English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Yesterday I will leave Iceland. In a slow, gentle, painless way. Like a little prince. Between the sleeping volcano and a vision about to disappear. Pitted against sun and solitariness. Inspired and ephemeral. Dweller of insular Europe. Navigator to the point of nausea through deep steaming bays of delirium and desire. Tomorrow I left Iceland.
Not a single Cuban is free in the world. If anything, the freest Cubans are the slaves who still live there, because they have nothing to lose. Thus, the Cuban passport is the biggest trap in the history of the world: The Cuban passport is our “Little Pioneer” bandana that marks us for life as slaves … Continue reading “I Love You Not Despite But Precisely Because of the Tyranny / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Note: Oswaldo Payá was subsequently killed in Cuba during or after a car crash in circumstances that have never been satisfactorily explained by the regime. The driver of the car, a young Spaniard who survived, said that the car was chased and hit from behind by another car and run off the road. Versions differ … Continue reading “Oswaldo Paya and the Varela Project / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
1 The first thing about Saint Louis that hits you in the face are the gusanos* — the worms. Earthworms, twisted and charred. In the gardens, on the sidewalks, segregated on the public right-of-way or in the throes of gentrification. Worm cadavers, fossil worms that minutes ago ate and shat earth to better fertilize the … Continue reading “Being Saint Louis / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Regina Anavy, Reykjavic, June 27, 2016 — Crossing paths with Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo in Reykjavic, Iceland, on June 27, 2016, I had the opportunity to have a conversation with him. Iceland And Future Plans Regina Anavy: I understand you are here on a special two-year grant from ICORN [International Cities of Refuge Network]. Orlando Luis … Continue reading “A Conversation with Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo / Regina Anavy”
14ymedio, Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, Arizona, 13 April 2016 — On the 8th and 9th of April, along with some fifty other speakers, I was invited to the Sedona Forum which is organized every year by the McCain Institute in cooperation with Arizona State University. So I flew from the democratic volcanoes of Iceland to fall, almost … Continue reading “Thinking About America Amid the Red Rocks of Arizona / 14ymedio, Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, 21 March 2016 – A “historic milestone”: This is what Americans call President Obama’s visit to the Cuba of Fidel and Raul Castro. That is, the Cuba that has not had a legitimate president for 64 years. And a Cuba that is of the caste of children, nieces, nephews and grandchildren, … Continue reading “Between a Historic Milestone and the Horror of History / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
19 March 2016
Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, Reykjavik, 15-December 2015 — A non-interventionist US president, a Peronist Catholic pope, and a right-wing military dictator exalted by the Latin American left was bound to be a winning ticket. And so it has been. One year after a new era in Cuba-US relations was announced, it is evident that the Castro regime has … Continue reading “US-Cuba Deal at One Year: Castros Stronger than Ever / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Danilo Maldonado Machado, also known as “El Sexto” (The Sixth) is a graffiti artist in Cuba, imprisoned since December 25, 2014 for attempting to perform an artistic action in a public space. Danilo has spent 9 months in the Valle Grande prison, charged with the crime of Contempt, and is waiting for a judicial process, … Continue reading “Distribute and Act on to Save the Live of El Sexto / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, 25 September 2015 — Please, let’s call at all times to Valle Grande Prison, and claim respectfully but firmly for the life of Cuban artist Danilo Maldonado Machado (the street artist El Sexto). He has been jailed since December 2014 in Cuba, without trial, and now he is on a hunger … Continue reading “Let Us Save the Life of El Sexto Now! / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Mexico, 24 September 2015 — The writer and photographer Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo has received refuge in the capital city of Reykjavik, Iceland, through the Network of International Cities of Refuge (ICORN), he himself confirmed to 14ymedio. The Cuban artist also received guarantees of housing and the freedom to create. He is the second … Continue reading “Writer Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo Receives Refuge in Reykjavik / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar”
From September 19 to 22, the Catholic Pope will visit Cuba for the third time, and as is customary, the Castro regime has had a sudden merciful change of heart. This time, Cuban jails have released 3,522 prisoners. That’s 500 prisoners more than in March 2012, when Benedict XVI came to the island, and 3,000 more than … Continue reading “Cubans as Carrion from the Hunt / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
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”