Diaries

Write Your Deputy: A Call on Cuba’s Left

The part of the new labor code that would regulate work relations in the non-State sector grants employers a series of unheard-of faculties, while leaving employees virtually without any real protection before the management’s decisions. In essence, the new code seeks to empower Cuba’s emerging middle class.

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The Passion for Baseball in Santiago de Cuba

The Cuban baseball league season is the biggest sporting event on the island. This year it involves 16 teams from each of the provinces and the Isla de la Juventud. Here are my pictures taken at a recent game between Holguin and the home team Santiago de Cuba. (20 photos)

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My Visit to Cuba’s Province of Mayabeque

I recently paid the province of Mayabeque (formerly the eastern part of La Habana) a visit. I was invited to a meeting of writers at the Casa del Joven Creador (“Young Artist Community Center”) located in San Jose, the province’s head municipality.

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Gender Stereotyping in Cuba’s Health Missions Abroad

Margarita had always wanted to be a doctor and had been willing to practice anywhere in the world, even in Havana’s Calixto Garcia Hosptial, where she’s been working for several years now. “It’s like a relative one watches deteriorate slowly and progressively,” she told me.

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Cuba’s Self-Employed and their Investments

A privately owned 3D theatre, housed by a locale in the commercial center located in Alamar’s Zone 6, stands out among the establishments where the largest investments have been made in the neighborhood. Not long before, the place had been a store that sold imported used clothing, a “rag-store”, as they are popularly known in Cuba.

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El Chavo del 8: Cuba and Freedom of Information

“How could anyone in Latin America not know El Chavo del Ocho (often shortened to El Chavo)”, an Ecuadorian friend asked me after talking to me about this Mexican sitcom a few days ago. I had never heard about this super-famous comedy program. I looked for it on YouTube and saw it for the first time.

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A Visit to Havana’s Planetarium

When I was a kid, my grandfather used to take me to the planetarium in the Sciences Museum inside Havana’s Capitolio building. I was excited about astronomy at the time, but I almost never got to enjoy or learn anything there. The problem was that we would coincide with groups of hyperactive brats brought from nearby schools on field trips.

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More on Cuban Emigration

In the post titled How Cubans Emigrate, I promised readers I would continue to discuss the migratory issue. Here, I will take an incident that made headlines around the world less than two months ago as my point of departure. I am referring to two accidents that caused many deaths near the Italian coastline.

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The “Dark Triangle” of Social Equity in Cuba

Recent announcements about Cuba’s imminent monetary unification do not afford us much information on the changes we can expect to see over time. The “psychological” message behind this is that we must forget, once and for all, of ever going back to the parity between the Cuban Peso and the US dollar.

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