Search results for: Lydia Cabrera

Exclusive at the Havana Book Fair: A Work by Lydia Cabrera, Exiled and Banned by Fidel Castro

Organizers complain that foreign writers ask for royalties in dollars 14ymedio, Havana, 9 February 2025 — Havana/ A book by Cuban ethnologist Lydia Cabrera appeared on Friday on the official Round Table TV program. The silence of the guests about the book, one of the novelties of the International Book Fair, was only broken by … Continue reading “Exclusive at the Havana Book Fair: A Work by Lydia Cabrera, Exiled and Banned by Fidel Castro”

‘I Breathe Through Memory’, Gastón Baquero’s Letters to Lydia Cabrera

The poet went into exile in the Spanish capital, and Cabrera in the United States. Both were part of a Republic that had gone down the drain. 14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 28 December 2024 – How could Lydia Cabrera and Gastón Baquero speak to each other except as two Napoleonic marshals after Waterloo, or as … Continue reading “‘I Breathe Through Memory’, Gastón Baquero’s Letters to Lydia Cabrera”

Publishing Houses Are Dying in Cuba, in Contrast to the Abundant Literary Production of the Diaspora

On the island, printing presses remain paralyzed due to a lack of electricity, paper, and resources 14ymedio, Havana, April 12, 2026 — The energy crisis, which has paralyzed printing presses, suspended book launches, and reduced print runs to symbolic numbers, has left many provincial publishing houses empty and has turned the publication of a book … Continue reading “Publishing Houses Are Dying in Cuba, in Contrast to the Abundant Literary Production of the Diaspora”

‘A Plebiscite on Fidel Castro’ Is Once Again Circulating Freely After 35 Years

Betania Publishing House is making the document available to readers for free download. 14ymedio, Havana, 19 June 2025 — Written in 1988 by writer Reinaldo Arenas and artist Jorge Camacho, A Plebiscite on Fidel Castro was neither a pamphlet nor an angry proclamation, but an open letter written from exile—between New York and Paris—calling for … Continue reading “‘A Plebiscite on Fidel Castro’ Is Once Again Circulating Freely After 35 Years”

Central Havana, Transformed Into a Court of Miracles Where the Homeless and Desperate Gather

Sitting on a bench, a man plucked a rooster recovered from the trash this Friday. 14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 21 March 2025 — Just a decade ago Fe del Valle Park in Central Havana was a hive of activity. People of all ages, but especially young people. The spot—named after the “heroine” who died … Continue reading “Central Havana, Transformed Into a Court of Miracles Where the Homeless and Desperate Gather”

Power Cuts and Rationed Sales of Books Spoil the Havana Book Fair

’Cuentos negros de Cuba’, by Lydia Cabrera, will be presented two days before the closing ceremony 14ymedio, José Lassa/Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 15 February 2025 — Dozens of soldiers from the Armed Forces, in everyday uniform, entered this Saturday through the great gate of the Morro-Cabaña complex together with hundreds of Havana readers. The two colonial … Continue reading “Power Cuts and Rationed Sales of Books Spoil the Havana Book Fair”

November Books: The Mafia in Cuba, Belkis Ayon’s Gods, Sartre and Beauvoir

A novel by Pavel Giroud, an anthology by storyteller Alberto Garrido and a farewell to Juan Manuel Salvat. 14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 30 November 2024 — Marked by borderline figures – she died at the age of 32, one year younger than Christ, in 1999, before the beginning of the millennium – Belkis Ayón created … Continue reading “November Books: The Mafia in Cuba, Belkis Ayon’s Gods, Sartre and Beauvoir”

Cuban Ethnologist Natalia Bolivar Dies in Havana at the Age of 89

14ymedio, Havana, 19 November 2023 — Cuban ethnologist, writer and painter Natalia Bolívar Aróstegui died this Sunday in Havana at the age of 89, according to the official press. The cause was not specified. With the death of the expert in Afro-Cuban religions, the Island loses one of the most versatile intellectuals of the twentieth … Continue reading “Cuban Ethnologist Natalia Bolivar Dies in Havana at the Age of 89”

A Documentary Rescues the Writer Lezama Lima from the Clutches of the Cuban Regime

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 21 August 2022 — In order to “stir up the anthill,” on the 45th anniversary of the death of Cuban writer José Lezama Lima (1910-1976), last Sunday the filmmaker Ernesto Fundora, at the Rosario Castellanos Bookstore of the Fund for Economic Culture, in Mexico City, screened his documentary “Lezama Lima: Soltar la … Continue reading “A Documentary Rescues the Writer Lezama Lima from the Clutches of the Cuban Regime”

GABO RELOADED / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

Of García Márquez and other Demons By Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo Prolific, brilliant, celebrity, provocateur, agent, incisive, insidious, one of the last intellectual icons of the Latin American left has died: Gabriel García Márquez, el Gabo. His claim on immortality is supported by a Nobel Prize, which owed a lot to the Latin American literary … Continue reading “GABO RELOADED / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”

RIDING MISTER ROJAS / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

RIDING MISTER ROJAS, originally uploaded by Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo In art, like in politics, the speeches of epigones, now free of the original guilt of the Messiah, start attempting a liberal rereading of the revolutionary scripture and end up being pure fascism. The Cuban intellectual Fernando Rojas, beyond his high governmental charge (every now … Continue reading “RIDING MISTER ROJAS / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”

Zoé Valdés, a Pen Like a Whip / Iván García

On one of those nights in Havana, when the sky is clear with a handful of stars as a witness, someone told me that the Castro brothers feel a particular hatred for three Cubans. The list, what a coincidence, three writers: Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Reinaldo Arenas and Zoé Valdés. The resentment was so great, this … Continue reading “Zoé Valdés, a Pen Like a Whip / Iván García”