Diaries Archives - Page 537 of 646

The Return of an Epoch

Ivette Cepeda’s voice returned us suddenly to some Havana night in the 1950s, when this was a city teeming with excellent singers and there were as many cabarets as in New York or Paris – without exaggerating.

A Time to Sow

The time we’re provided in this life is what’s most precious. What we do with it and who we share it with is a personal decision.

Young Blood

Nicaragua is a country of young people. With sixty percent of the population under the age of 35, this is a condition that can present itself as either an opportunity or a barrier to the civic mobilization that the country needs to curb the indecencies of the traditional powers.

A Cuban Teacher in Mexico

A friend told me this story about the experience of a young Cuban woman: a teacher who emigrated to Mexico City to escape the hunger and other miseries suffered during the most critical moments of the Special Period crisis in Cuba in the early ‘90s.

The ‘Candongas’ of San Rafael Boulevard

Given the economic reforms that have just started to be implemented, the number of private producers and vendors of all types of goods has already grown.

Freeze, if you move you lose

Could it be that this theater — once the center of scathing social criticism expressed in hilarious brushstrokes of authentic Creole humor — today generates fear in certain circles?

New Year’s Away from Cuba

At this very moment I would be 15 times happier if I were able to be with my family and with my friends, and it wouldn’t matter if it were before or after December 31; what is important is being with them again. (20 photos)

A Year End Peek at Guantanamo, Cuba

I made it to the farmer’s market…well, to where there was supposed to have been a market. There was nothing, or — better said — there was in fact a lot of people drinking and laughing. The celebrations had already begun there.

Cuba Surcharge on US Dollar Continues

The news of the elimination of the surcharge on the US dollar joyously sent from email account to email account. Nonetheless, exchange rates at Cuban bureaux de change (CADECAs) remain unchanged.

Cuba Faces Taxing New Year 2011

The public understands perfectly well the need for many of the economic measures that will be implemented but “People remain skeptical because while they’ve heard a lot of speeches, they don’t have complete confidence in the government’s ability to solve the problems.”