My life partner, the optometrist Jimmy Roque Martinez, has just been approached in his place of work and accused of being a “human rights advocate”, and that he has been incited to become one by none other than yours truly. The Party is now suggesting that he ought to be laid off.
Read MoreLiving a stone’s throw away from Havana’s Via Blanca highway means being witness to a constant flow of buses, cars, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians, of people who set out in search of their dreams every day. People headed to Havana’s east-laying beaches, workplaces in the city, the arms of a loved one, or the last place you would think of.
Read MoreI was in a truck-bus with my son headed for Havana’s municipality of Cotorro. On the way, a couple, two teenagers who had shown signs of friction when they got on at the stop, began to argue.
Read MoreToday, I got a hold of a book by the Cuban comedy group Nos y Otros. Published by a Santa Clara publishing house in 1998, this “dirty book” (as the volume is titled) gathers a collection of stories driven by clever and scathing social critique. What prompted me to write about these stories is the fact they continue to reflect Cuban reality quite accurately.
Read MoreLike Highway 1 in California, the road in Gibara, Cuba hugs the coast through twists and turns as land takes a 90 degree vertical dive into the foamy water bellow. Waves break over rocks and shipwrecks. (22 photos)
Read MoreWe got a clear picture of what we Cubans are made of last year, when a gas station in Santiago de Cuba blew up. That was perhaps one of the most painful confirmations that Cubans are made of a spineless slime: those people splashing about over the spilt gasoline, as though it were a puddle of water…for God’s sake…
Read MoreGenetically modified crops continue to be introduced into Cuban farmlands in a secretive fashion, while domestic consumers and producers are practically left out of all debates surrounding the design of policies and strategies in this area.
Read MoreWith over 2 million mobile phone users, Cuba has around half a million more cell phones than landlines. A number of “competent” authorities often speak of this proudly, as though the reality behind this phenomenon weren’t shameful.
Read MoreThe coming month of September will mark 15 years of one of the greatest injustices ever to be committed in the United States. I am speaking of the detention, trial and conviction of five innocent Cubans, whose only crime was to try and prevent acts of terrorism against Cuba which were being planned in the state of Florida.
Read MoreCuba’s Draft Labor Bill, drawn up in December of last year, is now being distributed to workers at all workplaces around the country. The consultation beginning is hailed as an “expression of our revolutionary democracy”.
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