Carolina is not the first and won’t be the last Cuban woman to leave behind her roots, her family and her country by immigrating to the United States. Many have done the same over the last fifty years. Some are able to visit their country shortly thereafter; others never set foot on the island again.
Read MoreIn Ecuador, I have conversed with people of different nationalities who have never set foot in Cuba but who believe they know the island better than I do, people who constantly refute everything I tell them about the country, and everything I claim to have experienced there. To them, I am at best exaggerating things and, at worst, lying.
Read MoreThe new vet I’ve hired to care for my dogs came over today. I’d already gotten used to the previous animal doctor, a young man who had finished his training recently, somewhat introverted but very good at his job, to the point of having secured a wide clientele and an excellent reputation around the neighborhood.
Read MoreSomewhere in Texas, right now, someone is wearing a t-shirt that has the pictures of Stalin, Mao, and Fidel with a caption that reads “Dictators Agree: Gun Control Works”. I’ve seen the image and caption reproduced many times in my home state, a place known in Cuba and the world over, for its obsessive love of guns.
Read MoreChildren love the beach. Years ago, I took a rather enjoyable trip to one named Jibacoa, located in what was formerly referred to as “Habana campo” (“the Havana countryside”). It looked like a paradise for children. Every morning, a fleet of large, old American-made trucks loaded with bathers from nearby towns would arrive at the coast. (13 photos)
Read MoreI have an Italian friend who’s always telling me I’ve given cell phones more importance than they deserve, but the truth is that I’ve never seen him come to Cuba without his two mobiles, which are more modern and sophisticated each time around.
Read MoreI have just found out that Antonio Castro, one of the sons of Cuba’s revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, was the winner of an event at this year’s Copa Montecristo golf tournament in Varadero. As you can well appreciate, the “socialist” golf played in Cuba is not too different from its capitalist brother.
Read More“People are hiring housemaids again. My health isn’t what it used to be, but, if it were, mark my word, that’s what I’d be doing right now. I have no money,” a woman over 60, who lives in Havana’s neighborhood of Guanabacoa, told me at a bus stop.
Read MoreToday, one has less trouble finding a public bathroom, not because a network of such lavatories has been set up around the city’s more frequented places but because these restrooms, be them at a restaurant, a cafeteria or a movie theatre, have become something akin to small businesses.
Read MoreI am terrified by competitions. As a kid, the mention of any competition in gym class was enough to give me cold sweats. If, by chance, I start watching one of those reality shows from abroad, where amateur performers are catapulted to stardom (or into the worst of depressions) overnight, I also get cold sweats.
Read More