In 2007, at the initiative of Fidel Castro, it was decided to create a program to teach Spanish to Chinese young people who in their homeland were less likely to attend college. This would not only reorient the lives of those foreign students, but would also provide China with the personnel needed for penetrating the Spanish-speaking market in the Americas.
Yesterday we gave the final exam in Spanish literature for seniors at the high school where I teach. For them, this was the last step before graduation. Giving the test was a complicated process as there were nearly 200 pupils that had to take it though there are only three teachers of the course in the entire school.
Versatile and charismatic, Arema Negussie Arega, is a young promise of Cuban music who is almost ready to explode as a supernova. After studying music and visual arts, she composes much of what she sings, although I’ve also heard her perform songs in English.
With a week to go before the conclusion of the regular season of the Cuban Baseball Leauge, two essential features have marked its course. The first and most striking has been the decline in batting averages, while the second has been the hard fought rivalries in each of the clashes that take place.
Yesterday, after showing up to put money in my cellphone line at one of the offices of ETECSA (Cuba’s phone company), I read a notice posted on the door. Two things caught my attention, or — better said — two things pissed me off.
For many years I’ve been hearing my father say “it was the consumption of meat that enabled humans to develop their brains.” I’m sure that he obtained such information from his vast readings, always based on his understanding of Marxism.
Four or five years ago, daring to speak openly in Cuba of political change or transition, as some call it, was tantamount to self-crucifixion and virtually nobody dared expose themselves to that. But now, it is striking how many fellow citizens broach the subject with the greatest nonchalance.
Three generations of Cubans have grown up listening to compositions and interpretations by Teresita Fernandez. She is a non-stop troubadour, as she calls herself, and an educator who possesses a doctorate degree in education.
On the news, here in Cuba, it was reported that an American student used a machine gun to shoot five of his classmates – two of whom later died. Though the incident was unfortunate, so too is what lies behind the apparent “humanity” of its reporting.
I woke up today to blasting music, but it wasn’t coming from my mother’s next door neighbors. In the homes around here there aren’t any sound systems capable of pounding the walls like this music does.