If I were a little girl again among ranks of the Young Pioneers, wearing my uniform and with my hair well combed, instead of chanting the motto “Pioneers for communism, we will be like Che,” I would like to chant, “We will be like Fantito!”
It’s something that has opened my eyes with astonishment, like someone seeing a whale for the first time, because I think I’ll break down and cry the day I ever see one. However, the uproar of an election campaign here in Venezuela is enough to make you cry from not being able to get a good night’s sleep.
Everybody has something to say regarding public transportation in Cuba… well, maybe not everybody, because I know people who haven’t stepped on a Cuban bus in years. But those people are missing out on our experiences, those of us who sometimes walk on foot and other times catch the bus… or whatever form of transportation that might appear.
As sometimes I’m a little slow; it took me a few months to realize what was bothering me. I knew that I didn’t like the balcony a lot at the apartment where I’ve lived for five months.
Lately I’ve noted that many people look at me as if I were a “malandra.” In Venezuela, malandros are said to be those who we in Cuba in generally call criminals: any type of mugger, pickpocket or petty thug – in short, a low class person. (9 photos)
It wasn’t in my plans to stop at this place; the noontime heat here is as intense as in Cuba. Indeed, Maracaibo, Venezuela is as hot as Santiago de Cuba. However, the car I was in thought that it was time to stop and cool its engine. (14 photos)
One of the common forms of violence in Venezuelan cities is kidnapping. Interested in greater economic rewards, thieves are no longer content with snatching gold chains from the necks of naïve wanderers; nor are they so interested in demanding at gunpoint what a driver or a pedestrian has in their pocket. Kidnapping pays bigger dividends.
While the planet is being turned upside down by the Soccer World Cup in South Africa, in another southern region —that of the Americas— another world championship is taking place. This competition is in the discipline that was eliminated as a sport for the 2012 London Olympics and 2016 Rio de Janeiro games: softball. (34 photos)
With my camera in hand, I approached the group of women and men on the dock. In all my life I’ve only seen one stingray or devil ray, however you might call it, nor had I ever seen such as massive quantity of marine life of any species. (15 photos)
A little blond in shorts, a T-shirt and hiking spoke to me from the television screen the other day. She was on the National Geographic channel, which is supposed to be a little more serious than the rest of those that I occasionally have time to see on cable here in Caracas. I’ve read reports in the National Geographic Magazine that have seemed interesting. However this little blond was inviting us to go on a tour in Oklahoma.