of tattooing could seem like madness, but the true madness was that I found it all amusing.

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Without Cap or Gown

After my thesis was approved, I began to become concerned with the issue of dress. Few Cubans have a suit or tie. This type of clothing is very not very functional on the island due to the heat here. In addition, it’s quite expensive.

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Poetry for the Body & Soul

Yesterday I convinced myself that I shouldn’t take verse and rhyming too seriously. I say that because of the experience I had at this year’s Havana International Festival of Poetry.

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