Interviews

In terms of women’s participation in the formal sector, it’s very high. This includes university degree programs in which the female student body is much larger than the male. However, like in other countries, there is no correspondence with managerial positions, or in the highest offices, where their representation is less than men.

“I believe that, in some way, my blog does the country good. I approach issues that the country is addressing. There has been an opening to sexual diversity, the racial issue is being discussed, and there are advances. My blog can serve to collect those things that don’t usually come out in the press,” says Sandra Alvarez.

“I don’t believe that it’s saying anything so out of the ordinary, but in Cuba we are not used to discussing these issues.”

“In some of these scenes, we made images of the 1950s coincide with present shots taken from the same places. We then added billboards, advertising and electric signs that do not presently exist in Havana but that are common in many cities around the world.”

In this way, we’ve come closer to some of the fantasies that threaten the future of Havana.

“When you enter there, you’re in a completely different world. These people may not be pretty or intelligent or have money, but they are given to feel and show a tremendous amount of love, to each other as well as to their teachers. Such a pure love is very difficult to find on the street,” says Tania the art instructor.

“With the same passion I flew the big Soviet IL-62 and US made MacDonnell Douglas DC-10s, I retook my love of painting, planted in me by my father who was a professor of fine arts in Manzanillo (in eastern Cuban province of Granma), where I was raised.”

“Doing bonsai is obtaining a front row seat in the marvelous show of nature,” says Jorge L. Guerra, on the Havana Bonsai Group website. “I consider myself an addict, just like other group members,” he adds in this recent interview published by Havana Times.

The rules for “being a man” that predominate in Latin America include “never saying no” to temptations out on the street, being “macho” — hanging tough — no matter what the risks, and above all, avoiding any characteristics or feelings that might be seen as feminine or cast doubts on one’s masculinity.

“The screening of Riverside promises to be quite an event in Cuba, a country where emigration to the US touches many families,” Director Harold Trompetero told Havana Times in an interview. “I would love for every Cuban to see the film. When they see the end they will know why.”

While Cuba-US government relations have fluctuated from cold to icy over the last 50 years, a citizen’s movement has kept the candle burning between the two neighboring countries. On the eve of the US elections, Havana Times interviewed Lisa Valanti, president of the US-Cuba Sister Cities Association.