Elio Delgado-Legon’s Diary

The fight against Batista’s dictatorship (1952-1958) was a heroic feat in the country’s larger cities. The young revolutionaries who fought against that criminal regime had to pay a high price in blood, a really high price. In smaller towns in Cuba’s interior provinces…

Cuba managed to bring together the majority of the 25 Caribbean member states’ heads of state, foreign ministers and their highest-ranking government officials to Havana in order to celebrate the 7th Summit of the ACS, which took place on June 2-4.

For many many years, Cuban culture was buried beneath racial discrimination, and the few tourists who visited Cuba came from the United States, where there was even worse discrimination than the one in our own country.

In a piece published by Havana Times in September of 2014, I wrote about my visit to Santiago de Chile in 1973 and how the studies I was to pursue at university were interrupted by the coup led by Augusto Pinochet.

Millions of Cuban workers and their families rallied this May 1st at each of the country’s main squares and, at all parades, the support for the agreements reached at the recently concluded Congress of the Cuban Communist Party was evident.

Many in Cuba and abroad consider this a historical congress, first of all because it is the last to be presided by the historical leaders of the revolution and, second, because it has laid the foundations for the conceptualization of the economic model to follow until 2030.

Fidel Castro will continue to celebrate birthdays until, one day, as is only natural, he will cease to be among us physically, to go down in history as one of the greatest statesmen of the 20th and 21st century.

April has particularly special significance for Cubans because of the number of historical events that took place in the month – so many I will not be able to mention them all.

Over recent weeks, and particularly following President Barack Obama’s visit to Cuba, much has been written about Cuba’s relations with its northern neighbor, and many have offered their perspective on the matter. I feel the need to share mine.

I’ve had two unpleasant, nearly traumatic run-ins with fire in my life. The first time I was around 13 and lived in a house with a guano thatched roof, much like the surrounding houses, on a lot rented out by a landowner.