By Alejandra Garcia on April 5, 2022, from Havana
May 1 in the Plaza of the Revolution returns. photo: Bill Hackwell
This week, Cubans and travelers from around the world received a long-awaited announcement. Two years after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in 2020, Cuba has relaxed its entry requirements for passengers traveling by air or sea. (more…)
By Alejandra Garcia on March 31, 2022
Alberto Fujimori
Over the past two weeks, Peru has been reliving a fear from the past with the distinct possibility of seeing Dictator Alberto Fujimori free again. Thirteen days ago, the country’s Constitutional Court reactivated a 2017 humanitarian pardon granted to him because he was now old and ill. (more…)
By Alejandra Garcia on March 27, 2022
Miami caravan against the blockade
The world is living in uncertain times. The Western powers, led by the United States, insist on escalating tensions in Eastern Europe over an regional conflict that should have nothing to do with them. Unbridled hatred is spreading through social networks as never before, towards Russia, Russians, and anyone who is not on Washington’s side in defending its “world order”. (more…)
By Alejandra Garcia on March 22, 2022 from Havana
photo: Getty Images
The events of July 11, 2021, in Cuba were not fortuitous. On that day, a group of Cubans took to the streets of Havana, looking for economic relief amid overwhelming shortages and pandemic asphyxiation. By that time we had been standing in endless lines for over a year to get food or medicines, while carrying a terrible fear of contagion. (more…)
By Alejandra Garcia on March 17, 2022, from Havana
photo: minrex
On March 14, 1892, the front pages of Patria Journal, founded by José Martí in New York amid his efforts to restart Cuba’s independence struggles, were published. The newspaper emerged as a spokesman for “virtuous and founding patriotism”, a weapon in the confrontation with fundamentalists, annexationists, autonomists, and defeatists. (more…)
By Alejandra Garcia on March 13, 2022
photo: agencia uno
Leftist Gabriel Boric became Chile’s president-elect this week, the man who will run the politics of one of the continent’s largest economies. The youngest president in Chile’s history represents the millions of people who took to the streets in late 2019 against the neoliberal policies of outgoing Sebastian Piñera. (more…)
By Alejandra Garcia on March 8, 2022 from Havana
Sierra Maestras, photo: Bill Hackwell
On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co men’s shirt factory in New York City, U.S. The company’s owner did not expect a major fire to spread through the building after locking the exit door, leaving more than 100 women employees inside. (more…)
By Alejandra Garcia on March 6, 2022
dancing to the plaza. photo: Bill Hackwell
The last time I paraded through the Plaza de la Revolución on May Day was in 2019. I remember the sound that day from the clanging of a handbell, beaten by a very red-eyed man, who probably had been sleepless for hours, waiting for the march to begin. He was walking along with other members of a marching band, which was advancing through the crowd playing a Conga, a very Cuban rhythm that makes you dance for good. (more…)