Diaries

New Changes in Cuba

The word “revolutionary” in its “street use” is usually synonymous with a “defender of the policies established by the leadership of the Communist Party,” even though many of us are attempting to give it a meaning that is in agreement with its historical genealogy.

Read More

Mindsets and Globalized Subcultures

As people endowed with a voice, the emos, Gothics, freekis, repas, etc., without a doubt have a lot to say to those who are not like them. Likewise, they are entitled to organize their spaces and have their place in society recognized. In short, dialogue is required; a dialogue that doesn’t exist.

Read More

A Glimmer in New Trova

After having learned all the songs of Silvio Rodriguez, and coming to the conclusion that trova is no longer played by the younger generations in today’s Cuba, I threw up my hands and prepared to kick back in my friends’ company.

Read More

Reflections on Raul Castro’s Speech

I have to acknowledge that my first impression was of calm and certain joy at the brevity and certainty of his words. They filled me with enthusiasm, especially if I compare them with some of the last July 26 speeches given by Fidel – the country falling to pieces and he dedicating his speech to recounting the evils of imperialism. That really drove me crazy.

Read More

Formal education (II)

Presently, ordinary Cubans don’t totally understand what has happened, but they perceive that a crisis in values exists among the last two generations. They also find an evident reference around which all fingers point: the crisis of the 1990s.

Read More

Formal education (I)

The expression “Formal Education” brings to my mind a concept that was stated and re-stated during my adolescence and young adulthood. Schools and the mass media communicated it, mass organizations and political groups monitored it, and the people – of course – reflected it.

Read More

Neither subjugated nor conquered

I was no more than 10 years old, but I had already seen enough Russian (war) movies in which the bombs had no respect for anything. They might blow to pieces a cute little dog, or obliterate a house or explode right on top of a child.

Read More

What Finally Happened in Viñales

Hopefully they’ll receive electricity soon, but meanwhile I try to make them see the positives of their situation. I warned them that their evening gatherings of the whole family under the intimate glow of a kerosene lamp are the type of things that will disappear, especially with the arrival of TV.

Read More

The Billboard Wars

These actions, plus others produced by that peculiar atmosphere, made up what at the time was called “the billboard war”, a conflagration started by the Bush administration and just ended by Obama. “We believe that the electronic ticker was really not effective as a means of delivering information to the Cuban people”, said Ian Kelly, a State Department spokesman.

Read More

Bombard the Headquarters!

Initially it was called the “Spare Parts Forum,” and was devoted to discussing suggestions for technological improvement and the re-conditioning of parts of various industrial machines. Many of these had become scarce following the structural crisis caused by the collapse of Euro-Soviet socialism.

Read More