Daisy Valera’s Diary

Thinking Coats as Havana Winter Approaches

The wind has started kicking up and pounding on the windows of my interim apartment here in Alamar, on Havana’s far east side. These gusts of cool air always suggest that winter’s on the way, anxiously anticipated but always timid here in the tropics.

What we need is meat

This prayer is repeated almost to the point of making us think that a little animal fat and flesh is the solution to all our ills in this country, more and more fraught with problems.

My Battle with the ‘Mosquito’

This past weekend, from in my stairwell I could hear the racket of the fumigation machines, which sounded close by. I had clothes hanging on the line and the lunch half done when an exterminator came to my door.

My Job Is Going to Kill Me (I)

I know that it’s not uncommon for people in other countries around the world to have two or even three jobs. I know that a lot of them only have time to wash, eat, sleep and begin another day that will be the same as the one before.

Internet vs. Nationalism

Since my earliest elementary school experiences, I remember my teachers teaching us love for our homeland, national culture and all those things that were said to be 100 percent Cuban.

Conversations over Ice Cream

A few days ago I went by the Coppelia ice cream parlour, and surprisingly there was no one waiting to go in. I couldn’t resist the temptation to enter that palace of deserts without lining up.