Carlitos, the “Box Loader”, has passed away. A neighbor told me the news. It left me stunned. After a highly emotional silence, these words erupted from me: But, what happened? He was young, only 40-something years old, active, full of energy.

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything for Havana Times, some readers might have thought that I had got tired of writing. The thing is, though, that my mother suffered a fracture and I am looking after her around the clock.

Blondie in Havana! That really did come as a surprise for Cuban fans! We thought that it was just another rumor, like many other times there’s been talk about different famous bands coming, but then the national press and social media confirmed it. It really was going to happen!

Dear George, we are celebrating your birth with great joy. Listening to your compositions, watching your music videos is the best thing to do. Thinking about you like the privileged being you are.

Watching the Freddie Mercury biopic and the incarnation of Queen’s band members, I remembered my gay friends from the ‘80s, when there were police raids and they were locked up in jail cells, which they called “pateras” (maybe because they referred to patos or ducks, birds with a feminine appearance).

It’s no coincidence that I consider myself to be someone who is open-minded sexually, free of prejudice, given the fact that I write about sex-related topics here on Havana Times, where I have a personal diary. I love writing about sex, especially because the range of possibilities is endless.

We don’t celebrate anything at all in my house. Holidays pass us by like they were any other day. My family split into many different parts and most of them now live abroad. However, I didn’t isolate myself today. I escaped sadness and met with a group of friends. Two of them were friends of mine; the others were visiting Cuba.