Month: December 2010

“The Sacrifice to Obtain Freedom Comes with a Very High Price” / Miguel Galban Gutierrez

BLOG MANAGER’S NOTE: Don’t miss this post over at the English version of “Pedazos de la Isla.” Miguel Galban Gutierrez is one of the prisoners of the Black Spring of 2003, recently exiled to Spain. Here’s a teaser and a link:

Independent journalist, independent union worker, and mechanical engineer, Miguel Galban Gutierrez is a dignified Cuban who was punished by the Castro tyranny or acting like a free man in a totalitarian land. He was condemned to the prisons of the island during the Black Spring, and now resides in Spain- free, but exiled. He has launched his own blog, “Desde el Destierro”, where he chronicles his painful prison experiences and the current events which transpire in Cuba.

Now, Galban and his family seek to start new lives in Spain. Although he resides thousands of miles from his country, Cuba lives in his heart, as expressed through his words and his actions. Here is his story:

“Freedom is the right every man has to be honorable and to think and speak without hypocrisy.”- Jose Marti

“The pain of imprisonment is the harshest of all pains. It slaughters intelligence, dries the soul, and leaves ineradicable scars on one’s spirit.”- Jose Marti

Tell us a bit about your origins- what part of Cuba are you from and how did you grow up?

I was born on January 12th of 1965 in the municipality of Havana known as Guines. I grew up with economic difficulties, for my father was the only one who provided a source of income for my family, which consisted of my other four brothers and I. He suffered a number of consequences for having had a transit accident and they did not allow him to carry out various productive jobs.

But this did not keep me from being raised in a peaceful home. My parents taught us the best morals so that we could be exemplary human beings and Christians, and so that none of their children may succumb to becoming social deviants.

With that upbringing I commenced my studies and achieved a high academic level. In 1992, I graduated from the Jose Antonio Echeverria Superior Polytechnic Institute as a Mechanical Engineer with a Masters in Engineering Maintenance in 1998.

When I began to carry out my professional work I started reflecting my rebellious posture. I began to constantly witness and confront all the irregularities which government officials committed while remaining immune before the laws of society. This special social class has been around since Castro rose to power, and as long as they pay tribute to the revolution, and mainly to the figure of dictator Fidel Castro, then they are exempt from any penalties.

When did you begin your work as an independent journalist? Was it difficult for you to exercise such a profession seeing as you were not working for the state as an “official journalist”?

FIND OUT MIGUEL’S ANSWER TO THIS AND OTHER QUESTIONS HERE.

Cuban Regime Calls on its Children for Shock Troops / Yoani Sánchez

On December 10, Human Rights Day, my 15-year-old son came home from school and said he had been summoned to go to park centrally located in Havana, exactly the same place where, each year, a group of dissidents and non-conformists demonstrate for improvements for Cuba’s citizens and political prisoners. The students of all the high schools in Havana were called to make up one of those painful repudiation rallies against people who peacefully protest, exercising their power as citizens to complain.

It was the director of the school himself who told Teo and his classmates to come dressed in civilian clothes so people would not know that they were students, called to defend their homeland against the provocations of their enemies. Several teachers announced that if it was necessary to beat up the Ladies in White, or other opponents, they must do it “in the name of Cuba.”

When Teo told me about this it was as if I were transported back to 1980, witnessing the shouts, insults and eggs thrown at those people who chose to leave the country during the Mariel Boatlift. I remember one day 30 years ago, as the excitement spread through the halls of my tenement, while I, barely 5, looked on in terror at the aggression against a neighbor whose two sons had decided to emigrate.

My grandmother gestured furiously for me to get back inside, with no explanation of why the mob was shouting phrases like, “The scum wants to go, let them go!” We were never the same after witnessing such an act of militant fanaticism; the mistrust settled deep under the skin of the residents of that humble place.

So when they called my son to make up the shock troops I was as horrified as I was three decades ago, when I first witnessed that intolerance through the eyes of a child.

This post appeared originally in The Huffington Post

December 22, 2010

Civic Manifesto to Cuban Communists

The informal announcement of the VI Congress of the PCC, to be held in April, 2011, has been accompanied by the publication of the Draft Guidelines which summarize the topics to be covered at the most important meeting of the only party in Cuba. This document contains some positive aspects, especially those showing a clear understanding of the deep structural crisis that the country is experiencing and others, showing the direction the proposed solutions are headed. But its limitations, its unilateral and sectarian character, and the unjustifiable omission of matters of dire importance to the present and the future of the nation, have motivated us to comment on basic elements not considered by the top leadership of the PCC, without the inclusion of which it won’t be possible to make strides of any depth or speed.

