Author: Regina Coyula

Not very productive on the blog, I’ve dedicated time to a course on editing with Adobe CS6 including editing work, extremely interesting; I read The City and the Dogs (I much prefer the young Vargas Llosa to the famous one); I have put in order the drawers and closets; and have prepared work in one of my favorite pastimes, my violon d’Ingres no doubt, but the sewing and crafts I love. Without internet, I can only translate Telesur, which focuses too much on Venezuela, as if the most important events happen there; it must be the “he who pays,” and well, you already know who the majority shareholders are of that broadcaster.

I watched excerpts of the recent Federation of University Students (FEU) congress which depressed me. Even though I know that those kids are chosen for their discourse (note I don’t say for their ideology, because I doubt they all say what they think), the speeches I saw didn’t refer to the students or their rights, nor to the university environment; it was all about struggle, battles, enemies, campaigns for the release of the “Five Heroes,” all in similar language, with similar gestures, until I think they clone them, because they were dressed alike, they couldn’t have reflected better the anodyne or innocuous. I hope, not that they change their ideology if they are sincere, but that they try to shake off the image of mediocrity they convey.

I continue with the mundane world. I enjoyed Pestano’s homerun at the end of the game, the dream of any player, a homerun with the bases loaded. He should have dedicated it to Victor Mesa, who left him off the national team. I enjoyed the final of the under-twenty soccer, and enjoyed the Confederations Cup. Spain is in crisis but their soccer is first class.

What else?  I went to bed at dawn on Tuesday because of Dirty Sexy Money. It’s funny how the political discourse goes in one direction and the TV is full of pirated series that say the opposite. And they say it better. If we did a meta-analysis on the series, we could say it’s an acid critique of social decadence because of money and power, but it must be very profound because what we see is a fast-paced plot, well acted, well set, with the addition in my case of being in New York.

And I say, if the Muslims have to go to Mecca once in their lives, I have to go once to MOMA, pass through the door of the Met, eat a hot dog in Central Park, and take the corresponding tourist photos of the Flatiron and Chrysler buildings and Times Square. Meanwhile, I conjure up my NewYorkitis with canned enemies.

21 June 2013

My cousin, Miguel Coyula, has a request through crowdfunding to support his new movie about the cloning of the New Man. Click here to view the trailer and support this Cuban artist.

12 June 2013

Exchanging Marriage for a House. Read this please!!!

Date: Thursday, May 23, 2013, 3:43 PM

Sir: For people like you who make fraudulent marriages or use Canadian citizens to come to this country and then let them ship out, the image of Cubans in this country is falling so low. More and more Cubans are seen here as social climbers, ruthless, without values or scruples and it is for acts like this. You know that if the Ministry of Immigration finds out what you are doing not  will the person will not get a visa and be blacklisted but you can lose your status here? (Which obviously would not be a loss for this country).

On the other hand your announcement is very good especially when talking about the benefits of this country, yet in it you do not talk about the new Canadian law which, from October 26, , requires that spouses MUST live in a legitimate relationship for a minimum period of two years after obtaining residency, or they can lose their status and you can lose yours too. Here is the link to Immigration Canada where this law is.

Since you speak so clearly in your ad you should touch on the point that does not seem fair to the person who accepts this not tell them all the pros and cons.

I am not writing this to upset you, but to get you to do a little reflection, as you have shown yourself a bit aggressive in your writing and this isn’t a good way to think things through.

I must say that I totally agree with you that the marketers in Cuba don’t have their feet firmly on the ground and are not aware of the reality in which they live, asking these amounts beyond all logic. But what you propose is a fraud from every point of view (for the Canadian government who opened the doors of their country and to the Cuban citizen to whom you didn’t speak clearly about things here).

From your message I can deduce that you’re doing very well here so I think that instead of this you can gather a certain amount and negotiate a fair price, in the end according to you one achieves here everything he wants.

