Author: Rosa Martínez

The year 2017 already looks like it’s going to be a much more difficult one for the Cuban people. The national economy had negative growth last year, in spite of the 4 million tourists – a record number – who visited the country.

For those of us who aren’t professional journalists, it takes us a little more time to prepare an article for our readers. Normally, we need a call from inspiration for the article we want to write to come or, at least, the closest thing possible to what we thought it would be.

When a new year begins, the most common thing to do is to look back on the good things that the old year brought, but mainly about what we did wrong and how we can change this in the present in order to improve our lives.

I want to tell Havana Times readers about these people who give life to this place and tell you the anecdotes relating to them, so that you can get to know one of my city’s poorest neighborhoods, albeit the liveliest.

Although the majority of the country is committed to helping put the four municipalities which were most affected by the hurricane back on their feet, over these last few days, there have been many surprising stories to tell.

Hurricane Matthew is finally long away from Cuba, but it destroyed the city of Baracoa beforehand, not only by destroying 90% of the municipality’s housing partially or completely, but also by leaving a deep mark on the hearts of those who live in Baracoa.

No one in Guantánamo slept a wink last night and I imagine it was the same story in Santiago and Holguin. These are the three easternmost provinces in Cuba, the ones that faced the greatest menace from the powerful Hurricane Matthew.

Exactly four years ago we experienced something similar to what now approaches us, although the chief meteorologist Dr. Rubiera has stated loudly and clearly that Guantánamo never faced anything like this.

We people in Guantanamo had hoped that the phenomenon would have taken a route further to the West (of course, we would prefer that it didn’t have to pass through any province), however, forecasts now indicate yet again that it’s coming straight for us.

We parents encounter a lot of difficult tasks while our children are growing up, but educating them is the most difficult of them all.