Diaries

The Blue Blanket

Whenever I come to visit, my uncle is under his blue blanket. It’s made of thick wool and it covers him up to his ears. It doesn’t’ matter if it’s one or three in the afternoon. He says that his headache prompts him to hide that way: under his own blue sky with no clouds.

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Respectfulness vs. Crude Disregard

Today we have very well-mannered people, but also many people like these, who don’t believe in anybody. Violence engenders violence, because it is as cold as ice, and at the same time it burns like fire, and its light can leave us blind.

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The Philosophy that I like to Teach (3)

The exercise of philosophy will never free us from responsibility; to the contrary, it pushes us toward the bitter and distressing taste of recognizing the profound implication of all our acts. It is a form of happiness, but at the same time a kick in the balls: a pain like no other.

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Nightmare in May

Children were pulling up plants: “death to the weeds,” they were saying, even though it was chamomile, aloe and oregano. I explained to them that what they were doing was wrong because those plants have curative properties. They didn’t listen.

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Teaching at a Cuban Community College

I began to give classes at the Community College in the town of Santa Cruz five years ago. Like many of my colleagues, I had to take some special classes to become an educator and be able to receive the supplementary income for that extra work.

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The Philosophy that I Liked to Teach (2)

At the time, I decided to wait until the teachers were called to reanalyze the study program. I was hopeful that the struggle could be carried out from the inside. How naïve I was, such a moment never came and as I see it, never will.

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Black Dolls in Cuba

One afternoon, while we were playing in the schoolyard, the leader of the group decided to play a new game. We weren’t more than seven years old, and all of us wanted to be on the same team as Ricardo, the liveliest.
Most of us were happy when we could be with him and his group, because they were white.

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Wonderful New Stores

Here, products like soap, toothbrushes, glasses, buckets, belts, cloth, clothes and shoes are a little cheaper than in the hard currency stores. It was remarkable to see these stores full of people with cheerful faces able to buy products at prices that did not completely break their budget.

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My Own Home

I’ve been going out with a woman of late. We met a few months ago, and yesterday she came over to my house for first time. My place is nice, comfortable, and it was great to be able to have my own house to spend time with her.

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Precious Freedom (1)

During the day we dedicated ourselves to hiking, making camp, swimming in the sea, inventing a way to cook with firewood (at times we had to gather the firewood from far away) and relaxing a little. At night came the work with the turtles.

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