Osmel Almaguer’s Diary

A new congress of Cuba’s Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs) is nearing and winds of change seem to be coming with it. Such change would be a positive sign, an indication that Cuban authorities are beginning to acknowledge that something in this organization isn’t working too well.

Odalys, one of my mother’s neighbors, has a niece who’s made some significant additions to her wardrobe of late. She now has some rather expensive garments, but, no, she doesn’t have a salary that would make such luxury affordable.

Sometimes, it feels like I’m living in one of those countries where parents still sell their daughters into marriage, in exchange for goats or some other kind of property, where human beings are marketable items or, worse, where loved ones can become exchange goods. But no, I live in Cuba…

My friend Leslie was recently informed by ETECSA (Cuba’s State phone company) that he cannot open a new mobile phone account. He was told that you are entitled to only one line and that one has already been activated under his name.

The intense heat of summer has only just insinuated itself and buses are already crammed to the bursting point with people bound for the beach. The difference now is that, thanks to the purchase of a great many new vehicles, people wanting to go for a refreshing dip have many more transportation options at hand.

I can summarize the Cuban performance at the WBC III as having been good. They had a great tournament at the plate. The pitching wasn’t bad, but the defence behaved discreetly, although there were some very good plays. It’s been a while since I’d liked watching them that much.

“Yadira has always been involved with painting. When she was little she would spend hours sitting at the dining room table painting sheets of paper with her little art set.” That’s what her grandmother told me, because I didn’t know her back then. Yadira now makes her living as a manicurist

Juan Carlos Fuentes is one of my neighbors in Cojimar, a small fishing village on the eastern outskirts of Havana. He’s a retired fisherman who now makes his living in a rather strategic manner: buying clothes in Panama and selling them in Havana.

“Doña Laura” is a privately-owned cafe that’s very successful right now. It’s located on F Street, between 21st and 23rd streets, in Havana’s downtown Vedado district. Its dishes consist of acceptable quantities of reasonably priced and well-seasoned Creole food.

The Isle of Youth (the smaller island off the Cuban mainland), long ago ceased being a paradise that attracted immigrants. The repopulation project that was initiated and undertaken by the Cuban government was the impetus for the island’s 1978 name change (previously it was called the Isle de Pinos, or the Island of Pines).