Diaries

Inflation Hits Cuba, Is the Market to Blame?

With the new openness to the private businesses in Cuba, I have observed an economic phenomenon that I don’t understand. Theoretically, by increasing the supply of goods and services to a fixed demand, the prices should go down.

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Granma and Deforestation

Every time I visit the mountains of Pinar del Rio, I run into “Mr. Deforestation.” Here I find increasingly younger trees being felled with chainsaws, along with large patches of protected-area land being ploughed under, and more and more pillagers having a field day without too many apparent difficulties.

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Narcissus in Havana

The first time I heard of Narcissus was in that book The Alchemist, by the Brazilian writer Paul Coelho. But as the painting before me had nothing to do with the story of Coello’s pilgrim, I concluded that it had to do with intertextuality, which is why I inquired about the myth that accounts for the great beauty of this young man.

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Noxious Regionalism

Such feelings have always been held by Cubans, but this isn’t a phenomenon unique to us. Rivalries between regions, states, cities and towns occur all over the world.

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Cubans Seen by Foreigners

“When Cubans try to get close to a foreigner, it’s not to make friends. It’s always with the intention of getting something in return.” These were more or less the words of a Latin American woman who lived in Cuba for several years.

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Looking Back

In my first-grade reading book were stories in which Cuban children lived in harmony with their families, where politics was the voice of the people and those in power practiced the gospel of providing service to the citizenry.

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Homophobia and Unreported Tragedies

Felo says it was a crime of passion, but no one talks about it. People only know that Alexis — the guy with the prettiest wife in the neighborhood — gagged, raped, axed and then ejaculated on another man.

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SOS from Cuba: When Will the Violence End?

After living in my Guantanamo neighborhood for almost 40 years, I shouldn’t have so many questions; rather, I should be able find more answers. I shouldn’t be surprised that Adela left her house again, after her husband Julio got drunk and hit her and their child in front of the entire neighborhood.

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Few Lights in Havana

I’m not referring to street lighting (which, by the way, is very efficient here – at least in those places where I walk at night). Rather, I’m talking about those lights that should illuminate the way to development and opening, especially in certain centers of cultural power.

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