Which one is your Marti?

Among all of the sculptures of Marti that this city has, there are two that seem to me so contrary and antagonistic that I can barely recognize in them the same person. I am referring to the statue that presides over Central Park and the other Marti -close to the sea- that directs his threatening… Continue reading Which one is your Marti?

Time is worth nothing

I challenge you to find a public clock in this city that works, that tells the time or at least an approximation of the real time. I cannot find one. Not even on the facade of the Train Terminal, where the immobile hands always mark five twenty. It is not that we have some sort… Continue reading Time is worth nothing

The children devour Saturn

The young people I see today, absorbed in their Mp3 player and with their pants below the hip, are eager – as once we dreamed – for the moment they can be in charge of their own the house and change the furniture, renovate, paint, and invite their friends over. They have the same aversion… Continue reading The children devour Saturn

Some inconsistencies

Hearing the words of Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, in response to Bush’s speech, left me somewhat confused. I learned from him that in our country today, “There are 602 Youth Clubs with more than 7000 computers that provide free Internet access to over two million Cubans per year.” How stupid have I been!… Continue reading Some inconsistencies

Where’s Pepito?

That impertinent coarse boy, the protagonist of our jokes, to whom it’s the same thing to be rebellious as to be wicked, is too quiet these days. Pepito has been the “pinch of pepper” that has made us laugh until we cry; we have put in his mouth what we don’t dare say, and through… Continue reading Where’s Pepito?

Happy hearts

I promised myself I wouldn’t be bothered by the results of a study by U.S. scientists and others at the University of Cienfuegos, on the positive effects on our physical health generated by the Special Period.* As statistics can prove almost anything, it is not worth the pain to attack the falsification of the low… Continue reading Happy hearts