English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
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”
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 29 August 2016 — The biggest dream of those ousted is to live to tell the tale. Each passing day since he was removed from his post as Fidel Castro’s personal secretary, Carlos Valenciaga feels he is closer to outliving him. His fantasy in the midst of the old books, the dusty … Continue reading ““Pajama Plan” at the National Library / 14ymedio, Zunilda Mata”
The fall of Alejandro Gil Fernández is yet another chapter in the political liturgy as a reaffirmation of power. 14ymedio, Havana, November 2 2025 — In Cuba, the powerful don’t usually fall with a bang; rather, they slip into silence. Some disappear after a brief statement, others vanish with a eulogy that sounds like an … Continue reading “More Than Six Decades of Political Purges in Cuba”
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 18 January 2023 — A rumor had been going around the Island since December of last year: the dean of the Universidad de las Artes (ISA) had been relieved of his duties. This euphemism is usually used in Cuba when referring to party hacks who are dismissed or dethroned. Many … Continue reading “‘She’s Quiet’: Cuba’s University of the Arts (ISA) Has a New Dean”
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 16 July 2021 – With nearly 200 people detained and disappeared, because their families say they do not know where to find them, with the Black Berets patrolling through the streets asking random passersby for documentation, with the army and state security forces ready to go out at any moment … Continue reading “Worthy Cubans are at the Protests Fighting for Freedom”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Havana, 1 September 2019 — The clumsy communication strategy of Cuba’s official functionaries on social networks stumbled again this week. This time the blunder came from Ena Elsa Velázquez, Minister of Education, who targeted her words against Cuban emigrants. “Those who do not live in Cuba have no right to criticize … Continue reading “Of Conveniences and Geographies”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 15 September 2018 — A quarter of a century ago, when I met Reinaldo Escobar, there were at least two obsessions around which his life revolved. The first was to try to continue doing journalism despite having been expelled from the official media, and the other was this novel, a biographical exorcism that … Continue reading “Prologue to “La Grieta””
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 2 March 2017 — Otto Rivero directed the most powerful entity in Cuba at the beginning of this century, the Battle of Ideas, but was ousted by Raúl Castro a few months after the latter assumed the presidency. Now, the former youth leader has emerged from his “pajama plan” – as such … Continue reading “Otto Rivero’s March 2nd / 14ymedio, Zunilda Mata”
Iván García, 9 August 2016 — The sun illuminates the Plaza Vieja, and a humid heat transforms the place into an open-air sauna. When you set foot on the cobblestones, the sensation you have is one of walking on burning embers. At the entrance of the planetarium, dozens of kids accompanied by their parents get in … Continue reading “Without Eusebio Leal, Habaguanex is Controlled by the Military / Iván García”
Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, 10 April 2015 We Cubans are going to miss Fidel a lot. Fidel was a spontaneous, almost infantile, assassin with an irresistible charisma that eroticized even his bodyguards. Meanwhile, he could kill just out of a curiosity to see his victims’ last expression of panic or rage. Like someone who naively opens … Continue reading “Everyone Bears Your Name, Fidel / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
According to a note in the newspaper Granma, the Council of State, on a proposal from its President–Raul Castro, or “El Chino” as we call him–agreed to promote to Minister of Culture the compañero Julian Gonzalez Toledo. A suspicious agreement, knowing that Toledo doesn’t understand much about culture because he spent his whole life at … Continue reading “Over and Out / Juan Juan Almeida”
A February 24th with young talent, a breath of fresh air. Yesterday Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power ended its session, a session where new appointments were made: Homero Acosta as secretary of the Council of State; Gladys Bejerano as vice president of the Council; José Ramón Machado Ventura as controller general; Ramiro Valdés Menéndez; … Continue reading “Castro’s Moves: A Light, Tenuous, at the End of the Tunnel / Juan Juan Almeida”
WHY ISN’T LAGE LAUGHING? Carlos Lage isn’t laughing because it would be cruel to ask a man condemned to death (when the picture was taken he only had months left in his high position). Although he was at the beginning, of course, in those decades when he traveled in camouflage on a military plane. … Continue reading “Communism of Laughter and Forgetting / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
For some months now, they have spread like gun powder throughout the city: rumors about embezzlement, theft, deviation of resources, practices of nepotism, etcetera. Old Havana has generated the most commentaries these days. The director of Puerto Carenas, the great construction enterprise dealing with the restoration of all the real estate in the historic center … Continue reading “Murmurs / Rebeca Monzo”
The last thing able to survive from our Cuban heritage is housing, owing to the totalitarian will of Fidel Castro, who dictated for more than 50 years that everything was his property and only he would decide what was whose and when it stopped being so. Fortunately or unfortunately, the family home was the only thing that couldn’t be sacrificed to survive the … Continue reading “A Little Report about Governmental Fraud / Ángel Santiesteban”