Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Irina Pino
Adolescence is a Difficult Time
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – I recently finished watching the British mini-series “Adolescence,” which evoked memories of that difficult stage in my life. It’s true that during this period a wall arises between the youth and the adults, with a distancing that often threatens the physical and mental health of the former. However, the parents also bear a significant burden. There are events whose consequences are serious, the worst of them involving death. This television production is devastating.
A Cuban Wedding - Havana Times
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – Norka, a friend of mine, asked me to be a witness at her wedding, and also to be her photographer. I agreed without hesitation. You all know I love taking pictures. If I had a professional camera, I’d be so happy. When I think of a wedding, I recall what happened at mine. First off, my future husband showed up a bit tipsy, he had a few drinks but wasn’t completely drunk. He was clowning around. During the ceremony, I felt incredibly uncomfortable.
What to Do During Power Outages?
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – I watched a very funny video by a YouTuber about what to do during blackouts on our island. And of course, I also want to contribute my own take—why not? After all, whatever each person does with their time is valid. I’ve made it a habit to call a number from the Electric Company every day at eight in the morning.
My Final Embrace to Francisco Lopez Sacha
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – I almost never watch the main Cuban television news program that’s broadcast at 8 pm. When I do, I put the sound on mute, occasionally turning it up to catch something that interests me. Last night, I saw images of Francisco Lopez Sacha on the screen and feared it was bad news. It was, indeed, news of his death. I sat immobile, stunned, as it took me by surprise. I felt sad and incapable of reacting. I didn’t believe it.
After the Pandemic, the Non-Life of Cuba
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – During the pandemic, we locked ourselves in, afraid of everything, even meeting with our friends. However, I was able to dedicate myself to writing and finished a book. That book has a rather dark and depressing tone, but it’s what was lived. After the experience of confinement, the little we had started to crumble, first with the so-called monetary unification, when they eliminated the CUC, and we had to exchange it for national currency.
A Week Without Gas to Cook
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – The beginning of 2025 hasn’t brought anything good; problems are starting to unravel that are beyond our control to resolve. Let me tell you about the latest hardship I’m facing. It’s regarding the liquefied gas I use to cook. Exactly a week ago, we ran out of gas in our apartment building. A neighbor called the company to have them check a gas leak that had been there for some time. So, some employees came, and they cut off the gas supply.
The New Tenants in Havana's Riomar Building
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – The Riomar building, located at the intersection of 1st and A streets in Miramar, Havana, is one of the most fascinating structures of the neighborhood where I live. Its front faces the side wall of my apartment, which is in the interior. I’ve spoken about this landmark – whose glamor dates from the fifties – on several occasions.
The New Occupy Tenants in Havana's Riomar Building
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – The Riomar building, located at the intersection of 1st and A streets in Miramar, Havana, is one of the most fascinating structures of the neighborhood where I live. Its front faces the side wall of my apartment, which is in the interior. I’ve spoken about this landmark – whose glamor dates from the fifties – on several occasions.
My Days Without Electricity in Havana, Cuba
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – We are in limbo, in a country where uncertainty reigns, and we do not know what tomorrow will bring. But why think about it? We live subject to the inertia of a daily life in which we merely survive; money is used only for feeding ourselves —poorly feeding ourselves, to be more precise.
Hurricane Milton's Aftermath in My Havana Neighborhood - Havana Times
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – Just a few hours after Hurricane Milton passed through Florida, USA, causing terrible material damage and claiming several lives, its impact is also noticeable in various places here, like El Vedado, especially the areas near Havana’s Malecon. Here where I live near La Puntilla, Miramar, since Wednesday afternoon, there were waves reaching over four meters, which, combined with the force of the wind, contributed to flooding this coastal area.
Cuba's Most Ambitious Project of the 20th Century
A film about a nuclear power plant that never was By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – The first Cuban nuclear power plant was a project coordinated with the former USSR. It began taking shape in the 1980s in Juraguá, south of Cienfuegos. Equipment and technology from that nation were brought in for the project. Additionally, a residential neighborhood was built for the workers and their families.