Some of these fundamentals are:

* The project is a straitjacket made without consultation, designed to truncate debate about issues that affect all Cubans and cover all spheres of national life. It is the outline of an agenda that, in the absence of essential rights and freedoms of democracy, rules out the participation of citizens in its proposals.

* It is inconceivable for a political party to avoid political debate and at the same time to try to keep the economy subject to ideology, a method that has already demonstrated its unviability for over half a century.

* The current situation clearly reflects two possibilities: either the Cuban model is unachievable, or the government has failed in its application. Therefore, essential self-criticism must be imposed wherever failure of the model that the government has followed to date is officially recognized, and the governing body’s responsibility in its implementation.

* If the model failed, it is not wise to update it, but to change it, which would also imply a referendum to change the players.

* The measures the government has been proposing in recent years in order to reverse the critical national socio-economic plight are transitory, outdated and clearly inadequate, because they suffer from a lack of realism. The Cuban crisis will not be reversed as long as the effect that the applied conceptions regarding property issues have had on the failure of the model are not recognized, and until they are fundamentally changed. This should be coupled with the necessary inclusion of nationals in the proposed investment processes. Maintaining the system of excluding Cubans — far from enhancing productivity and economic progress — establishes an obstacle to productive development.

* Any attempt to improve the situation in Cuba goes through the full implementation of human rights in its indivisible nature, whose Covenants, signed in February of 2008, have not yet been ratified by the Government. The consummation of this achievement not only implies the unconditional release of all political prisoners, but in-depth legal modifications that tolerate the legalization of political dissent.

* We have already exceeded the time limit for the implementation of partial reforms. No reform in Cuba can be confined to the domestic economy sphere, since the crisis spans the whole system. It requires, therefore, proposals of a systemic nature that cannot derive exclusively from the ruling party that has not even proposed a new program to replace the previous one — fruit of the Third Congress of 1986 — failed and forgotten.

* Cuba is urged to overcome the philosophy of survival. People aspire to live and prosper, not to resist. Cubans have a right to prosper from the proceeds of their efforts. A ban on the demonization of prosperity must be imposed.

* Any new model that is proposed should emphatically proclaim the end of the so-called Special Period and the beginning of a period of normality, based on agreed-upon principles which can be relied on, as part of a new social pact.

* The Cuban government has implicitly acknowledged that the country is economically dependent on foreign capital. However, external assistance should only be subject to compliance with internationally recognized principles with respect to rights, and full people-participation, which, up to now, Cubans lack. Investors may not become rich as a result of the absence of rights in Cuba. Paradoxically, the violation of these principles obliterates the intentions to establish social justice stemming from the socialist system.

* The updated model proposed by the Government is not “a model for man” but calls, instead for “Man for a model.” Man is subordinated to the economic and ideological interests of the ruling party. By keeping the sacrificial status of individuals in this system it is clear that this is not a humanistic model.

* Economic advances are not possible if they are separate from exchange and free access to information. The government monopoly on information networks denies the potential of a people who achieved high levels of education and constitutes a violation of their rights.

* The absence of alternation, nepotism, and the lack of limits on the terms in public office become a brake on development. The responsibility in the face of failures, linked to the accumulation of interests on the part of a group established in power in perpetuity, also tends to perpetuate the Cuban crisis and makes the collapse of the system irreversible. Reality demands a reform in this plane so that the existence of other policy options will force the government to successfully fulfill its mission at the head of the nation’s destiny.

This manifesto is signed on December 1st, 2010 by:

  1. Dimas Castellanos
  2. Miriam Celaya
  3. Reinaldo Escobar
  4. Rogelio Fabio Hurtado
  5. Eugenio Leal
  6. Rafael León
  7. Rosa María Rodríguez
  8. Wilfredo Vallín


To Be Thankful / Fernando Dámaso

When I read or hear the opinions of citizens who worked in radio, television or publicity before 1959, earning great salaries that allowed them to own their homes and cars, travel and live comfortably, railing against the hands that fed them, and criticizing everything done, as if something that was against the state and the people had been manipulated, I feel embarrassed for them.

If there is something that ennobles a person it is knowing to be grateful. Also, and much more important, not to lie. To write and say silly things and to use their past like floor mats, doesn’t seem to worry these characters, as they reaffirm their political legitimacy and stay afloat, despite the vagaries of life and the passing years.

They remind me of some acquaintances who, having been brought up in wealthy families, studied in good private schools and enjoyed a pleasant childhood and youth, present themselves in their memoirs for popular or institutional consumption, as poor from birth, almost the children of beggars, uneducated, and having to work from childhood to survive in an exploitative society, where their families were the most exploited and miserable.

