During the economic crisis of the 1990s, one of the deities of our Olympian society had the brilliant idea to promote the use of bicycles. Bought from China, they imported huge quantities of these rough-hewn and archaic devices which were well suited to our crumbling streets and the robust Cuban bodies.
Read MoreA German guy who I barely know gave my son a priceless gift: the MP3 player that he’s dreamed of since high school. And since the object itself is exquisitely luxurious, and we Third Worlders are like greedy children, I’ve asked him on occasions to look at the world under the intoxicating effect of music.
Read More“I sit on the balcony of my house and do what everyone else does at the age of 33: I try to assess my life. What do I have to show?” That’s what Liudmila told me the last time we saw each other.
Read MoreCertain regulations concerning housing continue to amaze and annoy me. In addition to these is the convoluted character of the case below. The problem is that for a person who doesn’t like small spaces it’s still difficult for them to add on to their houses, despite the new reforms that were supposed to make this easier.
Read MoreCuba today, that building, the future, a child going in circles upstairs. It’s the future on the brink of an abyss. Downstairs is the present. The present that’s only about chasing an elusive ball, an evasive one, bouncing from side to side, up and down, always chased but never caught.
Read MoreIn 1993 — when I was 14, during one of the harshest years of the Special Period crisis — I went to the Latin American Stadium to see my favorite baseball team, Havana’s “Industriales.” The idols back then were German Mesa, Javier Mendez, Juan Padilla, Lazaro Vargas, Lazaro Valle and, of course, Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez.
Read MoreI want to talk about my first experience with buceando (“dumpster diving”), which is what we call the activity of searching through the garbage to salvage reusable items. The incident took place a few weeks ago just one block from the University of Havana.
Read More“With children, you either love’m or you hate’m.” That’s what my grandma used to say, unambiguously. “There’s no middle ground when it comes to one’s love for children. The parent that doesn’t love their children, simply hates them. And since your father doesn’t hate you,” she would add smiling, “he loves you madly.”
Read MoreTourists who come to Cuba obviously arrive with certain stereotypes about the society and people that they are going to encounter. Years ago, I was pleasantly surprised by the remark of an Italian friend after her first day in Havana: “there are no ‘typical’ Cubans”.
Read MoreThanks to TeleSur, a few days ago I learned about a photo published in the Spanish newspaper El Pais that showed President Chavez in poor physical condition and connected to breathing apparatus. A whole program of discussion and debate regarding the incident was presented.
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