Dmitri Prieto’s Diary

According to anthropologists, “rites of passage” are those special moments in the lives of human beings when a man or woman undergoes a change in their social status (religious, legal, institutional…).

These books constitute true and amicable contributions to thought in a country where it’s still taboo in certain places to talk about racial identity, inequality or question some intellectuals and leaders of the past and present.

Many people would probably be surprised to read the phrase “Jose Antonio Aponte, leader of the Cuban Revolution.”

A piquetero (a jitney station attendant) could be the name for the occupation of those who work in a piquera: a terminal of jitney taxis, which are cars that carry a number of independent passengers along pre-set routes.

Reading the comments to my previous post on the subject of student rural labor, I was reminded that sending students to work in the countryside wasn’t exactly a Cuban invention. That practice also existed in the former USSR. In fact, I believe that all countries calling themselves “socialist” did something similar.

What recently happened to my friend Mario Castillo, who was arrested and fined here in Cuba for not carrying his ID, reminded me of my experiences in Great Britain.

An 11-year-old kid from Ciego de Avila Province, Fredo de Jesus Sanchez, has just been proclaimed a rising star in Cuban soccer. He said he had fallen in love with the sport during the 2010 World Cup.

In December 1989 (22 years ago!), the United States militarily attacked Panama. The purpose of the “mission” was the capture of Manuel Noriega, the Panamanian general involved in a major international drug trafficking operations.

On December 10, tens of thousands of Russian citizens flooded a Moscow square demanding transparency and fairness in the processing of the results of the last parliamentary elections.

“The sun never sets on our lands.” This phrase, inherited from colonial empires, is now legitimately assumed by protesters. The sun is shining and an earthquake is generating seismic waves that are shaking the foundations of those old empires.