Irina Pino’s Diary

Cuba’s “Special Period” Remembered

It caught us by complete surprise in the 90s, and no one expected it to last the many years it did. Even today we continue to be haunted by those infernal years, as though we were unable to find a way out of the crisis. One need only mention it to conjure up those dark memories.

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My Friend’s Three Partners

Woody Allen once said that “the heart is a very flexible organ”, and I agree with him in every sense. A colleague at Havana Times gave me a compilation of essays on free love by 19th and 20th century thinkers, put together by Osvaldo Baigorria.

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My Afternoons in Cuba with Paco de Lucia

When I was fourteen, I got the crazy idea I wanted to learn to play the guitar. My parents didn’t have the money to buy me the instrument, so I decided to talk with Barbara, a friend of mine who lived in the building across the street and owned a Pablo Quintana guitar.

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The Soviet Films of My Cuban Adolescence

I recall that the portrayal of the Battle of Borodino in Soviet director Sergeui Bondarchuck’s War and Peace, an adaptation of Tolstoy’s novel, made the film a true work of art, as did that ballroom dance scene, with its costumes, lights and dancers performing a delicious and interminable waltz.

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Changing Times: On Sex in Cuba

I’ve noticed that some of my previous articles dealing with the issue of sex have stirred up a number of debates and also a bit of mockery. I would therefore like to touch on this issue again. I imagine I’ll find other related topics of interest later, as this is a rich and multifaceted issue for discussion.

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Some Remarks on Polyamorous Relationships

We should have relationships made up of three or four partners. Love and sex know no rules – we are not monogamous by nature. People merely imagine that we are and live with this false concept as something pre-ordained by nature. Breaking with these rules would be a form of liberation.

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The Old Havana of Others

Talking a walk around this old and refurbished quarter of Old Havana, where one always seems to find something new, something one missed during a previous stroll among the ancient buildings, is very agreeable experience.

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What’s “Normal” Regarding Sex?

It would be worth asking ourselves, however, what “normal” would be when it comes to sex. Can sexual preferences be classified in any way? I don’t think they can. There are so many different forms of sexual conduct that any treatise on them would be endless.

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Learning to Say Goodbye

I had recent news of two deaths; one at the end of last year and the other early this year. First came the death of brother of a good friend who lives in the United States, then the mother of Veronica, my friend and colleague.

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