Diaries

Learning to Say Goodbye

I had recent news of two deaths; one at the end of last year and the other early this year. First came the death of brother of a good friend who lives in the United States, then the mother of Veronica, my friend and colleague.

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A Philosopher Favors Cuba’s Annexation to the USA

Alexis Jardines is a Cuban professor of philosophy who immigrated a few years ago to the United States. I met him in Havana some years before and we had some conversations, not always so pleasant. On political matters Jardines was an uncompromising hard line and apparently still is.

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Dora’s Problems in Cuba

Dora is a Cuban woman getting on in years who’s lived abroad for some time now. She loves the Central American country where she lives with her children so much she would have never left it, had a health complication not forced her to return to Cuba.

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Colombia’s Unburied Corpses

TV series and soap operas are the two audiovisual products most widely consumed by Latin American audiences. A favorite topic for both is the issue of drug trafficking from Colombia to the United States.

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Cuba’s New Middle Class Identity

The way people in Havana have reacted to the high prices of automobiles in this new State market is staggering. People who don’t even earn enough to get through the month are appalled with the news, as though the real possibility of purchasing a vehicle had been ripped from their hands.

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Cienfuegos: a Tourist and Nuclear City

The collectible stamps that came in Cuba’s EVA-brand cigarette packs, showing nude twenty-year-olds from the 1940s; a “Red Sunday” voluntary work medal issued in Holguin in 1984, the immense Coca-Cola signs, now very much in vogue in the décor of new private businesses on the island – are some of the striking things one can come across in Cienfuegos. (38 photos)

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Public and Private Information in Cuba

Today, I would like to share with you what happened to me a few days ago, when I tried to find out how many Nauta locales (Internet access points) Cuba’s state phone company (ETECSA) had opened up around the country.

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A Dog’s Day in Cuba

My uncle has a dog on a leash in his back yard. Though I’ve often heard him bark, I have never once seen him wag his tail. The poor creature has a very hard life, at the mercy of the rain, the cold and his fleas.

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Cuba: Dead Poets Island

Though the issue of school brings me unpleasant memories, I watched and enjoyed the film Dead Poets Society. I liked it even more than La Educacion Prohibida (“Forbidden Education”), one of the best documentaries about education I’ve seen.

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