This rivalry reaches its peak at the end of the national baseball series when the absurd competition between the inhabitants of the two cities becomes a war of insults. People from Havana call those from the eastern region of the country, especially from Santiago, “palestinos” (Palestinians).
Read MoreA few days ago, as I was walking by the Charles Chaplin Movie Theater, one of the cinemas with the best films in Havana, I noticed that they were showing “The Working Class Goes to Heaven” by Elio Petri (Italy, 1970), as part of a screening of the best 50 movies of the 20th century.
Read MoreThe Juanes concert just ended and-feeling excited-I wanted to write “something.” Then I suddenly received an e-mail from a friend in Miami. She’s the same person who called me a “stuck in the mud leftist,” until she understood my activism was far removed from the ploys of the “socialist” bureaucracy.
Read MoreWhat is clear is that while average people on this side of the Florida Strait-especially the youngest-welcomed Juanes with his magical golden flute, the Jurassic generation on the other side responded to him with the dark tones of a tuba. Isolation has many avenues, and opinions like these constitute only one part of the fat that separates them from the bone.
Read MoreI developed a logo, a slogan and a style manual. I came up with a response to each of the barriers that I might encounter. I registered the business in my name and we began to work on a few stories for children in which beauty, creativity and diversity went hand in hand.
Read MoreAs I leafed through the books in a secondhand bookstore the other day, my eyes stopped on a shelf I always avoid: law. I have always thought that law books are a compilation of pedantries; however, this time I put my prejudices aside and found very interesting things there.
Read MoreThe majority of us Cubans work for state-owned companies or institutions and, beginning in the 1960s, the workers have received net salaries. We never see the taxes deducted by the state and so technically, in the legal sense, we are not taxed.
Read MoreThere is an old popular joke stemming from one of the many epithets by which the “Heroic” City is known. The Revolution was born in the mountains of Eastern Cuba and Santiago was its cradle. It defecated there, and when it grew up, it moved to Havana and left the cradle defecated.
Read MoreThey were all taken aback by the instant ideological shift (and exhaustive TV and radio play) of an artist whose career has been based on light pop tunes and tough guy disputes. The video and its author were not rejected for their politics, but for their politicking.
Read MoreThe issue of the embargo/blockade has returned to the fore. In August a survey by the firm Bendixen & Associates revealed that Cuban-Americans were divided about its use as a political instrument directed against Havana.
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