English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Angel Santiesteban, Border Control Prison, Havana, 13 April 2015 — I met him at the beginning of the 90s. I was introduced to him after reading one of my stories and he liked it. He signed one of his books for me which I keep with devotion. In those years I accompanied him, along with … Continue reading “Eduardo Galeano’s Last Embrace / Angel Santiesteban”
This article by Luis Felipe Rojas was originally published in ‘Diario de Cuba‘: Luis Felipe Rojas, along with his 8 year old son, at the door of his home which was vandalized with paint recently at 3 AM. There once was an excellent writer. A man who could make one fall in love with his … Continue reading “Galeano the Sightless / Luis Felipe Rojas”
14ymedio, Yunior Garcia Aguilera, Madrid, 15 November 2023 — The international left sometimes seems less like an ideology and more like a dogma. Many of its organizations and activists are motivated by compacts, debts and interests, not by principles or objectives. The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, for example, are capable of embracing today’s dictators … Continue reading “Cuba Respects Neither Human Rights nor ‘Human Lefts’”
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 19 August 2023 — Every other day the regime seems to spare no effort to try to convince Cubans that bankification — banking reform — is something good for them. An article in the oficial newspaper Granma entitled “Technology and bankification” is a historical review of facts intended to justify an … Continue reading “Cuba’s Twisted Path to ‘Bankification’, Propaganda and Demagoguery Open the Way”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, November 2, 2021 — The dictatorship’s most frequently recurring formula to impede or interfere with changes that do not align with their interests has been to incarcerate. They’ve raised the bar in two ways: first, by presenting as apocalyptic the results of anything they consider a “return to the past,” and … Continue reading “A Brief Chronology of Disregard and Intolerance in Cuba”
Yolanda Huerga (Radio Televisión Martí), April, 19, 2020 — It’s been 17 years since that April 19 when a group of Cuban artists and writers signed a letter supporting the imprisonment of 75 dissidents, the execution of three young men and life sentences for the other four, after they hijacked a boat with the intention … Continue reading “When The Intellectuals Supported “The Terror Of Castrismo.” Seventeen Years After The “Message From Havana.””
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 8 October 2019 — I have my personal past with Ernesto Guevara. A brief written text for the newspaper Juventud Rebelde, published on 9 October 1987, was included, among others, in the record of accusations that ended with my expulsion from that newspaper and with the express prohibition of my exercising my … Continue reading “The Empty Chair Left by ’Che’ Guevara”
Havana Times, Lynn Cruz, 10 May 2018 – Cuban scientist sentenced to one year in prison for ‘disrespecting” government authority, was the title of an article recently published in the Miami Herald. And that is Ariel Ruiz Urquiola, a universal researcher. His work and light transcend the borders of this island. A great man, with … Continue reading “The Cuban Revolution Sentences a Revolutionary Scientist / Lynn Cruz”
Ángel Santiesteban, 2 September 2016 — After writing what will now be considered the first part of this post, and publishing it under this same title, I was arrested by State Security; however it was not the writing, and much less the visibility that it would attain in my blog, that was the real cause for the … Continue reading “Assassins, Accomplices, and Victims (II) / Ángel Santiesteban”
14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, 31 January 2016 – Let’s get right down to it. The current conflict that divides half the planet, and especially Latin Americans, is between neo-populism and authoritarian democracy, against liberal democracy. I just developed a short course on the subject at the Francisco Marroquín University in Guatemala. I do not know … Continue reading “Our Everyday War / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner”
Cubanet, Luis Cino Alvarez, Havana, 26 January 2015 – “Cubans are seeking a new conception of the press within socialism. All that can be predicted, without a doubt, is that it will be a democratic press, lively and original,” wrote Gabriel García Márquez in 1975. That Gabo — always so unreal, so optimistic when it … Continue reading “The official press: “Made to conceal, not to publicize” / Cubanet, Luis Cino Alvarez”
Neighbors witnessing the arrest of a dissident in 2003 — see more detailed note below. 2003 was an incredible year. Harassment, arbitrary detentions, acts of repudiation and verbal assaults against the opposition by the government were rising. There was an escalation by the government against peaceful dissidents and independent journalists. Castro called a referendum to … Continue reading “When Fidel Castro Wanted to Break Up the Dissident Movement / Ivan Garcia”
Well now I am in my house, just returned from the sixth birthday of Ada’s twins; Ada is the sister of my friend Agustín. I love going with my daughter, all very simple, just great in the way that she knows how to share this family whose roots are in Villa Clara. There is nothing … Continue reading “Forbidden Books / Lilianne Ruíz”
I am still laughing about the first glance at my digital library, in which I have been able to succeed in capturing known authors from many years ago. To have some of the books saved moves me, including one of the poems, by Carlos Alberto Montaner, a pair of passages from speeches from conferences, by … Continue reading “Limits to the Tolerance of the Librarian / Lilianne Ruíz”
I am sure of one thing: the day will come when Cubans will go out in peace to break down the wall. Peacefully, because we will not attack each other in the streets, we will just work together, as the Germans did with the Berlin Wall. The dictatorship we are saddled with, the great farce … Continue reading “I Am Sure of One Thing / Lilianne Ruíz”
