English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
The UMAP lasted several years; it is estimated that at least 25,000 young people passed through its camps. 14ymedio, Pedro Corzo, Miami, 31 March 2025 — Cuban filmmaker Lilo Vilaplana and the tireless fighter against Castro’s totalitarianism, Reinold Rodríguez, have committed to bringing to the big screen one of the most painful tragedies suffered by … Continue reading “Cuba’s UMAP Camps or the Slavery of Youth”
14ymedio, Havana, August 12, 2024 — “Rub out all mannerisms and antisocial behavior” was the first commandment of the Military Units to Aid Production (UMAP), founded in Cuba in the 60s as forced labor camps for “homosexuals, the religious and the social lumpen.” The phrase is fixed, like a mantra, in several documents of the … Continue reading “Leaked Documents From the UMAP Reveal Techniques To ‘Rub Out’ Homosexual Behaviors”
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”
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 27 October 2022 — A brief note in Cuba’s officials state newspaper Granma has set off the alarm. It’s getting ugly. During the council of ministers, which met yesterday, October 25th, they presented general directives for preventing and confronting crime, corruption, illegalities and lack of discipline. It was about time, … Continue reading “Cuba: A UMAP for ‘Social Transformation’ of People Who Do Not Study or Work?”
Abel Sierra Madero, Hypermedia Magazine, 15 May 2020 — Yuri Brokhin, a Soviet filmmaker who defected in 1972 and settled in the United States, described his experience trying to purchase a Volga automobile in the late 1960s. In all of Voroshilovgrad, Ukraine, there were only twelve of these cars available for sale to the public, … Continue reading “From the Gulag to the UMAP: Official History and the Control of Memory”
Ernesto Hernández Busto, Penultimos Días, 13 September 2016 — It seems that in Cuba one can now talk about UMAP, the notorious Military Units to Aid Production (in Spanish: Unidades Militares de Ayuda a la Producción), internment and forced labor camps where the Cuban government imprisoned homosexuals, the religious, intellectuals, dissidents and any other “suspicious … Continue reading “UMAP: Selective Memory”
Diario de Cuba, Havana, 9 February 2016 — A blog on sexual diversity, Proyecto Arcoiris (Rainbow Project), housed in the government-run blogging platform Reflections, has been censored by the regime after addressing UMAP and publishing a text attributing the responsibility for it to Raul Castro, according to the Global Voices international network of bloggers. Those responsible for … Continue reading “Castro Regime Censors Blog Calling Raul Castro Responsible For UMAP* / Diario de Cuba”
UMAP: Citizens’ force used for the good of society. Brilliant initiative of military cadres. A common school, half in ruins, half with children in uniform, with its Cuban flag and signs on the walls. The boys talk among themselves, then look with curiosity at the stranger, who takes photos of enormous homeless sites behind the … Continue reading “Of UMAP* and Other Demons / Henry Constantin”
FELIX LUIS VIERA I was the soldier UMAP 22 of the “Company” 1, the “Battalion” 23 of the Band 6, based at the Senado sugar mill, of the Military Staff of the UMAP, Military Unit 1015, with headquarters in the city of Camaguey. The day after I turned 46 I met the Sergeant Major Hector … Continue reading “Truth and Memory Weekly Bulletin on UMAP / FELIX LUIS VIERA”
HECTOR SANTIAGO UMAP* was more terrible than what has been said, because they tried to change homosexual orientation through so-called scientific methods which, imported from the USSR, consisted of insulin injections and the application of electroshocks, interacting with images of naked men, on the one hand, and naked women on the other. So the images … Continue reading “Truth and Memory Weekly Bulletin on UMAP / HÉCTOR SANTIAGO”
Between Yumaphobia and GenerationYphilia… originally uploaded by orlandoluispardolazo eduardodelllano.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/internarse-en-in… March 23 2011
It’s true that the problem of begging was not born with the Revolution, but it is a direct result of the demagogy and cynicism of pretending to serve the poor. 14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 17 July 2025 — In the collective memory of Cubans, there are figures who, without having held official positions, are … Continue reading “The Caballero de París and the Homeless That Don’t Exist”
That dark, inquisitorial period lasted much more than five years. It did not, as some would like to pretend, end in 1976. Cubanet, Luis Cino, Havana, 7 June 2025 – It was the late essayist Ambrosio Fornet who coined the term, “The Five Grey Years,” to refer to the repression of artists and intellectuals during … Continue reading “The ‘Five Grey Years’ Kept Going Much Longer Than a Decade, Primarily Because of Fidel Castro / Cubanet, Luis Cino”
So it did not occur to anyone that the Cuban Revolution, in a few years, would deny its reason for being. 14ymedio, Frank Calzón, Miami, 3 January 2024 — Then no one could imagine what would come next. It was January 1959 and neither my friend Guillermo nor I were bothered by the “northern wind,” … Continue reading “The Cuban Revolution, 66 Years of a Dream Turned Into a Nightmare”
The Cuenca Summit closes without an official declaration due to lack of consensus EFE (via 14ymedio), Cuenca (Ecuador), 16 November 2024 — The XXIX Ibero-American Summit, held in the Ecuadorian city of Cuenca, closed this Friday without an official statement due to the lack of consensus among the 19 participating countries, of the 22 that … Continue reading “Cuba and Argentina Have a Bitter Exchange of Disqualifications”