English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Yamil Simón-Manso, Gaithersburg (Maryland) | 13 February 2021 — Cuban artists and intellectuals recently staged a protest in front of the Ministry of Culture. The diversity of writings on the Internet referring to the same thing renders any analysis redundant, and we Cubans are up to here in redundancies. In addition, I have not visited … Continue reading “Cuba’s Minister of Culture Alpidio Alonso and Me”
The “suspect detector” has been perfected as a management tool, each official calculates how many times per day he should tweet the hashtag ordered by the boss. 14ymedio, Madrid, Yunior García Aguilera, November 18, 2025 — Terror has taken hold of Cuban institutions. Faced with a rumor circulating on social networks about the old and … Continue reading “The Ministry of Fear and the Culture of Panic”
If the Prosecutor’s Office announcement about Alejandro Gil was a “smokescreen,” it backfired spectacularly. 14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, November 3, 2025 – “The Communist Party of Cuba must demand the dismissal of its first secretary and president of the country, as well as that of Manuel Marrero Cruz.” Thus, without mincing words, the pro-government … Continue reading “The Rebellion of the ‘Clarias’: Cracks in the Cuban Regime in Its Terminal Phase”
In 2024 a general decline was recorded in almost all of the country’s cultural indicators: in production, creativity, active spaces and audience attendance. 14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 18 July 2025 – A nation’s culture is not measured in kilowatts, but when the lights go out in its theatres, its libraries and its cinemas, the … Continue reading “Official Data Reveals the Magnitude of Cultural Decline in Cuba”
The cancellation of the presentation of the students’ graduation short films marks the end of a free space for artistic creation. 14ymedio, Havana, 21 July 2025 — What was supposed to be a celebration of young art and creative freedom ended with a slammed door, disguised as a “technical problem.” On Saturday, July 12, the … Continue reading “The Cuban Regime’s Cultural Commissars Have Taken Over the International School of Film and Television”
The euphemisms of dismissals in Cuba 14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, June 23,2025 — The Cuban regime, after more than six decades in power, has developed an enormous fondness for the use of euphemisms. Even to dismiss their bureaucrats, ambiguous terms and encrypted phrases are common, as if each token move, rather than a routine … Continue reading “The ‘Pajama Plan’ and Other Ways to Disappear in Cuba”
Who is Díaz-Canel grooming for a possible promotion? Jaime Gómez Triana, a shadowy cultural commissar 14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 27 July2024 — In Díaz-Canel’s recent closing address to the rubber-stamp National Assembly, the appointed president referred to a statement that was totally unrelated the rest of his speech. The focus of the address was … Continue reading ” Culture Warriors and Power Struggles in Cuba”
14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 15 June 2024 — With Milei, Netanyahu, Hitler, the CIA, Trump and the other “usual suspects,” in addition to a good number of commonplaces – swastikas, missiles, Mickey Mouse – the cartoonists who aspired to participate in the first Political Humor Biennial in Havana had their work cut out for them. … Continue reading “The Havana Biennial of Political Humor, at the Service of the Communist Party of Cuba”
The official press celebrates with “hope” the work of the project in a new report on begging 14ymedio, Havana, 26 April 2024 — In the second part of a report on beggars in Cuba, in which the authorities recognize that the State is not able to deal with the increasing number of homeless people, the … Continue reading “Quisicuaba, or the ‘Revolutionary Calling’ To Look After the Poor”
14ymedio, Havana, 2 April 2024 — The Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) moved the pieces on its board again on Monday, when it dismissed, just two days after the dismissal of Susely Morfa in Matanzas, its first secretary in Mantua, Pinar del Río. Liusmara Rodríguez Soriano “was released from her responsibility,” said the official press, … Continue reading “A Senior Official of the PCC in Pinar Del Rio Has Been Dismissed, Criticized for ‘Dubious Management’”
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 10 January 2024 — These days the dismissal of Fernando Rojas, the vice minister of Culture, has been in the news. There are many who have publicly celebrated the end of the career of one of the cultural commissioners who arouses the most antipathy. There have also been many, too … Continue reading “Cuba: Good Bye, Fernando”
14ymedio, Havana, 27 January 2021 [Readers please note, this article is from 2021 and only recently translated] — The day of arrests and protests of artists that took place this Wednesday in front of the Ministry of Culture has not taken long to receive condemnation from several international organizations, among which stands out the Cuban Observatory … Continue reading “Cuba’s Minister of Culture’s Aggression Against Artists Sparks International Condemnation (Article from 2021)”
14ymedio, Madrid, January 9, 2024 — The deputy ministers of Culture Fernando Rojas Gutiérrez and Kenelma Carvajal Pérez were dismissed from their positions on Monday, January 8, and will be replaced by two much younger faces, those of Lizette Martínez Luzardo, 36 years old and up to now director general of Cultural Policies, and Lillitsy … Continue reading “The Cuban Government Dismisses Fernando Rojas, Despite His ‘Revolutionary Loyalty’”
14ymedio, Havana, 26 December 2023 — After perpetrating numerous acts of censorship against the works of several filmmakers at the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Culture topped it all off last June. The broadcast on Cuban Television of an unauthorized version of the documentary La Habana de Fito (Fito’s Havana), directed by Juan … Continue reading “The Assembly of Filmmakers Challenges Censorship in Cuba”
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, December 13, 2023 — The cultural authorities of Cuba inaugurated on Tuesday the Center of the Cuban Film Poster, a place that exhibits part of the collection registered in May in the Memory of the World list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The event was attended … Continue reading “The Center of the Cuban Film Poster is Inaugurated, After its Registration as Documentary Heritage”