Julio Antonio Fernandez Estrada Archives

Is Dialogue and Understanding Possible in Cuba?

April 1, 2021April 1, 2021

New generations haven’t been trained in the art of dialogue. However, they demand it, because they feel like there’s something in it.

“I Don’t Know How to Hate”

February 1, 2021February 5, 2021

You learn to hate with discipline and practice. You don’t hate spontaneously, it’s a matter of severity and cold bloodedness.

Cuba’s War on Sweets

November 16, 2020November 16, 2020

It seems the Cuban government’s war on sweets never ended. Chewing gum was frowned upon, because it supposedly represents the US Way of Life.

Cuban Television… Does It Belong to the People?

January 13, 2020January 13, 2020

Facundo has left the show. I swear that when I watched the first episode of the new season that kicked off in December 2019, I thought it was a joke.

What Will I Buy Myself at Cuba’s New Dollar Stores?

November 12, 2019

The Cuban government’s new economic measure of introducing foreign currency bank accounts suits me just great. Read why.

What’s the Deal with Raisins in Cuba?

January 30, 2019January 30, 2019

This article could also have the sub-heading: Ten items that you don’t need to live but make life worth living. In Cuba, the idea or philosophy that enjoying the small things in life is detrimental to our spirit’s prestige and willingness to resist, has become widespread.

December in Cuba: Dedicated to Bread (?) and Wine…

December 21, 2018

Oh Ceres, hear our prayers, those of us who can’t cultivate wheat, we who need to look out at the horizon and wait for a boat to bring it to us from lands where it grows happily and golden! Ceres, our rice isn’t enough to feed the population, we have forgotten the technique of grating yucca, children don’t know what cassava bread is, both in the countryside and cities.

How Cubans Come Second… in Cuba

December 10, 2018

A few days ago, a Cuban friend of mine living in Ecuador told me that on a quick trip to Havana, it was easier for his young daughter, born in Cuba, to become an Ecuadorian citizen, than it was for a girl who was born in Havana, with her mother registered as residing in Santiago de Cuba, to become a legal resident of Havana.