I spent my teenage years along with my sister in this town. We moved there when I was nine and she was twelve. I lived there till the age of 18. That was fifty years ago, back when homophobia seemed like an incurable disease in Cuba.
Read MoreOur blog, Cartas desde Cuba, has a new member: Lucia, our webmaster’s daughter, born yesterday in Havana’s Gonzalez Coro Hospital. There, we were able to see Cuba’s public health system at work, and understand why infant mortality rates are so low in the country.
Read MoreCuban president Raul Castro visits Mexico on November 5-7. The gathering promises to be a mix of the old and the new, where former alliances and new strategies will define themselves against Latin America’s changing political panorama.
Read MoreFidel Castro laid the institutional foundations of Cuban socialism when he announced a constitutional reform during the first congress of the Cuban Communist Party in 1975. The chief decision behind this declared the Party the sole “higher and guiding force of society and the State,” and it was founded on the alleged “infallibility of Marxist-Leninist doctrine, the basis of scientific communism.”
Read MoreNo matter where we look, everything seems to end in darkness, death and desolation. Does it really matter whether we die today, tomorrow or in 10 years? Does it, when the end is inevitable?
Read MoreThree months ago, at the funeral parlor in La Lisa, Havana, Luis showed me why he is renowned for never missing a wake. He was among the first to arrive. “This is one of the ugliest, lesser known funeral parlors in Havana,” he said when he saw me.
Read MoreThere are no fools in Cuban journalism. Nor is anyone incompetent, let alone naïve. The situation is such that all debates remain hallway chatter. Sometimes, they make it to the park and, occasionally, accompany the drinks people have at a bar in our cities.
Read MoreNothing says more about what we once were, what we are or what we want to become than our architecture. The post-revolution unimaginative designs, the poor quality of the construction work and the little importance given the buildings’ finishing had an impact on immediate surroundings. The practice became generalized and, today, we can see its results everywhere.
Read MoreThe private lodging sector has grown more than any other in Cuba’s province of Matanzas. In 2014, it expanded by more than 40 % and, this year, it has already grown more than 50 %. Towards the south of the province, near the Zapata Swamp, there are more private accommodations than in State hotels.
Read MoreI had decided not to write about Pancho again, but, on the night of Thursday, October 8, Pancho confirmed everything I’d been told. The drain was to one side of a bank in Old Havana. Cucaracha showed up with a crowbar. They quickly lifted the lid.
Read More
