Detractors of the Cuban revolution love to repeat that socialism has failed, that the economy is a disaster and innumerable other lies to try and justify the frank betrayal. When East European socialism collapsed the enemies of socialism began shouting that the system was a failure from the rooftops.
Read MoreTo directly confront the government official that holds the solution to your specific problem is not a very good idea.
Read MoreThe work of the late Cuban-born musician, conductor and composer Isidro Benitez is better known in South America than in Cuba, whence the artist was forced to emigrate, in 1926, owing to the widespread and deeply-rooted racism of the time. As a black man, Benitez was denied the possibility of performing in venues that should have welcomed an artist of his stature.
Read MoreSince my arrival in Cuba some two decades ago, I’ve been hearing people say that their leaders, after being dismissed for incompetence and the like, tend to fall, not from grace, but “to new heights”: it doesn’t matter how useless a “cadre” turns out to be, there will always be another management position open to them.
Read MoreAccording to official discourse, we are a poor, blockaded country with few resources, and are unable to build all of the houses the people need. That said, our country is also just: we refuse to have a society where a few have a lot and the majority has nothing. A good part of this is a lie and I am going to prove it.
Read MoreA while ago, I watched some television at the home of a friend who has a satellite dish. Though I already had some sense of what American television was like, I was surprised by the dizzying and irrational pace of the programming. In the middle of a TV series, I was bombarded with three commercials.
Read MoreCuba dice (“Cuba Says”) is a segment of Cuba’s national news broadcast that has been on the air for some time now. The segment consists of journalistic reports that cover problems or difficulties Cubans face on a daily basis, from the purchase or acquisition of building materials to public transportation and other issues.
Read MoreThe formal price of a ticket on the urban buses is 40 cents (of a peso), in the so-called national currency. Given the equivalent in US money – about 2 cents – this price may seem infinitesimally small, until you also look at the dollar value of what a Cuban worker receives as a salary: about 20 dollars monthly.
Read MoreI could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure the reality show most watched and enjoyed in Cuba is Caso Cerrado (“Case Closed”), a Miami domestic court program hosted by Judge Ana Maria Polo. Many watch the show at home, thanks to illegal satellite dishes. Others, like me, buy or rent weekly packages on discs that include the week’s cases.
Read MoreAs we might have expected from an incident as talked-about as asking for political changes in Cuba during a massive official function, musician Roberto Carcasses has become a kind of test case for political militancy on the island.
Read More