Some other cases seem to come back into fashion. In hard times it is like a return to roots, and also like a closing at the end of life. It seems as they intended to leave a palatable vision for other generations, filing and polishing here and there, looking for a false perfection.

Writing this depressed me, but I see it repeat itself so much in our media, that more than a personal catharsis, it seems to me like a collective insanity. Who was rich was rich and who was poor was poor, and neither one nor the other should be ashamed, as it determines neither the good nor bad feelings.

November 11 2010

Seasons Greetings, Readers! / Regina Coyula

My Santa is from the Industriales baseball team

As the holidays approach I believe that everyone, regardless of what side of the ocean they are on, celebrates them. In every Cuban, however, there is some nostalgia–the feeling that the puzzle is never complete. So, I would like to wish everyone a warm celebration with their families and close friends, with the health to live and see. A virtual hug and the happiness for the dialogue we are creating from different points of view. This gives me hope for the future of Cuba.

Translated by: Lita Q.

December 21 2010

The Importance of Having a White Deer / Fernando Dámaso

According to the Small Larousse Illustrated Dictionary: A a deer is a ruminant mammal of the cervidae family equipped with shovel-shaped horns.

In the Pocket Guide for Nature Lovers Jeanette Harris says: Deer 86-110 cm. height at the withers. Tail with black tip, which contrasts with the surrounding white spot, which also has the black border. The summer coat is brownish orange with white spots, in winter more gray. Usually in herds. Forests and parks.

This is the information I can provide about the deer. However, I will not talk about these deer, I am going to tell you about the white deer, yes, immaculately white, which originate in childhood and only leave with death. Mine, which has accompanied me since I was six, appeared one night in December before Christmas. I think it was fifteen or sixteen, I don’t remember clearly, it being so many years ago! Well, that night of the year of 1944, my white deer came with seven bells ringing, galloping through the clouds and entering through the bars of my window lattice. I awoke with a grunt and opened my eyes, I found before me eyes blacker and brighter than I had seen in my short life.

“I have come for forever,” he told me. “From today forward I am a part of you.”

His words surprised me. I never thought having a deer! I don’t know if it was that I was half asleep or because I loved the idea of having a white deer, the truth is that I accepted. Since that night, he has come in December each year, more or less on the fifteenth, and at the end of the first week of January he leaves. I never knew why, nor did I dare to ask. It was enough that he came. I knew he belonged to me, even if he was only with me twenty days each year. When I talked to my friends about my white buck some laughed. Who has seen a white deer! It will be gray or brown! “White deer don’t exist,” they said.

Others looked at me with complicity and a smile on their faces. Then I realized that there were those who knew the white deer and those who did not. Years passed and I grew up to become an adult, which is how to stop dreaming, but my white buck came back each year and accompanied me. As I learned more I realized that the white deer were different: they were not worried about eating grass and tender shoots, they were not in herds, and their feet did not leave visible traces, even in dusty or muddy path. Over time I learned that their favorite foods were love, tenderness and truth. Hate makes them sick and lies put them on the brink of insanity. Then they kick like wild horses and nobody can get close.

Remember, I saw mine only in that situation once or twice, fortunately not because of something I did, but for something he had seen or that had happened when he trotted to our annual meeting. He never wanted to talk about it. He always said, “In our bit of the year we only talk about happy things.” This was real, his presence filled me with joy and gave me enough energy to live until his next visit. My white buck and I continued with our meetings until the seventies.

Then, for reasons I’d rather not remember, the extinction of the white deer was decreed. Those who only had brown or gray deer turned to look for the owners of white deer. The white deer was found slaughtered. I decided to protect my white buck when he arrived that year with seven bells ringing, I asked him to be very quiet and hid him in my pillow. This was repeated the following year and another and so on until last year. That year, upon arrival, I asked him to ring his seven bells. He looked at me surprised but said nothing. In recent times he had learned to keep quiet. We took a walk, something we hadn’t done for many years, and I didn’t hide him from anyone as we toured the city. Some could see him and some could not. Those who could not see him were saying, “What a fool this man is talking to himself!” Those who saw him exclaimed, “What an incredibly beautiful white deer!” Then I knew that many had not forgotten the existence of the white deer.

In these days of the year, I began to behave as it did when I was a child and young. After the first week of January, as always, he left. He seemed happy and his black eyes glowed. I accompanied him with my eyes until he disappeared between two white clouds. Since then I keep thinking about him. This year, when December arrives, I will anxiously await the return of my white deer. I’m sure he will come with seven bells ringing. It is important to have a white deer!

