English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Novels, essay, and poetry in a year of memory, critique, and literary resistance 14ymedio, Havana, January 10, 2026 — Cuban literature in 2025 once again demonstrated that, even in a context of editorial scarcity, censorship, and geographic dispersion, books remain one of the most effective tools for thinking about the country. From the Island and from … Continue reading “The 14 Most Important Cuban Books of 2025”
14ymedio, Havana, March 15, 2023 — The Madrid-based Betania publishing house has issued a catalog containing a collection of thirty-seven Cuban-themed e-books that can be downloaded for free from its website. The volumes are available in PDF format and were released by the publisher between 2011 and 2023. As stated in its introduction, Betania began … Continue reading “Betania Is Offering Readers Thirty-Seven Cuban Books as Free Downloads”
14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, Spain, 29 December 2022 — The only mention of Delfín Prats in the Historia de la Literatura Cubana [History of Cuban Literature] is a piece of critical sanitation, a general cleansing. Lenguaje de mudos [Language of Mutes] (1968), explains the text, was “a book that, for short-term reasons derived from an extremely deficient cultural … Continue reading “‘With the Years You Learn That You Don’t Have to Dissent’”
14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 21 May 2022 — Holguín exists thanks to a plague of ants and bibijaguas [leaf cutter ants]. It is the strangest and most enigmatic region of the Island. Columbus entered Cuba through it and in Nipe – the largest bay in the archipelago – the Virgin of Charity was found. In … Continue reading “‘That Secret Symphony’, Holguín’s Poetic Dissidence”
Regina Coyula, 30 January 2017 — In 1988 the Holguin poet Delfín Prats won the critic’s prize with his poetry collection “To Celebrate the Rise of Icarus,” and a friend of that time who didn’t want to see his name on my blog, on the night of the award ceremony brought Delfín to my house. It … Continue reading “With Regards to ‘Santa and Andres’* / Regina Coyula”
On 13 March 1963, during a commemoration on the steps of the University of Havana, Fidel Castro said: “For there walks a specimen, another byproduct we must fight (…), many of these lazy ‘hipsters,’ children of the bourgeois, walk around in their too-tight pants, some of them with a guitar thinking they’re Elvis Presley. And … Continue reading “The Night of the Long Scissors / Camilo Ernesto Olivera”
In “Vinci” the episodic film on the life of Leonardo, Eduardo Del Llano borders on indigence. “Don’t fool yourselves; my film is “buenisima” as its screenwriter and director Eduardo del Llano rebukes us in his eponymous blog. The sentence could not be more precise. That something is buenisima is said in Cuba in television adventures … Continue reading “Del Llano Flames Out With "Veni Vidi Vinci" / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
After so many years of being gagged, we couldn’t hope for anything other than this discordant chorus in which voices climb, one above the other – you have to answer the opinion issued yesterday, also be quiet, stop just long enough to be read and overlap with others that are already collected on our computers or … Continue reading “Discordant Chorus – Leticia Córdoba / POLEMICA: The 2007 Intellectual Debate”
– From Josefina de Diego – I confess that I didn’t remember the full text known as “Words to the Intellectuals,” delivered by Fidel Castro on June 30, 1961, at the National Library to a group of intellectuals. I think that, like many people, the only thing I remembered from the text was his famous … Continue reading “Thoughts on Fidel’s “Words to the Intellectuals” and other texts / POLEMICA: The 2007 Intellectual Debate”
Several friends who follow the blog have asked me why I haven’t commented on Fidel’s statements about the persecution of homosexuals in an interview with the director of the Mexican daily La Jornada. My casual access to the web makes commenting on any current them delayed. But three years ago I followed with great interest … Continue reading “Yesterday’s Homophobia / Regina Coyula”
For my soul brother Angel Santiesteban, prisoner of Cuba for thinking differently. For my second father, Raul Guerra, who died intoxicated with disappointment. The Death of the Cat Writer: Lilo Vilaplana Genre: Fiction Category: Fiction The Death of the Cat is much more than an exceptionally accomplished work of art by Lilo Vilaplana. It is … Continue reading “Let’s Join "The Death of The Cat" in Denouncing the Castro Dictatorship at FIBABC”
Movie Magic Finally, by means of my son’s cell phone, in his visit to me in past days where they keep me locked up, I could appreciate the short film, “Death of the cat,” from the Cuban director Lilo Vilaplana, living for more than a decade in Colombia, the place where he took — in … Continue reading “Cuban Talent Bound for the Cannes International Film Festival / Angel Santiesteban”