English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, 5 November 2016 — The Cuban filmmaker and theater director Juan Carlos Cremata decided to stay in Miami and become “one more exile,” according to the newspaper El Nuevo Herald. Cremata had been censured for his production of El Rey Se Muere (in English known as “Exit the King” or “The King is Dying”), a … Continue reading “Cuban Film Director Juan Carlos Cremata Relocates to Miami / 14ymedio”
Juan Carlos Cremata, the censored playwright, is publishing on the web a brief monologue on authoritarianism and censorship. Translator’s note: “The President” in the monologue is not the president of the country, but rather of the State organization in charge of the theater. The President’s Monologue By Juan Carlos Cremata The scene is a meeting … Continue reading “Cremata Stages His Play on the Internet / 14ymedio, Juan Carlos Cremata”
14ymedio, Havana, 25 December 2015 — Last July Juan Carlos Cremata’s play Exit the King (also translated in English as: The King is Dying) was censored. A few weeks later Cremata’s contract as a theater director was cancelled and the cultural institutions accused him of making statements to the independent press. His fiercest critics claim that behind … Continue reading “Cuban Faces of 2014: Juan Carlos Cremata, Playwright and Filmmaker / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, 30 October 2015 — The critic and filmmaker Enrique Colina came out Thursday in defense of the Cuban director of films and plays Juan Carlos Cremata with a strong message titled On Censorship and Its Demons. In the text, which has been widely circulated by email, he affirms that to remain silent in the face … Continue reading “Enrique Colina Comes to the Defense of Cremata Condemns “Censorship and its Demons” / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Mexico City, 9 September 2015 – If I were Juan Carlos Cremata’s attorney, in a an eventual appeal to be held in the Chamber of Labor, I would argue the following: According to one of the whereases in the National Council for Performing Arts’ Resolution No. 10, the reason for canceling the … Continue reading “Plea for Cremata / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar”
14ymedio, Orlando Palma, Havana, 9 September 2015 — The contract of the director Juan Carlos Cremata has been cancelled by the Cuban cultural authorities, as explained by the author himself on Wednesday via email. Cremata has made public the details of meeting he was called to last Monday at the Havana Theater Center, in which he … Continue reading “Cultural Authorities Cancel Juan Carlos Cremata’s Contract As A Theater Director / 14ymedio”
Open Letter from Juan Carlos Cremata, Havana, 9 September 2015 Dear Friends: On the morning of Monday, September 7, I was summoned to a meeting at the Theater Center of Havana to have communicated to me Resolution No. 10 (the corresponding document is attached) of the Ministry of Culture, the National Council for the Performing Arts … Continue reading “Condemned to Eternal Silence, or the Chronicle of an Announced Ordeal / 14ymedio, Juan Carlos Cremata”
“What right does anyone have to rule over everyone’s thoughts?” The question, deeply subversive towards the Cuban reality, is at the heart of the open letter that artist Juan Carlos Cremata recently sent to an unknown Culture officer by the name of Andy Arencibia Concepción after a commission of the National Council of Theatre Arts … Continue reading “Cremata Expresses an Artist’s Bellyful Against Cultural Repression / 14ymedio, Miriam Celaya”
Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 11 July 2015 — It is very likely that the youngest among us don’t know the reference to the 1951 novel “The Story of a Real Man” by the Soviet writer Boris Polevoy, which tells the story of Alexey Petrovich Maresyev, a fighter pilot who lost both his legs and through a heroic … Continue reading “Juan Carlos Cremata: A Real Man / Reinaldo Escobar”
14ymedio, Juan Carlos Cremata, Havana, 10 July 2015 — First of all, I apologize this time for speaking in the first person. I have always thought, like Garcia Marquez, that what I have tried to say is found in my work. And instead, it enriches me, much more, to hear the diverse interpretations that emerge … Continue reading “Condemn Us, It Does Not Matter: Art Will Absorb Us* / 14ymedio, Juan Carlos Cremata”
14ymedio, Havana, 19 September 2023 — The Cuban cartoonist and TV presenter Jorge Oliver died on Monday in Havana at the age of 75. Creator of the Captain Plin comic strip, which was adapted for television in 2009, he gained wider fame in Cuba as host of the television program Cuadro a Cuadro (Frame by … Continue reading “Jorge Oliver, Cartoonist Who Created Capitan Plin and Die-Hard Supporter of Fidel Castro, Dies”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 13 November 2022 — Amongst the hundreds of people who gathered in front of the entrance to the Bertolt Brecht Centre on Saturday evening, few knew the reason why the comedian Rigoberto Ferrera was celebrating 30 years on the stage. 1992 was a long time ago for the majority of young … Continue reading “Cuban Comedian Rigoberto Ferrera Uses the Infinite Vocabulary of the Body”
14ymedio, Havana, 12 February 2021 — The Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (Icaic) published a note this Thursday in which it specifies that audiovisual production is not an activity for the self-employed , although it appears on the list of jobs not allowed for the private sector officially announced this week. According to … Continue reading “Creators of Independent Cinema Are Not Self-Employed, Insists Cuban Film Industry”
14ymedio, Havana, 17 June 2018 — The outstanding artist Iraida Malberti Cabrera, born in 1936, died in the early hours of Saturday morning, 17 June, according to the Buenos Días program on Cuban Television. During her long career she worked in many children’s projects and especially in La Colmenita (The Little Beehive), which her son, Carlos … Continue reading “Iraida Malberti, Director of Children’s Programs Dies at 82”
Havana Times, Lynn Cruz, 31 March 2018 — The first Independent Cuban Film Festival organized outside of Cuba coincided with my ban from entering the International Film School of San Antonio del Los Banos. With Cubans from the country of “Miami” taking the lead, the event had as its forerunner another that had been organized … Continue reading “Chronicle of a Journey After Being Expelled / Lynn Cruz”
