Irina Echarry’s Diary

In the Alejo Carpentier room of the Cabaña Fortress, on February 11, the title “Fantasmas de Monte Adentro” (Ghosts from the Back Country) by Lidia Caridad Hernández, was presented as part of the activities of the 28th edition of the International Book Fair of the Havana.

Alfredo couldn’t believe he’s drunk so little water over these past few days. He normally drinks over two liters per day, but he’s had to get by with just a few glasses. After the tornado of January 27th, everything is in shortage except for misfortune…

I tried to secure a window and I saw a strange light. I immediately wanted to know how my brother was so I called his house, but nobody answered. I called his cellphone, he didn’t have any signal. I was overcome by anxiety: the blackout, the howling wind, the announcement of a possible storm, everything I needed to insist on making that call.

She used to spend her days at a dump. She blended right in with the earth because of her brown skin and people would throw garbage on top of her; she’d run away afraid and then come back. With her long legs and her slim body, she would walk slowly as if her existence in this world weighed her down.

When 2018 drew to an end there wasn’t any rejoicing on our streets, in fact you could pick on people’s agony of having to keep up a tradition at all costs. Cubans have always grumbled about problems, but now they aren’t just complaining, they are also mentioning a solution almost like they used to in the ‘90s…

On the government’s nightly TV show Mesa Redonda, (The Round Table) several officials have been “following” the national transport issue. Sitting comfortably in their seats and confident that they speak nothing but the truth, they explain how the new measures that regulate the “experiment” to “structure” private taxi drivers’ work will be implemented.

As you’ve probably heard, a zoosadism case has gone viral on social media. I found out from a post published in the Cuba against Animal Abuse group, which was created to report degrading acts that humans carry out on animals. I recommend you sign up to this group to keep up-to-date with what is going on in our country in this respect.

Last Tuesday, I was on my way home at a time when the country becomes paralyzed: the sacred telenovela hour. Once again, it was dark. As taxis don’t adapt their routes to their customers, rather you have to follow the routes they impose, I had to get off at Avenida de los Cocos and walk to my house along the street with the Lazaro Pena primary school.

It’s September; the streets of Regla (across the bay from Old Havana) are buzzing again with the beginning of the school year. Near the dock entrance, people walk in haste, many of them remember Jennifer, “the girl who was killed”. She was only 23 years old and she had lots of plans for her future.

They didn’t all arrive together: they each had a time and a function: to make sure everything was calm, smear themselves in excrement and document the event. It was going to be a very simple action: once covered in excrement, they would hang up a sign: “Free Art. No to Decree-Law 349”, on Capitolio building’s steps.