Irina Pino’s Diary

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.

On the afternoon of December 21st, the Meteorological Institute had forecast a low pressure extratropical storm with heavy rains and sea swells along the coast, including Havana’s Malecon. This would be accompanied by winds between 30-45 km/hour.

The bottom line is that national industry needs to be rethought according to the Cuban people’s domestic needs, enabling people to buy on credit (when they don’t have the cash they need), facilitating payments like other countries do. It would create better social balance and brighten up the lives of many Cuban families with lower incomes. (17 photos)

I don’t like weddings. A pastel pink and white cake is like a bland marriage. Yesterday, I went to my friend’s son’s wedding and I realized how boring these ceremonies usually are; at least church weddings are elegant, and they have that solemn air that makes us feel the phrase “until death do us part” is real, although this sacred union is normally broken later and the couple send everything to hell.

A friend dragged me along to watch the new movie “Club de jazz”, by director Esteban Isausti, which made its debut in Havana’s movie theaters. Produced by the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) and Sincover films, it has been making waves here with audiences and critics alike…

It was initially going to be a volume of stories written by both men and women, but then its publishers, Ignacio Rodriguez and Jorge Carpio, realized the potential these women had, all of whom shared a common denominator in their stories: erotica.

Everyone in Cuba knows that there aren’t enough degree programs for pre-university students. Young people are hopeful, but often their dreams never come true. Plans nipped in the bud and not only for those who are at the bottom of the ladder.