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

  With regards to the UPEC* Congress At the end of my pre-university schooling I had the whim to be a journalist. Between three girlfriends, we contracted with a particular professor who helped us study for the tests to enter the university.  This woman insisted – to the point where I found it annoying –… Continue reading Journalism or literature

The school year ended and already I see a danger to my bread ration.  My son will be out of school for over two months and, in the excitement of the holiday, could eat the hinges off the doors.  He cannot be satisfied with the floury specimen of 80 grams that he receives from the… Continue reading A diploma and lot of confusion

  The whole family is absorbed in the search for papers that prove the Spanish origin of their maternal grandparents.  They rummage through the archives, questioning those who were once neighbors of this cantankerous Asturian and the sweetheart from the Canary Islands who was her husband.  They already have the birth certificates and baptism records… Continue reading The Turn of the “Thirds”

What started as an personal impulse is becoming a meeting place for discussion and debate. Generación Y has managed to involve a great number of people all over the world who help me with updating, translations, and the diffusion of texts. The principal collaboration has been in publishing the posts since, as of the last… Continue reading Citizens Network

  I am doing an onomastic and simple study: How many members of Generation Y are part of Cuba’s power mechanisms today? I am under the impression that if I look under any rock there are Yunieskys, Yordankas, and Yusimís everywhere. On the street I turn my head every time someone calls out a name similar… Continue reading The “Y” to power