Regina Cano’s Diary

A privately owned 3D theatre, housed by a locale in the commercial center located in Alamar’s Zone 6, stands out among the establishments where the largest investments have been made in the neighborhood. Not long before, the place had been a store that sold imported used clothing, a “rag-store”, as they are popularly known in Cuba.

Hurricane season is almost over in Cuba, but the mere mention of a hurricane is enough to inspire fear among many residents of Havana, who have experienced the continuous, day-long or afternoon rains and the strong sunlight that afterwards dries everything quickly.

On August 25, the residents of Havana’s Antonio Guiteras neighborhood of the capital were delighted by a performance staged at the La Cascada recreational society by the Yoruba Andabo Afro-Cuban folkloric music ensemble that is well-known both in Cuba and abroad.

The residents of Havana’s Antonio Guiteras district (more popularly known as “Bahia”), a neighborhood located a few kilometers from the Havana Bay tunnel, were pleasantly surprised to see a performance by Los Papines, staged at a lot located to the side of their local polyclinic.

The tenth edition of Sculptures in the Sand took place on July 27th, in an effort to recover the Fiestas by the Sea that took place in the early years of the revolution during the last week of July.

This past Saturday, Estudiantes Sin Semilla (“Seedless Students”), a reggae band from Havana, threw a concert at the Parque Almendares amphitheater. Though I’d gotten the flyers announcing the concert only the night before, I was, luckily, able to attend.

Crazy people, those who have lost all touch with reality or their “marbles” (as it is said colloquially), the “mentally insane”, as they are also called, abound in all countries around the world. Well, folks, Cuba has had no shortage of crazies either.

I still remember that, throughout my childhood and until the onslaught of the Special Period in the early 90s, the “Ice Cream Carts”, small trucks that sold ice-cream in the currency one’s salary was paid in (when one could make ends meet with these), would drive around Havana, announcing themselves with Johann Strauss’ “Blue Danube”, and that these were extremely popular in those happier times.

Over the years, preparing a child’s birthday party in Cuba has become as elaborate and involved a process as those which people living in industrialized and “developed” nations often undertake to fulfill certain fantasies.