Author: Paula Henriquez

I remember when I was little girl and all of my neighborhood friends would get together so we could play. We were about 10 kids, maybe there were more of us. It was a nuisance for our neighbors who had to deal with the racket a big group of kids running about used to make.

This 39th edition didn’t get off to a bad start until one of the most important screenings of the Festival had to be canceled at the Charles Chaplin movie theater just two days after the festival began, the screenings of one of the most important films in the festival from Cuba competing for the Coral award: Sergio y Serguei.

A friend tells me that there is a new breed of dog in Cuba and she isn’t exactly referring to the kind of dogs we’ve known all our lives. There is a breed of dog that sits behind reception desks in different places that offer public assistance. And these bark even louder than real dogs.

I have been asked whether I want to leave the country on more than one occasion. It had been a while since I had forgotten the issue, but somebody insisted that I speak about it again a few days ago and once again, the same answer came to mind.

Word has it that there are some people who are taking advantage of any situation and robbing what they can find: wallets, cellphones, money… I’m well aware that this happens in many countries, but today I’m talking about Havana.

One day, I was coming back from one of the editions of a Havana Film Festival. I was walking alone back then; I didn’t need anyone to walk through the capital’s Vedado neighborhood, from movie theater to movie theater, backpack on my shoulder…

We all know that children come into this world without any prejudice. Their way of thinking and expressing themselves is so sincere that they can even be cruel to each other, but they are so naive at the same time that they forget any brawl they’ve had a few moments later.

If there is an accomplishment that we can talk about as Cubans, it’s the one that we can call “the non-solidarity Cubans have for their fellow Cubans.” Yep… this is the greatest of all, because all of the others have weakened over time.

I’ve been reading and re-reading everything that is happening with the US and Cuba again. It seems like these are poorly-told stories and bad jokes. What are we doing? And I say “we” because at the end of the day, we don’t know who’s doing what.

I hadn’t walked along the Malecon since the day before hurricane Irma swept through the city. None of the heartbreaking and depressing images that my husband and I saw today could have passed through our minds at that time.