Cuban political scientist and columnist Haroldo Dilla recently published an essay on the need for a new left to be born in our country. Nevertheless for me, as someone who considers themself a member of that political wing, those words (at least most of them) didn’t resonate.
Read MoreSeveral times a year the Cuban Telecommunications Company makes tempting offers to increase their number of cellphone subscribers. Typically, this is at the end of the year, when they offer a phone card balance of 30 CUCs (about $33 USD) to whoever buys a line for that same amount.
Read MoreIn December I took a bus back to my hometown of Sancti Spiritus, avoiding the torturous train, which — because of its slow speed — has been baptizing as the “milk train.” It had been almost eight months since I’d gone back home, though that’s insufficient time to forget the characteristics of the route.
Read MoreCrushed. That’s how I would feel whenever I failed to fight off my sleepiness before the start of the Saturday night movies on Cuban TV. That was back in the ‘90s, but those memories still live within me.
Read MoreWith God’s blessing, I don’t plan to attend the mass set for this coming March 28 in Revolution Square. Though it will be presided over by the Pope, for me he’s only a figure representing power, someone who I can’t associate with anything other than backwardness and false morality.
Read MoreWhat recently happened to my friend Mario Castillo, who was arrested and fined here in Cuba for not carrying his ID, reminded me of my experiences in Great Britain.
Read MoreAccording to predictions in Cuba’s media, “This new year we’ve just entered will be a prosperous one, raising the quality of life of the Cuban people. It will only be necessary that everyone put their nose to the grindstone and work.”
Read MoreIf Joe Blow assaults Ms. So-and-so, and she wants to distance herself from him legally, there’s no way of doing so. That’s what I heard on the street, and it was later confirmed by a lawyer friend of mine.
Read MoreThe government says that if Cuba’s companies aren’t profitable, then it won’t have the money to pay the workers a decent wage; while the workers say that if they’re not paid more, it doesn’t make sense to work hard all day.
Read MoreThis year I didn’t participate in the customary rituals of every December 31. For many people here, throwing water out into the street at midnight is a spell aiming to purge the evils of the past year. It’s supposed to end and distance misfortunes from the year that has just begun.
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