Caridad’s Diary

Cuban Witches, Broomsticks and Moths

Last night I was visiting at the home of one of my co-workers. We had some coffee with cinnamon and suddenly — like out of a Hitchcock film — we heard a piercing scream. The woman of the house had discovered a “bruja” in her bedroom.

A Mission in Havana

That is the private world of my neighbors. They have stopped being themselves — if at some time they ever were — to enter the lives of characters who they have in front of them, those who appear on TV or on some DVD

Cuba Triumphs

Up until last week, several of my friends were waiting for the final outcome of the national volleyball team in one of those championships. I like volleyball, but it’s all the same to me if the Cuban team wins or not.

Living Under the Table in Cuba

Not having one’s own home or money to rent one usually complicates relationships even between heterosexuals, but when this is the case with two women, it becomes all too comical.

Questions Upon My Return

“What are you coming back here to do in Cuba?” That was a question I was asked the night I arrived at Havana’s Jose Marti Airport after almost a year in Venezuela.

The Sounds of My Neighborhood

My neighborhood in Cojimar is about eight or ten blocks from the sea, that’s why I can’t speak about the sound of its waves, except on rare exceptions when bad weather causes the salt water to get inside the houses built closest to the water.

“Gasolina” and the Blues

It’s easier to take him for crazy. To look at his Walt Whitman-style mane, with green leaves sometimes tangled in his white hair; the clothes he wears, as old as he is; the beard, which might remind some people of a confirmed Marxist, and his carefree gait through the streets of Caracas, with his four string guitar on his shoulder, inseparable; one might say, “Look, one more lunatic.”(9 photos)