Category: Generation Y

After having squeezed these last few months, I have managed to extract some events that could be called “novel.”  One of the most advertised has been the handing over of idle land to those who want to make it productive.  Under the concept of usufruct — that is the right to freely use and profit… Continue reading A small slice of land and other things

  He drank brandy and watched the vultures that flew, as they did every day, around the Plaza of the Revolution.   It was a Tuesday, the first of August 2006, when he found himself looking over the balcony for the changes that would come. The night before they had read the proclamation on television in… Continue reading Two years

The Havana Malecón* is getting ready for Carnival.  On the Piragua,* tents have been set up for restaurants serving international food and colorful kiosks rise throughout the area.  One can already see, on the pavements and in the portals, the metal structures used for reviewing stands, while groups practice the choreography they will show off… Continue reading Carnivals

  To Felipe, who gave me this metaphor This coming Saturday, July 26, Raúl Castro will speak in Santiago de Cuba.   Broadcasting live on TV, he will address a people who still remember last year’s speech in which he mentioned “structural changes,” “a glass of milk for everyone,” and “the fight against the invasive marabu… Continue reading Forced landing

Working in cyberspace and developing our own projects on the Internet, raises all the issues of citizenship that are too big for Cubans to handle.  We haven’t been able to become citizens in the real world, so we find it difficult to act like citizens in the virtual world.  In this case, there are no… Continue reading Cyber-mutilated

I go in search of eye drops for my right eye which I irritated a couple of days ago.  The two hour wait at the family doctor gives me time to hear all the gossip of the neighborhood from the mouths of my neighbors who are going to “stop by” the doctor’s office.  The doctor,… Continue reading Free of charge and other fantasies

Habanero Boulevard, on Wednesday night, was the stage for a couple with their son, looking for a little fresh air.  It is only nine o’clock, but judging by the atmosphere it seems like three in the morning.  The smell of urine from every corner confirms that the drunks have started early and that public bathrooms… Continue reading Sordidness

She can withstand a double workday, one as a secretary and the other as a mother and a homemaker, thanks to a few diazepam [Valium] pills that she keeps hidden in her handbag.  No doctor prescribed the drug; instead she herself found the path to peace by trying different medicines.  Only under the small pills’… Continue reading Something to escape

Robin Hood has already distributed all the riches seized. At first the poor were contented and screaming for joy from every corner of the forest.  Shortly after, they realized that Sherwood’s great bandit knew only how to redistribute wealth, but not how to create it.

  A new session of the National Assembly is now in progress.  What happens inside the Palacio de las Convenciones, however, does not generate high expectations among Cubans.  Not even the official confession of the poor quality of the teachers in secondary and primary educations succeeds in making us feel represented.  For years, we parents… Continue reading Chevrolet democracy