I found out about an unusual cinema-related event from a friend, but I didn’t imagine the whole creative charge would explode in just 60 seconds.
“Cinema in 60,” is a small-format exhibit that forces us to question the pretensions of feature and medium-length films, and which comes with all the creativity involved in producing on a shoe string.
Read MoreLast Friday morning I happened to be riding in a car where the driver was listening to “Making Radio”, the morning program of a national Cuban radio station. The program’s commentator had selected the theme of the Internet for his broadcasting message.
He was saying that despite all the hype received by that cybernetic network of networks as a supposedly democratic space for free expression, there are significant topics that the net distorts.
Read MoreA short while ago I got together with a friend who’s been working for a state-run housing-construction “micro-brigade” for 12 years, though he’s still far from acquiring an apartment legally through that route.
Read MoreWhen I recently heard the lyrics of Son de la loma (They’re from the Hills), that classic of Cuban son, I begin to think about migration – about how people leave their native homes in search of better opportunities.
Read MoreOne of the posters displayed a large “@” symbol, alluding to the need for digital connection to articulate the struggles for greater freedom and to communicate the messages of diverse movements committed to addressing the social problems in Cuba and around the planet.
Read MoreIn this way, he evidenced that they had accepted the conditions of the State so they would be guaranteed a trip that up to now they haven’t received. Could it be that they’ve begun to think about themselves? Then again, what human could resist the temptation that has passed by them so many times? It would be like refusing a lifesaver.
Read MoreOne news item that has been on the lips of all Cubans over the last few days concerns the rate reductions on cell phone calls. In just two years Cubans went from not being able to access wireless telephones, to these being approved, and to now where calls on them will only cost 0.10 CUCs (about 12 cents USD) a minute after 11:00 p.m.
Read MoreEstablishing communication with someone different is one of the challenges that many people set out to accomplish daily in the street, because solidarity is one of our characteristics, though necessity sometimes doesn’t allow all of us to be the good guys we would like to be.
Read MoreWhen we speak about the content and quality of education (basically in the humanities and social sciences, but also in other subjects) this involves a problem that is fairly “globalized,” but one that obviously has its distinctive Cuban facets here.
Read MoreThe great majority of those who have heard them in Cuba feel that the lyrics of their songs say what these listeners themselves dare not say openly concerning Cuban society and the political system. The musicians push their polemical aggressiveness to the limit of what the public arena allows.
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