Author: Regina Cano

Within a society whose changes generate nostalgia for the past, there also exists discouragement among those who don’t see this as an act that will return our balance.

These days, to descargar (to “let go”) is an attitude that is “modern,” voluntary and without mediating promises. After youths have fulfilled their “duty” of studying or their self-imposed “requirement” to “luchar el quilo” (hustle for a buck), nowadays they attempt to drown their boredom in music and alcohol, and easy sex.

Que bolá papi! (What’s happening daddy). This can be heard between young guys who meet and immediately exchanges kisses on the cheeks.

This is a short inventory of some common expenses purchased in regular national currency, because that of hard currency, called CUCs, is another thing.

My first impression of Rastafarians came from those semi-hard matted locks —so close to being natural— that grew from their heads. To this was added their music, which touched my African roots, so accustomed to percussive rhythms.

I was looking for someone to begin working on the repair of my “gingerbread home” and contacted several bricklayers trying to find a good one, someone I knew, and who was reliable as a person, in addition to someone who lived close by so it would be easy for them to get to the job.

Ever since the beginning of my adventure in demanding construction materials for the repair of the “gingerbread houses” in my neighborhood, I haven’t stopped asking myself a certain question.

Little by little, Havana has been turning into a transparent city. There are places where its bones show; the skeletons of buildings that hint at the future, the past or to the sides.

Dollars were given the names fulas, dolores, los verdes (the greens) or verdolaga (purslane) for their color, as well as moneda dura (hard currency), comparing them to the “soft” value of the Cuban peso.

Many of us islanders, who sometimes try to cast our fishing pole backwards, say “Cubans have bad memories” or that “if it wasn’t this way we’d all go crazy.” Decidedly, it’s part of the great artistry of the human brain.