Daisy Valera’s Diary

To enjoy crafts in Cuba is a new event. The island was never inhabited by Mayans, or Incas or Aztecs, so we don’t have the tremendous legacies of those cultures.

During the month of January the word “university” appeared more than usual in the pages of the nation’s dailies. When reading, I couldn’t help but feel chills run up my spine.

Today I was thinking of writing about a strange sensation. It’s something that comes over me when I eat away from home; when I’m in a hotel or simply somewhere expensive – places I’m not used to visiting.

I’ve always been around doctors: my mother, her friends, mine. Stories about dilatation and curettage as well as menstrual abortions came and went, but they never really stuck in my mind.

Not long ago I had to go to meet a friend at the airport, where I was astonished to discover the existence of a VIP lounge.

This past January 7th was my 23rd birthday, and I celebrated it in a way typical of a little girl: I went to an amusement park. The price of admission is only a peso (five cents USD), and if you look to the right while walking toward the rides you can see the sea.

“In my opinion it would be prudent to conceive of the participation of the workers in the leadership of socialist government enterprises through the election, ratification or replacement of cadre,” said E. Gonzalez in a letter to the editor.

Although it was supposed that the guidelines for changes in the Cuba’s economy were for analysis by the general public and that approval or disapproval would be determined at the April Communist Party congress, it appears that nothing even remotely resembling this is occurring.

There was no way for the kids to resist the temptation to ignore their teachers and run behind the giants who sang the songs the children requested and that the musicians played.

Though there were many people in the audience between the ages of 16 and 30, one couldn’t overlook that the bulk of the participants were over 40, and it was precisely those adults who enjoyed the event the most, sang all of the songs and even danced.