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.
Read MoreFor many years, the issue of poverty and marginalization was taboo in Cuban social sciences. It was a theme that was incompatible with the triumphant political line of a revolution that had supposedly eliminated — forever — the scourge of social exclusion.
Read MoreThe recent occupation of several Catholic church buildings by opposition groups — including one which a dozen protesters maintained in the capital for 48 hours — is putting on the table another sign of how politics in Cuba is beginning to be played.
Read MoreBefore leaving Havana’s outlying Alamar community on the Via Blanca Highway, there’s a roadway signpost indicating Matanzas as being 86 kilometers away and Varadero as being 186. I saw this in a photo that a friend sent me and I’m now using it to begin this article.
Read MoreI read with interest the article by Fernando Ravsberg, the BBC correspondent in Havana, about the announcement by the Cuban Government of another a “Nation and Emigration Conference.”
Read MoreMore and more virtual and real networks are bringing together various voices into dialogue around issues that affect the lives of Cubans on and off the island. Slowly, citizens of the island and its diaspora, as well as friends and supporters, are joining specific causes of social and cultural activism.
Read MoreWhen I arrived in Cuba, the Torricelli Act (1992) was being promoted by Washington and Miami to tighten the US embargo, continuing with the old approach of sharpening the crisis so as to force Cubans to rise up against their government.
Read MoreThis past Wednesday night I received an email that had been sent out to numbers of people from a diligent Cuban-American cultural entrepreneur. It was a call from the Cuban Interests Section in Washington for the holding of a meeting with Cuban emigrants in the United States.
Read MoreI cannot offer the Cuban political elite anything of what they seek in “updating” their battered model or helping it to function. To top it all off, though I think they have to be negotiated with, at the same time I think they are a major part of the problem.
Read MoreRecently I had the privilege to be invited to participate in a workshop in Santo Domingo on the issue of national reconciliations. Obviously some ideas were exchanged concerning what should occur in Cuba at some point in time.
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