Diaries Archives - Page 558 of 642

Graffiti in Santiago

While I was walking along with a friend who was visiting Santiago visited for the first time, our curiosity was whetted by the pervasiveness of the graffiti.

The Swindler

Listening to my mother, I was getting worried and upset. I told her, “How many times do I have to tell you not to open the gate for anybody if you don’t know them!

August 20th will mark 70 years since the fateful attack carried out by a Stalinist clique against a man who exhibited in his deeds and writings a love for the world proletariat. He was confident that a social structure different from capitalism could free life of all wrongs.

A Summer Night at Havana’s Carnival

Once I got to Maceo Park was when the flow of people really began, with the mass shifting from one side to the other, as if they were looking for something they couldn’t find, or as if maybe they had found it.

Choices for Cuban Youth

In the “before” times, in addition to having variety of alternatives and plenty of places for recreation, people had a different concept of amusement.

The Loneliness of the Grey Buildings

As sometimes I’m a little slow; it took me a few months to realize what was bothering me. I knew that I didn’t like the balcony a lot at the apartment where I’ve lived for five months.

Freedom to Choose (II)

To preach an ideology, it’s indispensable to trap people with catchy slogans and a patchwork of ideas – some true, others not.

Interview with a Santera

I saw my first iyabó on a dark evening in Vedado. I had recently arrived to Cuba and was out exploring the city with a newfound Cuban friend. “Look,” my friend said, pointing at the mysterious figure crossing the street. I glanced over at the back of the white-clad silhouette. “That’s an iyabó,” my friend continued. “A newly initiated santera.”

Recycling in Process (2)

Why didn’t they give me that program the day before? Why do I speak with everybody who sits beside me? What happens with me and symphonic directors?

Hershey: The Cuban Comala

Even those people who never met Mr. Hershey himself, speak highly of him in respect for his glorious accomplishments in Cuba from 1916 to 1946, when, among other things, he was behind the building of one of the most prosperous sugar refineries the island ever saw.