Search results for: Eliseo Alberto Diego

My Point of View / Eliseo Alberto Diego – "Lichi" / POLEMICA: The 2007 Intellectual Debate

“When I close the door, I never know whether I’m inside or outside.” (Judith Vázquez) I open the door. The unexpected and inexplicable (and as yet unexplained) return to TV of Jorge Papito Serguera, El Gordo Quesada and Luis Pavón Tamayo, a.k.a. (some say) Leopoldo Ávila, has awoken a logical agitation in Cuban intellectual circles, … Continue reading “My Point of View / Eliseo Alberto Diego – "Lichi" / POLEMICA: The 2007 Intellectual Debate”

TWO DECADES OF DIEGO AND DAVID / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

After a thousand years, I’ve run Strawberry and Chocolate on my laptop. It was a magical moment, that era. Cuba was laughing its head off. But the truth emerged as never before, on the remains of an infamous ideology, childish. We made free in the face of the Hegemon of our history. The death and … Continue reading “TWO DECADES OF DIEGO AND DAVID / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”

La Plaza de Armas, Tourist Heart of Havana, Is Dying

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 24 October 2024 – Once upon a time there was a place that was pure noise. Legend has it that in Old Havana’s Plaza de Armas “you had to ask one foot’s permission to place the opposite foot down”. Luis Mario, who worked in the nearby restaurant La Mina when … Continue reading “La Plaza de Armas, Tourist Heart of Havana, Is Dying”

The Cuban Baseball Federation Suffers From Historical Amnesia

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Havana, 1 June 2021 — The writer Eliseo Alberto Diego, known as Lichi, used to say that “history is a cat who always falls on her feet.” The Cuban Baseball Federation should be warned about this ability of the past to stand up, a way of avoiding silence and manipulation. The official … Continue reading “The Cuban Baseball Federation Suffers From Historical Amnesia”

Books Banned at Cuba’s Book Fair / Cubanet, Roberto Quinones

Cubanet, Roberto Jesus Quinones Haces, Guantanamo, 10 February 2017 – The Havana International Book fair and its provincial offshoots would be more important events if there were debates where all Cuban intellectuals could participate without exclusions. But they are walled prosceniums where there is only room for writers who never raise their voices against any … Continue reading “Books Banned at Cuba’s Book Fair / Cubanet, Roberto Quinones”

Absent from the Book Fair / Miguel Iturria Savón

Not even an enormous Persian magic carpet would be big enough to bring to the Havana Book Fair, running from February 9th to 19th at La Cabaña, a sample of the extensive work of fiction, poetry, essays and historiography of exiled Cuban writers and those excluded from within the island for reasons other than literary. … Continue reading “Absent from the Book Fair / Miguel Iturria Savón”

Lichi / Yoani Sánchez

Eliseo Alberto Diego, to his friends simply “Lichi,” talks as if he were writing, narrating the most ordinary stories as if they were literature. I remember some afternoons in his house in Vedado when he would tell us these anecdotes and we couldn’t say, precisely, if they were total inventions or might have some smidgen … Continue reading “Lichi / Yoani Sánchez”

Padre Jose Conrado: The Enormous Importance of Our Not Remaining Silent / Ernesto Morales Licea

In July of this year, a humble Cuban priest received a prize of international scope which, although it never appeared in the national press, became known to us with suspicious speed. Father José Conrado Rodríguez Alegría, pastor of the church “Saint Therese of the Child Jesus,” in Santiago de Cuba, was awarded the Prize of … Continue reading “Padre Jose Conrado: The Enormous Importance of Our Not Remaining Silent / Ernesto Morales Licea”

Devoid of Tourists and Locals, Only the Turkey Vultures Remain in the Plaza of the Revolution

14ymedio, Pedro Espinosa, Havana, 13 December 2023 — A few years ago a line of taxis and old convertibles regularly filled the esplanade in front of the Plaza of the Revolution’s tower. But the decline in tourism has also led to a decline in visitors to what was once the nerve center of political power … Continue reading “Devoid of Tourists and Locals, Only the Turkey Vultures Remain in the Plaza of the Revolution”

Father Jose Conrado Rodriguez Denounces Cuba’s “Totalitarian” System

14ymedio, Mario J. Penton, Miami, 19 September 2018 — The political system in Cuba, an inheritance from the former Soviet Union, is deeply monstrous and inhuman. Caribbean totalitarianism has turned every Cuban into an executioner and at the same time into a victim and the only way to escape from the vicious circle of lies and … Continue reading “Father Jose Conrado Rodriguez Denounces Cuba’s “Totalitarian” System”

The Euphemism that Looks After Me / Alejandro González Acosta

Alejandro González Acosta, 1 December 2017, Mexico City — Lichi[1] told me that the last time he was in Cuba[2], he went to visit a G-2 colonel at home, the brother of a famous Cuban historian who was Lichi’s good friend in Mexico. Between drinks and confidences, Lichi asked him: “Come on, man, just between us: … Continue reading “The Euphemism that Looks After Me / Alejandro González Acosta”

“El sitio en que tan bien se está”* / Reinaldo Escobar

I heard the news of the death of Eliseo Alberto, Lichi to his friends, at the very moment when the coffin of Bishop Pedro Meurice was being swallowed by the grave in the cemetery of Santa Ifigenia in Santiago de Cuba on July 31 of this year, 2011. A radio station called me a few … Continue reading ““El sitio en que tan bien se está”* / Reinaldo Escobar”

Lichi in the Council of State / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

Lichi en el Consejo de Estado, originally uploaded by orlandoluispardolazo. www.penultimosdias.com/2011/08/05/leer-a-lichi-en-el-cons… I’m guessing it was 1998. I am a biochemist and I was working then in a molecular genetics laboratory dedicated to the creation of recombinant vaccines for human use. Dengue, Hepatitis B and C, bacterial meningitis, HIV, and other such delicacies. We were a … Continue reading “Lichi in the Council of State / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”

Thoughts on Fidel’s “Words to the Intellectuals” and other texts / 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”