Diaries Archives - Page 571 of 646

Guava Bars from San Antonio

A thin gray-haired woman wanders through the streets peddling these sweet bars of concentrated fruit. Her peculiar voice and cry are easily recognizable and difficult to imitate.

Criticize and Criticize, Proposing Nothing

For a change to occur, what is necessary is the awakening of mass consciousness. People must gain trust in themselves and want to change things, take the reins of their lives and send their patriarchs far away.

Something’s Going Wrong

Could it be that we’re returning to the stress-filled situation of the 1990s? It’s likely that we are. Officially, no one speaks about the real situation.

A Journey to the Dark Side

Are Che and Pol Pot equivalent? Are the Paris Commune and the gulags the same? Will the Polish ruling reach the point of criminalizing the image and memory of their compatriot, Rosa Luxemburg, the same person who demanded freedom for who thought differently from her.

Being on the Havana News

Today when I went to pick up my academic visa from the immigration office; the woman behind the desk greeted me with a wide smile. “I saw you on TV last night!”

I’m Like That

Here, after five decades of Revolution, we have ended up losing all capacity to listen and understand other points of view that are not our own. That’s why my first response to any criticism is primitive, automatically assuming the observation made of me to be unjust.

The Oil Platform and My Friend Frank

I was about 20 when I was called up for military service. Given my good health and a lot of naiveté, they had me serve my tour as a diver in the Navy.

Making My Dream Come True

My dream was finally realized. I now have a computer. Yet the funniest thing was how I went about getting it.

Horse-drawn Carriages, Our Salvation

In Guantanamo, the covered wagon is part of tradition. It’s not because people want to go to “Bayamo en Coche” (Bayamo in Carriage), like the line from the song made famous by the popular artist affectionately known as “Tiburón” (shark), but because out of necessity for many years this has been the most common form of getting from one place to another.

Alfredo vs. British Petroleum

It seems that these owners of corporations have as their only goal in life leaving money for their children, with the sole inconvenience being that to enjoy so much money they’ll need a planet on which to do it.