Diaries

Hayaca, a Delicious Cuban Dish

Whoever has visited the easternmost part of Cuba recently has undoubtedly tasted our exquisite tamales (or hayacas, as they’re commonly called in this part of the country), one of the dishes most liked by residents of Guantanamo. (10 photos)

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The Transformation of Cuba’s Libraries

The main purpose of these educational institutions is the cleansing of civil society. They serve to exorcize social conflict and economic precariousness through the direct transmission of a normalizing culture consistent with the government’s interests.

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Where Will Ernesto Go?

Mireya and Ernesto have spent a year contesting the handling his case involving corruption. Housing Department officials in the Marianao neighborhood cheated him out of the right to receive what’s his.

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A Family Bar

I discovered an embryo of this a few nights ago. Don’t ask me to say the name of the establishment or its location. I won’t commit the sin of being inconsiderate or an informer.

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A Gift for the Doctor

I went to the shop located on the first floor of the Florida Hotel in Old Havana to buy some cologne for my mother’s doctor. I’d already bought him a couple pairs of socks and she had insisted on cologne.

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Talking about Cuba

Several days ago I read a comment online saying that, except for people who receive family remittances from overseas, all Cubans are starving, with young people appearing to have come out of concentration camps and it being rare to find an obese person on the island.

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Expert Knowledge

A few weeks ago I was able to return to Buenos Aires through an invitation to the event “Global Economic Governance: The Possible Roles of Latin America,” organized by the magazine Nueva Sociedad.

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Reflections of a Green Recruit in Cuba

Military service in Cuba is mandatory – unless you’re gay, crazy or have enough money to pay off a corrupt official to get you out of it. I don’t know anybody who has ever voluntarily gone to sign up at the recruitment office.

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Highbrow Physicians

The study program in Cuba for a degree in medicine includes little or nothing of philosophy, social sciences or the arts. Consequently, doctors graduate grossly ignorant of those socio-cultural, political and economic matters that are indispensable for carrying out their future profession.

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