Strolling around Cartagena, surrounded by tourists, both national and abroad, seaside hotels, rows of restaurants and coffee shops, enormous malls, fruit and craft stands – in short, by prosperity–, it’s easy to forget this city is located in Colombia, a country with a legacy of decades of violence, drug trafficking and armed conflict.
Read MoreYesterday, I had the fortune of finding an old Life magazine. Carefully turning the frail pages, printed on November 3, 1958, the living-color images of France Nuyen caught my eye. The reason I ended up paying 3 CUC (US $3.50) for the magazine, however, were rather more compelling: one of the headlines on the front page promised an extensive article on Julio Lobo, “the Sugar King.”
Read MoreI wake up early, not because I can’t sleep nor because I’m so hard-working, but because I feel it’s my responsibility to. A number of tasks require my energy, normal everyday activities which allow me to come up on top, “survive”.
Read MoreThe people voted against the possibility of a new term (2019-2025) for Evo Morales by a narrow margin. It said “no” to a proposal to allow his candidacy that, at least to Cubans, was certain to be accepted. In Cuba, of course, it’s hard to have all of the information needed to judge a situation.
Read MoreOn February 22, when I checked my inbox, I came across one of those unwanted messages one gets without knowing where it came from and why one was chosen as addressee. I generally erase these spam messages, but, sometimes, curiosity gets the better of me.
Read MoreSix years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Hollywood responded with Night of the Living Dead, an instant American cinema sensation. Record audiences packed dark theaters to exorcise their fear of a Communist invasion through a Zombie apocalypse.
Read MoreOn February 23, exactly 113 years since the signing of a perpetual lease for the lands and waters occupied by the Guantanamo Naval Base, Obama addressed the US Congress to announce his commitment to “shut down Guantanamo.” As always, his articulate, precise and well-argued speech proved impressive.
Read More“That’s where the cameras and glitz are, I’m off to the capital!” That summarizes the way nearly all people from Cuba’s interior see Havana. I imagine this is true everywhere in the world. It’s almost always the case that people born in small towns look towards the big cities when it comes to realizing their dreams, but…
Read MoreEsteemed Barack Obama: This letter was written by a run-of-the-mill Cuban, one who is neither a dissident nor has any ties to government politics. What I’ve written comes from the heart and knows none of the hypocritical opportunism that characterizes politics many a time. It is made of pure sincerity.
Read MoreYesterday, I talked for hours with a close friend from Havana who came over and whom I hadn’t seen in over ten years. My friend had been an irredeemable opponent of the system. He had a different problem with the authorities almost every day.
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