November 25 2010

There Was a Concert / Claudia Cadelo

Ciro in his uniform as Lt. “Telaplico” with Hebert to the left, behind.

This weekend La Babosa Azul and Porno para Ricardo played a concert in the distant suburbs of Havana. The concert was outstanding, my legs hurt from dancing so much and I’m hoarse from singing “El Comandante.”

I’m going to upload a video and then take a seasonal vacation.

Setting up the concert
December 21, 2010

…they will see me fight again in the Sala Kid Chocolate, in the Sports City or in whatever other place… / Juan Juan Almeida

JJ Odlanier Solis Fonte, you are a glory of sport and the pride of Cuba. Three-time world champion, Olympic champion in Athens 2004, a personality in professional boxing. Why do you think that the Cuban government – violating its own laws – forbids you to enter your own country?

OS Look, I ask myself that but I can’t find an answer. There is no reason to put up with this exit permit, nor an entry visa. That affects us all, but soon, someday it will have to change…. These people are not going to be in power forever. We’re Cuban, Cuba is our country. We have to protest, it is not fair, or decent to bear this injustice.

JJ Yes, we have to protest, but meanwhile, those people who followed you and still follow you from Cuba, and especially from Havana, can’t see you fight.

OS See, that’s something that hurts. To them I dedicate this fight and victory. But sooner or later they’ll see me fight again in the Sala Kid Chocolate*, in the Sports City* or elsewhere. I’m Cuban and proud of it.

*Translator’s note:
Sala Kid Chocolate is an indoor stadium in the center of Havana, near the Capitoilio. Sport City is an athletic complex a few miles out of town, where promising young athletes are sent to live and train, sometimes from childhood, and which houses various sporting venues, and the headquarters of the Cuban Government Sporting Association.

Translated by ricote

December 21, 2010

Tania is so very Tania / Yoani Sánchez

Imagen tomada de http://www.atlantico.net/ - Foto: nuria curras

I remember well the day of the Havana Biennial when Tania Bruguera, in her performance titled Tatlin’s Whisper, installed a pair of microphones so that anyone could enjoy one minute of freedom from the podium. Shortly afterward, this irreverent and universal artist went to Columbia and shocked everyone when — as a performance — she distributed cocaine to the audience. In Cuba, her gift to us was an intense dose of opinion without any gags; in Bogota she confronted them with evidence that drugs are the beginning and the end of many problems in that nation. The Colombian authorities were scandalized, but ultimately accepted that art is inherently a transgressor. But some of us who participated in Tatlin’s Whisper here, continue to be barred from entering movie theaters, theaters and concerts.

A week ago I learned that Tania — our Tania — has decided to found the Migrant Peoples Party based in New York and Berlin. This new party will defend those who were taken to the United States as children and now feel themselves in danger of being deported. She will also focus on undocumented Yugoslavs in Madrid, Nigerians who hide from the police in Paris, and Tamils who falsify their passports to stay in Zurich. Her new work of art/politics is grounded in those who, driven by personal dreams, economic hardship, war, family reunification or the unequal conditions of the world, have settled — without papers — in another country.

I admit I have the impulse to join this immigrant party, give than we eleven million Cubans are segregated in our own nation. There are pieces of our own territory we cannot access, cruise ships plying our waters that we are barred from by our national passports, land given in usufruct for 99 years only to people who can prove they weren’t born here, and joint venture companies for people who say “Madame et Monsieur” or speak in the cadences of Spain. Not to mention the severe restrictions they impose on us to enter and leave our own borders, restrictions that evoke the airport checkpoints where they detain illegals. There are times when we feel our nationality is like an expired visa, a canceled residence card, permission to be here that they can take from us at any time.

December 21, 2010

Cuban Society Seems to be a Theatrical One-Act Farce / Laritza Diversent

The newspaper Granma has called the meetings of country’s social sectors, to define what the economic model should be in future, an unprecedented and improbable event in the contemporary world.

The Newspaper is devoted to making us feel that we live on another different planet. It is sometimes hard to understand Cuban socialists’ form of expression. Is it irony or just a joke? I can’t call it ingenuousness.

Who would think to mention the word ‘define’ to characterize the supposed debate of the Economic Guidelines of Socialism for the next five years? One would have to be a demagogue to assert that the proposed policies will be analysed by our political leaders.

It would be naive and exaggerated to declare that 15% of the guidelines will be redefined after debates with the population in a system where planning and state control come first, and where the only economic actor favoured is State.

