Chronicles of a Cuban Doctor Looking Back at the Island

Welcome to My Open Suitcase

By Dany Cesario

HAVANA TIMES – Some suitcases are heavy because of the pounds they carry. Mine is heavy because of the stories I carry inside.

I opened it the day I crossed a border, but I soon realized that there are things you can never truly leave behind.

Part of my life remained between two countries, while an entirely different one was born.

Since then, I have learned that emigrating is not just about starting over; it is also about learning to live with everything that never stops accompanying you.

This will not be a space to idealize or destroy. It will be a place to observe. To tell the stories that, so often, no one tells.

Here I will write about a woman who once wore a white medical coat and who now has had to spend long hours beside a bed, holding the hand of someone she loves.

I will write about systems that, far too often, forget the people they are meant to serve. About rights that are lost along the way, the bureaucracy that causes pain, the injustices that provoke outrage, and the immeasurable strength of those who keep fighting when everything seems to be against them.

I will also write about the guilt of being far away and the hope of believing that someday it will all have been worth it.

I promise to write what I believe needs to be said, because my suitcase is only the starting point for broadening the way we look at the world.

If you have ever felt that a part of you was left on the other side of a border, if you have worked in silence while no one saw your efforts, if you have lost something important in order to build another life, perhaps you will find a piece of your own story within these pages.

Welcome to My Open Suitcase.

Here, stories are not merely told.

Here, memory is opened…