Search Results for: Osmel Almaguer

My Luck of the Draw

Fortunately, my cement-block house was —like the third pig in the fairy tale— able to stand up to the huffing and puffing of our own big bad wolf. My uncle’s wooden place, however, almost fell down on him.

My New Dragon

The fact that I loaned my arm to my cousin so that he could begin his career in the art of tattooing could seem like madness, but the true madness was that I found it all amusing.

Without Cap or Gown

After my thesis was approved, I began to become concerned with the issue of dress. Few Cubans have a suit or tie. This type of clothing is very not very functional on the island due to the heat here. In addition, it’s quite expensive.

Underground Bakeries

Yasser Gonzalez Prieto (a baker by profession) is 36 years old and lives in the Alamar community, on the outskirts of Havana. This is also where he works, though in a way that is somewhat atypical. He has been on the payroll of one of the bakeries in this neighborhood for about a year but doesn’t have to go to work.

Poetry for the Body & Soul

Yesterday I convinced myself that I shouldn’t take verse and rhyming too seriously. I say that because of the experience I had at this year’s Havana International Festival of Poetry.

Losing the Adult Game

The people who surround me are increasingly serious. Their faces contract increasingly. They spend increasingly more time with unfriendly looks. They remain increasingly silent. Their silence is interrupted only by laconic comments in whispers.

Equality or Equity, Dream or Reality?

“Equality, I don’t know who the lunatic was who invented that idea!” I heard that statement while on my way to a friend’s house. It managed to shake me completely out of my thoughts. It came from the back of a mechanic’s workshop, whose front I was happening by.

A Red Hot Summer

May is the month of rain in Cuba, and also the month in which the temperature begins to go up. It’s when the habits of Cubans begin to change; we substitute hot water for cold showers, lukewarm milk for ice-cold juice, and the evenings at the cinema for trips to the beach.