Wow! This was a dream come true, because Alamar had become one of Havana’s symbols of poor transportation ever since the beginning of the economic crisis of the 1990s. Far from the city center, the neighborhood is made up of a huge population of which most people work outside the community.
Read MoreAt lunchtime we found the La Terraza Restaurant, visited by Hemingway in his time. It was decorated with stuffed swordfish, fish tanks set into the wall, and fishing nets. At certain tables you felt as if you were eating on the sea. The menu: fish and shellfish, of course.
Read MoreWhen activism is discouraged by frustrations and sanctions, where the press portrays a country that is unreal, and where personal solutions are found through illegalities or infractions, to embrace a spontaneous economic liberalism appears as common sense for a good part of my compatriots.
Read MoreEnormous cockroaches with human heads climb out across the polished surfaces of the Museum of Cuban Art. Some have fallen, while others seem to have made it to their destination: the roof, or maybe the sky.
Read MoreAlthough I’m the first to applaud the achievements of this form of so-called socialism, every day I fear that the system -where it’s impossible to buy a decent pair of shoes on your monthly salary- is becoming unsustainable.
Read MoreDead people don’t say what they feel, and they don’t allow others to. They’re the people who don’t grasp that we can be dead by inaction, by disillusionment. A person who expresses themselves out loud is alive. Nor do they fear death; to the contrary, they cling to life and fight for its betterment.
Read MoreIdeas are won on the field of debate, not by gagging people. The conclusions of debate are settled by raised hands, not by isolating or punishing those who think differently. Social conscience evolves slowly, not with “sticks.”
You cannot combat bureaucracy with people’s mouths shut; everyone has their opinions and it’s necessary to respect them.
Read MoreUnfortunately, the younger generation has not acquired political experience in daily struggles, since they’ve almost always remained under the guardianship of their mass organization’s leaders, who provide them with little information about the economic, social and political aspects of Cuba or the world.
Read MoreI can’t remember exactly when I had my first encounter with religion. I can say with certainty however that the first religion I had contact with was the Catholic faith, through visits to the church in the town of Manati, Las Tunas, during one of my summer vacations.
When I returned to the city of Santiago I wanted to continue visiting the Catholic churches and to receive Catechism instruction.
I have now been back in the United States for two weeks. Some days I wake up and am still shocked to be in my bed at home and other days it feels like a dream that I went at all. I have never been in a country for so long and understood so little of what happens there.
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