I believe that the best thing that can happen to OFICODA is to turn it into the basis of a future retail trade cooperative in Cuba. That solution, in my humble opinion, would maintain fairness while instituting the democratic leadership of citizens in the self-management of such cooperatives.
Read MoreLa Mesa Redonda is a Cuba in miniature, full of superb specialists who arrange themselves carefully so as never to be off the mark; and where true discussion and plurality remain sequestrated. In short, it is a round fraud, so terribly bad that I thought I’d never run into anything similar.
Read MoreAs bureaucratic offices at the grassroots level, with their time-worn tables and crumpled files, the storefronts of the OFICODA branches constitute a complete symbol of a social paradigm or model. At these facilities, various officials —usually women— are in charge of keeping a list of everyone who has permanent residency in the area.
Read MoreMay is the month of rain in Cuba, and also the month in which the temperature begins to go up. It’s when the habits of Cubans begin to change; we substitute hot water for cold showers, lukewarm milk for ice-cold juice, and the evenings at the cinema for trips to the beach.
Read MoreJust like everyone who wanted to be there, I went to the concert with the mental image of those cimarrones (fugitive slaves) that Aldo and B had always represented, and I didn’t expect anything like what occurred. Therefore, I wrote expressing my surprise with everything that was heard with my own ears and by those of others, as well as what I and others saw with our own eyes.
Read MoreIt occurs in the metro or in minivans, the most widely used forms of public transportation in Caracas. Your standing up in the aisle or sitting and suddenly you hear a voice behind you saying, “Before anything else, good afternoon.” (12 photos)
Read MoreAs a result of having spoken of Che with untruths and emptiness, he has been made a symbol for the great majority of adolescent Cubans. So now they wear his picture as a fashion statement, so as not to be outside the group, not for Guevarian ideals.
Read MoreNo, this is not the sign-off call from a Cuban police officer from their checkpoint, but the guarded voice of a generation that is seeing the culmination of an entire era of sterile sacrifice crowned always with the yearning for what’s basic.
Read MoreWhen I got to my job, I could finally understand what was going on. It turned out that the week off —which for years has been known for being a vacation break each six weeks for elementary school students— has now been expanded to include all educational levels.
Read MorePerhaps for some readers outside of Cuba, 10 murders in one month is not an alarming figure because they are accustomed to hearing that 30 women die daily in Latin America from this cause. For us, however, the figures are worrisome, not only because this is an issue that goes practically unspoken in our media, but also because it points to a rise in gender related violence.
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