Diaries Archives - Page 499 of 647

An Unusual Case

“Run, Esperancita!” yelled the man who lives two houses down from where I live, after the thunderous crash in his kitchen.

Precisely because the bureaucrats have not been frank with the people or respected them, masses of people have lost confidence in the ability of the “socialist” ruling class to move the country forward.

Ocha Niwe: The Slave of Cuban Music

Some knew him as Ocha Niwe, others simply as Lazaro Ross. What’s certain is that Cuban music owes much to this artist, who lived for his art form.

Cubans with Hard Times & Happy Faces

If it wasn’t for the Creole humor that characterizes Cubans — making us act the same way at a party, in a baptism or at a wake — I don’t know what would have become of us during all these years of extreme shortages and dire economic crisis.

Boy, Don’t You Laugh

Violence has many faces, as do poor living conditions. If it’s in our hands to improve the present of those who surround us, why not act? It requires only a little effort on our part.

Studying at San Alejandro Art School

I could see the stress in the plaintive face of one girl whose mother wouldn’t stop talking. A military woman, the mother wanted to impress upon us with her daughter’s story and get us to sympathize with her plight.

Come Back Kiara

When my niece was a little girl (now she’s a 15) she brought home a puppy that she named Kiara: a skinny mutt with bulging not-very-friendly eyes. Over time they ended up forging a bond that only a child and a dog know how to do.

How Cuba Is Portrayed on US Television

In the United States television shows about Cuba have two constants: first, they usually pick a side politically even though they try to seem like they are impartial; second, the video shots of Havana and the accompanying narration is almost always the same.

Incinerated Garbage!

Like with everything we don’t see, we assume nonexistence. In in my neighborhood of Alamar, the issue of environmental pollution is not something that people discuss.

As Grateful as a Dog

What’s remarkable about this is that people are displaying their gratification over the fact that their personal property rights are now being recognized, ending an extended period of these rights being denied them for no logical reason.