Diaries

Under the Totalitarian Rule of Kitsch

At every step in the life Cubans are beaten over the head with officialized kitsch, from posters with the faces and names of the “Five Heroes” forming a star or the crappy neighborhood decorations for the annual CDR festivities.

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A Hard to Come by Spoon

I have a friend who got sick during his last trip to Cuba, maybe because he didn’t adjust to the hot weather and the high humidity that persists on the island most of the year round.

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Alexis Has a Problem

Alexis, my friend for much more than a decade, is 36 and has always lived with his grandmother in her house. But his grandmother has a son (not Alexis’ father), who in turn has a wife and two children; in addition, his grandmother has a husband, Arcadio.

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Cuba and the Immigration Market

After nearly two years in Cuba I’ve met a few people, mostly university educated, who have left to work outside the country or have short term plans to do so. This is the exact opposite of my decision to come here and sometimes make me feel as if I missed a very important memo.

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A Peanut Vender Story

Teresita sells peanuts at the bus stop. She and her only grandson depend on her earnings to survive. She’s formally retired but her Social Security check amounts to nothing.

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Who Ate the Cuba-Venezuela Cable?

For days, and though the Cuban government has not commented on the matter, word on the street has it that the fiber optic cable linking the towns of La Guaira (Venezuela) and Siboney (Cuba) doesn’t exist.

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A CDR Whitewash

The CDR is the largest mass organization of its kind in the country, though it suffers from a chronic lack of a reason for being.

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