Private detectives, pet-care centers, pawnbrokers, tourist buses, opticians, travel agents, psychologists on call – these are some of the new businesses, started by Cuba’s self-employed that have now become as profitable as the more familiar private restaurants or lodgings.
Read MoreHow do we learn to hate what we don’t know? Take the example of Florida Senator Rene Garcia. This young Republican, who was born in Hialeah in 1974 to Cuban parents, and as will be explained here, has done incalculable harm to the state of Florida with his hatred of Cuba as conveyed by his parents.
Read MoreCuban society has to address serious economic and political questions that cannot be answered through doctrines or reading the classics. Neither can we set our hopes on formulas that have been enshrined by political tendencies.
Read MoreSome months ago, I don’t recall when, exactly, I published a post that prompted many comments criticizing the title and focus of my piece. I Hate You upset a number of readers and other Havana Times bloggers, who wrote me to say that hatred is a negative emotion and that my article did not contribute to the reconciliation between the people of Cuba and the United States
Read MoreIn May of 2004, Cuba’s largest thermoelectric plant brokedown with a considerable impact on the country’s electrical generation network. This was the context in which Fidel Castro launched the initiative known as the “Energy Revolution.”
Read MoreThe only free Cuban Five member, Rene Gonzalez, called on every Cuban to wear a yellow ribbon, or to hang it up at home or in a tree, such that the country is filled with these, symbols of affection towards a loved one who is away, whom one awaits.. A month long campaign began last week demanding the release of the remaiing four Cuban Five members.
Read MoreCuba’s system lacks the counterweights that different social sectors would need to apply pressure on the government in order to advance their interests, which are not necessarily the same as those of other sectors and do not form a harmonious whole, as Soviet manuals envisaged.
Read MoreThose who read this article may accuse me of exaggerating, or maybe think that I’m stealing a scene written by the Spanish director Almodovar who is so given to mixing drama and comedy. Others might allege that I’m just a person with very bad luck; still others may believe that it’s all a fabrication and that I’m writing to get rich, or because groups from the Empire are sponsoring my articles. All of these allegations are very distant from reality.
Read MoreWhen I was a kid, my father used to take me to some of the most fantastic places I have ever been to in Cuba. At least once a month, we would go fishing at a river or dam in the outskirts of the city, with poles or just a stick with a bit of line tied to it.
Read MoreSome years ago, “M” started going out with a girl and all eyes in the neighborhood turned towards her. “X”., her partner, has been living in a very small house with four relatives, where she is forced to sleep in the living room, since she was five. M and X tell me they have been together for three years and love each other very much. M has a house with several bedrooms and lives only with her mother. The three lived together for a while until the mother-in-law remembered her social function and everything went downhill from there. Some measure of homophobia must have had a say in that.
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