English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 21 April 2023 — The first rays of sunlight this Wednesday bathed Havana’s Carlos III Avenue. Where before there was a constant coming and going of vehicles, the fuel crisis has left a road deserted by cars. The conversations in the long lines focused on lamenting inflation, talking about … Continue reading “Immobility Marks Diaz-Canel’s New Mandate as President of Cuba”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 2 March 2021 — He alternates his gaze between the road and the camera recording him. He smiles. He flaunts the luxurious vehicle that he drives at high speed and tosses phrases at a spectator he assumes must be salivating at such luxury. The protagonist of this scene could be any … Continue reading “Cuba’s Worst ‘New Man’: With a Luxury Car, a Powerful Surname and Little Education”
Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 27 October 2020 — It was the serial murderer, Ernesto Guevara –“Che” to his friends, if he had them, and also to his cult followers, whom he does have — who defined the original concept of “New Man” as a kind of superhuman being, a permanent revolutionary, whose mission in life … Continue reading “The Emblem of Biran: The New Man, Castro-Style / Miriam Celaya”
Havana Times, Lynn Cruz, 7 March 2018 — “Oprah Winfrey, one of the world’s best neoliberal capitalist thinkers,” is a critical essay by Nicole Aschoff for The Guardian newspaper about the speech Winfrey gave at the latest edition of the Golden Globes. While reading it, and as a result of Aschoff’s brilliant analysis, I could … Continue reading “Cuban Socialism’s New Man in Havana’s Capitolio / Lynn Cruz”
14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 1 March 2018 — Yojany Pérez, known as Mamerto, has afro style braids, piercings and likes extreme sports. He works fixing air conditioners and also has his own business making candy, which he delivers around Havana at top speed on his skateboard, wearing a T-shirt with the word ‘Libertad’ on it. Mamerto, … Continue reading “The ‘New Man’ Travels Havana on a Skateboard”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 8 April 2017 – Walking along the streets with Eliécer Ávila can be a complicated task. His face is well known thanks to a viral video broadcast almost a decade ago. However, before fame came into his life, this young man born in Las Tunas was a model “New Man”: the most finished … Continue reading “Eliécer Ávila, The ‘New Man’ Who Became An Opponent”
Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 14 November 2016 — A friend, a US citizen, once told me that it does not really matter who wins the US elections. “It does not depend so much on who heads the government, because the system is what really works.” I have heard that phrase from more than one person, … Continue reading “The New Man Does Not Know How To Lose / Cubanet, Miriam Celaya”
Ivan Garcia, 20 October 2015 — In Guanabacoa, a town southeast of Havana, you still hear stories about Gilberto Martinez Suarez, alias Gilbert Man. Though told with a pinch of exaggeration and myth, they are largely true. This mediocre reggaeton musician was known in Guanabacoa with his frequent parties in a villa renovated in record … Continue reading “Cuba’s “New Man” Steals in Miami and Spends in Havana / Ivan Garcia”
Regina Coyula, from BBC Mundo, 4 June 2015 — One of the most attractive promises of the 1959 Cuban Revolution for a Third World thirsty for paradigms, was, undoubtedly, the prospect of a generous, industrious, learned and well-mannered human being. This New Man would be the result of the new schools that as the cradles … Continue reading “Why Cuba could not build the New Man promised by Che Guevara / Regina Coyula”
14YMEDIO, Havana, Eliecer Avila, 23 July 2014 – I grew up listening to my teachers saying that our society was building the man of the future, a different one, one that would have no defects, no malice, none of the vices “inherited from capitalism.” Those of us who over the years strived to bring ourselves … Continue reading “The Scam and the New Man / 14ymedio, Eliecer Avila”
You don’t need to be an expert critic, clairvoyant sociologist or a wise politician to understand that when you grow up in a totalitarian and absolutist country like Cuba, flooded with numerous afflictions, it’s normal to feel small. Thus, because of the great restrictions on individual freedom, the meager access to modernity and a determined … Continue reading “The New Man in Cuba in Search of Anabolic Steroids / Juan Juan Almeida”
HAVANA, Cuba, October, www.cubanet.org – A teenager, a wannabe to the “reggaeton fashion,” succeeds in paying for his Spanish Language exam grades on a regular basis: “In my high school you can do business, provided that you are willing to pay well.” The young man, whose name I was not permitted to disclose, aims to get through the remainder of his … Continue reading “The New Man, Fraud and Reggaeton / Camilo Ernesto Olivera Peidro”
Now that TeleSur is broadcast live on Cuban TV, will the island see an end to censorship or is it just another “fraudulent change”? At the beginning of the 1950s Cuba stood as a pioneer of commercial television broadcasting. However, decades of hard-line state censorship have transformed Cuban television into a weapon of ideological subjugation. … Continue reading “The New Man in Front of the New TV / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Villa Marista is the main operations center of the Cuban Ministry of the Interior. Its huge structure was built to house a school run by a religious order, but since 1963 it has been home to the most feared jail cells in the country. At the beginning of the Revolution there was talk about “converting … Continue reading “The New Man vs. The Honest Man / Yoani Sánchez”
Without detracting from the prestige gained by Cuban education since 1959, in my view the shortage of toys that children in Cuba have suffered, and do suffer, has been ignored. While the Russians were sending millions of rubles every day, our parents gave up sleep to buy three toys a year. In schools and kindergartens … Continue reading “The New Man Needs Toys / Dora Leonor Mesa”
