Author: Safie M. Gonzalez

Last Saturday, a friend invited me to the “26th Street Zoo”, in Havana. It had been closed for a good while because of the pandemic…

Every day, my elderly neighbor Margarita wakes up early and goes to the closest kiosk (retail point) to her house.

If there’s one thing they tried to drill into us, it’s that all Cubans are equal, that there is no “difference between social classes” here.

The time came when most of these stores were left empty, only those big stores taking precedence, which then began selling in US dollars.

If there’s been one issue that has made headlines in Cuba in recent months, it’s not exactly been the famous COVID-19, but increasing prices.

It was 11 AM and I was in the middle of Vedado, and the sun was at its highest point in the sky, dehydrating anyone underneath it.

If there’s one person I’ve admired for a long time now, it’s my neighbor Mariana. She has a moving story and she inspired me to write this.

We’ve been looking after ourselves a lot, our hygiene measures were extreme, but the virus got in somehow and we’re all sick.