Though I was prepared for the enormity of the stores and was not hugely impressed by the range of products that would be unthinkable in Cuba, a simple fact made a deep impression on me: I was able to access Havana Times on-line using a tablet that was on sale at an electronics store.

I want to begin by reminding readers of what the prestigious Cuban essayist Guillermo Rodriguez Rivera said of Joseph Stalin, referring to the notorious communist leader as a “master of decontextualization.” Let me say, from the outset, that I am speaking of a well-known anti-Batista activist who holds a PhD in philology from the University of Havana.

In a popular Cuban joke, one fellow says: “Havana, a city of two million people.” The phrase is left hanging in the air, in anticipation of the reply. The reply finally comes: “Yeah, two million: one million citizens, one million cops!” According to statistics, there are some 5 million people living in Miami’s metropolitan area. In this post, I will tell you about the number of police officers I ran into in the downtown area.