Let’s look at the Guidelines in their current formulation with an authentic and radically revolutionary intention, as Granma suggests in its propaganda for the VI Communist Party Congress. Let’s take two points of the Guidelines: The concentration of properties in individuals and legal entities will not be allowed; and higher taxes will be levied on higher incomes.

Let’s think about the problem: the island needs an economic recovery and Cubans want changes; for example, a free market and the abolition of the dual currency. Logic says that if the State Sector has a surplus of more than a million of workers who are already being laid off and if, in the new circumstances, they should support themselves in some way, then the State should give advantages and facilities to the new actors who are capable of generating the jobs that many families will depend on.

The Guidelines say nothing about these aspects. On the contrary, they contain obstacles that impede economic development and the social progress of Cubans. If they ask me what results will be obtained, vis-a-vis the public debate, I predict countless judicial processes for tax evasion, for fattening corruption and a flood of confiscations for illicit enrichment.

None of these topics will be on the agenda of the communists leaders for next April, when they plan to celebrate VI Congress. New policies are defined in accordance with the interests of those who lead and control the country.

Cuban society seems to be a vulgar theatrical one-act farce, and the majority of the population, a simple spectator. It is improbable that in any other part of the world the destiny of more than eleven million people would exclusively depend on the will of a few.

Nor will there be, this time, debate or a real discussion, just demagoguery. Everything is already decided.

Translated by: Antek
December 21 2010

Prophecy / Rebeca Monzo

At the end of the eighties, my son Alfredo, who had recently taken up photography, got a camera. He walked through the whole city, observing and pressing the shutter without stopping.

This is one of the many images he took then, in Reina Street, and to me it seems prophetic.

Slogan on kiosk: Shoot and shoot straight.

These are images I have taken recently in the same street.

clip image0063

clip image0082

Everything indicates that they’ve improved their aim.

December 20 2010

Human Rights Day / Pablo Pacheco

While the world celebrated Human Rights Day, in Cuba the government was repressing peaceful dissent and the Ladies in White. Some of us former political prisoners, exiled to Spain last summer, also raised our voices that day, in support of democracy, respect for the fundamental rights of all Cubans, and for the release of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience on the island.

Several weeks ago, the Amnesty International group in Huelva extended an invitation to me to mark the day. Fortunately, I was able to arrive on time after missing the train, and so was able to describe the harsh reality of my country. I managed to help at least a dozen people to understand that in Cuba there is no government for the people, as Havana has tried to convince people for several decades, but a cruel dictatorship that systematically violates human rights and has turned Cuba into a nation in ruins.

It is the ideal time for the democratic world to support the Cuban people. To understand that we care less about the ideologies of left, right, liberal or otherwise. We just want to live like human beings, with freedom, dignity and by the sweat of our brow. The regime, which has enslaved us for years, is weak and isolated. To miss this opportunity may cost us many years of suffering.

Much news filled that day. The greatest media coverage was about the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobao, whose government prevented him from collecting his Nobel Peace Prize. Personally, I do not think his seat was empty as the press reported. It is true that his body was absent, but his soul was there in the empty chair, and although the communist regime in Beijing has him behind bars, he is a free man. Human freedom begins with our thoughts and they can only imprison us when we allow our thoughts to be chained. The names of the countries who boycotted the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony does not surprise me, because their governments are also enemies of freedom.

December 17, 2010

Note: Pablo Pacheco formerly blogged in “Voices Behind the Bars” when he was a political prisoner in Cuba. He has now been released and forcibly exiled to Spain, and has a new blog, “Cuban Voices from Exile.” We will continue to post him here, for a time, until his faithful readers have found their way to his new home.

A Fine Line / Fernando Dámaso

  1. When in a society fear find itself enthroned, there is a tenuous line that separates it from valor, doubt gets hold of citizens who start questioning how far they can go without being punished.
  2. Under such circumstances one opts for not taking too many risks and for self censorship as a means not really civic but so convenient to survive while waiting for better times
  3. This moral ambiguity hurts the individual consciousness and contaminates the social one, creating an ideal breeding ground for people without their own opinions, more concerned with repeating what has been approved and established, rather than with raising questions.
  4. Examples can be seen daily in our media, when someone is interviewed or asked to answer an intelligent question. The answers oscillate between utter vagueness and the exact repetition of slogans and clichés. Generally, what is said or written is not what is thought or felt, easy to detect when establishing a personal dialogue without interference from the media.
  5. This abnormal, unnatural and unhealthy situation does not help clear the way for solving our many problems, but complicates it. One needs to decide to cross the thin line between fear and courage.

Translated by: d

November 28 2010