What's the point of education?

Claudia Ramos
Reporting from Havana

Making my way back from dinner in the streets of Havana, I ran into four children between ten and eleven years of age.  These children ran freely through the streets, barefooted and shirtless. They seemed to be lost in their own world, a world full of happiness and free of social problems.

Happiness; that is the standard that defines the Cuban people. Who despite any obstacle, any limitation continue to smile and embrace their difficulties.

A Misleading Paradise

Claudia Ramos
Reporting from Havana

Sitting on the window seat of our tour bus on our way to the Varadero beach, lost in the beautiful scene I have of the countryside of Cuba, I cannot help but think of the millions of opportunities that young Cuban people are being deprived of.

On January of 1959 and after a 7-year campaign, rebel leader Fidel Castro arrived triumphantly to Havana. Overthrowing the corrupt regime of dictator Fulgencio Batista. Castro introduced radical social changes in Cuba, nationalizing schools, hospitals and industries, making Cuba the only communist state in the Americas. Under Castro’s leadership, Cuba seemed to be a dreamland and people celebrated the achievement of the revolution.

Havana, a seductive city

Claudia Ramos
Reporting from Havana

Havana, a seductive city

Walking through the streets of old Havana, it’s inevitable to be trapped by the sun, the music, the culture, and the still vibrant revolution of Cuba.

Founded in the 16^th century by the Spanish conquistadors, today Havana is home to more than 2 million people. Standing on the edge of the famous Malecon, from this distance the city looks like anywhere else, but Havana is like few other cities in the world. This revolutionary city is truly alluring, its mix of colonial architecture, rum and sea, give the city an unexplainable romance the catches your eye from the get go.

In every corner of the city you can feel the spirit of the biggest island in the Caribbean. Trumpets, children running through the streets, and women dressed in colorful dresses moving to the beat of Guantanamera. In Havana you cannot avoid a cup of coffee, a mojito, or a cigar, it’s the essence of this ancient city.

A city where buildings appear to be falling apart, where taxicabs from the 50’s pass by, and where it is common to see a woman hang clothes from a balcony. Meanwhile I listen to the festive melody of “La vida es un carnival” (life is a carnival) being sung to me by an old man sitting on the edge of a cracked sidewalk, I cannot believe I am in this "prohibited island."I continue to stroll down the street and as I look around I cannot avoid smiling back to the people who kindly smile and welcome me to their home; one of the most seductive, elusive places on earth, La Havana, Cuba.