CUBAN TRANSITIONS

On the dance floor, when the sway of my hips and the movement of my feet were more fluid than expected for a tourist, salsa songs were often followed by a Cuban asking “oye, de donde tu ere?” “De Nueva Yol, pero soy Dominicana y Puertorriqueña.” It was a distinction that, at first, came instinctually […]

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In my presentation for our class, I talked about the musical identity crisis that many young Cubans are facing due to the influx of American and European music to the island. But what does that mean? What does this new wave of music identity bring the island and it’s people? What are the messages that […]

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While most of us decided to explore the woods at Varahicacos ecological preserves in place of the dolphin show at the delfinario in Varadero, Cuba, I decided to be one of the 5 or 6 people to go explore it.  I suppose numerous students decided not to go since they could not tolerate adorable creatures […]

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I am a very serious fan of ice cream. My father worked for Häagen Dazs for the first twelve years of my life and, needless to say, ice cream was always abundant in my house. I’ve eaten more of it than is healthy. No matter where I am, I will find ice cream and so, […]

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When the Cuban Revolution triumphed, one of the main goals of the new government was to eradicate racism from Cuban society. The revolutionary government made several strides in creating structural equality, especially in terms of employment access, education, health care, and access to public spaces. When Cuba entered into the Special Period, however, inequalities between […]

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The global capitalist project has already created severe inequalities among the countries of the world as development in one country requires the underdevelopment of many others. The population in these developed countries have the privilege of escaping their reality to bask in the artificial tourist environment in Latin America. Some have more of this privilege […]

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While traveling in Cuba, we heard many times Cubans speak with pride of their outstanding free education and medical care. Unfortunately for me, I got to experience the Cuban healthcare system firsthand. As a child, I seemed to make a habit out of getting sick while on family vacations. I had the flu in Lake […]

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On our last day in Havana, my research group visited several pharmacies and polyclinics to do interviews for our project on Cuba’s healthcare system. We wanted to ask questions about the healthcare problems Cuba faced during the Special Period and about the government’s current healthcare priorities. While walking through the hospital, however, I was surprised […]

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On morning of March 8,  a group of sleepy college students climbed onto a bus ready to make the long bus trip to Mantanzas. Once we were all settled in and role call had been taken to make sure that no one had hit snooze one too many times on their alarm clock, our tour […]

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On one of our last days in Cuba, while leisurely perusing books in the Plaza de Armas with Kelsey, I came across an interesting book entitled La Ultraderecha Cubano-Americano de Miami, translation The Cuban American Far Right in Miami. Which got me thinking about the relationship between Cubans and their counterparts in Miami and what […]

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