Havana Times has been online for nearly four years – publishing diaries, opinions, interviews, news, etc. Of the 23 HT writers, only six (26 percent) have Internet access. Many of us never get the chance to even see the site.
The life-sized electro-mechanical dinosaurs there at the Metro Park have surprised everyone who has come to see them over the past few months. As the creatures move, blink and roar, those events are recorded by the cameras of children and adults alike. (23 photos)
On the warm evening of July 3, a piece of news shook my daily routine. I received an email announcing the death of the youngest child of a friend. Distraught, I wanted to know more, to talk and mourn with her, or just be by her side, but the distance makes that difficult.
Kenya said she would never undergo a Pap smear* – and that was it. Despite my curiosity as a teenager, I couldn’t imagine how to get into her mental labyrinthine to understand the reasoning behind her refusal to do something that other women in the apartment building did without the slightest protest.
Berta has lived in Mexico for several years. From there, working hard, she has found a way to help her family. Every so often she visits her mother here in Cuba, but this last trip wound up being unforgettable.
Ana Rivero is demanding an answer: “The leaks haven’t been fixed. The ceilings are caving in the apartments on the upper floors.” Meanwhile another neighbor, Mary Coche, said that the paint used on the facade was off very poor quality and is already peeling.
It was 7:00 a.m. at the Maternidad Obrera Maternity Hospital, where my fear was making me sweat. The abortion wing was full of impatient women: some nervous, others extremely sure of things, but all of them hoping this would be over quickly.
Methodically and always overcoming any obstacles to her ritual, every evening — precisely at 6:30 p.m. — Graciela turns on her Chinese Panda-brand TV (earned through great sacrifice at her workplace) and doesn’t turn if off until the end of last telenovela.
Before going to the Cuban Immigration Office to request her Exit Permit (the famous “Tarjeta Blanca,” or white card), my friend called one of those consumer information numbers.
Nena didn’t want to think negatively, but nor could she stop thinking they might not give her the visa. She went to the interview at the Venezuelan consulate prepared for either of the two alternatives.