Childhood memories still bind me to this great island continent, seventy times the size of ours. When I was young we had a little library-room in our house and I’d gaze at the big map of Australia my father got from the National Geographic Magazine.
Read MoreTall, lanky and with a Hollywood “doll face,” only her fast walking — when she was alone — diminished any of the elegance of Jane, “the pretty American,” as my wife and I christened her in the end. This was after realizing her value as a person and feeling some of her frustration when it came time for her to leave Cuba.
Read MoreSocialism, known up to now as a system established following revolutions marked by the Marxist “dictatorship of the proletariat”, is presented as a failure. As for capitalism, whose origin is very different, we can say that it too is marked by frustration. In looking at the origins of these two systems, I am able to answer — for me at least — the dilemma behind those two failures.
Read MoreThere are several typical routes for tourists who like to walk around Havana, which is something I find pleasing. If I had that same opportunity to be able to travel to another country, I’d never accept being locked in a refrigerated vehicle – peering through glass at the landscape and the people around me.
Read MoreI learned of Marisol through a friend, who notified me of her arrival. Days previous she had sent an e-mail containing a photo of herself and the following message: “This is me.” In the airport we recognized each other at first sight.
Read MoreOne unfortunate day, I was sitting in Fraternity Park in front of the Capitol Building when an English-speaking foreigner greeted me and asked if he could sit down. He was a musician and as such was interested in our rhythms, especially percussion, as related to the African culture and religion.
Read MoreWhat is yet to be seen is whether the economic changes in Cuba will lead to a level of production that realizes what the early founders of the socialist ideal had in mind: “the satisfaction of the ever growing needs of the population.”
Read MoreIndustriales is like the capital they represent: a cosmopolitan city full of tourists and embassies, administering the country’s destiny and with the same problems that are felt nationally but that are magnified here by the large population.
Read MoreWhen I got up to continue on my way, I almost tripped over this man, a somewhat robust looking guy of medium height and “reddish” skin. He stammered a few incompressible words, but those were enough to let me know that he was a Russian.
Read MoreThey caught me by surprise on the corner of 23rd and “L”. As always, the gardens around the Coppelia ice cream shop – made famous by the movie “Strawberries and Chocolate”- were surrounded by long lines of Cubans, some waiting patiently and some impatiently for their only opportunity for a good ice cream in regular pesos.
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