Regards

(I didn’t find the classified ad that gives rise to this answer, but I can imagine it. NOTE from Regina)

27 May 2013

Almost two years late, the famous fiber optic cable will be available to the population within a few days. One hundred and eighteen Internet sites will be opened throughout the country, although the number set up by the State phone company, ETECSA, for information isn’t working (cleverly or by chance the phone number is 118).

I don’t know the details, I don’t know if the rooms will have three computers or twenty, but the news is positive. Many Cubans will be able, for the first time, to look into the abyss of the web, the initial dizziness will pass.

My son, on hearing the news, first said that having Facebook and Revolico (the Cuban “Craigslist”), people would be content. Then I got a little petty: “Don’t think they’ll be that content.” The prices are a step forward compared to connecting in a hotel, but “our working people” whose wages, let’s say, are around 400 Cuban pesos a month (about $16.00 US), will have to work more than a day to afford a single hour of surfing the Internet.

If they also want international email, this hour will cost them three and a half days’ wages, and if they get greedy and want to go out on the information highway, one hour will relieve them of a fourth of their monthly salary.

In a population of 11 million, I don’t doubt that at least while it’s a novelty they will form lines to get into these rooms. It’s speculation on my part, but it would be best if they offer the service 24 x 7.

I suspect we will navigate “a la Chinese,” and in addition to set sites, commitments in writing, the room directors walking behind users to verify their good behavior, and big character posters explaining what we can and cannot do, we would leave behind our browsing history and “the comrades who serve the sector” could access this information, thus depreciating the value of privacy.

But I am content. At last we Cubans can surf the Internet!

29 May 2013

Dear readers, feisbuseros (Facebook) friends, my Twitter people: Thanks for the massive birthday greetings, if it were possible, I would be as attentive as you are; it’s not from disinterest that I don’t respond to comments nor follow Twitter accounts, nor more often recommend in #foloufraidei, nor update Facebook. Someday, someday …

24 May 2013

Presenter Aleanys Jáuregui

Cuban television is not characterized by the quality of its domestic programming so I review the movie schedule to see if anything interests me. The only ones I follow are the pirated ones: Grey’s Anatomy, Suits, and Dirty Sexy Money; this latter despite its late night schedule.

But sometimes, by chance, by pure chance, I stumble on programs produced by  Cuban TV, which produces little, bad and late, and luckily fills in with the canned. In a fatal chance I’ve seen some scenes of a horrible thing called Santa Maria of I Don’t-Know-What that shows on the soap opera hour; but the other day I endured with a stoicism worthy of a better cause a humor (?!) program made by women. They were competing, there was a really condescending jury, raising their cards with their ratings.

Bad taste, vulgarity, lack of grace, lack of originality; and an example of all of the above, the host of the program. In the Federation of Cuban Women and the Cuban Writers and Artists Union (UNEAC), institutions that concern themselves interchangeably with female integrity and raising cultural values, should not have seen More Women (with the “more” [plus] sign that I don’t find on the keyboard), this monstrosity of “more” for which I can not find enough adjectives on the keyboard.

20 May 2013

This Mother’s Day has been distorted over the years. In among the shortages you see everyone going crazy looking for treats for their teacher, their aunt, for the neighbor who is so good, for my friend Fulanita* who gives me something every year, and also buying an impressive number of picture postcards to give to every mother they know.

I do not know if it is a practice of the so-called consumer society that has infiltrated around here, but for me it doesn’t matter. I enjoy my mom every day, I spoil her whenever I can, and if I can’t I already did, we don’t get all in a twist on the issue dates.

But this is me and my circumstances. For all my readers, have a wonderful day and love those close to you very much. If you can, give them something, but don’t give them something as a substitute. (Horrors!!! Now I feel in a position to give advice…)

*Translator’s note: “Fulano/a” is equivalent to “so-and-so”… the unnamed somebody.

12 May 2013

My friend Ana experienced Chavez’s death like that of a family member — tearfully and without music. Whe nshe speaks of him, her voice breaks. She does not know how to explain the reason for such devotion, but she relied on the Venezuelan broadcaster Telesur for all the details. Since the subject was very emotional for her, it was not until two days ago that I asked what she thought about the recent Venezuelan elections. Her response came as a surprise.

