The Reencounter
She got out of the car, hugged me, and in a firm voice said, “I’m here!” I couldn’t react. My mother, who was watching the reencounter from the porch, realized who it was.
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Diaries
The Havana March for Nonviolence: A Catharsis?
Let’s not allow ourselves to be swept away by passion. Let’s not treat nonviolence with ingenuousness, if this was indeed ingenuousness. I insist on the need for training to be carried out, that conscious action be taken.
Read MoreAnalysis of a Trip
About two years ago I went on a trip to Mexico, more specifically to Playa del Carmen. As an objective of the trip, I set myself the task of working for one month there to earn enough money to continue on to Chiapas, and from there -if time and cash allowed- to cross over into Guatemala.
Read MoreNostalgia and “My Other Self”
To live in Havana was to be in that part of the country where there is a little more of everything, despite the shortages. It was living in a city that I could brag about despite the regional differences and phobias; the place where everyone wants to move to; the center of entertainment and economic development.
Read MoreA Small Battle of Ideas Against Violence (II)
Some dissident bloggers also showed up. One of them was an older grayed-hair person who had apparently met me at the theological institute where we had both studied. He asked me, “Who’s organizing this? I see that people from ‘Socialism of the 21st Century’ are here. This must be an official march.”
Read MoreFear of Blacks and Gays
A few days ago, when concluding a departmental meeting at my job (The Carlos J. Finlay National Museum of the History of Science), a black female co-worker who recently graduated in history expressed with no qualms her indignation for the repeated appearance of homosexual relationships on Cuban television.
Read MoreWho Offered Children’s Blood?
From whose head sprang such a twisted idea? I’m convinced it didn’t come from a child. It seems more likely this occurred to somebody worried about sowing -as soon as possible in the impressionable minds of adolescents- a siege mentality.
Read MoreA Weekend at Home
Today it was my turn to clean the house, my brother’s turn to cook, my stepfather’s turn to go to market and my mother’s turn to rest, since the poor woman spends all week at these same chores while we are all at work.
Read MoreSmoking or Loneliness
The white, red and blue cigarette package is up front. The poster ad shows a group of cheerful young people holding each other arm in arm. In the middle are words that clearly show the advertiser’s approach to selling: “Cigarettes mean company.”
Read MoreAnother Nut Case
“Another one’s gone nuts” was how an e-mail began that was sent to a friend of mine a few days ago. With such an inflammatory heading, those of us who received the forwarded letter read in it anticipation, anxious to find out who this crazy person was.
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