Recently, I met with the Cuban dissidents who have set up camp outside of Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, demanding the resumption of financial subsidies which, in their view, the Spanish government is duty-bound to pay them for an indefinite period of time. They’ve also received the cold shoulder from Miami.
Read MoreThere is at least one similarity between the way in which the fortresses of old organized their defensive structures and the manner in which some contemporary political regimes, like the one in Cuba, protect themselves.
Read MoreEvery time I run into Harry Half-Wit I have the urge to rush off somewhere. Do you know what he asked me the other day, out of the blue? “Hi Rogelio! How many political parties are there in Cuba?” I responded: My word, you’re dying to get me in trouble, aren’t you!
Read MoreWhen I write of the “weathered” streets of Pinar del Rio, I am thinking, not of the effects of climate, but about the onslaught of time itself, about the “implacable passage of time, the time that passed”, to quote songwriter Pablo Milanes.
Read MoreMarino Murillo, architect of the island’s recent economic reforms, has urged the country to aim for growth by eliminating “all of the obstacles that the current economic model places in the way of the development of the productive forces.” The problem is that the greatest obstacle could be the model itself, which is based on relations of production that hinder the country’s economic development, slow down changes, interfere with reforms and bring about discontent among the population.
Read MoreWherever I go, I like to browse in bookstores. Through what appears on the shelves, and what doesn’t, I try to piece together what people are thinking or, at least, what they are thinking about. So i was delighted when I found my first bookstore in Havana, on Obispo.
Read MoreThe way I see it, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which include the reduction of world hunger to half by 2015, continue to be too modest, for there is enough cultivable land in the world, and sufficient food is currently being grown, to be able to feed every human being on the planet.
Read MoreFor Cuba, this could mean a qualitative leap forward, not only economically, but politically as well. Such a commercial route could become an incentive for the gradual normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States.
Read MoreMy current situation is not exactly something I can be proud of: I dropped out of high school. However, I have no regrets. My opinion about university today is nothing like the one I had while I was still in primary school. I may not materialize the dreams I had then, but I will set new goals for myself.
Read MoreThe ancient world was limited to Greece and Rome. In terms of Africa, I was taught only something about Egypt. Black Africa is a black blur in my mind. The history classes we received at school here in Cuba and during my life as a student, showed me no more than this.
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