Dariela Aquique’s Diary

The other day, I read somewhere that Abel Prieto, President Raul Castro’s advisor and Cuba’s former Minister of Culture, had expressed concerns over what he calls the “Americanization” of culture.

As we know, obtaining reliable information in Cuba is a problem because the media – all of them controlled by the government, only report what they want to and do so in accordance with their interests.

The day in which Cuba and the United States decided to re-establish diplomatic relations has finally arrived but, beyond the lively enthusiasm this has awakened and despite all of the encouraging things that have been said, I harbor my doubts about all that remains to be done on this end.

At home, the headlines extoll Cuba’s work in defense of the human rights of children and for free education and health. They publish photos of smiling school children and doctor’s offices and say nothing about the issue of democracy (much less about Cuban dissidents).

Today, the Cuban government shows unequivocal signs of being desperate to remain in power in the final stretch of the race – even if that means taking up a “new economic model” that implements unprecedented measures and legislations…

I have been meaning to write some comments on Haroldo Dilla’s post “The Cavalcade of Cuba’s Alfredo Guevara” for a long while. Dilla expressed his disconcert over the megalomaniacal pillars of this man’s personality, traits he managed to conceal quite well…

I was pleased by the plurality achieved by the gathering, and by the fact that, despite people’s differences of opinion, we are seeing the will to establish exchanges that call for the unification of those two Cubas, the island and the émigré community.

I was always a rather harsh critic of our television programming, because I had never had the opportunity to compare it with any other. Right now, I wish the efforts of our cultural organizations success and offer them my support.

I want to let my regular readers know I was very eager to start writing again. After three months of more or less mandatory holidays, I was beginning to miss the frequent debates between commentators, both supporters and detractors.