To relax a little bit, because I see that the blog is sliding down the slippery slope of drama, I am posting a video clip made by Orlando Luis Pardo. This is a song by the Russian singer-songwriter Vladimir Vysotsky. A member of Porno para Ricardo, Ciro Garcia, made a version that, coupled with the photographs… Continue reading The boats
Com o golpe de uma pluma
Em bom espanhol, dizemos “de um plumazo” para nos referirmos à rapidez com que se toma uma decisão que deve ser confirmada por uma assinatura. Quando traduzimos para inglês, a frase seria “with the stroke of a pena” e, se regressarmos de forma esquemática e literal ao castelhano, ficamos com o título deste post “com… Continue reading Com o golpe de uma pluma
To save the ants
My mother would take the bundle of clothes to the cement laundry room, where with a brush and soap she would bleach the shirts and clean the trousers. My sister and I would be alarmed to see the danger faced by the naïve ants, crossing under the still dry sink. We’d then start a race… Continue reading To save the ants
Hospitals: You bring everything?
A bucket in one hand, a pillow under my arm, and a fan balanced on my hip. I enter the door of the oncology hospital and the backpack over my shoulder blocks the custodian from seeing my face. It’s of little importance because the man is used to the fact that the patients’ families must… Continue reading Hospitals: You bring everything?
A dinâmica do espaço
Uma das exigências mais imperativas que reclamam aqueles que têm algo para expressar é a de contar com um espaço onde possam difundir o que têm a dizer aos demais. Esse espaço pode circunscrever-se a uma tribuna, a um cenário, a uma galeria, a uma página ou a algum tempo diante das câmaras de televisão… Continue reading A dinâmica do espaço
Vulture
Following the idea that names reveal little or nothing about the soul of the things, the name of the hurricane Paloma [dove] fits well. Its dreaded flight—Category 4—has more of the carrion-eater in pursuit of prey than of white wings flapping. Cyclones are given tender epithets that are later added to the vocabulary of destruction. … Continue reading Vulture
Short-cycle crops
The illusory solutions that were once called, the “Ten Million Ton Harvest,” the “Havana Cordon,” or the “Food Plan,” have been transformed today into other utopias such as the Energy Revolution, Managerial Development, Oil in the Gulf Waters, or Exporting Human Capital. They all encompass the same infantile delusion of wanting to cure the crumbling… Continue reading Short-cycle crops
Something could begin this Tuesday
The street is not the same, nor are the neighbors who usually gossip in the lines at the markets; today they speak of universal themes. They raise their eyebrows and point towards the north, while they make predictions about who will be elected at the polls in the U.S. I don’t remember having lived through… Continue reading Something could begin this Tuesday
Identified and exhibitionists
Contrary to secrecy and false identity, some of us alternative bloggers have put our identify cards next to the texts we write. In the midst of so much self imposed disguise, showing my ID reminds me of the exhibitionist who opens his coat even though everyone knows what’s inside. My fingerprint, my two last names… Continue reading Identified and exhibitionists
Terminations
“Twenty-three years and four abortions,” she’s telling everyone who wants to hear. On her slim figure, maternity would wreck havoc, she tells me, while adjusting her short skirt around her hips. For many years the termination of a pregnancy was the most common method of birth control for thousands of Cuban women. In the eighties,… Continue reading Terminations