As if it were a new phenomenon, social indiscipline has become the comfortable limits of a critical message which has been non-existent for too long now, and has found, as if it never existed before, in today’s circumstances, its scapegoat: Private Enterprise.
Like childhood’s many other discoveries, which occur simultaneously, I was invited for my first time to a Yoruba* ritual drumming party when I was 9 years old and found myself alone in front of a santera.
The rise of new cults or religions, similar in their psycho social patterns, has been no secret to anyone in Cuba over the past few decades. Here are some of these,as I see it.
The following discussion took place at the bus stop where I wait every day, on the morning of Friday, March 18, two days before President Barack Obama arrived in Havana.
Though the things Cubans most crave have varied in dependence of the priorities and fads of the time and individual aspirations, a house and a car have been the top two since I have use of reason. In my case, it’s also been a telescope. (6 photos)
On the dirty doorjamb of a tenement building in Havana, right across from a produce and meat market, after the rain stops, two flies – Trash and Spit – have a chat. A heat wave rises from the asphalt.
On the zinc roof of a produce and livestock market in Havana, two flies converse. “Have you met the Argentinean fly, yet? He’s got all the flies in the dumpster imitating his Argentinean accent.” (11 photos)
Adolfo hadn’t been dead a year when Salvador, who had been his neighbor for more than twenty years, set proceedings in motion to reclaim 10 cm of land that, according to him, Adolfo had stolen from him after setting up a fence.
A few days ago, while standing on a street corner in Havana, Luis, an acquaintance who never misses a wake, told me about a burial and the last wake he’d been to.
Recenlty while standing at the bus stop on the intersection of Prado and Trocadero streets, right across the two bronze lions that keep watch over part of Old Havana’s promenade, I heard five young people debate the reasons for leaving or staying in Cuba. They were speaking openly and sincerely.