With just two stations broadcasting
                six hours a day, it's surprising how
                much TV Cubans watch. "Te Odio Mi Amor"
                (I Hate You My Love), a Brazilian
                soap opera about two feuding families
                who are romantically intertwined, is 
                hugely popular. Three nights a week,
                Cubans will fight or crawl their way,
                if need be, to a television to view
                the latest installment. To avoid
                competition, the Communist Party even
                schedules its activities around the show.





                For the more adventurous, there are other
                entertainment options, like seeing 
                Carlos Varela perform for 12 pesos,
                roughly 30 cents. Varela is best known
                for his 1991 hit, "The Son of William Tell,"
                which challenges Fidel Castro's
                paternalistic relationship with
                Cuba's youth.
                
                
            

                
                At a concert in May of 1995, Varela
                was sporting a postmodern pirate look
                in a black bandana and playing alongside
                skinny rockers with shaggy hair and
                leather vests. The many long-haired 
                Cubans in the crowd, including a few
                doing the grunge/combat boots/flannel- 
                around-the-waist thing, all banged their
                heads to the beat. The fact that Varela 
                plays folky rhythms that are closer to 
                Paul Simon than Nirvana didn't deter them
                in the slightest. In his new role as
                Cuban pop star, Varela and his rebel lyrics
                now have more posture than passion, but he
                had the crowd screaming and shaking
                the Karl Marx Theater that night.