Search results for: november 15

One of those sentenced to prison following the prostitution scandal revealed in Bayamo, Cuba, in May 2010, after the death of a 12-year-old girl, has declared a hunger strike and as of today and has gone 16 days without eating. Ramón Enrique Álvarez Sánchez owned a rental house for foreigners in Bayamo, and was arrested on … Continue reading “Man Convicted in Bayamo Child Prostitution Ring is on Hunger Strike / Ernesto Morales Licea”

September 14, 2010 the jeweler and moneylender Humberto Gonzalez Otaño lived the last night of his life. He lived at No. 52 7th Street between 2nd and 4th, San Matías neighborhood, in San Miguel del Padrón, a town northwest of Havana. Well into the night, at least two thieves used a wrench to break a … Continue reading “Havana: Waiting for an Impartial Process / Iván García”

The post “Cuba always skimps on resources for education and teachers” in my blog attracted a comment from someone who put in a link to porn site. Surprised, startled, I regained my composure by remembering her perfume. I breathed in deeply, thinking of the sweet strong scent. Calmer, I marked the comment as spam and … Continue reading “The Exclusive Aroma of a Singular Perfume / Dora Leonor Mesa”

When a minister of culture has to concern himself with the trivialities of commercial art or its substitutes, that minister obscenely carries a gun under his incivil pants: phallic cannon to the left of his national fly. Such is the case for quite unpresentable Abel Prieto in Cuba, minister of culture whose resignation (according to … Continue reading “Ministry of Culturuti / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”

Humberto Gonzales Otaño 56 years old, a jeweler in San Miguel, died violently on the morning of September 14, 2010. Two men entered his home while he and his wife slept. On 28 November the Court of Havana tried six “marginals” from Mantilla, one of the poorest neighborhoods of Havana, accused of organizing and executing … Continue reading “Guilty by Conviction / Laritza Diversent”

On September 12, 2011, the soprano Yoslainy Perez Derrick, a member of the National Lyric Theater Choir of Cuba (TLNC) sent a letter to the State Council, with copies to the Ministry of Culture and National Arts Council, complaining of irregularities hampering her artistic development within that institution, because for 15 years she has played … Continue reading “Apartheid in the Lyric Theater of Cuba? / Miguel Iturría Savón”

The problem of cattle has been a major problem in Cuba, for decades. In 1958 Cuba was in fourth place worldwide in cattle per capita (six million head of cattle for six million five hundred thousand inhabitants, for a 0.90), surpassed only by Uruguay (3.01), Argentina (2.39) and Brazil (1.01) — as a matter of … Continue reading “The Reasons for One Without Reasons / Fernando Dámaso”

Leonardo Calvo, 84 years of age, historian and political scientist and Juan Antonio Madrazo, 42, specialist in management and food services, are now two of the most lucid and coherent voices on the map of Cuban opposition. They are dissidents for two reasons. On the one hand, Calvo for 20 years and Madrazo for six, … Continue reading “The Time for Racial Integration in Cuba / Iván García”

Crushingly, even the elementary school textbooks still repeat in Cuba today the media coup of Fidel’s phrase: “In 1956 we will be free or martyrs.” From the mouth of someone convicted of armed rebellion, it was little more than a threat. In fact, it was a battle cry against the then dominant national security. As … Continue reading “And in 2011…?! / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”

The pronouncement of the Cuban Workers Center (CTC), regarding the measures taken by the Government to deflate workforces and to bring about greater self-employment, published in the Journal of Communist Party on September 13, 2010, is a good reason to discuss the dependence of the Cuban labor union movement with respect to the State. According … Continue reading “Independent Unions Versus Updating the Model / Dimas Castellano”

From very early, with no call other than faith and devotion, the faithful and believers began to congregate at the main entrance to the Havana Zoo, a place where the Virgin, who came from San Juan Bosco Church in the Santa Catalina neighborhood, would enter through the esplanade at the main entrance, stopping there to … Continue reading “The Virgin in Nuevo Vedado / Rebeca Monzo”

Con música de Leo Brouwer… November 14 2011

Poor little doll of sticks and tinsel, as she bumps over the length and width of thousands and thousands of kilometers. Last night I saw her, in Lawton. It was overwhelming. For her and for the fading environment. A neighborhood tensed from the spirit of its citizens towards heaven which hovers up there, propped on … Continue reading “The Invisible Little Virgin / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”