We begin cutting the wood and it suddenly began to rain. Since it had rained for several previous days, the ground was saturated, and soon we were almost up to our knees in water. The afternoon was going by and it would soon be dark.
Read MoreFrom the very beginning of the trip, everything was new. To get the airplane tickets we had to get up early and get in a long line, which allowed us to journey through the streets of the downtown Havana’s Vedado district and delight in the dawn from the Malecón seawall.
Read MoreRight now in Old Havana there is an entire street where there are elderly people, the mentally ill, people who are injured, and amputees who lack basic economic sustenance and therefore resort to begging.
Read MoreLike on few other occasions, I presently agree with the Cuban mass media with regard to a certain political question. However, I’m beginning to feel a bit strange when I hear Cuban journalists speak with such emphasis on “respect for the constitutional order.”
Read MoreObviously Michael Jackson was not John Lennon. He was not a spirit in search of making sense of the world; he did not have that ethical-political commitment that engendered love and sometimes fanaticism from his admirers.
Read MoreTo make the walk through the dark streets of Central Havana go quicker, I began to think about what might happen to me before reaching home that could serve as subject matter for one of these diaries. Then several meters before arriving at my stop the bus came to a halt.
Read MoreAs the affected residents, we agreed to follow up on our complaints through three neighborhood committees that would attend to each phase of the complaint process, leaving an appeal to the Central Committee of the Communist Party as our ultimate step.
Read MoreIt’s very common to hear people in Cuba say that under capitalism you really have to work because everything is invented there. In this are two meanings: the first is that you can live without working in Cuba, or at least without seriously working.
Read MoreTourism is a word that often comes up between Cubans; not because they take vacation cruises to the Canary Islands, but because they are habitually tripping over these visitors who in a not so indirect a manner add to the growth of the GDP.
Read MoreI’m not too surprised, the reason for this situation is too evident: the workers in these stores often jack up the prices, almost arbitrarily, for one simple reason: their wages aren’t enough to support them and they have no other remedy.
Read More