“I would not have voted for either of them. Capriles is from the extreme right, but I don’t know what Chavez saw in Maduro. Someone must have suggested that he read his speeches because he knows how to talk. What he does not know how to do is shut up.”

I heard something similar, though less concise and forthright, from my neighbor Tomás, who said to a visitor with sadness, “Maduro works hard, but he does not have Chavez’s charisma.”

An observation by my mother, who at ninety-six is as lucid as ever, reiterates one often heard during the Venezuelan presidential campaign. “The worst thing he could do is to try to imitate [Chavez],” she noted.

I have also heard cynical comments from people who peevishly detest Maduro, but who detest even more the power outages from which we Cubans have been spared, at least for the next three years.

3 May 2013

Although the natural desire of new entrepreneurs is to succeed, the mentality acquired during many years is like the invasive marabou weed.

To please my mom, who had a “craving” after seeing the menu in one of those new “self-employed” businesses I asked to take out an Elena Ruz. I received good service and after some delay which I made a joke about, to which they responded that each order was prepared on the spot, they sent me off with a box inside a bag that would be a surprise for Mom. It was a surprise, but for me.

I had no idea what an Elena Ruz was, but my mom had a good memory. What was in the box was toasted bread (and I suspect it wasn’t fresh) with a light smear of unidentifiable jam, and diced chicken. I was more frustrated than my mom so I returned to the private restaurant, the paladar, and asked to speak to the person in charge who turned out to be a young woman with a nice manner about her.

Advised by my mom, I knew what ingredients and preparation were supposed to be for this spectacular sandwich, and especially how to prepare it, I told the young girl that what they sold could be called a Lina Ruz (the girl didn’t understand anything), Elena the Russian or any other kind, but it was NOT an Elena Ruz.

Her reaction was defensive: The clients like them, no one has complained, everyone has a different opinion about each plate, the culinary standards… it was so much that the only thing I said was, “If you order a daiquiri, and someone brings you a drink that, instead of lemon juice has orange juice, it may be tasty, but it is NOT a Daiquiri.

I left there with a deja vu of a State restaurant, almost convinced that the client didn’t know anything and was never right.

Translator’s note: The recipe calls for a baguette sliced lengthwise, cream cheese, strawberry jam, and sliced turkey breast, and the assembled sandwich is then toasted.

24 April 2013

The Chicago Martyrs

I’m not exaggerating if I tell you that for more than I month it’s been known with precision the exact number of participants by province, union and sector that will fill the country’s plazas with color in “spontaneous” marches for May Day.

What are these Cuban workers celebrating? In reality, they’re not celebrating anything. They consume a representation that started out being genuine but that has shed meaning along the way. In contrast to the working class in other countries, even though they have equal or greater reasons to do so, they do not fight to increase insufficient wages, they don’t demand an end to the dual monetary system, and they don’t unite against the possibility of being laid off, they don’t protest about the slowness and shallowness of the economic reforms, they don’t organize to restructure the union that represents them.

One of the slogans that will preside over the march this year is: “For a prosperous and sustainable socialism.” If there ever really was socialism, at its beginning it brought changes in education and health-care, which, since the disappearance of the Soviet subsidy, haven’t stopped deteriorating, but prosperity has been an elusive goal of the working class, which at one time perceived the real possibility of reaching it through their own efforts, for long years so demonized.

With regards to sustainability, they should have the grace not to be so dramatic; they’ve had every opportunity over more than half a century at the helm of the government and haven’t even managed food independence despite constantly repeating the official propaganda about the dangers of the Blockade and the Imperialist Threat.

It’s a paradox that the workers march to celebrate conquests that we’ve enjoyed for a half a century or more, but are incapable or organizing themselves around demands that affect their daily lives. Meanwhile, the Cuban working class continues marching being slogans that represent nothing, the legacy of the Chicago Martyrs still leave much to be done among us.

