Diaries

Abuse of Power

When most Cuban workers near retirement age, they endure poor conditions and low wages to receive a pension for their senior years. The most unpleasant aspect of this whole situation is the mistreatment and abuse that almost all bosses subject their subordinates to.

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Seeking a Better Grade

It turns out that one of the people who read my article (about the mysterious and recent expulsion from Mt. Olympus of important political figures in Cuba), someone identifying himself as a philosophy professor, turned attention away from the burning issue I had raised to aim his guns at me instead.

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When Culture is Affordable

Cubans grow up appreciating art, literature, films, music and shows because their parents appreciate them and are able to expose their children to them at an early age. These things have become elitist in the United States because only the wealthy can afford to enjoy them.

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Close to Vedado (I)

A few days ago, my friend Ana Maria and I moved to an apartment near the Havana neighborhood of Vedado. For a long time we’ve had plans for living together. We had looked for the smallest apartment possible for the sake of paying the least amount of rent.

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A Slight Obsession

He changed jobs a lot, none met his expectations. There was only one thing what was constant. His brother who lives in California sent the family a video camera. This was his happiness. Cameras here cost a lot; so a person who doesn’t have family abroad or doesn’t travel cannot acquire one.

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“Frailty, Thy Name is Woman!”

Cuba emerged as the country that has experienced the greatest recent renaissance in the entire world. In the 1990s, when the food crisis hit rock bottom, the massive sale of hamburgers in many cafeterias was touted as constituting a stable source of protein for the citizenry.

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Hot Potato Campaign

The nightmare of most Cuban university students approaches. It’s the annual potato harvest in 85-degree heat. Participation is mandatory for all faculties of the University of Havana, and for every other university institution for that matter.

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Hoodwinked Again

Me, just like most other honest people, are very vulnerable because the chain of swindling that has occurred in the last several years has reached astronomical proportions. This all started with the crisis that began in the early 1990s, when the economic situation was most critical.

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My Case Goes to Trial

Today will be the first hearing in which I am appealing my expulsion from the university. When everything is concluded -for good or for bad- I’ll recount in detail everything that has happened. I haven’t done so yet because many of my friends think that I might bury myself deeper, and I believe that they’re partially right

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Revolution in “El Electrico”

Not long ago, I wrote about the rebirth that was taking place in “El Electrico”, the community in which I live on the outlying south side of Havana. It is far enough away to be free of hustle, bustle and the pollution of the central city

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