Toronto, March 21, 2012 To: Mr. Raúl Castro Ruz, President of the Council of State and Ministers. From: Dr. Rafael González Pupo, a Cuban citizen residing abroad. Subject: Circumstances for entering the country on humanitarian grounds.   I am Dr. Rafael A. Pupo González, and I graduated with honors and as a student of exceptional […]

Toronto, Marzo 21 de 2012 Sr. Raúl Castro Ruz. Presidente de los Consejos de Estado y de Ministros. De Dr. Rafael Ángel González Pupo. Ciudadano cubano residente en el exterior. Asunto. Situación de entrada al país por Razones Humanitarias. Distinguido presidente: Le escribe el Dr. Rafael A. González Pupo graduado en 1994, especialista en cirugía […]

Estimados pasajeros: Se acabó lo que se daba! Después de cuatro años de que la Aduana de la República de Cuba permitiera la entrada de alimentos a la isla exentos de pago y de que los cubanos celebraran no tener que subir la maletica repleta de latas a la pesa del aeropuerto una nueva nota […]

Thanks to my friends, my mother’s friends, who are mine as well and the friends of friends I can receive emails from my mom everyday. The simple action of starting your computer, write an email and click the send button does not exist in Cuba for most of people. For the last couple of years […]

With now 2 weeks left until my trip to Havana I start getting responses from my friends in regards to what they want me to bring them. I am back to the same old list of items for my grandma which includes all sorts of cooking spices and over the counter medication like Pebtobismol, Alka […]

  Today I remembered Bavaria – Dragones Restaurant in China Town, Havana.  When I started dating my husband we gathered with a couple of friends to go eat at this popular restaurant that at that time was famous for its well loaded pizzas. Living in Cuba your brain will normally skip the analysis of “going […]

I am happy to celebrate my grandparents’ 54th wedding anniversary. Many things need to work together to achieve this number. My grandfather sent me an email and he assured me that love, respect and being there equally in the good ones and bad ones is indispensable. When I think about their lives together there has […]

Most of barbacoas (barbecues) in Cuba are indoors and do not involve meat or sausages at all. This is already hard to explain to a Spanish speaker who is also not familiar with this second use of the word, but as I commonly say, Cuba is on one extreme and the rest of the world […]

I convinced myself that  dancing is a way of life for Cubans when I moved to Canada. It took me a while to get used to people not dancing at parties and to agree that the gathering was fun when I did not dance at all. How could you have a party at home without […]

We all know that these Castro hats are sold to tourists in Cuba. A couple of days ago I noticed that beer can tabs are used for closure. It made me think of how we recycle everything in Cuba, from plastic bags and glass jars to clothing and furniture. This is not the first time […]

In Havana there is a common expression for old facades that get repaired superficially: “vieja con colorete”. All the buildings in Cuba could be called old ladies but only a few are lucky enough to get the blusher. Most of the buildings that get painted in Havana have a strategic location, either for tourism or […]

Everyday of my life that I sit in front of internet I type the word Cuba to get the latest news or whatever is hot out there about my distant home. Sometimes I find some interesting article on an online newspaper, sometimes a small post on a blog (these are usually the most informatives and […]