It was the month of September of 1993. Cubans faced one of the darkest chapters of the country’s political, economic and social history. The Berlin Wall had fallen and Cuba’s economic crisis (the “Special Period”) was at its most severe: the US blockade was being intensified, the economy was being dollarized and people were leaving the country on rafts and en masse.
Faced with the more common or urgent questions of the population in Cuba, the authorities – or the officials responsible for this or that area – rely on a ready-made formula to answer. They say: “the problem is being studied” or “we’re looking into it.”
As in all totalitarian regimes, all political parties, groups of activists and any organization that gathered individuals with dissenting ideologies, philosophies or thoughts were abolished in Cuba shortly after the island’s current leadership took power.
All Cuban news reports about demonstrations, strikes, rallies and other types of civil protests in different countries always make a point of emphasizing the police or military repression that these movements invariably encounter. I’ve always asked myself: how would Cuban authorities react to such protests?
The issuing of the pastoral letter titled “Love Bears All” and the recent missive written by Cuba’s Catholic Bishops Conference, titled “Hope Does Not Disappoint”, are separated by exactly twenty years.
Though the government boasts of Cuba’s broadened Internet connectivity, I have no access and news about incidents on the island and abroad always reach me rather late. It wasn’t until Wednesday (a week after the fact), when a friend who lives in Brazil wrote to ask me what I thought about the whole Roberto Carcasses affair, that I found out about this incident involving the Cuban musician.
Laughter is considered one of the best therapies. It makes you relax and distracts you. But for Cubans, laughter is almost a way of life. What for people in other countries would be something of concern or regret, or perceived so circumspect, for us it is taken as a joke .
A recent national TV broadcast included what they called a speech by “antiterrorist fighter” Rene Gonzalez. The reason for the haranguing was to exhort the Cuban people to join the activities of the national and international campaign demanding the Cuban Five be set free, to take place from September 5 to October 6.
Reading Daniel Palacio Almarales’ post on Cuba’s illegal dental clinics prompted me to write this post, where I hope to be able to corroborate what the article describes with a recent personal experience. About twenty days ago, one of my wisdom teeth started hurting…
Cuba’s culinary traditions are also reflected in our music. Allusions to food can be found in many popular songs (recall such catchy refrains as “quimbombo sliding o’er dry cassava”, “Olga’s tamales are sure spicy”, “stay outta the kitchen, my man’s cookin’”, “bread and codfish” and “put some sauce on it”).