English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
I do not think there is better way to weigh the worth or the worthlessness of the media in a country, than to carefully analyze what they themselves do. Like few other jobs in the world, journalism has a peculiarity which at times is its own worst enemy: its raison d’etre is public consumption. No … Continue reading “Orphaned From Journalism (Part 3, Final) / Ernesto Morales Licea”
First Convivencia Literary Contest 2010 Minutes of the Jury Prize in the Essay category: Utopia, Challenges and Difficulties in Today’s Cuba. By Dimas Castellanos Marti, of Bayamo, who lives in Havana Unanimously and in one of the most difficult discussions that taken by this jury, it emerged as the decision in the prize for a … Continue reading “Minutes of the First Convivencia Contest 2010”
14ymedio, Havana, January 30, 2022 — Cuban independent journalism has had to reinvent itself several times. The police repression and draconian laws against freedom of expression maintained on the Island are not the only obstacles. Emigration is one of the biggest threats to a press that is also still being persecuted and demonized. Work teams … Continue reading “Exodus of Reporters Strikes a Blow to the Independent Press in Cuba”
14ymedio, Havana, 20 January 2022 — In San José de las Lajas (Mayabeque) a trial began this Thursday against seven July 11th (11J) protesters, including the writer María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez and her sister Angélica, for whom various activists have mobilized in recent hours. Those responsible for Ilíada Ediciones informed through their networks that the … Continue reading “Prosecutor’s Office Asks for 15 Years in Prison for a Cuban Writer for July 11th Protest”
14ymedio, Havana, 17 January 2022 — Three new trials of July 11th (11J) protesters in Cuba are being held this week. According to a report from Justicia 11J they will take place for 45 defendants in Mayabeque and in Havana. Due to a lack of information from Cuban authorities, civil society organizations and family members of … Continue reading “Three Cuban Activists are Detained in Havana for Denouncing July 11th Trials”
Yoani Sanchez, New York Times, Havana, 13 January 2019 — A young man posts images of a flood in Centro Habana on social networks. From the internet come complaints from neighbors who are clamoring for an official response and for repairs to the sewer network. Sixty years after the triumph of the Revolution, Cubans are prohibited from … Continue reading “The Revolution Does Not Want To Be Tweeted”
Juan Juan Almeida, 23 February 2018 — The well-known plastic artist Alexis Leyva Machado, known as Kcho, an emblematic figure of official cultural, was transferred from the house where he was receiving treatment to fight a severe drug addiction to a holding center to legally prosecute him for being involved in various criminal actions. With the … Continue reading “Kcho in the Hands of Raul Castro / Juan Juan Almeida”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 25 September 2017 — When leaving the Argos Theater after the performance of Love Letters to Stalin, a good part of the audience needs to shake their heads. Like someone waking from a nightmare, there will be those who, for long minutes, fear that the monsters from the dream might appear around … Continue reading “The Intellectual and Power, More Than an Epistolary Relationship”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 18 August 2016 — The tabloid with the updates of the Sixth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party Guidelines, is distributed lately without fanfare. The few copies on sale in the newsstands and the majority of people’s lack of interest in official documents, suggest that very soon they will be forgotten. … Continue reading “Oblivion Awaits The New Party Guidelines / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar”
14ymedio, Havana, 29 December 2015 — Irreverent and daring, the graffiti artist Danilo Maldonado, known as El Sexto (The Sixth)—in a satirical reference to the ‘Five Heroes’—organized a performance for Christmas 2014 under the title Animal Farm. In Havana’s Central Park the artist intended to release two pigs on which he had painted the names Fidel and … Continue reading “Cuban Faces of 2015: Danilo Maldonado, ‘El Sexto’, Graffiti Artist / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Orlando Palma, Havana, 18 December 2015 — On Friday morning, the political police surrounded the headquarters of the Ladies in White in the Havana’s Lawton district, blocking entrance to several activists who arrived for the traditional literary tea held every Friday, as confirmed to 14ymedio by Juan Angel Moya, former prisoner of the Black Spring and … Continue reading “Ladies in White Headquarters Surrounded by State Security / 14ymedio, Orlando Palma”
All said and done, more than half of a list of 53 political prisoners that nobody knows are already free, completely secret and that nobody we ask clarifies for us. Of the fifty who were out, I have the list of 36 prisoners who were surprised to be free again, without formal charges and under … Continue reading “The Sword of Raul Castro / Luis Felipe Rojas”
14YMEDIO, Havana, 9 January 2015 1. Alexander Otero Rodríguez 2. Alexeis Vargas Martín 3. Ángel Figueredo Castellón 4. Ángel Yunier Remón Arzuaga 5. Anoy Almeida Pérez 6. Aracelio Ribeaux Noa 7. Ariel Eugenio Arzuaga Peña 8. Bianko Vargas Martín 9. Daniel Enrique Quesada Chaveco 10. David Piloto Barceló 11. Diango Vargas Martín 12. Emilio Plana … Continue reading “List of the Political Prisoners Released to date / 14ymedio”
Translator’s Note: On Thursday, Dec. 4, 2014, Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo participated in a panel discussion at Florida International University, in Miami. The program announcement is here. Since the time of the Iron Curtain and Soviet socialism, the word, “solidarity,” has been one of value in anti-totalitarian use. Within the dictatorial models that communists have historically … Continue reading “What I Said at FIU / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 28 August 2014 — Henry Constantin is a native of Camagüey province, born in Las Tunas on Valentine’s Day, 30 years ago. He has been expelled from university three times for his ideas, but still believes he will obtain his journalism degree. This slender, plain-spoken young man has founded two independent publications … Continue reading “University (for the Tenacious) / 14ymedio, Henry Constantin, Reinaldo Escobar”
