Miguel believed that his being accepted into the National Union of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC) would finally release him from the curse of being a self-taught painter, meaning someone who couldn’t exhibit his works for sale in authorized galleries.
Read MoreAt the moment I didn’t even remember that a friend had spoken to me a few days prior about Project Image, thanks to which they’re repairing the apartment building where he lives. This plan, which has been reversing the general visual deterioration of several buildings in the Alamar suburb, includes the repair of damaged stairways, balconies and roofs. But residents are complaining about the superficiality of the repairs and saying for example that it’s a waste to paint the large windows when the overwhelming majority of them are infested with termites and should be replaced immediately.
Read MoreWhenever I see old people in the street selling peanuts, plastic bags or any little incidental items , I think back to the old woman in the movie Suite Havana, by Fernando Perez.
She appeared along with other flesh and blood Cubans, who were not actors, as they struggled with the weighty challenge of survival in an endless “Special Period” crisis.
Read MoreI would like to denounce the bureaucracy that puts limits even on how far one can go in struggling for life. I want to defend the right of people to feel like they’re running up against the limits of nature and not those of human whim.
Read MoreI saw the video that’s being passed from computer to computer showing what happened at the beach-side Guanimar Cabaret to the east of Havana. In it, young women in the audience —urged on by the show’s emcee— transform the dance floor into a pornographic set. All this reminded me of the conflict that my son experienced with a girl in his classroom who sexually harassed him.
Read MoreHow can the scales of the Cuban caiman be turned into feathers? In Amerindian mythology, such a transformation is indispensable for the crocodile to fly. GECNA (the Our America Cultural Studies Group) aspires to defy not the gravity on the island, but something that is even more restricting: the individual ego.
Read More“In my case, I always knew that some moment in my life would come in which I would be compelled to explore other lands, though that didn’t mean I felt I would leave for good. The existing laws are what suggest that idea to us. They give you a certain amount of time to return, and if you don’t, you can no longer come back with the same legal status as others, though you’re still legally a Cuban. It’s something that’s really absurd.”
Read More“Even today, despite the apparent freedom, women are also caught between two alternatives: either I’m a feminist and I fight against men, or I’m a lesbian. These are the only two possibilities for escape, at least if you don’t realize that there’s another possibility – not one of escape, but of liberation,” says Ruben Lombida.
Read MoreThe first time I saw my mother cry was over a cat that some boys on the block had thrown against a wall. There it was, in a box, where not the old towel it was wrapped in, nor lukewarm milk nor our caresses could save its life.
Read MoreCould it be that the old pornographer —accused of abusing prostitutes and of rape, but extolled by many as a symbol of freedom— acted to guide the young woman with the promises of her feminine power as an alternative that was better than the disgust of her husband, and along a long road of submission?
Read More