English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Personalities on television, as a matter of privilege, exercise basic rights that are denied to viewers. There appears to have been considerable impact from the TV program “Where there is true affection, two… [are enough],” directed and hosted by the singer Amaury Perez. The guest to close a first and long season was none other … Continue reading “Is It So Easy to Have a Blog in Cuba, Silvio? / Francis Sánchez”
Trapped by the crowd, he had his back pressed against the wall of the movie theater. Everyone was shouting, demanding an attentive response, as if he could extricate himself and easily take some phrase in that scandal with which he’d been squashed. In the rarefied atmosphere of the night, plus the collective agitation, and the … Continue reading “Hopefully Cuba Deserves It / Francis Sánchez”
In Ciego de Avila, Cuba, 24 January 2011 To: Whom it may concern. Subject: Formal resignation from the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) Disclaimer: I don’t care to detour to particular and depressing facts, being the last drops, and perhaps less than could have overwhelmed my disappointment. Message: If there are reasons … Continue reading “Formal Resignation from the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) / Francis Sánchez”
“Man in the Clouds ” is my personal blog. My expectations are based on fulfilling the natural mandate of God to live and express myself as a rational social being, like any creature with free will. I believe my right to think and share my thoughts is a universal inalienable right. I am open to … Continue reading “Clarification for the Reader / Francis Sánchez”
Photos: Francis Sánchez. The image of Mary, mother of Christ, which today makes a pilgrimage through the entire country announcing the message of the God’s love for man, came to the province of Ciego de Avila this Sunday, March 13, when it entered the town of Cunagua. With the national tour of the Patroness of … Continue reading “At the Feet of the Virgin / Francis Sánchez”
Photos: Francis Sánchez. I have the excuse of two children so I can play outside. At home I say I’m going with them to please them and keep a close watch over them, the reality is that I escape, in this way, the tensions and the routine, or it might be, the idiotic world. Sometimes … Continue reading “I Dream of a Day Without Serpents / Francis Sánchez”
Walking from the base camp Playa Inglés to the Ismaellillo Camp, on the south coast in Cienfuegos Province, took me about forty minutes. I stopped now and then to take a photo like a dream. There was no time to lose. I was overcome with the joy of a parent who sees that his son … Continue reading “Everybody Happy / Francis Sánchez”
This February 23 marks the first anniversary of the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo after suffering a hunger strike that lasted 86 days. The official press hastened to say that it was just another fallen mercenary in service to the empire. But not everyone in the general public subjected to this propaganda saw it that … Continue reading “A Wake for Our Cadaver / Francis Sánchez”
My brother, the writer Felix Sánchez has decided to go public with his resignation from UNEAC (Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba), which he submitted in early November last year. Everything indicates that it became effective, although no one will contact him. In an email circulated recently, he said: “To whom it may concern: … Continue reading “The Writer Felix Sánchez Resigns from UNEAC / Francis Sánchez”
Photos: Francis Sánchez My watch was still running slow, probably because I needed to change the battery, so I went looking for a watchmakers when, about to turn a corner, I noticed that I was passing in front of a sort of bunkhouse, tenement block or similar poor dwelling. I remembered that there, years ago, … Continue reading “Lead Us Not Into Temptation / Francis Sánchez”
Saavedra Lazaro Gonzalez is a Cuban artist. His “interventions” on the email network with works from his “I-MEIL Gallery” often bring to the debate a quick dose of honesty, coherence and force, for which the national intellectual camp always seems unprepared. This is his “Journalism,” received in my in-box on January 28, as an offering … Continue reading “Journalism / Francis Sánchez”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 21 September 2015 — A popular joke about the arrival of Pope John Paul II to Cuba referred to the wind blowing away his skullcap and its falling into the sea during a walk along the Malecon. Fidel Castro then walked on the water and rescued the silk cap. The next … Continue reading “Francis And The Flight Of Skullcap / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 14 September 2015 — A Cuba of different points of view and clashing passions is what the Bishop of Rome will find when he begins, in a few days, his visit to the island. A country that wants to enter the future, but that remains clamped in place by a political … Continue reading “Don’t Get Too Close, Brother Francis / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez”
14ymedio, Havana, 13 February 2024 — Cuban baseball player Jorge Soler got a $42 million home run this Tuesday when he signed with the San Francisco Giants for the next three years. As journalist Francys Romero stated, he is the “first baseball player born on the Island to wear this uniform since Alex Sánchez (in … Continue reading “Cuban Jorge Soler Gets a $42 Million Contract with the San Francisco Giants”
14ymedio, Madrid, 31 October 2018 — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will defend human rights in his visit to Havana, as the Moncloa Palace has expressed in its response to a letter addressed to him by the activist Iliana Hernández. The Cabinet of the Presidency did not offer more details on what specific gestures Sanchez will make … Continue reading “Moncloa Promises That Sanchez Will Defend Human Rights in Havana”
