Jorge Milanes’s Diary

The first morning, almost as soon as we greeted, she admitted that due to the haste in which she had organized her trip, she’d forgotten to bring a toothbrush.

Despite large government investments made to improve the energy situation here, shortages are still not uncommon.

We arranged a table and four chairs outside, sat down and distributed the “bones.” As we began, one player shouted, “You’re not going to win with what you got. Here you go!” slamming down his first domino in the middle of the table. “I think I’d better go look for a bottle of rum to give things a little ambiance,” he then added.

Listening to my mother, I was getting worried and upset. I told her, “How many times do I have to tell you not to open the gate for anybody if you don’t know them!

Walking through the entryway of the old Aldama Palace, situated to one side of Fraternity Park in Havana, it’s customary to see “card throwers” seated on the curb trying to make some money.

I admit that I also fell for that unexpected fallacy of fate, because the day they sacrificed the pig, I had sharpened my teeth, seduced by the fantasy of succulent pork. I was looking forward to the meal perhaps more than my own friend, when he turned the stake to the right as much as to the left of enthusiasm.

Yesterday was my aunt’s birthday. She’s an 80-year-old woman, with soft gray hair (that she conceals with dye) and who wears glasses (that she uses only to read). Her husband died a year back and, as is still customary among older men and widows, she dresses in black and doesn’t like for music to be heard in her home.

Establishing communication with someone different is one of the challenges that many people set out to accomplish daily in the street, because solidarity is one of our characteristics, though necessity sometimes doesn’t allow all of us to be the good guys we would like to be.

When we have a health problem, many of us Cubans turn to the Gods so they’ll help cure whatever ails us. San Lazaro, for example, is one of those deities who are most called upon.