English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 3 January 2022 — The rattle of the Community Services trucks has people climbing sidewalks to make way for the giant. Two men get out and push a garbage container cracked on its sides. Among flies and shouts, customers waiting to shop at the Plaza de Carlos III see the garbage … Continue reading “Garbage Collection in Cuba: From Creative Resistance to Desperate Patch”
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 12 December 2022 — Analysts of the Cuban economy attribute to Cuban President Díaz-Canel the concept of “creative resistance” that the communist president uses every time he refers to the possibility of overcoming economic problems. In essence, Díaz-Canel understands creative resistance as “a capacity of the people not only to … Continue reading “Creative Resistance and the Cuban Economy”
14ymedio, 15 April 2105 — The Cuban artist Danilo Maldonado, known as El Sexto (The Sixth*), is one of three winners of the 2015 Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent, as announced on Wednesday by the New York-based Human Rights Foundation (HRF). Also receiving the prize are members of the Sudanese non-violent resistance movement Girifna, … Continue reading ““El Sexto” Awarded 2015 Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent / 14ymedio”
Transportation is going through “one of its worst moments,” acknowledges the minister of the sector 14ymedio, Havana, 18 April 2024 — It’s no secret to President Miguel Díaz-Canel that Cuba is a country paralyzed by its transportation crisis and he dedicated this Thursday’s broadcast of his Cuban-style “Hello President” program to the topic. His interlocutor, the … Continue reading “In Cuba the Number of Vehicles Has Been Cut in Half in Five Years”
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 28 December 2023 — Endogamy is the practice of marrying in closed groups, between individuals of common ancestry. Reproduction between parents who are closely related greatly increases the chances that the offspring will be affected by recessive traits or genetic impairments. One of the most notorious cases was King Charles … Continue reading “The Ideological Endogamy of the Cuban Regime”
14ymedio, Havana, November 4, 2023 — On Friday, the second day of the Cuban Journalists Union (Upec) congress, the leitmotiv was the word ’crisis’. Crisis of the “socialist press model,” economic crisis of the media and, of course, the deep depression of salaries, the delegates enumerated. The solution to get out of the financial quagmire: … Continue reading “President Diaz-Canel Proposes ‘Making a Revolution’ with Cuban Journalism, Without Giving More Details”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodriguez, Havana, September 29, 2023 — “We are not out of gas,” said Vicente de la O Levy, the minister of Energy and Mining during Wednesday’s special broadcast of the television interview program Mesa Redonda (Roundtable). If his intention was to reassure the public, he failed. The drastic measures adopted by several … Continue reading “Cubans Increasingly Anxious to Buy Gas before the Supply Runs Out”
14ymedio, Yunior Garcia Aguilera, Madrid, August 16, 2023 — Why did it take Cuba so long to gain its independence? By the time most of its neighboring colonies had won their freedom, why was Cuba still known as “the ever loyal one”? So why has the Castro regime lasted so long? Jorge Videla was dictator … Continue reading “The Unfortunate Laziness of Our Liberty”
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, 1 August 2023 Access to the internet barely functions. The ATMs are almost out of cash. The Electric Union announces an increase in blackouts. It is better not to go near the hospitals because there are no serums for hydration. Bus stops have become places for long waits. There are … Continue reading “A Hot August is Coming in Cuba”
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 24 July 2023 I am concerned that not enough emphasis is being given in the national media to warn of the dangers of these high temperatures. I am concerned that there isn’t a place in the whole city where you can get a free glass of water. I am … Continue reading “In the Midst of the Heatwave Cubans Can’t Even Find a Free Glass of Water on the Street”
14ymedio, Havana, 22 May 2023 — Night arrived this Sunday without many Havanans having a gas supply twelve hours after the breakdown announced by the Cuba-Petróleo Union (Cupet). The company issued a statement of a few lines reporting a failure at 12:10 in the switch of the compressor system of the Puerto Escondido plant, in … Continue reading “A Breakdown in the Puerto Escondido Plant Leaves Havana Without a Gas Supply”
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 27 April 2023 — Cuba president Díaz-Canel’s intense agenda didn’t prevent him from holding a review meeting with controllers and auditors, and in particular with Señora Gladys Bejarano, once a star of the firmament of the Cuban communist economy, and now perhaps, at her lowest hour. Sra. Bejarano is the … Continue reading “Cuba’s Comptroller’s Office: From Administrative Control to Popular Control”
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 5 April 2023 — That April 19, 2018, when deputies had to “elect” the president of the Republic, there was only one name on their ballots aspiring to the position. Raúl Castro himself cleared away all doubts by declaring that his appointment was not a coincidence, that it was planned … Continue reading “Cuba’s Diaz-Canel, Five Years as Hand-Picked Dictator”
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, January 3, 2023 — Almost everyone has heard of the Golden Raspberry Awards, popularly known as the Razzies or the anti-Oscars, where the worst films and performances of the year are recognized. The video presented by Díaz-Canel to welcome 2023 could very well sweep those awards, if they were to … Continue reading “Cuba: A Raspberry for the Little Dictator”
14ymedio, Havana, 12 December 2022 — Passenger transport in Cuba is in a limited situation, as revealed this Sunday in the parliamentary committee on attention to services, which took place in the presence of the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz. The plan has been fulfilled by just 59%, said Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, Minister of Transport, … Continue reading “Scarcely 59 Percent of Passenger Transport in Cuba is Operating”
