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”

‘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”

The Other Fidel Castro / Iván García

Ivan Garcia, 6 February 2018 —  A silent police patrol began to search passersby they considered suspicious. When they saw it, the illegal tomato sellers quickly hid their merchandise on the staircase of a building in Havana’s Vibora neighborhood at Acosta and Diez de Octubre. An old woman, a regular seller of the newspaper Granma … Continue reading “The Other Fidel Castro / Iván García”

“There is No Room for Suicides in the Pantheon of the Fatherland”

14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 2 February 2018 — The suicide of Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart on Thursday is added to a long list of figures linked to power in Cuba who have chosen to end their lives in the last six decades. The history of the Cuban Revolution cannot be told without including its deserters, its exiles … Continue reading ““There is No Room for Suicides in the Pantheon of the Fatherland””

Desiderio Navarro Dies, the “Lone Ranger” of Cuban Semiotics

14ymedio, Havana, 8 December 2017 — The essayist, literary critic, semiotician and translator, Desiderio Navarro, died Thursday in Havana, at 69 years of age as a result of cancer that, for the last year, had prevented him from appearing in public. Navarro, born in Camagüey in 1948, was a renowned polyglot and poet, as well … Continue reading “Desiderio Navarro Dies, the “Lone Ranger” of Cuban Semiotics”

Armando Hart Dávalos Dies, Most Loyal of All Fidelistas

14ymedio, Havana, 26 November 2017 — Cuban politician Armando Hart Dávalos died on Sunday afternoon in Havana at 87 years of age due to respiratory failure, according to the official press. The news was announced in the midst of the commemoration of the first anniversary of the death of Fidel Castro. Born on 13 June 1930, … Continue reading “Armando Hart Dávalos Dies, Most Loyal of All Fidelistas”

Nominated for Reporters Without Borders Prize / Iván García, Tania Quintera

Tania Quintero and Iván García, Lucerne and Havana, 25 October 2016 — To all our friends: Thank you for the congratulatory emails to Ivan and me (Tania Quintera) for having been nominated by Reporters Without Borders for their Press Freedom Prize in the category of Citizen Journalists. Thanks also for the notices published in Diario de Cuba, Diario … Continue reading “Nominated for Reporters Without Borders Prize / Iván García, Tania Quintera”

U.S. Government Snubs the Independent Cuban Press / Ivan Garcia

Iván García, Havana, 10 August 2015 — The U.S. Embassy in Havana, the State Department, and the administration of Barack Obama, have intentionally mapped out a strategy to prevent independent Cuban journalists from covering the visit of John Kerry and the official reopening of the diplomatic headquarters on Friday, August 14. For the the four-day … Continue reading “U.S. Government Snubs the Independent Cuban Press / Ivan Garcia”