Author: Regina Cano

These days it’s common to hear people in Havana mention God. They might say “Thank God” or “God bless you,” “May God reward you” or other references.

I find it increasingly annoying to see how my fellow citizens so easily turn to violence —lining it with grace— by adding it to the vox populi in this fashion.

In Cuba the Bratz have grown in popularity. With the airs of clueless teens and the bodies of adult women, they sport oversized sunglasses and earrings, wear thin gold chains and costume jewelry, and prance around in their miniskirts or shorts complete with their accessorized fake-leather handbags.

The embarrassment of possibly being wrong, accompanied by the fear of being hammered with blame offers favorable circumstances for those having a small bit of power in their hands to abuse the even less powerful.

Quite a few people have always been involved in the numbers. In Cuba it survives despite everything. It’s both concealed and open at the same time, as a level of permissive complicity serves to expand it.

These children —raised in the same neighborhood as others, playing the same games and going to the same elementary and junior high schools— are now they’re trying to figure out what they’re going to do in life as future professionals.

Just like anywhere else in the world, a certain percentage of people here in Cuba actively work at conditioning their bodies – developing each muscle and thinking more about their “looks.” What’s more, the number of these individuals is on the rise.

I hope the new taxes they’ll be required to pay end up culling out the less popular clowns, and that it doesn’t become an obstacle that further distances others who hope to eventually achieve their dreams of acting in a play or on television.

There’s a rumor spreading in the streets of Havana. Fear is setting in as a result of the recent announcement concerning the planned mass lay off of Cuban workers – a half million within six months.

“I don’t want dogs in here,” the grandmother snarled. All that could then be heard were the old woman’s screams and an excuse for Chanel, who had already given the puppy a good spanking with her house shoe.