It was ten to 8 pm, the time the second screening begins at Havana’s La Rampa theater. We were waiting to go in and see the Turkish film Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, winner of the Grand Jury Award at Cannes. Ready to take in the 157-minute movie, we were waiting for the ticket booth to open.
Read MoreThe large bus substitute people in Cuba call “camels” – a means of transportation created in the 1990’s to address a critical period of shortages in the country – are a dying species. Once, Havana was teeming with these two-humped lorries with noisy doors which were always packed with passengers.
Read MoreEvery year, I ask myself whether there is any truth to the claim that the huge crowds the annual Havana book fair draws are owed to the “keen interest in reading and the eagerness to buy books that characterizes the population.”
Read MoreThe International Investigative Commission on the Case of the Cuban Five, which convened in London on March 7 and 8th, relying on the participating of prestigious jurists and personalities from around the world and arriving at important conclusions, constitutes an important part of efforts aimed at securing the release of the Cuban anti-terrorist activists who continue to serve prison sentences in the United States.
Read MoreWhat’s really going on with renewable sources of energy in Cuba? The island’s official press is brimming with optimism in this connection, but, do we actually have reason to be so positive? I will start this post with one of the most widely divulged “half-truths”.
Read MoreI am citizen number 96111609987 – a non-organ donor, male. This is some of the information used to classify me, in much the same way a lifeless product is categorized. I’ve hated IDs ever since I turned 16. Before that, I used to go out without a care in the world.
Read MoreA close relative of mine who studied at a religious school in Cuba (Los Hermanos Maristas) was telling me there was a priest at the school who would pat him on the head and sometimes even kiss him on the cheek. This made me think about the issue of religion.
Read MoreChildren tend to notice things that often elude adults and know what’s best for their parents more than anyone. A friend of mine told me something that happened to her and her five-year-old son that I want to share with our readers.
Read MoreHavana’s Parque Central and the terrace between the old Asturian Cultural Center and the future Manzana Hotel are the spaces separating the San Rafael and Obispo pedestrian boulevards. The two walkways are connected by what is perhaps the city’s one continuous urban corridor.
Read MoreAs one who spent her childhood watching the horizon that stretches past the ocean surrounding this island and thinking about the many who have left (and still leave) and the mystery of their inaccessibility, I’ve thought that blue line is a fatal demarcation for Cubans.
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