Osmel Almaguer’s Diary

When most Cuban workers near retirement age, they endure poor conditions and low wages to receive a pension for their senior years. The most unpleasant aspect of this whole situation is the mistreatment and abuse that almost all bosses subject their subordinates to.

Me, just like most other honest people, are very vulnerable because the chain of swindling that has occurred in the last several years has reached astronomical proportions. This all started with the crisis that began in the early 1990s, when the economic situation was most critical.

By 1959, baseball was the island’s most popular sport. Gradually it became a political problem, especially when we played the United States. There were also difficult times in which our victories at the international level contributed to us forgetting our hunger and other needs.

Participating as a worker at the Cuba International Book Fair has given me a different view of the event than as a visitor. Before, I came every year just like the public, buying books that interested me, always the ones that were in regular Cuban pesos.

My father tells me that the roof situation could lead to a collapse and I believe him. However, for now there really isn’t much I can do. To repair it would cost approximately 200 CUC (US $250), equal to a complete year’s salary.

Yesterday I slept at my mother’s apartment because in my house there is no video recorder and in her place there is. I took advantage of the opportunity to see some lectures on Cuban culture, a required class that I’m currently taking in the University.

Could it be that those who baptized the new park, or perhaps just re-baptized the old one, sensed these difficulties and decided not to dishonor the name of the Soviet martyr with a place of so many limitations?

When I was still in my teens, I discovered my vocation to become a writer and from that moment on decided to dedicate myself fully to the goal.