It caught my attention how —in a spirit of questioning certain stereotypes ingrained in people by the press, television and the simplistic rendering of history— one of the members of the panel called attention to the absence in our Cuban telenovelas of slaveholding blacks in the country’s colonial past.
Read MoreNo one thinks about what a psychiatric hospital must be like inside or how it functions. We don’t think about how people who are mentally ill are treated, or how they got to that point, or if it’s reversible, or if once they’ve entered they can ever leave their asylum. Madness —like jail and death— is terrifying.
Read MoreMany of us on the island have gotten used to seeing only the thorny side of our society: woefully inadequate pay, the critical situation of transportation, which puts all of us in a bad mood; the need to be a magician to keep food on the table, as well as other problems that exist in any society on the planet.
For one reason or another, things we don’t recognize are admired in a special way by many foreigners who visit us every year. They see beyond the difficult economic situation in which most of us Cubans live.
Read MoreLast night on the Latin American TeleSur network, I saw two undocumented immigrants in the US (one Mexican and the other Guatemalan) both protesting the privileges and protection the American government extends to Cuban emigrants in the US through the Cuban Adjustment Act.
Read MoreI’m thankful to those who comment on my writings in Havana Times; I’m eager to read all their remarks sooner or later. It’s very important to me to know what they’re thinking and saying. Plus, they give me company and help me feel I’m not talking to myself, like some lunatic.
Read MoreI grew up listening to Fidel’s frequent speeches. I remember them invading the two sole TV channels that existed, as well as all of the radio stations – except Radio Reloj [literally a ticking “clock radio” station]. The newspapers were responsible for announcing these engagements beforehand and echoing them afterwards.
Read MoreI don’t like baseball, and though the province where I was born has one of the best teams in the country, I flatly refuse to participate in the collective emotion.
Read MoreI would have preferred to reach the summit along the footpath on the side of the mountains. I would have also given my who knows what to have shared that with my friends. We would have waved at the tourists from below, with our day packs strapped to our shoulders, and when reaching the highest peak we would have taken a detour to steer clear of the tourist center, with all its shops and its ice-skating rink. (25 photos)
Read MoreA short while after my linguistic discovery, a spelling rage broke out across our country; campaigns and diagnostic exams were initiated that revealed alarming findings in terms of the incorrect use of language, a form of poverty that included even students in higher education.
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