Diaries Archives - Page 600 of 646

Good Communists

In this period marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall -filled with such grief, silence and commemoration- it’s worth re-visiting other, more personal storylines of communist utopia.

Nowhere to Run

Waiting can drag on eternally here. I believe it must be the damn fact that there’s water all around. That’s the way it is. No one can go running around and end up farther than the shore. Maybe that’s why my mother tells me she going to come visit “in just a little bit,” but doesn’t show up for more than two hours later.

Marks…in the Skin?

I haven’t decided though. I think I might get bored with the design, and then I’d be sorry for having it done. That’s what happened to Carlos Miguel, who wears a portrait of Che on his left shoulder. He liked the figure; he saw Che as a savior, a fighter for noble causes.

Another November 7th

Bureaucracy, dogmatism, capitalist penetration, the lack of freedom of speech, ever increasing differentiation between classes, opportunism, the disastrous policy in which some command and others obey, and false proletarian internationalism were the ruinous contributions that Stalinism made to the revolution in the USSR.

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.

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.

Analysis 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.

Nostalgia 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.

A 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.”

Fear 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.