Diaries

Howard Zinn: Forever! Health and Anarchy!

His biography in Wikipedia includes the “uncomfortable” symbol of the A inside the O: a reference to the axiom “Anarchy is Order” and the emblem of the anarchist movement of which he was an adherent. Uncomfortable? – yes. Only a few thinkers today dare to proclaim themselves anarchists. Howard Zinn was one of them.

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Speaking in a Low Voice

I don’t know his name; let’s call him Ramon, that’s the least important. He’s thin, brown-skinned and appears to have racked up a good number of years. I see him daily seated on the wall in front of the bakery, carping quietly about his problems.

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‘Never Again’

When I saw a certain title in Havana Times, revealing deaths at this psychiatric hospital, I thought it was from some diary entry by one my colleagues; perhaps they were alluding to the situation at that center before the revolutionary victory.

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Night of the Torches

Many choose this night to meet up with friends, to have a good time and to sing. Others give it more historical meaning and feel moved, because they come to this event as examples of the unity and strength of FEU (the Federation of University Students).

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See You Soon, Howard

Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922 – January 27, 2010), a militant anarchist, social activist, historian and American political scientist, has left on a new journey.

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The Rooster of Moron

The rooster is one of the most common creatures in Cuba. Within the world of the visual arts, this bird was the preferred theme of a 20th century Cuban painter: Mariano Rodriguez. In our national sport —baseball— the Sancti Spiritus team has the rooster as its mascot.

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The Besieged Republic

This pronouncement was not from the socialist voices of Noam Chomsky or Howard Zinn, nor from those like Johns Rawls or Richard Rorty of the liberal stripe. It was US President Barack Obama.

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Beneath the Rouge of Old Havana

Joshua is my youngest and most recent friend. He’s 22 and has worked for eleven months at the same place I do, the Cuban Book Institute. It turns out he has an apartment in Old Havana, the oldest area of the city, one where many colonial structures still remain.

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A Round Trip To and From the Beyond

I had already experienced 20 years of life when I entered the world of drugs for the first time. On days when there were parties among circles at the university, we all kicked in to buy chispaetrén (distilled home-brewed alcohol having the taste of kerosene).

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