English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
HAVANA, Cuba, August, www.cubanet.org -The suicide of Haydee Santamaria Cuadrado continues to be a problem for Fidel Castro. The tragic event, which happened July 26, 1980, doesn’t appear in the 2007 chronology edited by the government. The official media almost never reviews the tragic incident. The so-called “Heroine of Moncada” not only choose this very … Continue reading “The Suicide of Haydee Santamaria / Tania Diaz Castro”
14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 19 November 2023 — As with almost everything deep or interesting in Mexico, very few young readers in my country know Jorge Ibargüengoitia. Don’t panic: the cult of the writer with an arduous surname – which no one forgets to mention, and neither do I – died along with 180 other … Continue reading “To Sleep in Havana and Wake Up in Moscow”
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 30 March 2023 — The Ministry of Culture (MINCULT) says that it is being “improved,” but don’t believe it. What it really wants is to be an agent for artists and musicians. Late post-castrism has hung the “For Sale” sign on the entire productive and obsolete apparatus of the Marxist-Leninist … Continue reading “And Now, the Commodification of Cuban Music”
By Carlos Manuel Álvarez, published in Univision News, 19 May 2016 Published in Malaletra, a Blog Made in Cuba, Regina Coyula, 11 July 2016 He looks like a god but is a heretic. He seems carved in stone, but is a nervous wreck. He looks like the first among men, but is just the last … Continue reading “The Reclusive Poet / Carlos Manuel Alvarez, Regina Coyula”
Ivan Garcia, 6 February 2018 — A silent police patrol began to search passersby they considered suspicious. When they saw it, the illegal tomato sellers quickly hid their merchandise on the staircase of a building in Havana’s Vibora neighborhood at Acosta and Diez de Octubre. An old woman, a regular seller of the newspaper Granma … Continue reading “The Other Fidel Castro / Iván García”
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 2 February 2018 — The suicide of Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart on Thursday is added to a long list of figures linked to power in Cuba who have chosen to end their lives in the last six decades. The history of the Cuban Revolution cannot be told without including its deserters, its exiles … Continue reading ““There is No Room for Suicides in the Pantheon of the Fatherland””
14ymedio, Havana, 26 November 2017 — Cuban politician Armando Hart Dávalos died on Sunday afternoon in Havana at 87 years of age due to respiratory failure, according to the official press. The news was announced in the midst of the commemoration of the first anniversary of the death of Fidel Castro. Born on 13 June 1930, … Continue reading “Armando Hart Dávalos Dies, Most Loyal of All Fidelistas”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 2 October 2015 – Fifty years ago the first Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) made its appearance. It was composed of one hundred people, among whom there were 57 commanders of the Revolution, nine captains, one lieutenant and 33 civilians. Of that constellation only eight remain alive and in … Continue reading “That First Central Committee / Reinaldo Escobar”
“We sleep with the lights off, we have no roll calls or formations all day, we get up whenever (…) Plenty of water, electric lights, food, clean clothes and all for free” Cubanet.org, Roberto Jesus Quinones Haces, Guantanamo, 15 May 2015 – This May 15 marks the 60th anniversary of the release of the Moncadistas. … Continue reading “Fidel Castro’s “Hardships” in Prison / Cubanet, Roberto Jesus Quinones”
Against the “scum,” acts of repudiation, beatings and humiliations. Against Florida, an invasion of the unemployed Cubanet.org, Roberto Jesus Quinones Haces, Guantanamo, 1 April 2015 – On the first of April 1980 a bus was driven through the entrance to the Peruvian embassy in Havana; its occupants entered and sought political asylum. Unfortunately, the non-commissioned officer of … Continue reading “The Mariel Exodus: State Terrorism / Cubanet, Roberto Jesus Quinones”
HAVANA, Cuba — For almost the first three years of his regime, Fidel Castro was not interested in Cuban intellectuals. He did not forgive their passivity during the years of revolutionary insurrection. They had not put bombs in the street, nor did they engage in armed conflict with the previous dictator’s police. Even those who … Continue reading ““I Only Know That I Am Afraid” / Tania Diez Castro”
From 1962-1970 the suicide rate on the island ranged between 10.5 and 12.6 per 100,000 inhabitants. Back in the 80s, the rate of self-destruction among Cubans exceeded 21 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants. According to the PanAmerican Health Organization, Cuba has the highest suicide rate in the hemisphere, with 18.1 per 100,000 population, followed by Uruguay … Continue reading “Suicide in Cuba: A Drama Without Repercussions”
