As we enter our final week in Havana, the time has inevitably come when we are forced to accept that we must say goodbye to those we have met here. This reality didn’t really hit me until last night, when a close friend took off for Varadero and had to say an early goodbye. A […]

If there is one thing I’ve learned while living in Cuba, it’s that Cubans know their stars, be it authors, film directors, actors, ballerinas, baseball players, etc., and they go nuts for them. Coming as a foreigner who has studied elements of Cuban culture, it is easy to know who is a big deal based […]

I made sure to get a good night’s sleep last Sunday night in anticipation of meeting President Raul Castro’s daughter Mariela at the National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX), where she is the director. We had all read an article by scholar Abel Sierra to prepare, in which he acknowledges some meritorious achievements of the […]

On a recent excursion to Trinidad, we took a short trip outside the city to visit a sugar plantation that has now been converted into a historical tourist attraction. We stopped on the way to admire the large expanses of fertile land, imagining the fields covered in slaves cutting sugar cane. The plantation consisted of […]

Carlos Díaz, one of Havana’s most renowned stage directors and member of the ISA’s first graduating class, is known internationally for his provocative and eccentric plays that often involve sex and nudity. Before meeting him last Monday, our class read an analysis of one of his recent plays, Las Relaciones de Clara, which explores the […]