Stan and Kim in Cuba

(blog by Stan) Traditionally, today (December 31) is a big day for Cuban cuisine. The fin de año family meal generally consists of roast pork, yucca with mojo, arroz congri, and a tomato/cucumber salad (nothing like having fresh tomatoes in December!). Wash it down with generous rounds of Bucanero or Cristal, depending on your taste. Top it off with a flan and a tasita of strong, sweet café, and you're ready to raise a toast to the new year (with a shot of Havana Club Añejo Especial, sin hielo).   Like most of the world, the traditions are not quite what they used to be this year in Cuba. It has been a time of growing food insecurity, with long lines and empty shelves defining the daily búsqueda for the proteina. The meal options have narrowed more and more, as common ingredients in the Cuban kitchen became more and more scarce. For the last couple of months we were in Cuba, lots of folks were worrying about us, that we were losing weight, looking too thin. I heard it from a friend...

  Kim and I are blessed and honored to "belong" to several different churches in Cuba, such as the First Baptist of Matanzas and the Rivers of Living Waters Baptist in the rural village of Piedrecitas. Another congregation in our family of faith is the Metropolitan Community Church, also in Matanzas. This is a church dedicated to being open and affirming to people of differing sexual orientations and gender identities. The pastors, Elaine and Yivi, almost always invite us to help serve communion. And they regularly ask us to preach. Here is the sermon I preached last Friday for the fourth week of Advent (the church has its worship services on Friday nights, giving its members who also belong to other congregations the freedom to attend the other worship service on Sundays).   Texts: Isaiah 40:3-5 ; Luke 1: 46-53 Anyone who knows me at all knows that my life revolves around music; I love a good song. Today's text is one of the great songs of scripture, so instead of preach...

(blog by Stan) The big news shifted this week, from our daily doses of what the Cuban news labels the "Interminable US Election", to at least a couple of days focused on the death of Maradona. Everyone has a Maradona story. Here's mine: I am not a soccer fan, never have been. So four years ago, when Fidel Castro died, I was here in Cuba guiding a church group from Charlotte. We were with some friends in Varadero, Nashla and Joel, and they were talking about all the various world dignitaries/presidents who were arriving in Cuba for the funeral. Joel said, "Maradona flew in from Argentina today." I (mis)translated: "The president of Argentina arrived today." Both Joel and Nashla quickly corrected me, "No, not the president, Maradona. Diego Maradona." I translated the correction, and asked them, "who is Maradona?" Both they and my Charlotte friends stared at me in disbelief. Joel said, "You, know, the hand of God!" I did not ...

Oh, to have Hunter S. Thompson with us in this election season. The gonzo journalist was my portal into politics, first via a subscription to Rolling Stone in my teenage years and later through his books. I think he would be having a blast covering the current campaign trail. If he thought there was fear and loathing in the Nixon years, he'd surely find that to be child's play compared to what we have on our hands now.   Cubans are no strangers to fear and loathing in the political sphere. While there are many Fidelistas here (adoring fans of the late comandante en jefe ), there are also plenty who lean toward loathing when the subject of Castro comes up. I would guess, from my limited experience and exposure and with no surveys to draw on, that those on the adoring side are in the majority. But there's no guesswork involved when it comes to the Cuban-Americans residing in the Miami area; it's safe to say that virtually all of them loathe the historic leader of the Re...