Today (Sunday 30/7), should be an important day for Cuba. Venezuela, the country which our fleeting oil peace depends on, is going through a process which could trigger something negative at any moment.
Naomi can never sit still for a second: she crosses the street from one side to the next, she makes up adventures with her friends, she wriggles around to the beat of her neighbor’s music, she has been wearing make-up for two years now, she is a natural born leader who brings other kids from around the block together.
It’s 9 PM and the P3 bus hasn’t come yet. I’ve been waiting for half an hour already. Alamar’s dark streets make it easy for masturbators, drunks and attacks; yup, it’s definitely better to wait for the bus than go out there and tempt the devil.
Just a week ago, the Cuban Association for the Defense of Animals called for a collection of signatures rejecting the crime that took place in Manzanillo. Almost 2,000 signatures were collected in just six days and there are still people who are interested in signing the petition so that animal abuse becomes a punishable crime.
For a few days now, there’s been a video that’s being going viral on social media: young people in Manzanillo burned a dog alive, in the middle of the street. Because of the precarious situation we have with the Internet, I haven’t been able to see it, but the truth is, I really don’t want to.
We are at a critical juncture in history, the world is living through uneasy times. In Cuba, which many people consider a calm place where they would like to live if it weren’t for the depressed economy, we don’t escape serious problems either.
In Cuba, I believe that there is still a lot to be done in all spaces; in the home and in public, as well as the personal sphere. In order to demand change, we need to leave behind our apathy and ask ourselves what our wishes and inconveniences are.
All of a sudden, for work reasons, my trips to Pinar del Rio no longer have that young guerrilla spirit of camping out in the mountains and eating snacks. Now, I have been going to places which I couldn’t afford out of my own pocket: rentals, restaurants, cafes; where everything is paid for in CUC. (8 photos)
No, I don’t want to go to Cuba, I’m not going to sit down damn you, shouted the young man who was standing, holding fast onto the seat of the plane that was taking him back; this was his way of resisting the force of Mexican immigration officials.
When I left Alamar, nobody, including myself, knew anything and I found out about the news when I got to Vedado: the “wet-foot/dry-foot” policy had been revoked. I know that things aren’t always black and white, there are grey areas.