English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Miami, November 11, 2018 — Two years after several young journalists from the newspaper Vanguardia in Villa Clara wrote a letter strongly criticizing the operation of the official media, 14ymedio spoke with one of the signers of that document to discover the motives that led them to write it and the consequences that … Continue reading “Independent Media “Open The Doors Of Imagination And Creativity””
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, November 6, 2018 — The campaign against Decree 349, an article in the the proposed new Cuban constitution which includes strict rules on artistic expression in public spaces, has collided with Cuban customs restrictions. Upon her return to the island, artist and activist Yanelys Nuñez reported on social media that customs officials … Continue reading “Cuban Customs Confiscates Opposition T-Shirts at Havana Airport”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Miami, 8 November 2018 — The Versailles smells of coffee, intense and short like those drunk copiously by some of those who on Tuesday night awaited the election results in Florida. Exiles from five decades ago, young people who mix English with Spanish and newcomers from the island who finished a sip … Continue reading “A Sip in The Versailles: Coffee and Elections”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Miami, 3 November 2018 — Teatro Kairós continues to defy censorship and police repression. After months of rehearsals and study, last weekend he premiered Patriotism 36-77, directed by actress Lynn Cruz, in the abandoned buildings of the former Circus School of the Higher Institute of Art. Cruz told 14ymedio that “when the news came out of Decree … Continue reading “A Clandestine Work for Freedom of Expression”
14ymedio, Mario J. Pentón / Luz Escobar, Havana/Miami | 31 October 2018 — Beginning in December, Cuban pensioners who receive the minimum monthly pension of 200 Cuban pesos (equivalent to $7.50 USD) will receive 242 CUP ($9.00 USD). The increase, announced Tuesday by Belkis Delgado, Director of Prevention, Assistance and Social Work of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, is … Continue reading “Cuban Government Raises the Minimum Pension for the First Time in Ten Years”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 29 October 2018 — The Proyecto Abriendo Brechas de Colores (Opening Color Gaps Project) was forced to cancel an event that had been promoted to mobilize the LGBTIQ community in favor of equal marriage for fear that it would be considered a provocation and harm “the very project” they are trying to promote. The call to … Continue reading “LGBTIQ ‘Kiss-In’ Cancelled for Fear of Being Called a ‘Provocation’”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 20 October 2018 — After passing by the Quibú River and in the middle of the growth of the out of control grass, reddish vaults emerge that look like the ruins of a lost city. They are part of the National Art Schools of Cuba that the Getty Foundation, of the … Continue reading “US Funds to Rescue the National Art Schools of Cuba”
Luz Escobar / 14ymedio, Varadero / Havana, 11 October 2018 — For those who are looking for local flavor, it is frustrating to wake up to Colombian coffee, have fish from the distant shores of northern Europe and realize that it is easier to find a Heineken in the hotel bar than a Cuban Cristal. … Continue reading “For Tourists in Cuba It’s Easier to Get an Apple than a Mango”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana | 17 September 2018 — The group of independent artists who since July have been carrying out a campaign against Decree 349 reports that “since the triumph of the Revolution, in 1959, there has existed a state of exception when it comes to the freedom of artistic creation and expression” in … Continue reading “Cuba’s Independent Artists Denounce the "State of Exception" They’ve Faced Since 1959”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 9 September 2018 — Three years since his last concert at the Karl Marx Theater, Pablo Milanés returned to the same venue last Friday. The concert, dubbed “My Havana,” began with the firing of a canon at precisely nine o’clock in the evening, a gesture to mark the five-hundredth anniversary of the … Continue reading “Pablo Milanes Sings to Havana in an Emotional Concert”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 12 September 2018 — “I was the fly on that night’s cake for them,” laments Yoan Campos Guevara, 26, the young man who was attacked with a knife on Friday in Villa Clara in what appears to be homophobic assault. The son of singer Juan Carlos Campos, he lives in Caibarién and was … Continue reading “"He said to me ’you’re a faggot’ and stuck his knife in me"”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana | 27 August 2018 — A group of artists who have been promoting an intense campaign against Decree 349 since July are continuing to pressure the country’s authorities not to implement this law that demands that “commercial spaces for plastic arts” have prior authorization and be registered in the Creators’ Registry. … Continue reading “Artists Denounce Decree 349 for "Criminalizing Independent Art"”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 13 August 2018 — The artists of the campaign against Decree 349, who tried to organize a concert on Saturday at the house of Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, were freed at the stroke of midnight on Sunday. Otero Alcántara explained to 14ymedio that he and Yanelys Núñez were arrested in the … Continue reading “"They Warned Us That Cuba Can’t Turn Into Another Nicaragua," Say Detained Artists”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 17 August 2018 – “River Quibú, nobody washes on your shores,” the singer Frank Delgado chanted in the eighties. Three decades later the panorama has not improved around the river that crosses the western neighborhoods of Havana. The neighbors denounce a delicate epidemiological and ecological situation caused by the great accumulation … Continue reading “Dead Animals, Feces and Plastics Envelop the Quibu River as it Passes Through Havana”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 3 August 2018 — A group of independent artists has decided to confront Decree 349 which regulates the dissemination of culture and catalogs its content, calling it “legalized censorship.” Fifteen creators meeting this week in Havana agreed to carry out actions to show their resistance to some of the measures that … Continue reading “Fifteen Artists Denounce "Legalized Censorship"”
