Havana Times: The Beginning of Another Cycle
HAVANA TIMES – Almost 10 years have passed between this and my previous publication in Havana Times. A lot can happen in a decade. That’s why it was a tremendous surprise when the editor responded that my diary was still alive, and I could pick it up again.
When I last published, Miguel Diaz-Canel had not yet taken power from Raul Castro, the MLC (magnetic dollar) hadn’t been invented, COVID-19 hadn’t shaken the world, Obama hadn’t even visited Havana, and the filming of Fast and Furious (8?) hadn’t paralyzed the city.
On a personal level, I hadn’t gotten married or had a daughter, my father was still alive, and we hadn’t escaped from Cuba to settle in Brazil. I didn’t speak Portuguese yet, nor had I become a butcher, and I was far from knowing the “kingdom of heaven.”
Other things, perhaps not as significant, happened in my life during those years. I turned to video journalism, publishing nearly half a thousand video reports. I published some poetry books and even a novel in Spain (Las huellas de Nadie, Ediciones Deslinde). I had the opportunity to visit Spain as well as Panama, Peru, Colombia, and the Czech Republic.
Professionally, I collaborated with independent media such as Diario de Cuba, CubaNet, Hablemos Press, En Caliente Prensa Libre, and with agencies like Webstringers and Dos Mundos, who bought audiovisual content from me to sell to television stations.
There were many events I could have written about here, and others that don’t even deserve to be mentioned. A huge void has been left in this diary over the last decade, but today Havana Times is once again the ideal space to share my discoveries, dreams, concerns, and the vast amount of information that Brazil, the country that opened its doors to me, has to offer.
And while I fit all these pieces into this new puzzle, I’ll also take the opportunity to communicate a little in my native language, which never hurts.