English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Betania Publishing offers the complete edition of the book, first published in 1991, as a free download. 14ymedio, 30 July 2025 , Madrid/ (Fragment) IV Like the first dawn of the world. That is it, and you have to adjust to that. But while the heart adjusts, it will be useless for you to fatigue … Continue reading “‘La novia de Lázaro’, by Dulce María Loynaz [Download the book for free]”
14ymedio, Havana, 20 October 2022 — Ediciones Loynaz, the publishing house of Pinar del Río that publishes Pedro Juan Gutiérrez and Dulce María Loynaz, presents its titles at the International Book Fair in Frankfurt (Germany), which is held from this Wednesday through Sunday. The invitation was made possible thanks to a program for small publishers, … Continue reading “The Cuban Publisher That Rescued the Work of Dulce Maria Loynaz Presents its Catalogue in Frankfurt”
14ymedio, Manuel Díaz Martínez, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 21 January 2018 — Betania Publishers, in print and digital editions, has released the book La familia Loynaz y Cuba, by Luis García de la Torre, with a prologue by the Cuban essayist and professor Alejandro González Acosta, who is living in Mexico. In this book we … Continue reading “The Loynaz Family and Cuba”
THE SWEET NAME OF THE DEAD MARÍA For MT and MJ Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo In the nineties, there were the great gay birds and they respected her mystical magical aura, as if she were a diva on Cuban television, a marionette of Marie Antoinette. They even went to her mansion in El Vedado to … Continue reading “DULCE MARÍA LOYNAZ 1997-2012* / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Writer Jorge Ferrer narrates the traces of totalitarianism in three generations of his family 14ymedio, Madrid, 3 June 2024 — “There are many ways to have encountered the Russian and Cuban revolutions, and end up hurt by them. A lot,” says Jorge Ferrer (b. Havana, 1967). The writer and translator wanted to investigate the stories … Continue reading “‘The Main Achievement of the Cuban Revolution Is Its Exile’”
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 12 June 2023 — At the recent Madrid Book Fair, they read out a manifesto: Literature, always on the side of freedom. The regime in Havana, always quick with a smart answer, put out a riposte in the name of Casa de las Americas, with the title: On the side … Continue reading “Now Havana Wants to be Dulcinea”
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”
14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 7 May 2023 – I re-read Dulce María Loynaz, I listen to recordings of her voice, I submerge myself in her world. I see her descending to the lounge of her house in an iron elevator. She opens the grille and exits, fanning herself, passing between the armchairs and yellowing sculptures. … Continue reading “A Soldier’s Daughter”
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”
Alas Tensas, Editorial, 2 May 2018 – Those of us publishing the feminist magazine Alas Tensas have been subject to systematic harassment and attacks over the last two months. No doubt they want or need our independent and self-proclaimed feminist media to disappear. As the British feminist Mary Beard says in her essay The Public … Continue reading “Why Do They Want to Cut Our Wings? / Alas Tensas”
Ivan Garcia, 22 September 2017 — In that bit of Havana between Calle Línea and Avenida del Malecón, people are still taking out mattresses, clothes, furniture, and other things damaged by the sea which was driven inland by the powerful Hurricane Irma two weeks ago, and leaving them to air in the sun. In any park, … Continue reading “What if Hurricane María had gone through Cuba? / Iván García”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 18 February 2017 — When one looks at that territory of Cuban literature inhabited by women, it is usually observed from the concept of gender. Among those who study the phenomenon with more intensity, and also with more courage, Ileana Álvarez stands out. She is a poet, essayist, author of a dozen books and … Continue reading “Ileana Álvarez, Wings Always Ready To Fly / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar”
14ymedio, Yaiza Santos, Mexico, 21 January 2016 – For now, Cuba will not celebrate the Hay Festival planned for this coming week in Havana, as confirmed by the event organizers. The Hay Festival originated in the Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye in 1988, and since 1996 has been celebrated in several foreign cities, among them Kells … Continue reading “Hay Festival Suspends Its Event In Havana / 14ymedio, Yaiza Santos”
Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, 10 April 2015 We Cubans are going to miss Fidel a lot. Fidel was a spontaneous, almost infantile, assassin with an irresistible charisma that eroticized even his bodyguards. Meanwhile, he could kill just out of a curiosity to see his victims’ last expression of panic or rage. Like someone who naively opens … Continue reading “Everyone Bears Your Name, Fidel / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
14ymedio, Regina Coyula, 2 March 2015 — Beautiful, intelligent, affluent – as Félix de Cossío portrayed her, dressed for a party – Natalia Revuelta Clews was collaborating with the Orthodox Party when, on 10 March 1952, hearing of Batista’s coup d’etat on the way to her job as an executive at Esso Standard Oil, she … Continue reading “Naty Revuelta, Some Notes for an Incomplete Biography / 14ymedio, Regina Coyula”