Irina Pino’s Diary

Few Foreign Rock Bands Play in Cuba

It is encouraging for those who love rock music to see foreign bands visit the country and stage the occasional concert. Music is one the arts closest to human feelings and one of the things that unites people the most.

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My Love-Hate Relationship with India

As for me, the peculiar sound of Indian music, the country’s dance traditions, the texture and colors of its fabrics, the sari (a garment worn by women), the delicacy of its pottery, these are the beautiful things I like about the country.

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Cuba and the Right to Intimacy

I was reading an article about people who rent out rooms where couples can make love, or have sex. I wonder whether this service is offered to all couples, as, but from reading what the owners explained, it appears only for heterosexual couples.

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Cuba’s State and Private Kindergartens

When my son turned one, I was unemployed. Thanks to a government official my husband knew, however, we managed to find a day care center (Circulo infantil) for him. That was at the end of the 90s, when private day care had not yet been authorized. I started to work shortly afterwards.

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Two Trips to Alamar, Havana

A get-together with friends is always an interesting encounter, a context in which feedback flows and spiritual mingling makes us better people. The hours pass and one barely notices it. Several months ago, my friend Veronica organized such a get-together.

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Being Beautiful in Cuba

As women age, they begin to require a certain dignity that experience alone cannot afford them. What is experience, after all? It is the succession of the mistakes we make in life. And one never learns – there is simply not enough time to do so.

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On Changes and Time

Chaos, war, plagues and disease continue to spread around the world, advancing hand in hand with exoduses, separations and death. I often wonder what will become of me. It is an unavoidable question that gets me thinking every day.

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A Film’s Changing Messages

I recently saw Oliver Dahan’s 2003 film My Own Love Song for the fifth time. As soon as the credits start (to Bob Dylan’s Forgotten Heart), I begin to feel that I am watching something that will help me understand human nature.

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No Books for Cuba’s Youth

Some of my son’s high-school friends often come over to my house to play video-games on our computer. Sometimes, the noise they make becomes unbearable and I want to throw them all out. On other occasions, I try to have a chat with them to find out what they’re into.

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