Thalia is a seven-year-old girl who doesn’t live with her mother or her father. Nor does she stay with her grandparents, uncles or any other relatives. Her family members aren’t dead, which is why she’s never stepped foot into an orphanage.
For the majority of Cubans who live in this country, Havana is a chance to make an important change in their lives. Here one can make good money, get a good house and — and if it’s pertinent — they can find someone to help them leave the country; those are some of the ideas that emigrants to the city bring with them.
The only thing that could have been held against him was from his previous job, when he cared for the rides at the Children’s Amusement Park there in Alamar, and what happened was pure childishness.
Alfredo sells tennis shoes, socks, shorts and T-shirts, all at pretty high prices. Sure, their name brand goods, to be specific they’re all by Adidas.
“The youth are coming on strong, with lots of maturity, with a lot of conviction around what they want. I believe that it’s necessary to give them space, real space, not just saying that it exists when it really doesn’t,” says Jorge Lian Garica Diaz.
Kamankola is a Cuban musical initiative of young performers whose principal figure, the rapper Jorge (“Jorgito”) Lian Garcia Diaz, founded the group at the beginning of 2009.
Since the issuing of licenses was approved for anyone who wants to become a self-employed worker, many people have gotten busy putting together their own businesses.
“It hasn’t been for a lack of demands. There hasn’t been a meeting of the CDR (neighborhood-based Committees for the Defense of the Revolution) or with the local representative to the Peoples Power Assembly of the Province where local people haven’t raised these concerns.”
The band is still the voice of a generation, half in Cuba and half outside of the island because of the exodus caused by the country’s economic and political situation. Each one of their members has a very particular style, very different but at the same time complementing each other. When recording their CDs, they choose each member’s best songs and they form a musical mixture that is nothing less than pure energy and Cuban talent.
My cousin was living in Holguin and worked at the provincial headquarters of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) as a maintenance attendant. One fine day a special meeting was organized for workers at that office who were having housing difficulties.