Typically, acts of censorship by officials of various ranks on the island are carried out with care taken not to leave evidence that can later be used for legal claims. Examples of this include numerous firings of members of independent collectives for what are always explained as administrative reasons.
Read MoreI love old people. Not always of course, but they usually transmit a sense of tranquility and serenity to me. That’s why I relaxed when I found out who would be the head of the Employment Justice Council – the entity that would serve as the arbiter in the case leveled against me by my employer four years ago.
Read MoreIf you dig a tunnel through the earth you may find yourself not in China but on your own rooftop, even though it’s no longer thatched, but prefabricated and covered with solar panels
Read MoreWatching the movie Seven Days in Havana, with it seven stories by seven different directors (and with the list led by Benicio del Toro and concluded by Juan Carlos Tabio), serious questions arose in me as to whether Cuba is really like the way I see it and how I’ve experienced it.
Read MoreThe Pope’s resigning came as a shock, especially since it’s been more than five centuries that something like this has happened. The end of a Pope’s reign is usually decided by their death, though this isn’t law. These individuals have every right to make this decision, and I would go so far as to argue that it’s their duty.
Read MorePopulist social revolutions have as an inevitable feature, an excess of enthusiasm seasoned with a ridiculous chauvinism. The indignant masses cease to be citizens belonging to a party or a government; they adopt the epithets of their leaders.
Read MoreIn my previous post I talked about smear campaigns and “acts of repudiation” orchestrated from Havana against critics of the Cuban “establishment.” However, there also exists a sector of the exile community — trapped by their anti-communist hatred — that magnifies their grudge and suspicion.
Read More“Doña Laura” is a privately-owned cafe that’s very successful right now. It’s located on F Street, between 21st and 23rd streets, in Havana’s downtown Vedado district. Its dishes consist of acceptable quantities of reasonably priced and well-seasoned Creole food.
Read MoreI’m going to try to recover some of that insight we might have skipped over in those first few weeks by offering a broader perspective and some more personal stories to what happened when Cholera returned to La Havana.
Read MoreIt was a little strange for me to learn that one of Pink Floyd’s best albums — The Dark Side of the Moon — is marking its 40th anniversary this year. To me, this music seems like it reaches back ten centuries into the past and will be around for another ten centuries in the future.
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