Search results for: Casa de las Américas

Casa de las Americas Licks Its Wounds on Its 65th Anniversary and Longs for Its Influence in the Region

14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, April 27, 2024 — After 65 years operating as a kind of second ministry of culture, Casa de las Américas longs for the time when the institution was more powerful and influenced the cultural debates of the continent. On the eve of the anniversary, its president, cultural commissioner Abel Prieto, regrets … Continue reading “Casa de las Americas Licks Its Wounds on Its 65th Anniversary and Longs for Its Influence in the Region”

Conference for Over-40s in the Casa de las Americas / POLEMICA: The 2007 Intellectual Debate, Isbel Diaz Torres

Yes, it would appear that the themes discussed yesterday at the Casa de las Américas [an institution in Havana to promote inter-cultural links with other countries <transl.>] were not of interest for the future of Cuban culture and thought. It seems like they were trying to mend fences (with every justification) with some of the … Continue reading “Conference for Over-40s in the Casa de las Americas / POLEMICA: The 2007 Intellectual Debate, Isbel Diaz Torres”

In the Midst of a Deep Publication Crisis, Nine Volumes of the ‘Selected Works’ by Raúl Castro Are Presented

The general did not attend the presentation but did attend the ceremony for the anniversary of the Central Committee of the Party 14ymedio, Havana, October 4, 2025 — With the publication this Friday of his Obras escogidas [Selected Works], Raúl Castro intends to go down in history, imitating his brother not only as a political … Continue reading “In the Midst of a Deep Publication Crisis, Nine Volumes of the ‘Selected Works’ by Raúl Castro Are Presented”

Piglia, Detective on the ‘Che’ Guevara Case

First part of a text about the Argentine writer’s trip to Havana in the 1960s 14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 7 September 2025 — I am the proud owner of the first edition of Jaulario by Ricardo Piglia, published in 1967 by Casa de las Américas*. Why repress my vanity? The tiny copy looks like it’s … Continue reading “Piglia, Detective on the ‘Che’ Guevara Case”

Haydée Santamaría’s Farewell Letter

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 28 July 2020 [delayed translation] — Forty years ago today, Haydée Santamaría Cuadrado committed suicide. Her self-immolation occurred two days after the 27th anniversary of the Moncada Barracks attack. That commemorative event was held in the plaza named after her brother, Abel Santamaría, in the province of Ciego de Ávila. It … Continue reading “Haydée Santamaría’s Farewell Letter”

Haydée Santamaría, An Almost Forgotten Symbol of a Revolutionary Suicide

In 1980, the human stampede towards the Peruvian embassy left her stunned. 14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 28 July 2025 — Haydée Santamaría Cuadrado shot herself in the head on July 28, 1980, two days after the 27th anniversary of the Moncada barracks attack. It’s even said that the bullet could have been fired on … Continue reading “Haydée Santamaría, An Almost Forgotten Symbol of a Revolutionary Suicide”

Dear Mario

When Haydée Santamaría signs her last letter to Vargas Llosa, she addresses a man who has already written some of the greatest novels in the language 14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 9 February 2025 — How little we know of Haydée Santamaría. An odd woman who suffered from depression, someone consumed by incurable resentment. She committed … Continue reading “Dear Mario”

A Comrade Has Died

The regime is trying to recuperate painter Hugo Consuegra, a member of the Eleven and a critic of Fidel Castro. 14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 29 March 2025 — What happened in Cuba that made Hugo Consuegra have to wait six decades between his last solo exhibition and the one recently organized in Havana? He was … Continue reading “A Comrade Has Died”

‘Writers and Artists Under Communism’, a Chronicle About the Cuban Government’s Hatred of Culture

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, January 6, 2024 — “Down with the apolitical writers! Down with the supermen of literature!” “Their original sin: they are not authentically revolutionary.” “Outside the Revolution, no rights.” The law of eternal return presides over the tension between the intellectuals and communism. Guevara repeats Castro, and Castro repeats Stalin or Mao. … Continue reading “‘Writers and Artists Under Communism’, a Chronicle About the Cuban Government’s Hatred of Culture”

The Cuban Regime Hijacked the Academy of Languages for Critcising Daniel Ortega

Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 15 May 2023 – On 20 June 2022, the Cuban Language Academy (ACuL) sent out a laconic message: the poet Roberto Méndez, who should have led the institution until 2026, gave up his post “for health reasons”. His successor would be the essayist Jorge Fornet, the then vice-director and one of the … Continue reading “The Cuban Regime Hijacked the Academy of Languages for Critcising Daniel Ortega”

Cuban Writer Eduardo Heras Leon, ‘Counterrevolutionary’ and Loyal to Fidel Castro, Dies

14ymedio, Havana, April 13, 2023 — Cuban writer, journalist and publisher Eduardo Heras León, National Prize for Literature in 2014, passed away this Thursday in Havana at the age of 82. Founder of the Onelio Jorge Cardoso Literary Training Center, he was one of the intellectuals “parameterized”* during the so-called Grey Quinquennium, the Five Grey … Continue reading “Cuban Writer Eduardo Heras Leon, ‘Counterrevolutionary’ and Loyal to Fidel Castro, Dies”

‘Cuban State Security is the Last Antediluvian Monster Left Standing’

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 8 September 2021 — The independent journalist Yoe Suárez won the first edition of the Iliad Journalism Prize, convened by the Berlin-based publishing house of the same name, and the cultural magazine Otro Lunes [Another Monday], registered in Spain, with a book on the repression of Cuban State Security. The work, titled Leviatán. … Continue reading “‘Cuban State Security is the Last Antediluvian Monster Left Standing’”

The Cuban Regime and its Propaganda Apparatus Prefer Death to Life

14ymedio, Havana, 18 February 2021 — Covid-19 offers no truce — 923 cases and 5 deaths in the last report — but Cuban authorities seemed more concerned this Thursday about the surprising success of the video clip Patria y vida, which has gone viral on social networks. All the official media, starting with Granma, the daily of the Communist Party, dedicate several … Continue reading “The Cuban Regime and its Propaganda Apparatus Prefer Death to Life”

Cuba Denies Entry to Cuban Poet Jorge Luis Arcos / 14yMedio

14ymedio, Havana, 16 July 2019 — Cuban authorities denied entry to Cuba to the poet and essayist Jorge Luis Arcos. The academic was not allowed to board a flight in Santiago de Chile because airline employees informed him that he could not enter the island, according to a press release from the Betania publishing house. … Continue reading “Cuba Denies Entry to Cuban Poet Jorge Luis Arcos / 14yMedio”

Posthumous Novel by Rafael Alcides, Against Death, Against Oblivion / Ramon Fernandez-Larrea

Translated from* from El Nuevo Herald, Ramón Fernández-Larrea, 8 November 2018 When one receives a novel – written by a friend who is a poet, or by a friend who has been and is forever a great poet – with the title Contracastro, one could never imagine that it is a love story, and not a pamphlet … Continue reading “Posthumous Novel by Rafael Alcides, Against Death, Against Oblivion / Ramon Fernandez-Larrea”