1 May 2013

My interest in Human Rights in the United States is merely informative. There, if any or all of these rights are violated, the organizations of civil society themselves will enforce their demands. But it seems cynical to me on the part of the Cuban government to condition their commitment to compliance with the inalienable rights recognized by the international community on their enemy’s breach of them.

This attitude of being victimized is very bad when it come so this subject where Cuba has gaps; if we are a model society to which humanity should aspire, that example should start by guaranteeing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in full to all its citizens. As long as respect for human rights is selective, everything else will be nothing but demagoguery.

29 April 2013

Two different audiovisual have made me reflect again on our country’s future. The first, a recent BBC report on North Korea. It is one thing to read about this dystopian society and another to view images whose referent is the Orwellian nightmare. Politics is complicated, but they can not be good. Knowing them to be friends of my government gives me a feeling similar to that produced in me by demonstrations of friendship with the Iranian government.

But to dispel that depressing vision, last night, in the Cinema of Our America, I saw “No,” the Chilean film about the referendum against Pinochet. The film left me feeling very positive that the opposition could act from joy, and so from that feeling can call people together.

Not to maintain the scheme that to dissent is dangerous, because people from instinct or fear shy away from dangerous situations, even when they can’t divine them, can’t divine the depletion of public confidence in the government.

From the confrontation and the pulse, the heroism is evident, but this in itself does not add up and often valuable and much-needed life. I’m thinking right now about the hunger strike of a large group of activists from UNPACU — the Patriotic Union of Cuba — which very few Cubans inside the island know about, but which is magnified in this rumor of repression to which they are subjected.

There are ideas that I share with you, readers, because you already know what the associations are. With all due respect for the pain of many families, the joy, that component of our character, should be a basic component in the mortar of our reinvention as citizens.

26 April 2013

My only source of news about this week’s election in Venezuela was Telesur and the Cuban press. Supposedly, Capriles was the villain calling for violence. The victims were exclusively Chavez supporters (though only a carpenter was mentioned and no names or statistics were given). And Maduro made accusations about coup plots and terrorist attacks.

I do not doubt that the situation in Venezuela at the moment is very volatile, but the analysts I saw stressed the fact that Maduro was elected president by half the voting public while forgetting that their coverage made a circus out Mexican elections by claiming that the losing candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, armed and “could arm” crowds in the Zócalo if Felipe Calderón was declared the winner.

The analysts also failed to comment on the quasi-dictatorial attitude of the recently elected Maduro with respect to protests organized by the opposition. “I will not allow it,” he said. (No one told me about this; I saw it live on Telesur.) It is as though the other half of the population does not exist but, more importantly, as though democracy in Venezuela no longer exists.

New coverage of the election in Venezuela confirmed my belief in the need to stay informed. It goes to show how information can be subverted and how the Cuban government will try to retain control for as long as possible. I would therefore like to present this as evidence of manipulation of one of a series human rights outlined in an international letter to be submitted for discussion in Geneva with an official delegation present.

19 April 2013

The presidential campaign in Venezuela reaches me indirectly through my room, which is adjacent to the window of my neighbor Tomás, below which he has his television. Tomás follows the details of the rough-and-tumble campaign on Telesur. He thunders against Capriles, whom he considers to be little more than a criminal, and thrills to the son of a very precocious Chávez.

These days I avoid letting the remote linger too long on Channel 15. All the bizarre news and images there no longer surprise me and I am bothered by the excessive propaganda. Cuban television, however, certainly seems to have learned little to nothing from the multi-national broadcaster during all the years in which Telesur was only a three-hour program made up of filtered content.

But besides his devotion to the “candidate of the fatherland” Tomás can also see — if he wanted to see — how Venezuelans are able to choose from among various presidential candidates, how opponents from the opposition are able to make their case and, despite whatever my neighbor might say, can come to the conclusion that Venezuelan democracy is fragile. It is fragile, but it exists — a novel idea for the majority of our population, which was born after 1959.

12 April 2013