English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Photo: LFelipe Rojas An event has shaken the forums on Cuba and Cubans lately. The trips abroad of some Cuban opponents of the regime has focused attention on the tendency of we Cubans to be who we are: passionate, extremists, relaxed, dazzling, contemptuous, in short, human. But there are three women in particular I want … Continue reading “Useless? Without Virtue? / Luis Felipe Rojas”
Today, August 28, marks six months since Angel was unjustly imprisoned by the Castro dictatorship, after their having invented crimes he did not commit, making use of his former wife and the mother of his son to perform a show trial in which they were unable to prove absolutely any of these alleged crimes for … Continue reading “Communication: As of today, Angel Santiesteban has served 6 months in prison, incommunicado”
Translated by Alex Higson. From Sampsonia Way Magazine. You must have nearly suicidal courage to accuse Cuban State Security, an offshoot of the Soviet KGB which has thousands of officials and millions of collaborators on and off the island, of a double murder. The accusation comes from Madrid, from Ángel Carromero, of the youth wing … Continue reading “Carromero’s Courage / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
I waited until the end of the line, after hundreds of mourners had filed past his casket. It was the month of July, criminally hot. In the Savior of the World parish in Havana’s Cerro municipality, the wake was being held for the founder of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL): Oswaldo Payá, 1952-2012. I bent … Continue reading “One Year After the Scaffold / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Three memories of Angel Santiesteban Miguel Iturria Savon On September 2, 2011, I published on Cubanet the article SOS for Angel Santiesteban, then harassed by the political police of the Cuban government in spite of being a writer who had been awarded multiple prizes by the regime’s own institutions. At the end of 2012 Angel was … Continue reading “The Legal Farce Against Angel Santiesteban Reminds Me of the Celebrated Storyteller Reinaldo Arenas and The Poets Heberto Padilla and Raul Rivero”
In my Cuban childhood, during the horrendous ‘70s, years of scarcity and closure, the United States was a mythical space. It was the unknown, the outside, the other, freedom, illusion: a chimera of hope in the midst of the sterilizing infirmity of Real Socialism. In my childish imagination, perhaps because the maps imported from Eastern Europe were … Continue reading “My United States / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
On September 2, 2011 I published the “SOS for Angel Santiesteban” in Cubanet, when despite his having been awarded multiple prizes by the regime itself, the Cuban government’s own political police were harassing the writer. In late 2012 Angel was sentenced to five years imprisonment after a show trial in which his ex-wife was used … Continue reading “Three Memories of Angel Santiesteban / Miguel Iturria Savon”
Last month, social activist Yoani Sánchez (blog Generation Y) and I became the first pro-democracy bloggers that, while still living in Cuba, were allowed to visit and speak freely in USA. We were welcomed in Washington by U.S. Congressmen, and by ministries of the White House and the State Department. During the last half century … Continue reading “On the WWW Road / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Regis Iglesias and Oswaldo Paya, prior to the 2003 Black Spring At 9 am I called tía Beba’s house. I was waiting to hear Efrén answer the phone as usual and update me on the early news of that March 19th day, as we did every day. The day before I had called in the … Continue reading “A Silhouette of Light in the Midst of Shadows / Regis Iglesias”
Tomorrow, at dawn, Rosa Maria Paya returns to Cuba, just as she promised at the Havana airport two months ago. Her word, contrary to what is common in Cuba, is honest. Rosa Maria will return without bodyguards and without a media scandal, vulnerable and smiling, caressing her tireless cross, back to her already classic humble … Continue reading “Rosa Maria Lives / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
The images of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero covered the façade of Cuba’s diplomatic mission at New York City Read OLPL in English in Sampsonia Way here. Rosa María Payá is visiting the United States from April 3 to 16. She lives in Havana and is the daughter of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, the Cuban dissident … Continue reading “Light and Liberty / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo from Sampsonia Way”
Neighbors witnessing the arrest of a dissident in 2003 — see more detailed note below. 2003 was an incredible year. Harassment, arbitrary detentions, acts of repudiation and verbal assaults against the opposition by the government were rising. There was an escalation by the government against peaceful dissidents and independent journalists. Castro called a referendum to … Continue reading “When Fidel Castro Wanted to Break Up the Dissident Movement / Ivan Garcia”
The young woman speaking in the video is Rosa Maria Paya, Oswaldo Paya’s daughter.
Nutritious Diet The prisoners I share this barracks with tell me they read in the newspaper Granma that the 5 spies condemned in the U.S. complained because their jailers had offered them chicken twice. That is, they were protesting because they repeated the menu. When I was free, I always heard these comments that seemed … Continue reading “Prison Diary X. The “5″ (Sybarites) Don’t Like Chicken / Angel Santiesteban”
