There are times, places and situations in Cuba that allow us to truly understand that the much-applauded transformations underway here are no more than crumbs. They’re merely the application of a little oil and the tightening of a few nuts in the machinery, all designed to perpetuate the inertia.
Read MoreFor several days I exchanged messages with some friends concerning the plight of Cuban writer Angel Santiesteban. The award-winner author — who was a published writer until his increasing anti-governmental belligerence relegated him to ostracism — is going through the last moments of a long legal trial.
Read MoreFrom my point of view, this was a wise and sensible decision in these times when all conservative and sectarian structures, institutions and ideologies are facing their greatest crises. His decision should be an example for many politicians to follow.
Read MoreA few days ago my dog died. He was a frisky dachshund about eight and a half years old. Yoqui, though, was the first being that I saw die. I was deeply moved when I realized how life is so ephemeral.
Read MoreAs my tourism visa here in Venezuela expired a couple of weeks ago (it’s completely illegal to work with only a tourist visa), I needed to get a “Rif” at the National Integrated Customs and Tax Administration (SENIAT) office. The “Rif” is the Fiscal Information Registry, which is needed for any work or serious business activity.
Read MoreArlety is a friend of our family who we haven’t seen in a long time. She was an athlete who remained in Europe when she went there on tour with the Cuban team. Like all professional-level athletes and doctors on internationalist missions who decided not to return, she was considered a traitor and would never be allowed to set foot on the land of her birth.
Read MoreI think one person can and must influence significant decisions concerning the socio-economic organization of the country. Any citizen can play that role, whether they’re an academic or an activist, a deputy to parliament, a local delegate, a worker, a homemaker, self-employed, a cooperative member, retired, or ill with cancer or AIDS, etc.
Read MoreAs soon as I heard the news that the writer Angel Santiesteban will be going to prison for five years, what automatically came to mind were two of the many writers who had difficult relationships with “socialism”: the Cuban author of Antes que Anochezca (Before the Dawn), Reinaldo Arenas; and Poland’s Czeslaw Milosz, who wrote The Captive Mind.
Read MoreLike in other parts of the planet, reggae and Bob Marley are well liked in Cuba. The rhythm of that music grabs us and allows us to enjoy a melody that’s different from son, rumba and other popular styles here in Cuba – in a way that rock didn’t achieve.
Read MoreHe doesn’t deserve such uncivil treatment …not him or anyone else. In the twilight of his life, Fidel Castro, the octogenarian former commander, was featured in the Cuban media in an awkward interview when he went to vote in the recent elections this past Sunday, February 3.
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