‘There is Only One Person Responsible: Fidel Castro,’ Reinaldo Arenas Wrote on December 7

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 7 December 2022 — On 7 December 1990, 32 years ago, Reinaldo Arenas committed suicide “without first having to go through the insult of old age.” He himself recounts that, when they told him that he would soon die of AIDS, he went to his apartment and made a wish, half … Continue reading “‘There is Only One Person Responsible: Fidel Castro,’ Reinaldo Arenas Wrote on December 7”

The Amazing Resistance of Reinaldo Arenas / Rafael Lemus

1.  March 12, 1965, an open letter by Ernesto Guevara to his friend Carlos Quijano is published in the Uruguayan weekly Marcha.  The text, “Socialism and the New Man in Cuba,” is perhaps Guevara’s most significant theoretical writing, and at the same time an emphatic declaration of the regime’s objectives emanating from the Cuban Revolution, then … Continue reading “The Amazing Resistance of Reinaldo Arenas / Rafael Lemus”

Reinaldo Arenas’ Nest of Suffering and Partying / Jose Hugo Fernandez

Havana, Cuba, December, http://www.cubanet.org. In Havana, at the corner of Prado and Dragones streets, the regime affixed a plaque to honor the memory of a foreign fascist: Manuel Fraga Iribarne. But not even the tiniest plaque or sign exists in this city that invites us to remember the most notable among those Cuban authors educated … Continue reading “Reinaldo Arenas’ Nest of Suffering and Partying / Jose Hugo Fernandez”

I Have Two Homelands / Reinaldo Arenas (from the blog of Luis Felipe Rojas)

Reinaldo Arenas, the genial writer from Holguin, the dissident against all the banners he saw fluttering before his path. Those homelands of Marti that he could rewrite, Cuba, his immense sorrow, and the night, that friend who accompanied him up to that final hour in which we all find ourselves. I have two homelands: Cuba … Continue reading “I Have Two Homelands / Reinaldo Arenas (from the blog of Luis Felipe Rojas)”

The Legal Farce Against Angel Santiesteban Reminds Me of the Celebrated Storyteller Reinaldo Arenas and The Poets Heberto Padilla and Raul Rivero

Three memories of Angel Santiesteban Miguel Iturria Savon On September 2, 2011, I published on Cubanet the article SOS for Angel Santiesteban, then harassed by the political police of the Cuban government in spite of being a writer who had been awarded multiple prizes by the regime’s own institutions. At the end of 2012 Angel was … Continue reading “The Legal Farce Against Angel Santiesteban Reminds Me of the Celebrated Storyteller Reinaldo Arenas and The Poets Heberto Padilla and Raul Rivero”

Reinaldo Arenas in memoriam

December 7, 1990 was an ordinary Friday in New York City.  Nothing unusual changed the rhythm of life flowing in the Big Apple.  In his apartment crowded with books, the writer Reinaldo Arenas prepared to put an end to his life.  Sick with AIDS, he’d concentrated his energies on finishing his novel, The Color of … Continue reading “Reinaldo Arenas in memoriam”

Cuban Authorities Block Reinaldo Escobar, Editor-in-Chief of 14ymedio, From Traveling

14ymedio, Havana, 27 January 2020 — The journalist Reinaldo Escobar was not able to travel to Bogotá to participate in the event Where is the region going? Democratic perspectives in Latin America, being hosted by Sergio Arboleda University. The editor-in-chief of 14ymedio was informed that he was “regulated” early this Monday, while trying to pass the immigration window at José … Continue reading “Cuban Authorities Block Reinaldo Escobar, Editor-in-Chief of 14ymedio, From Traveling”

Deportees in Their Own Country / Cubanet, Reinaldo Cosano

Cuban Apartheid, suffered by families who abandoned their homes and went to Havana in search of a new life Cubanet.org, Reinaldo Emilio Cosano Alen, Havana, 15 May 2015 – Rodolfo Castro, from Santiago de Cuba, met with three other young men detained at the Guanabo police station east of Havana. Driven to the Central Train … Continue reading “Deportees in Their Own Country / Cubanet, Reinaldo Cosano”

Taken Out of the Closet, But No One Asks Forgiveness / Reinaldo Cosano

By Reinaldo Cosano. Havana, Cuba Posted in the blog of Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada The veil covering violent homophobic repression is slowly being drawn back, but the gulity aren’t asking for public pardon. It is hard to specify just how the virus of homophobic repression was incubated, sharp-eyed with the machismo of the days … Continue reading “Taken Out of the Closet, But No One Asks Forgiveness / Reinaldo Cosano”

Betania Is Offering Readers Thirty-Seven Cuban Books as Free Downloads

14ymedio, Havana, March 15, 2023 — The Madrid-based Betania publishing house has issued a catalog containing a collection of thirty-seven Cuban-themed e-books that can be downloaded for free from its website. The volumes are available in PDF format and were released by the publisher between 2011 and 2023. As stated in its introduction, Betania began … Continue reading “Betania Is Offering Readers Thirty-Seven Cuban Books as Free Downloads”

‘Cubadebate’ Exhumes Fidel Castro’s Speech That Gave Way to the UMAP Camps, and Removes it Hours Later

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 14 March 2023–Universidad de la Habana, March 13, 1963. Fidel Castro leaned on the podium, at the top of the stairs facing thousands of students. Dressed in a suit, grimacing, are: President Dorticós; the adventurous geographer Antonio Núñez Jiménez; youth director José Rebellón; and the parents of Camilo Cienfuegos, who had … Continue reading “‘Cubadebate’ Exhumes Fidel Castro’s Speech That Gave Way to the UMAP Camps, and Removes it Hours Later”

‘With the Years You Learn That You Don’t Have to Dissent’

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, Spain, 29 December 2022 — The only mention of Delfín Prats in the Historia de la Literatura Cubana [History of Cuban Literature] is a piece of critical sanitation, a general cleansing. Lenguaje de mudos [Language of Mutes] (1968), explains the text, was “a book that, for short-term reasons derived from an extremely deficient cultural … Continue reading “‘With the Years You Learn That You Don’t Have to Dissent’”

2022, a Fertile Year Outside the Island for Books Linked to Cuba

14ymedio, Havana, 1 January 2022 — The return of Detective Mario Conde, the adventures of Federico García Lorca in Havana and a fast-paced essay on the concentration camps on the Island marked the route of the Cuban book in 2022. 14ymedio proposes an account of the best titles from authors residing inside and outside the … Continue reading “2022, a Fertile Year Outside the Island for Books Linked to Cuba”

The Padilla case, or the ‘Generous’ Terror of the Cuban Revolution

14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 28 September 2022 — I was finally able to see The Padilla Case, Pavel Giroud’s film that brings to light a disconcerting, devastating historical archive. The original material remained hidden in the vaults of the Castro regime for half a century, until now. And it’s urgent that we look back … Continue reading “The Padilla case, or the ‘Generous’ Terror of the Cuban Revolution”

The Furthest City

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 14 August 2022 — Rarely can an exile choose the city in which his days will end. Fortune intervenes, rolls the dice, and the cards are shuffled. Wherever we fall, we live, and we try to make sense of the trip. The city that welcomes the exile can be dizzying or … Continue reading “The Furthest City”