Osmel Ramirez

I’m from the countryside; the Guayabo community in the Mayari River valley. My neighborhood is named after one of its tributary streams, which creates the highest waterfall in Cuba when it comes down off the mountains. There is really good land here, among the most fertile in the country.

My eldest daughter, who is only ten years old, doesn’t really live with me, although she is with me quite often. Awfully enough for her, her mom and I divorced when she was just two years old.

You can feel the crisis in the air. In reality, it is a renewed “Special Period” crisis, which can still get a lot more intense. Market fridge-freezers and shelves are empty.

The months of July and August coincide with the vacations of a significant part of Cubans. It is the longest school break of the year, which is between one academic year and another, and many workers and non-essential workplaces plan their vacations to coincide with their children.

Saturday is the day you’re most likely to find food at markets where we live in Mayari, Holguin. It’s normal for vendors to save a bit on the side so they can sell it on this day.

The situation in Venezuela is becoming more and more critical. Chavistas grouped under the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) are no longer democrats (if they ever really were once, and I believe they were), and have instead become authoritarian socialists.

Wealth seems to be the enemy of our economic system, not poverty. And, poverty and migration seem to be the only two things that are sustainable.

Public transport in the city of Mayari, the second most populated in the Holguin province, is mostly made up of horse-drawn carts. There is a public urban bus transport system, however it doesn’t work at all. It doesn’t provide a regular service because it often doesn’t have the basic resources it needs to run, such as spare tires and fuel. Thus, the horse-drawn carts are the transport option that residents can rely on.

With it recently being International Women’s Day (March 8th) and the Federation of Cuban Women holding their 10th Congress, it’s worth asking ourselves what this body actually does.It’s just that I live here in Cuba and I haven’t picked up on the FMC’s activism in decades.

Let’s assume that the results disclosed by the National Election Commission are trustworthy; ignoring how suspicious it was that it took almost a whole day to announce the results to the public. Even with so many doubts and suspicions, it would be interesting for us to analyze what we have gained and lost with Cuba’s constitutional referendum process and its final results.