English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Madrid, 9 February 2023 — The European press normally pays little attention to what is happening in Cuba. In recent months, however, the continent’s media outlets have turned their focus to the enormous exodus from the island, which has left business managers unable to find workers. Data published on Thursday in an article by … Continue reading “There Are Plenty of Jobs in Cuba But No One Wants to Live Here”
14ymedio, Alejandro Mena Ortiz, Miami, 30 October 2022 — David left his dream of being a dentist to open a barbershop in Havana in 2016, one of the best years in Cuban’s recent history, with the visit of Barack Obama, tourism reaching the sky and hopes for more lively changes than ever. Six years later, … Continue reading “When the Rebellion of the Cuban Barbers Failed, David Left by the ‘Route of the Volcanos’”
14ymedio, Havana, 11 July 2022 — That July 11, the 14ymedio reporters were in the streets of Havana and Santiago de Cuba, anonymously, like almost all Cubans who went out that day to demonstrate peacefully. They were unable to immediately transmit the photos and videos they had collected. That same day and for the next three, the state telecommunications monopoly Etecsa cut off … Continue reading “11J (July 11th) in Cuba: ’14ymedio’ Was Here and Will Stay Here”
14ymedio, Alejandro Mena Ortiz, 2 May 2022 — The conditions of the prison were not bad, as I was saying, and in addition you could also play Parcheesi, dominoes, chess, soccer or basketball. We turned into a huge, multinational family. One of the Cubans who impressed me the most was a guy from Villa Clara … Continue reading “Cuban Migration Part 10 – A Few Days in a Texas Jail and the Unknown Taste of Freedom”
14ymedio, Alejandro Mena Ortiz, 1 May 2022 — We were very afraid in that thicket. We didn’t know what was going to happen, we didn’t have phones, helicopters were flying overhead. If they saw us, we had to run, but… there was nowhere to run. We were there for three or four hours. I wrote … Continue reading “Cuban Migration Part 9 — They Put 15 of Us on our Knees in a Raft to Cross the Rio Grande”
14ymedio, Alejandro Mena Ortiz, 30 April 2022 — Three hours into the trip, on the way to Monterrey, I had cramps on my buttocks. Imagine eleven more hours. Luckily, I took a paracetamol which relieved the pain, but after a few hours the pain was back again. I asked them to please let me stretch … Continue reading “Cuban Migration Part 8 – In Monterrey, Each Cartel Assigns a Code to its Migrants”
14ymedio, Alejandro Mena Ortiz, 29 April 2022 — On the third day in Villahermosa, in the state of Tabasco, they prepared a bag for us with a snack and explained that the bus trip to Mexico City was going to be a bit long. We would have between 15 and 24 hours ahead of us, … Continue reading “Cuban Migration Part 7 – To Mexico City, a 17-hour Trip, Standing on a Bus”
14ymedio, Alejandro Mena Ortiz, 28 April 2022 — The entrance to Mexico was incredibly calm, it was as if we were arriving home. There was also one of these mobsters there, I guess waiting for a payment. After a while, the guide returned with a very modern Nissan and took us to a warehouse to wait. … Continue reading “Cuban Migration Part 6 – Encounter with Angel, the Gang Member Who Fled from Crime”
14ymedio, Alejandro Mena Ortiz, 27 April 2022 — In that motel there were rooms and hammocks, which were outside, in the yard, and those with the fewest resources stayed there, sometimes women with children. Juan, the trafficker, would then say: “Come to the room, even if you don’t pay me, it doesn’t matter. Give them … Continue reading “Cuban Migration Part 5 – At the Border with Mexico, if You Don’t Pay the ‘Tax’, You Get Shot”
14ymedio, Alejandro Mena Ortiz, 26 April 2022 — That day they woke us up at four in the morning and gathered us together as if it were a show at dawn, grouping and distributing us: some by car, others in vans. I was assigned to go in a hermetically closed truck, with 27 other people. … Continue reading “Cuban Migration Part 4 – Scare in Guatemala: They Viewed Cubans with Distrust”
14ymedio, Alejandro Mena Ortiz, 25 April 2022 –The next bus, which we boarded at San Pedro Sula, had more capacity than normal, because it had three seats on one side and two on the other, so, luckily, we were able to sit down. I think that on the other bus some people did have to … Continue reading “Cuban Migration Part 3 – Armed ‘Coyotes’, Powerful Toyotas to Cross Honduras”
14ymedio, Alejandro Mena Ortiz, 24 April 2022 — Trojes is a very poor village in southern Honduras. I stayed in a typical country house, very humble. However, the food was not lacking. In that house lived three women and a man who knew life in Cuba well, because many Cubans had passed through there before … Continue reading “Cuban Migration Part 2: Caravan Through Honduras: There Were 30 Motorcycles with 30 Cubans Riding on Them”
14ymedio, Alejandro Mena Ortiz, 23 April 2022 — I had never left Cuba in my life, so emigrating was the most difficult decision I have ever made. I had to painfully say goodbye to the people I love: my children, my grandmother, my mother, my father, my wife, my brothers. There is only one reason to have … Continue reading “Cuban Migration Part 1: The Volcanoes Route: I Trembled with Anguish, I Felt That I Was Leaving Everyone Behind”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchéz, Havana, 21 May 2022 – One eats more roast pork and black beans in Miami than in Havana, the mojito has become a drink selling better in Berlin bars than in Varadero taverns, and the founding anniversary of the Republic is a date that is celebrated more in exile than within the … Continue reading “Cuba: The Great Exodus”
14ymedio, Havana, 17 March 2022 — In contrast to the previous trials of July 11 protesters, in which the final sentences were lower than those sought by the prosecutors, the Diez de Octubre Tribunal in Havana, which tried 33 people on January 31, has been relentless. Thus, it has sentenced Brandon David Becerra Curbelo, 17 … Continue reading “Almost 2,000 Years of Jail Time for 128 of the July 11 (11J) Protesters in Cuba”
