Yesterday, during my Sunday walk, I ran into José Eduardo, one of my childhood friends, in the cafeteria that’s across the street from the Tower. He had put on weight. When he saw me, he looked amazed; he had imagined that I too had left Cojimar.
Read MoreIf your fan happens to break down in this wondrous climate, everything becomes more embroiling; you’re forced to decide between not sleeping and paying the exorbitant price quoted by a self-employed electrician. My fan died a week ago, and since I couldn’t get to sleep for two nights in a row, I decided to get it fixed.
Read MoreHershey is the last “model town” in Cuba. It has a twin town in Pennsylvania also founded and conceived by US businessman Milton S. Hershey. It’s as if they transported a piece of the United States to the Municipality of Santa Cruz del Norte in the Province of La Habana.
Read MoreThe bathrooms are unisex, not because of progress made by CENESEX (the Cuban Center for Sexual Education), but as a result of the general physical decline that this institution has experienced. In the few toilets that function, men and women carry out their needs around the clock.
Read MoreIt’s a common belief on this side of the planet that if you were to dig a hole deep enough, you’d come up perhaps in the backyard of a house or the grounds of a temple, or in some stadium in China. In a simplistic way, we might expect China to be our geographical antipode and would also be so in terms of political questions.
Read MoreIn elementary school we had to draw a lot every day. The first thing I learned how to sketch was the sun – big, round and yellow. One day I didn’t have that color on hand to fill in the circle that I’d made in the far left-hand corner of my paper. I had no alternative but to begin crying.
Read MoreDays later my friend Dr. Raquel insinuated to me that Conrado was one of those doctors that graduate “by the skin of their teeth” and that are very self-serving, because they spend their time negotiating gifts from patients instead of giving them medical treatment – as they should.
Read MoreEvery time I take the bus, I take a close look at the other passengers. If I am seated, I try to see if there is an elderly person, someone with disabilities or a pregnant woman close by to give them my seat. Sometimes I am tired and do it reluctantly.
Read MoreSome who come to the beautifully restored neighbourhood of Old Havana might find that the only Cubans they see -other then the security guards, park wardens and street cleaners- are blonde or brunette with skin that is, apparently, white.
Read MoreIt is no less true that I am bitter with living under an oppressive and paternalistic régime that wants to control everything and that removes from people the possibility to develop themselves as the protagonists of their own lives; that’s how I see things.
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