“People are hiring housemaids again. My health isn’t what it used to be, but, if it were, mark my word, that’s what I’d be doing right now. I have no money,” a woman over 60, who lives in Havana’s neighborhood of Guanabacoa, told me at a bus stop.
It’s been tied up since it was 35 days old. “Burnet” is what we call it – among other names. It’s a Siamese cat that lives in a small space under the wooden staircase that accesses the barbacoa* of a very small room in a house with many similar rooms on Zanja Street, in Havana.
Cuba is an ideal environment for exchanges between people committed to the earth, said Madeleine Porr, the executive director of the German NGO “In Good Hands.” Her group sponsored a recent symposium in Havana titled, “Making the Future with Local Strengths,” which dealt with recycling, renewable energy and healthy food. 11 photos)
For the entire month of March, Havana’s Rita Montaner Theatre Co. is presenting an adaptation of “Two Sides of the Coin”), “We invite you to sit down on this ‘wall on the Malecon’ — the great character on this stage production — and from it, look out at the horizon. Seeing the sun? …as well as its spots?”
Images (which are fundamental elements of our lives), together with spirit and the necessary sensitivity, are the best tools novice photographers have for participating in the exhibition “Punto de Partida” (Starting Point), at the Riviera Cultural Center.
The 19th Erotic Art Exhibition in the Fayad Jamis Gallery of Alamar, Havana opened on Saturday February 16th. This show awards, in addition to the visual arts, fiction and poetry on the subject and can be visited through mid April. (7 photos)
Like in other parts of the planet, reggae and Bob Marley are well liked in Cuba. The rhythm of that music grabs us and allows us to enjoy a melody that’s different from son, rumba and other popular styles here in Cuba – in a way that rock didn’t achieve.
Certain regulations concerning housing continue to amaze and annoy me. In addition to these is the convoluted character of the case below. The problem is that for a person who doesn’t like small spaces it’s still difficult for them to add on to their houses, despite the new reforms that were supposed to make this easier.
“Hacer +” (Do +) has appeared of late as graffiti and seems to be aimed at encouraging locals to get moving. Sometimes it appears (other times it disappears) in Alamar, the Havana neighborhood where I live.
The guy felt insulted. He told me that his brother had been given a 750 peso fine — “despite how hard that is to come by” — and that the authorities had taken away his vendor’s license. This is a story about one of those crazy things that makes Cubans throw up their hands.