The answer to that question has changed over the years, as have the circumstances and the compatriots that look at me. In the ’90s I dressed like most teenagers or people in their early twenties did: tight jeans, short skirts, blouses, square-heeled booties that I adored.
Yesterday, he mistook me for a tourist and offered to take a snapshot of me using his “old technique.” He was the first of his type of photographer I’d seen in a while. I used to see them all the time on the steps of the Capitolio Building (now under repair) offering to take shots of tourists. (11 photos)
When I first saw him on Obispo Street, in Old Havana, I assumed he was one of many street musicians trying to make a living with their art. He seemed interesting with his melodies of the Far East, something atypical of the street performers I usually see in this city.
“He’s not a well-known painter,” my friend said, “but the artist’s work is very interesting. Cesar Towie does cityscapes in watercolors.” This made me think old cars and views of the Capitolio Building or the Cathedral. However his work is of “ruins, shored up buildings, structures virtually destroyed.” (17 photos)
Abraham Ortiz is a Cuban who has lived the last year and a half in Spain. In his first visit back to the island he shares with us his perceptions of life across the Atlantic and here in Cuba. Today we bring you part two of his interview with HT.
I met Abraham Ortiz in late 2003 in a course on narrative techniques. For seven years we had shared the dream of being writers and the frustrations of living in Cuba. His life changed in 2010 when he married a Spanish woman and left the country. After a year and seven months, he has returned…to visit.
What conclusion should I draw? If something occurs in the United States, without the citizens there complaining (or despite their complaints) then it is fine for the rest of the world? If rights are violated in the United States then it’s okay to violate them here in Cuba?
I graduated as an English teacher in 1999 and began teaching at a technical school. During the first year, my students were studying skilled trades in mechanics, electronica and business. The ones studying business were in their first year while the future mechanics and electricians were in their third.
He has fullfilled his mission, living long enough to ensure the transition (we don’t know to what), so that the Cuban people will slowly adapt to the idea of continutity of what we call the revolution but without Fidel Castro.
Four years ago I became interested in elections for the first time. This year I followed the second electoral process in my life. Yet on neither of those two occasions did these involve elections in my country. Unconsciously, I’ve convinced myself that elections abroad affect my life more than those in Cuba.