English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
The 2013-2014 school year begun, dragging into this new stage all the deficiencies and errors accumulated during these past 30 years. After swallowing the bitter pill of acquiring uniforms, sending them to be taken in or out, finding another from the son of a friend he no longer needs, in order to have two sets … Continue reading “New School Year, Old Deficiencies / Rebeca Monzo”
For some time there has been a consolidation of some of the spaces for analysis and discussion of issues that directly affect society: Critical Space; the magazine’s Temas’ Last Thursday; Dialogue in the Cuban Pavilion; the meetings of the magazines Lay Space and New Word; the independent Estado de SATS project and others. They range … Continue reading “Positive Spaces / Fernando Damaso”
Requested review of the trial against the dissident writer Angel Santiesteban Prats, we make available the documents from the same. At a month after the presentation of the review of the trial against Angel Santiesteban Prats, last July 4, not only has no judicial reply been received about it, but, as is already public knowledge, … Continue reading “New Challenge for the Cuban Judicial System. Documents from the Trial against Angel Santiesteban”
Dimas is second from right. Interview with Dimas Castellanos Marti, historian and journalist. From Havana, Felix Sautie Mederos Por Esto! asks: “Unravel the causes of the crisis our society finds itself in (…) The concept of race as a group of hereditary characteristics seems to lack foundation, as a social construction it has a damaging … Continue reading “Interview with Dimas Castellanos”
By Odalina Guerrero Lara The Constitution of the Republic of Cuba establishes: Article 41: All citizens enjoy equal rights and are subject to equal duties. Dignity is a inherent value of rational human beings, providing liberty and creative power, so people can shape and improve their lives through making decisions and exercising their liberty. Human … Continue reading “A Life With Dignity / Cuban Law Association, Odalina Guerrero Lara”
For health reasons I have to regularly visit a clinic in a hospital which for a long time now has been undergoing repairs which seem as though they will never end. I do not know if it is because it is just taking a long time or because of poor quality which causes things to … Continue reading “There Is Always a Cost / Fernando Damaso”
We make available for anyone who wants to know the truth and have all the evidence of the judicial effrontery against Angel Santiesteban Prats, the complete record and all the documents that form part of this judicial farce behind which they incarcerated him in concentration camp 1580, El Pitirre, San Miguel del Padron, Havana, where … Continue reading “Official statement: We are publishing the complete record of the judicial farce mounted against Angel Santiesteban”
HAVANA, Cuba, August, www.cubanet.org-On July 26 was a strange date for the so-called Latin American progressivism. Rarely have we seen more than ten heads of state trivializing violence in a public act, as if the failed tactics of killing among human beings were the founding myth of a regional model of progressivism. Only President Mujica … Continue reading “Very Rare Progressives / Manuel Cuesta Morua”
By Reinaldo Cosano. Havana, Cuba Posted in the blog of Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada The veil covering violent homophobic repression is slowly being drawn back, but the gulity aren’t asking for public pardon. It is hard to specify just how the virus of homophobic repression was incubated, sharp-eyed with the machismo of the days … Continue reading “Taken Out of the Closet, But No One Asks Forgiveness / Reinaldo Cosano”
“The business is to deny visas, not grant visas” Granma newspaper, 28 June 2013 There is an old tale about a husband who comes home unexpectedly and finds his wife in bed with a pair of men’s feet sticking out from under the covers. Angered by her infidelity, he challenges: “Slut!, whose feet are those?” … Continue reading “The Feet Under the Covers / Miriam Celaya”
Published in the second edition of Cuadernos de Pensamiento Plural, April 2013. People cannot live without history. On the 160th anniversary of the birth José Martí, “the crowning figure of Cuban political thought,” his ideas, instead of being used to solve the serious social problems that afflict Cuban society, continue to be manipulated in order to validate … Continue reading “The Philosophy of Marti versus the Totalitarian Model”
UMAP: Citizens’ force used for the good of society. Brilliant initiative of military cadres. A common school, half in ruins, half with children in uniform, with its Cuban flag and signs on the walls. The boys talk among themselves, then look with curiosity at the stranger, who takes photos of enormous homeless sites behind the … Continue reading “Of UMAP* and Other Demons / Henry Constantin”
I am Elsa Morejon Hernandez, wife of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet González, president of the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba. My letter is intended to report to you and to the world the injustices that to my husband and a group of Cuban ex-prisoners called the Group of 75 are being subjected to. … Continue reading “Open Letter to Amnesty International / Elsa Morejon”
I will not waste a second in explaining the difference between “Blockade” and “Embargo”; that’s irrelevant, it’s all in the dictionary. Cubans (from here, there and the hereafter) understand that this definition does not lie in the linguistic details, it comes from the place of residence of the person referring to it and/or, of course, … Continue reading “Cuba Between Blockade and Embargo / Juan Juan Almeida”
For over a decade, the Cuban government refused to allow one of the world’s best known bloggers, Yoani Sánchez, to travel abroad. When Havana finally loosened travel restrictions for Cuban citizens, Sánchez was one of the first to take advantage of the change, embarking on an 80-day 10-nation tour. One of the countries she visited … Continue reading “Radio Netherlands: Controversial Cuban Blogger Answers Tough Questions / Yoani Sanchez”
