Osmel Ramirez

Anselmo isn’t the real name of the farmer who inspired me to write this article and take photos of his house and animals. But, that’s unimportant. (10 photos)

When the unusual rains in August damaged my cassava field that I had sowed, everyone told me to plow it up and sow it again.

If we want a better country, we have to fight for this country.

I really like agriculture, but more as a hobby. If I do it commercially, or to make a living, it’s because tough economic times force me to.

Cuba’s new Constitution is as totalitarian in nature as the last, it’s a fact. However, something has changed and it would be in our good interests to take notice of it and use it when moving forward.

Diaz-Canel’s most recent speech at the National Assembly made me reflect upon what’s going on in Cuba, but from a different angle.

On October 10th, while Parliament and its Communist Party lawmakers met in a special session to elect or appoint the president and vice-president of the country, with the new nomenclature promulgated in the renewed Constitution, I was marking 700 days of being “regulated” (grounded).

There might not be many examples in the world of a government that remains totally indifferent to the grave fact that its citizens are emigrating en masse, except for Cuba that is.

According to official statistics, Cuba’s Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) are the largest social organization in the country, with nearly 8 million members currently (out of a total population of 11.2 million), although they are more nominal than real.

Now, overdrawn because of expenses and with low expectations of making a profit, dreaming instead about making up my initial investment, I am clearing the grassland so we can plant again. I can’t give up.