Alfredo sells tennis shoes, socks, shorts and T-shirts, all at pretty high prices. Sure, their name brand goods, to be specific they’re all by Adidas.

Since the issuing of licenses was approved for anyone who wants to become a self-employed worker, many people have gotten busy putting together their own businesses.

My cousin was living in Holguin and worked at the provincial headquarters of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) as a maintenance attendant. One fine day a special meeting was organized for workers at that office who were having housing difficulties.

To be a regular blood donor is now a quite remarkable task, keeping in mind the difficulties of securing sufficient food, the unpleasantness of having a needle stuck in your body and the almost totally free character of the donation.

On occasions I’ve heard people say — half-jokingly, and half seriously — that fewer Havanans live in Havana than immigrants.

Although it sometimes seems unbelievable to us, still today, in the Cuba of the 21st century, there occur events fitting of medieval life, an age when scientists and women with uncommon features — under the suspicion of heresy — were persecuted and burned at the stake.

Thirty years ago the cultural life in Cuba was sustained by an institutional framework designed by the revolutionary government. This wasn’t perfect, but at least it worked at that time.

When I got there I found him conversing peacefully with my father in his front room. At first I didn’t recognize him, so I said hi somewhat indifferently.

It seems that with all this self-employed work that has taken hold here in Cuba, someone has been carrying out Cupid’s job – and very efficiently.

Before finishing, the presenter proposed the sale of the book. His copy had a plastic jacket, was of a good size and thickness, and was printed on quality paper.