Osvaldo Dorticos Torrado was the last president of the Republic of Cuba, the title for the nation’s highest authority used in the five constitutions Cubans ratified up to 1976, when the sixth constitution – the first openly declaring the country’s socialist system – was approved. We know nothing of how Dortico’s conscience fared in the legal limbo Cuba fell into, and has yet to come out of, since the triumph of the revolution.
Read MoreOne of my neighbors is a fan of horror flicks (and doesn’t really like or watch any other kinds of films). She is married to a man who works in construction, the father of her three and seven-year-old girls. She lives so close to my apartment that, when she yells at her kids, I can hear everything she says clearly, as though she were inside my room.
Read MoreRecently I was walking on the platform at a subway station. I didn’t knock into anyone, nor did I ask anyone to move. I just put myself in the queue, like all the other worker bees. Taking one’s disability on the road, especially on the transit system, is an experience not for the weak of heart. (No pun intended; apologies to my friends with heart conditions.).
Read MoreOwing to the Cuban government’s long-standing policy of excluding the public from decision-making processes, many will likely say: “I don’t care what they finally approve. I’m indifferent to everything this government does.” This is a serious mistake…
Read MoreIt took me a while, but I’ve finally finished my notes on the bill for the new Labor Law they’ll soon be forcing on Cubans. My impressions can be summed up with one word: yikes! As written, the bill is unconstitutional, discriminatory and downright deceitful. When you make a claim of this nature, of course, you have to be able to prove it.
Read MoreEleven Cubans have died at the hands of other Cubans who thought stealing alcohol from their workplace and selling it on the black market was an easy way to make a quick buck. It’s not the first time something like this happens here, and it probably won’t be the last.
Read MoreEverything depends on how things are portrayed, and conflicts in Egypt will be understood on the basis of the how the news is framed by different broadcasters. What do you think?
Read MoreTaking the call that Cuba’s current president recently made as my point of departure, I am going to prove, on the basis of some personal experiences, that racism does exist in Cuba. It is my hope that, by acknowledging its existence, we can begin to work together to make this evil disappear once and for all.
Read MoreI’m afraid to go to Old Havana. Not because the police might ask for my I.D., or the Cubans might take me for a tourist, but because of the disabled, the lame and the mutilated who have begun to form part of the landscape all along Obispo street.
Read MoreFor the good of the country, of the people who eke out a life on the island, day after day, sometimes I even wish Cuba’s leaders were compulsive liars who are hiding a secret agenda but ultimately know what they’re talking about.
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