What 2016 Gave Me and the New Year
Irina Pino
HAVANA TIMES — When a year comes to an end, I always do a mental summary of what it has given and taken away from me. This helps me to at least gain a bit of wisdom.
A painful event last year was my father’s passing, but his spirit and image will always accompany me, nothing will separate me from his memory, from this man’s kindness, who lived for his loved ones, sowing family and social values.
Our family has once again broken into pieces, a part of them are immigrating to the United States. My young nephews are leaving; maybe they’ll come back when they are teenagers.
The moments I’ve shared with my friends and HT colleagues have been worthwhile, there have been meetings, lunches, day trips, laughter and an exchange of thoughts, these moments of course count, however, time is a strange parameter which can change everything in a second.
It’s also worth noting our happy moments, I’ve very much enjoyed my son and his neighbourhood friends’ antics, and their new hobby now is filming videos. They are stories about youth which make you laugh, but this is how they’ve started and they’ve gotten a taste for filmmaking; they have already made several short films. Yesterday, they asked me to lend them an old wheelchair for their new script.
Personally, I’ve received the good news that my book of poems Mientras hago el amor con George Harrison, will finally be made publicly available at the next Havana Book Fair. It’s a love fantasy which has to do with this English musician, who left an interesting legacy in Rock ‘n’ Roll and 20th century music.
I’d like to take this opportunity to invite you to come to the book launch, which will be in February (I will give you the date later). In the meantime, I will continue to write for Havana Times, a space which brings us closer to a peculiar city: its beauty and ugliness, its eclectic architecture, its ruins, parks, monuments, nooks and crannies, its dark and light side.
Readers enter this site, where they can find well-written articles, interviews, diary entries, but more than anything else, a variety of opinions.