Yesterday was my aunt’s birthday. She’s an 80-year-old woman, with soft gray hair (that she conceals with dye) and who wears glasses (that she uses only to read). Her husband died a year back and, as is still customary among older men and widows, she dresses in black and doesn’t like for music to be heard in her home.
Read MoreMy first impression of Rastafarians came from those semi-hard matted locks —so close to being natural— that grew from their heads. To this was added their music, which touched my African roots, so accustomed to percussive rhythms.
Read MoreThe changes in Cuba resulting from the Special Period crisis of the 90s, causing an opening to external influences, a gradual process of privatization of life began, if not at the institutional level (which has indeed begun to some degree) then at least in terms of family life. In this, Cojimar has been at the head.
Read MoreDuring the 80’s there was a “ghetto” in my neighborhood called “Los Rusos.” It was made up of several volunteer micro-brigade-built apartment buildings —all the same— which were inhabited by Soviet military advisors and their families.
Read MoreOne of the common forms of violence in Venezuelan cities is kidnapping. Interested in greater economic rewards, thieves are no longer content with snatching gold chains from the necks of naïve wanderers; nor are they so interested in demanding at gunpoint what a driver or a pedestrian has in their pocket. Kidnapping pays bigger dividends.
Read MoreThough this might seem like an avalanche, it’s not, because these issues are addressed with such superficiality and indifference that they’re soon forgotten. In addition, the characters represented in Cuban fiction (on TV broadcasts) cannot commit the sin of touching each other – much less kiss or portray characters in sex scenes.
Read MoreA question has arisen in terms of what species worm to raise though. In Cuba there is one that emerges spontaneously, but in all the bibliographic materials we’ve gone over, the Californian Red Worm is suggested as being the most efficient, healthy, adaptive etc.
Read MoreWhen will we put into practice all the theory that has been instilled in us? When will we see the fruits of so many years of effort? When will we stop underestimating ourselves?
Read MoreIt always surprises me that almost no one remembers the flag of the Directorio Revolucionario. This group was basically the student organization that on March 13, 1957 (a date remembered by heart by all Cubans school children in their History of Cuba classes) conducted an assault on Presidential Palace with the aim of killing the dictator.
Read MoreSometimes you’ll hear that art advances a half step behind the masses, which is another way of saying that works of art always reflect how artists see society.
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