I’m telling this story about our sound system not because it’s is so significant in itself, but because it fits like a ring in illustrating the problem of services in Cuba. This is one of the areas where citizens have to suffer the torments of slackness, indifference and inefficiency.
Read MoreI haven’t seen my twin nieces for eight years. Then too, it’s been seven years since I’ve seen their mother; that’s to say, my sister, who took them to live with her to France after she married a French guy.
Read MoreIf the official media doesn’t reflect the magnitude of the problem, how can little Julio who’s now 15 and for his whole life has watched his father yell and mistreat his mother, think of doing anything different? Who is there to tell him that this isn’t right? Who will explain to him that the law protects women?
Read MoreExcept for such tragicomic incidents, my young Cuban friend summarized the emotion of the encounter in a single phase. “They spoke about the divided family, the nostalgia… and I was happy to be able to rekindle that, to see new people and rediscover old faces… singing, shouting and standing up for a better future for our generation…”
Read MoreI just finished Leonardo Padura’s latest novel, “The Man Who Loved Dogs.” The work, says the Cuban writer in the book’s epilogue, investigates the “perversion of the great utopia of the 20th century”: socialism. He asserts that this utopia was wrecked by the same people who “invested their hopes” in it.
Read MoreTruth -like its relative: the muse- can seldom be caught, and much less caged. We are not even able to put it to pasture, like one 20th century thinker attempted, without dying of boredom from the melody of a flute.
Read MoreThis year is almost over; and people are commenting that during the next one, the Cuban State will make changes having major social and economic repercussions.
Read More“My name is Anya and work is the only thing that interests me. My story is like that of many women who have come to feel that the most essential things in life are to be found between the four walls of home. That’s where our husbands and children are. Why ask for more?”
Read MoreMany of us have a charm or amulet that protects us from evil influences or energies. These objects -which can be in the form of a stone from the river or sea, the seed from a robust tree, a magnet or simply a tooth from some animal or a bone from a person- supposedly give us spiritual force.
Read MoreIn Cuba, the origin of pirated movies and music goes back to the 90s, when these first entered the country in a somewhat coordinated manner. VCR players took the place of the old Beta-format recorders, which could be found here since the 1980s.
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