Our Videos for Havana Times
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – It had never occurred to me to make videos. The first ones I filmed were in Old Havana because the Historic Center boasts attractive architecture, and if captured in images, the memory of the oldest part of the city is preserved. Its walls transport us to another era, where the work of art matters as a distinctive mark of a country’s idiosyncrasy. It’s not just a place for leisure; there are wonderful stories, most of which we don’t even know.
Our Trash - Havana Times
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – Routine is something that repeats itself, that’s why it’s called that. However, sometimes unforeseen events occur. This breaks these repetitive actions in our lives. Today, for example, the trash nearby caught fire. There are three garbage bins at the corner near my apartment building. Someone threw a cigarette butt, either accidentally or on purpose, into the bins without lids, which were full of papers and other debris scattered on the ground.
The Wild Woman, a Film by Cuban Director Alan Gonzalez
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – Cuban cinema of the last decade has been characterized by offering a discourse on life in marginalized neighborhoods. Whether to give them visibility or because of the dark stories that reflect violence, in accordance with an environment that inherently immerses us in the lack of material resources, vices, and crime, as well as family and neighborly hostility.
Alejandro, a Young Cuban Worker
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – Youth is a constant state of euphoria. Generally, it is the parents who bear the burden and worries. The most important thing is to be able to endure and have someone to support us. In this case, I rely on my son, who is practically supporting the family at the moment. On the contrary, many young people are supported by their parents. Most of their parents don’t have enough money to provide them with good food. The streets are tough, survival is the true main dish.
A Visit to Havana's Quinta de los Molinos
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – In the early 1990s, when my friend Pepe and I returned to Havana from a camping trip, we used to pass by Quinta de los Molinos. At that time, entry was easy. We would spend a few hours, sit down to talk, walk under the foliage, in total harmony with nature. The place transformed us if we happened to be burdened with negative energy.
Bread: A Treasure for Cubans
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – “The bread of our daily sustenance, give it to us today…” is a fragment of the Christian prayer, Our Father (Pater Noster in Latin), written by Jesus of Nazareth, according to the Gospel of Saint Matthew and the Gospel of Saint Luke in the New Testament. Christ multiplied five loaves and two fish, food for more than five thousand people who followed him, after the beheading of Saint John the Baptist.
Tied to the Sea - Havana Times
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – Three nights ago, I was on Whatsapp and saw that a writer friend of mine was online. I admire him for his stories, his articles, and for the way he connects them to films and literature. Reading him means enjoying a very unique narrative. Not only because he draws you right into his universe, but also because he inspires you to seek out the movie or book he’s referring to.
What to do on December 24th?
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – Today is Christmas Eve. What fun! A holiday to be spent with the family, or with friends. We have to get things ready, buy food in advance, go to the the private Mexprimen (squeeze you dry stores) as I call them because prices are so high. Lots of people are planning a full-out party, but the truth is everything is hard, there isn’t enough food for us to be thinking about this traditional meal. Eating is a necessity. Nourishing the body is a pipedream.
The Blonde God Ryan O'Neal is Gone
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – Death never touches icons. It seems to me that it should not happen, so that they last and preserve their splendor. The US blonde God, the sexy actor from the movie Love Story, is gone, dead. Is it true? It is true that he was over eighty years old and was sick. But no, in my mind he is young and vigorous. Without defects. Youthful years mark purity, such is what that film means.
The Cuban State and Destruction
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – Every now and again, a friend of mine sends me prophesies about Cuba’s fate on WhatsApp. People making prophesies perhaps have no real gift but are rather great liars who want people to believe in the big changes that are coming our way. Of course, I tend to delete those messages and I don’t even read them. Why bother if everything is looking bleaker as the days pass by? Cubans’ hope went down the drain a long time ago.
Afternoons with Lady X
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – Sometimes, you have to choose who to spend your free time with, in the midst of an existential limbo, that tears away at us slowly, and takes our basic hopes away. I have good times with Lady X. I’ve known her for years. She’s the mother of a young man who emigrated, who I had a brief affair with, even though I was married, and my son was only three months old. In the beginning, the young man and I only spoke about trivial things. Then, we were intimate.
