Call me paranoid if you like, but, folks, I smell a rat and I want to catch it before it can slip away. Recently, I shared some of my small, daily joys with the readers of Havana Times. One of them was discovering a television program with an outrageously gay character for a host, aired by Cuba’s Canal Habana.
Read MoreThe cultural venue Encuentro con (“Encounters”), which has been holding activities in Havana’s Pabellon Cuba every Thursday since the start of the holiday season, recently paid tribute to renowned critic, architect and urban planner Mario Coyula.
Read MoreFor the longest time now, those of us who frequent Cuba’s ice-cream cathedral have been lucky to be offered two flavors, three at the most. And, for the most part, what you get is a white-colored ice-cream with an indescribable flavor, and, less frequently, strawberry and chocolate – perhaps as the occasional tribute to Tomas Gutierrez Alea’s beautiful film.
Read MoreLast Thursday, I went out to help a friend with her shopping. We went to Almacenes Ultra, one of Havana’s largest department stores. We thought we’d be able to find what we were looking for at Ultra, which has a wide variety of products in stock. Sold in Cuban Convertible Pesos, of course.
Read MoreTurning fifteen stirs up conflicting emotions in Cuban teenagers. Every young girl knows that her family will throw her a party no matter what the cost, even if this family, as is most often the case, doesn’t have the financial means to do so. The parents, for their part, look at the festivities as an obligation, for their daughter “is not beneath the rest.”
Read MoreA few days ago, I had to do some repair work around the apartment where I live and had no other choice but to shut down the computer and bite the bullet. When I finished working every night, exhausted, I would ask myself how anyone in their right mind could devote their entire life to something like that.
Read MoreNo one likes to get sick, let alone die. True, things are relative, and there are probably quite a number of people who long to be sick or die. For the most part, however, people don’t get too many kicks out of being in hospitals or funeral parlors.
Read MoreNews about the recent incident involving the poisoning of a number of individuals who ingested methanol (popularly known as “wood alcohol”) prompted me to rummage through my documents in search of the above diary entry, which I wrote on October 3, 2010, while living in La Carolina, in the municipality of San Miguel del Padron.
Read MoreEverything depends on how things are portrayed, and conflicts in Egypt will be understood on the basis of the how the news is framed by different broadcasters. What do you think?
Read MoreMany dramatic scenes are played out on Cuban buses. A space one if forced to inhabit for a relatively brief period of time, it tends to create a false and circumstantial sense of intimacy among strangers. There, we breathe the same air, become privy to the conversations of others (sometimes even their thoughts), rub bodies, share smells and emotions.
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