Cardinal Jaime Ortega is retiring, but he leaves the Cuban nation with very useful lessons in what we could call “dialogue building.” One must acknowledge that he designed bridges capable of withstanding the weight of the mutual mistrust that has existed between the Catholic clergy, the Cuban government and Washington.
Read MoreAn impassioned voice calls on the Cuban people to take part in the May Day parade in a show of involvement and “conscious” support for the government and its leaders. The voice seems to forget one detail.
Read MoreOn April 22, some pleasant news: the price of a series of crucial products were lowered by around 20%. In any other country, this figure could be considered highly significant and cause for nationwide celebration, however in deformed and dysfunctional Cuba, everything works differently. Let me explain why.
Read MorePeople in Cuba have long been unable to organize their memories, periods of time or fashions on the basis of presidential terms or the period of time parties have been in power, as can be done in any other country, where a certain leader’s administration can be used to refer to period of years
Read MoreThe tough guys in the neighborhood are the perfect oracles, the guides, the seers of today. They fill the night with their smoke and words loaded with double meanings or no meaning at all. Havana has lost all its elegance.
Read MoreThe 7th Congress appeared to reflect the political debate taking place behind the scenes between those communists who wish to preserve a Soviet-styled form of socialism and the other communists who wish to move forward towards a model that is closer to China’s and Vietnam’s.
Read MoreTo tell the truth, the Party Congress offers us no mysteries. Nothing in Cuba will ever change if such changes are to depend on the governing elite or their archaic notions about social justice.
Read MoreThe last group of Cubans stranded in Costa Rica – of the original eight thousand – was transported out of the country a few weeks ago. Perhaps some people thought Ecuador’s new visa requirements for Cubans and San Jose’s decision not to offer migrants any more transit documents would put an end to such migratory flows. Nothing proved further from the truth.
Read More“Capitalism” is part six of the interview-documentary with Cuban poet Rafael Alcides on a host of different topics. Director: Miguel Coyula. English subtitles. The other segments of the documentary are titled: The Nice Things, Artists and Politicians, About Beauty, Once Upon a Time in Biran and The People. We provide you the links.
Read MoreI got to the house of Dargelo, my paternal cousin Barbara’s husband, at around 10 in the morning. The year was 1993. Out of a job and desperate, like just about everyone at the time, I told them I couldn’t take it anymore, that I’d lost the job I had selling pru – a beverage made out of fermented roots, popular in Cuba’s eastern provinces – because the owner of the business had decided to leave for the United States, via the Guantanamo Naval Base.
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