English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
The Consequences of Having "Dissident" Friends
14ymedio, Havana, 17 December 2017 — The Mexican illustrator Joan X. Vázquez has created a series of comics produced by the human rights organization Amnesty International entitled Cuban Lives. These pages illustrate the lives of Cubansand the continuous restrictions to which they are subjected in their day to day existence.
The second issue is dedicated to Nadia, a language student who worked as a tour guide and who, because of having friends considered dissidents, was expelled from the university, threatened and arrested.
We reproduce here some pages shared by Amnesty International.
In the third issue, the author focuses on the story of Carlos, a young man recruited by State Security services to monitor his fellow students and report on their lives and political ideas.
The fourth issue is dedicated to Elias, a nurse who began to be harassed by his employers because he complained about the lack of support to carry out his work. As a result he was forced to leave his profession, and despite moving to another city he was denied the position of nurse because he was considered “unreliable.”
The fifth comic represents the story of Maritza, a university professor of medicine with no interest in politics, who was soon pressed to propagandize her students and join the state’s mass organizations. Due to this pressure, and despite having the work of her dreams, she resigned after one year.
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