What It's Like Waiting to Publish in Cuba
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – For Cubans who live on the island, it is difficult to obtain anything. At least for me, it costs twice as much effort. I don’t think it’s because of the high goals I set for myself, but because everything is designed incorrectly. That happens a lot with literature. For most people it is not a job. Writing is a hobby. There are writers who have to earn a living as teachers. Others have no choice but to venture into journalism. Right now, self-publishing exists.
Remembering Cuban Artist Servando Cabrera
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – We met them on a bus, at the entrance of a theater. Or maybe it was on a rainy afternoon, at the Museum of Fine Arts, while we were looking at paintings by Servando Cabrera. There were the voluptuous bodies, braided in the free will of a homosexual and passionate love. They were scenes as seen from different angles. Provocative images with their beauty and implicit violence. An explosion of color and shapes. Fragments of bodies in pure ectasy.
Rabid in Cuba - Havana Times
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – There’s a cat that comes to sleep in my building lately. It’s white and grey, with a big head, and it almost always has its face covered in scratches. I baptized him “El Cabezon” (big head). Not only does it sleep, it also meows strangely. Sometimes, I give it food and water. Although I suspect it eats elsewhere, because he barely touches the food. When I gained a little more trust, I’d stroke his head.
On Father’s Day - Havana Times
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – There’s a saying that goes: “Anyone can be a father, but there’s only one mother.” This doesn’t apply to every father, but there are exceptions. There are fathers who leave the country and only send their children letters and birthday cards. Long-distance fathers. Long-distance fathers aren’t involved in family life, nor do they form part of the daily struggle. The worst fathers are the ones that go missing for years and then reappear asking for forgiveness.
What’s Going On With Us?
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – It gets to a point when we start going crazy inside the house, the same activities over and over again, going out to find food which is fruitless a lot of the time because of shortages and the dubious quality. Bananas don’t taste of anything at the agro-market, they have a sour taste as they’re forcefully ripened, God knows with what.
Our Precarious Life
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – My washing machine is 23 years old, my son’s age, and is already crying out for it to be replaced, because its useful life reached its end, but in a country like ours that means nothing. When appliances start to die here you must look for alternatives taking them to private repair persons, because the state workshops do not have spare parts.
Hard Times Practices
By Irina Pino HAVANA TIMES – Hard to get a hold of any product, it’s like we’re living inside Victor Hugo’s Los Miserables book. For example, if we buy beans, we make sure that none of them fall onto the floor or go into the trash when we’re taking out the stones, not a single bean. When shampoo or shower gel bottles finish, we add a little water and shake it about to get whatever’s left out. We also get the last drops of cooking oil out of the bottle, almost squeezing it.
Ravsberg y el consejo de Niemoller
El periodismo de FR es esto, y por eso tanta algarabía, la misma que no se produce cuando Karla Pérez fue expulsada de la Universidad Central por su cercanía a un grupo opositor, cuando Dalila Rodríguez perdió su plaza universitaria por sus ideas, cuando Ariel Ruiz Urquiola es encarcelado o cuando el Proyecto Convivencia es hostigado y reprimido. El blog de FR nunca condenó las políticas represivas del gobierno contra quienes piensan diferente.
Hijastra de Daniel Ortega elogia a estudiantes que lo increparon
Zoilamérica Ortega Murillo HAVANA TIMES – Zoilamérica Ortega Murillo, la hijastra del presidente de Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, a quien en 1998 acusó por abuso y violación sexual, agradeció a los estudiantes que hoy increparon al mandatario durante la primera sesión del diálogo nacional en Managua, reportó dpa.
La manipulación de José Martí
A propósito del natalicio 165 de José Martí Por Pedro Campos HAVANA TIMES – El castrismo ha pretendido fundamentar su violencia, estrategias y propósitos en el ideario martiano, tratando de ganarse para sí, el efecto de atracción que siempre ha ejercido el pensamiento del apóstol entre los cubanos. Nadie en Cuba olvida la frase: “Martí autor intelectual del Moncada”, cuando en verdad Martí nunca hubiera hecho nada ni parecido a aquella barbaridad.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Irina
Contact Irina, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack