“My song seeks to pick up the pieces” / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar

The troubadour is passing through Havana to record a disc in the EGREM studios in Miramar, along with several songwriters.(Courtesy)
The troubadour is passing through Havana to record a disc in the EGREM studios in Miramar, along with several songwriters.(Courtesy)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 31 August 2016 — Passing through Havana to record a CD in the EGREM studios in Miramar, along with several singers, the troubadour Roland (Roly) Berrio spoke with 14ymedio about the beginnings of his career and health of Trova in Cuba.

Luz Escobar. Together with other troubadours you are currently working on an album that pays tribute to La Trovuntivitis project. How did that project arise?

Roly Berrio. The city of Santa Clara was left quite bereft in terms of music in the hard years of the Special Period, so it all began with the desires of students to do something on a stage with many shortcomings. So at that time there was a flourishing of projects, peñas – weekly shows – and the troubadours.

We started singing in several places in the city until one night El Mejunje opened its doors for us alone, we were five or six troubadours: Diego Gutiérrez, Alain Garrido and the Enserie trio. We are all included in La Trovuntivitis, which is a generic space for our own music, for music that has certain pretensions, social, aesthetic, risky. We have been singing there for 20 years now. continue reading

Escobar. In other provinces troubadours do not have their own spaces.

Berrio. Santa Clara has had the good fortune to have leaders, both political and cultural, who have given a lot of freedom and support to the projects of young people. Without much hesitation, without fear. This has helped this movement to exist, but also in fine arts, in literature and in almost all its manifestations. Unlike in other provinces, where there are musicians and artists with talent, but when it comes to joining together and having institutional support it has been difficult to create a movement.

Of course, we also had a very bad stage in terms of political and cultural leadership. That led to a falling-out and artists rebelling. It was a moment of rupture.

Escobar. What role did Ramón Silverio play in the birth of La Trovuntivitis?

Berrio. Everything. Like our Bartolome de las Casas. He has been the doer, an example of freedom and inclusion. A project he presents, he understood the project as his own.

Escobar. What was the effect on you of your time with the Enserie trio?

Berrio. The trio was part of my beginning, my musical and intellectual training. I continue to compose songs in three parts. I bring three ways of addressing the theme that I’m dealing with, three ways of looking at it, three ways of presenting the song.

Enserie was unusual because the composition was made among three people, the lyrics and music. It was a kind of workshop, we didn’t know the rules, it was entirely empirical. We wanted to give strength to a song that experienced the most critical years, in the nineties the media in the country – and therefore much of the public – completely dismissed the singer-songwriter.

Escobar. Are you planning a concert in the coming months?

Berrio. On September 10 I will appear at the Museum of Fine Arts with themes from an upcoming album of single songs. It still has no name and I am going to record it France.

Roland (Roly) Berrio. (Courtesy)
Roland (Roly) Berrio. (Courtesy)

Escobar. Do you feel that you are a chronicler of reality?

Berrio. Art can achieve awareness without having to dictate a sentence that says what you have to do. Some of the rejections to the music of the Nueva Trova movement were, in my opinion, very judgmental. There was a lot of “thou shalt do this” or “you have to be the New Man.”

My song seeks pick up the pieces that were broken and that are still somewhat scattered in the society, in the country.

Escobar. How do you assess the health of Trova?

Berrio.  Trova has not had, beyond the moments it had in the eighties, much impact on the broader plane. What happened is that people like an individual of some genre, and not the genre as a whole. In the eighties, whether or not you knew the person who was going to sing, if Trova was announced the venues were full and people came to know there was a curiosity that then began to disappear.

Tarará’s Thousand And One Stories / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar

An abandoned house in the Tarara district. (14ymedio)
An abandoned house in the Tarara district. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 17 September 2016 – “This was my house,” says Elena, a Cuban-American who returned to the island this week and visited the place where she spent her childhood. In Tarará she took her fist steps, but the place barely resembles the residential neighborhood of her memories. In five decades it has passed from being an enclave of rich people to hosting a teacher’s training school, a Pioneers camp for schoolchildren, a sanatorium for children affected by radioactivity, and a tourist’s villa.

In the town, located east of Havana in a beautiful coastal area, the city’s crème de la crème settled in the middle of the last century. None of the residents of the 525 houses of this little paradise could imagine that soon after the titles of their homes were released, only 17 families would remain there and the rest would emigrate or lose their property after Fidel Castro’s coming to power. continue reading

“My father bought the parcel with great enthusiasm, he always said that he would live his last years here,” recalls Elena now. She walks around the house that has lost all the wood of its doors and windows. Weeds have taken over the terrace area and on the floor of the main hall there is evidence of the many bats that sleep in the room every night.

A man sweeping the street asks the newcomer if she passed through “the entry gate” control where visitors must pay for access to Tarará. For five convertible pesos Elena has returned to the place of her nostalgia, with “lunch included” in a solitary cafe by the sea.

She heads in that direction, but not before crossing herself before the lonely church dedicated to Santa Elena, which had gotten its cross back a few years earlier, after its having been removed during the decades when the most rabid atheism ruled the place. “They baptized my littlest sister here,” recalls the woman in front of the chapel.

In the bar of the local restaurant the waiter tells her that during elementary school he spent several weeks in Tarará. Although they swap stories about the same piece of Cuban earth, they seem to be talking about opposite poles. “I liked coming because they gave us yogurt at breakfast and lunch, and in one of the houses I saw a bathtub for the first time,” explained the man who is now over 40.

His memories correspond to the days when the once glamorous villa had been converted into the José Martí Pioneers City. The camp hosted thousands of school age children every year, “they were like vacations except we had to go to school,” explained the man.

The Soviet subsidy supported the enormous complex which included a cultural center, seven dining rooms, five teaching wings, a hospital, an amusement park and even an attractive cable car crossing between the two hills over the Tarará River, which is now a mass of rusted iron.

The cable car has become a tangle of rusty iron. (14ymedio)
The cable car has become a tangle of rusty iron. (14ymedio)

Elena, meanwhile, recalls the backyard fruit trees, the squash court, and the softball field that filled with families on the weekends. However, her fondest memories relate to the drive-in theater located at the entrance to the village, which is now converted into a parking lot. Between her memories and the waiter’s are 30 years, and a social revolution.

“Now the only people who can enter are those with reservations in the few houses rented to tourists in this neighborhood,” explains the employee. They belong to the families who resisted leaving despite all the pressure they received. “Overnight the village filled with young people who came to the countryside to study dressmaking,” he explains.

The few residents who didn’t leave “went through hell” the sweeper says. “They had to travel miles to find a store and all around the houses were places for dancing and checkpoints,” he recalls.

A few years ago the state-owned tourist corporation Cubanacan rehabilitated 274 houses and another state-owned entity, Cubalse, did another 223. However, the projected tourist center hasn’t taken off. “This place lost its soul,” commented the sweeper while gathering up leaves from a yagruma tree that have fallen on the sidewalk. The plaque marking the pier where Ernst Hemingway docked his yacht can barely be discerned in the midst of the undergrowth.

In the nineties, Tarará was the epicenter of a program sponsored by the Ministry of Public Health for children affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident. They came from Moldovia, Belaruss and Ukraine, shortly after the economic crisis – sparked by the loss of the Soviet subsidy after the breakup of the Soviet Union – had put an end to the Pioneers camp.

The official press explained, at the time, that Cuba’s children had donated their “palace” to those affected by the tragedy, but no one remembers a single meeting at the school announcing the transformation the villa would undergo.

Early in this century 32,048 patients from Central and South America and the Caribbean passed through Tarará in the noted Operation Miracle, funded by Venezuelan oil. They came with different eye diseases such as cataracts and retinitis pigmentosa. They found a haven of peace in the place where only Cuban personnel working with patients and the few remaining residents were allowed to enter.

A decade ago 3,000 Chinese students came in turn to study Spanish and a police school was established in the neighborhood; its classrooms are often used to hold members of the Ladies in White when they are arrested on Sunday after leaving Mass at Santa Rita Church, on the other side of the city.

“This looks like a ghost town,” says Elena loudly as she walks the streets. Successive “programs of the Revolution” that filled the neighborhood have ended and now all that’s left is a development of numerous abandoned houses and others were a few tourists take the sun on the terraces. The beach where the visiting Cuban-American found her first snails is still there “as pretty as ever,” she says.

UNPACU Reaches 5th Anniversary Amid Achievements And Criticisms / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Mario Penton

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar/Mario Penton, Havana/Miami, 24 August 2016 – Five years can be a long time in Cuba, when we’re talking about an opposition organization. In the complex kaleidoscope of dissident groups and parties that make up civil society on the island, many are active for only a few months or languish amid repression and illegality. The Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) will reach its fifth anniversary on Wednesday with several of its initial objectives completed and others still in progress.

While the Cuban government classifies all opponents as “enemies” of the nation and “hirelings of the Empire,” UNPACU members have preferred to describe themselves in their own words. They consider themselves “a citizens’ organization and a pro-democracy and progressive social movement” interested in “freedom, sovereignty and prosperity.” Their epicenter is the city of Santiago de Cuba and other areas in Eastern Cuba, although they also have a presence in Havana. continue reading

Organized around their leader and most visible head, Jose Daniel Ferrer, UNPACU was born in 2011 after the process of the release of the last prisoners of the 2003 Black Spring, among whom was Ferrer. Ferrer’s prior experience was in the ranks of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL), which was vital for his own political development, according to what he has said in several interviews.

Over the years, several faces have stood out in UNPACU’s ranks, such as the young Carlos Amel Oliva, who recently led a hunger strike in protest of the arbitrary arrests and confiscations of personal belongings. However, UNPACU has also suffered, like the rest of the country, the constant exodus of its members through the refugee program offered by the United States Embassy and other paths of emigration.

Among those who have decided to stay on the island, is Lisandra Robert, who never imagined she would join an opposition organization. Her future was to be a teacher, standing in front of a classroom and reviewing mathematical formulas and theories. However, her studies at Frank Pais Garcia University of Teaching Sciences ended all of a sudden when she refused to serve as an undercover agent for State Security. The “mission” they demanded of her was to report on the activities of several activists of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, among them two of her family members.

Today, Robert is a member of UNPACU, and although she started with the group as an independent journalist, with the passing of time she has addressed the issue of political prisoners. “At first it was hard, because the neighbors participated in the acts of repudiation, they wouldn’t look at us or speak to us.” Something has changed because “now they are the ones most supportive of us.”

Among the characteristics that distinguish the work of UNPACU is the use of new technologies. Through copies on CDs, USB memory sticks or external hard discs, Cubans have seen the acts of repudiation from the point of view of the opponents who have been victims of them, and they have even used tools such as Twitter, which they teach in their Santiago headquarters.

“This is a way to bring more people to all the work we do and they receive it with love and great appreciation, because we also include news that doesn’t appear in the national media,” says Robert.

Zaqueo Báez’s face became known during the mass Pope Francis offered in Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution last September. Along with other colleagues, the current UNPACU coordinator in Havana approached the Bishop of Rome and demanded the release of the political prisoners. This Tuesday he told 14ymedio that he felt “very proud” of belonging to the movement dedicating “great efforts” to “social work undertaken directly with people to involve those most in need.”

Jose Daniel Ferrer, on a visit to Miami, said he was satisfied by what has been achieved and feels that “in its first year UNPACU was already the opposition organization with the most activists in Cuba.” The figure of 3,000 members stated publicly has been a center of controversy, such as that sustained between Ferrer and Edmundo Garcia, a Cuban journalist living in Florida. On this occasion, Garcia asked sarcastically, “How many people (from UNPACU) can you introduce me to?”

Garcia also questioned the organization’s source of funding and said the United States government was the main source, through the National Endowment for Democracy. Ferrer openly acknowledged that part of the funding comes from the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) and what he describes as “generous contributions from Cuban exiles.”

Former political prisoner Felix Navarro belonged to UNPACU, but said he had left the group “without grievance, without separation.” He considers it “the most representative organization in opposition to Castro within the Cuban nation.” In addition, “it is in the street and has created a very positive mechanism from the point of view of the information to immediately find out what is happening every minute.”

For José Daniel Ferrer one of the biggest challenges is to achieve “a capable and committed leadership” because many activists “scattered on the island don’t do better activism because of not having good leadership.” The limitation on resources such as “equipment, disks, printers and the money it takes to bring more people into the work of spreading information” also hinders the action of training, he adds.

The dissident Manuel Cuesta Morua considers UNPACU to be “one of the most active organizations, especially in non-violent protests in the streets, bringing light and giving relief to the demands of ordinary people.” A result of this activism is that in April of this year the number of political prisoners belonging to the organization rose to 40 people.

When Jose Daniel Ferrer was asked if UNPACU can remain active without him in the personal leadership position that has characterized Cuban political movements, he responds without hesitation: “It has been demonstrated very clearly in my absence.”

Moscow Does Not Fit In A Suitcase / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar

The Sadovod Moscow market. (Ancon)
The Sadovod Moscow market. (Ancon)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 25 August 2016 – For decades visiting Moscow was the golden dream, but only the most trusted could enjoy a stay in the Soviet Union. From these trips to the “godmother nation” they returned with suitcases filled with products unavailable in Cuba. Today, some take the same route, but this time they shop in a Russia with a market economy and well-stocked stores.

Most of them are “mules” who make the long journey to Pushkin’s native land to bring back shoes, clothing and Lada or Moskvitch car parts, which they sell in the informal market. Those with more resources pay for their own airline tickets, knowing that they can make back the money; but others offer the room in their suitcases in search of an investor to pay for the trip.
continue reading

With the restrictions imposed late last year on the entry of Cubans to Ecuador, one of the most important routes of imports for the black market was closed. Russia, however, has continued its policy of not requiring visas from residents of the island, so the “mules” have reoriented their travel to Moscow, a route also widely used to emigrate.

The travel agency Ancon, located in a spacious property on Linea Street in Havana’s Vedado district, is taking advantage of the growth in interest in Russia to offer “shopping trip” packages to Moscow. There is no shortage of customers and the tour operator focuses on organizing visits to markets, filling travelers’ suitcases and facilitating getting the merchandise back to the island.

Vladimir Putin’s Russia has a commercial network unthinkable in Raul Castro’s Cuba. While the shelves of Havana stores display the same products over and over again, or are empty, Moscow’s markets are a permanent temptation to the wallet.

“The travel agency is part of the Russian company Kompozit 21 and has been operating in Cuba for three years,” says Ada Soto, an employee of Ancon. The CEO is Nikolay Popov, but in a spacious 16th floor apartment, two Cubans manage reservations and sales.

Soto explained to 14ymedio that since early this year business has significantly increased. Cubans who contract their services are received by one of their compatriots based in Moscow who greets them at the airport and will answer any questions in Spanish, while leading them to their hotel arranged from the island.

The seven-day packages that costs not more than $500 for accommodation, transfers and a guide, are the most sought after and the highlight is the tour of the a visit to the Sadovod marlet, a shopping mall with wholesale deals and more than 4,500 stores.

Most customers prefer to focus on shops and ignore Ancon’s cultural program with visits to museum. Cuban travelers seem more interested in the goods on offer and the sales rather than taking a look at the Red Square.

Vivian, 32, made the trip earlier this year. She says she spent it “eating hamburgers and pizza,” while acknowledging that “the Russian language is a bit of a problem, but if you speak some English and with a calculator in hand, no problem.” Together with her husband they bouhgt two passages and hired the services of Ancon. “It was a business trip,” she says.

The couple spent a day in Moscow in the Saviolovskiyo electronics market to stock up on photography and video equipment, mobile phones, tablets and other electronic devices, merchandise that can be sold at three times its value in the Cuban black market.

Vivian fed her nostalgia for the times when the Kremlin and Revolution Square were close with some Russian souvenirs, like matryoshka nesting dolls and decorated wooden crafts. She also fulfilled the request of her father in the Puerto Sur car market, buying some spare parts for his Volga.

The Saviolovskiyp electronics market. (Ancon)
The Saviolovskiyp electronics market. (Ancon)

The young woman’s husband was delighted with the Sokolniki shopping center with accessories for Jawa, Voskhod, Minsk, Karpati and Riga motorcycles, models that circulate widely on Cuba’s streets. With a couple of purchases made at the request of some friends he said he would “recover nearly half the money spent on tickets.”

The agency handled the transfer of goods to the hotel, gave them the use of a cellphone, and helped them manage the payment for an extra suitcase, in addition to the 33 kilograms they could bring home free, between a large bag and a piece of hand luggage.

On Revolico, the classified site similar to a Cuban Craigslist, they rented coats and boots because it was still “quite cold” when they landed in Moscow. The couple hopes to repeat the trip in late September and has already bought the tickets on Aeroflot for 630 convertible pesos each.

“I’ve realized a dream of my lifetime because when I was a chiquita my father went to Moscow on a trip he earned as a bonus for being a vanguard worker, but my trip was for shopping,” enthused Vivian while showing off some of her purchases. Unlike her father, she didn’t have to work overtime or demonstrate ideological fidelity to realize her dream.

Preparing For The New School Year Amid Economic Constraints And Teacher Shortages/ 14ymedio, Luz Escobar

A primary school in Candelaria, Pinar del Río. (14ymedio)
A primary school in Candelaria, Pinar del Río. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 20 August 2016 – The 2016-2017 school year starts in just two weeks and the authorities of the Ministry of Education are calling on people to take good care of school supplies given “the economic limitations of the country.” Department head Ena Elsa Velaquez Cobiella, also acknowledged the lack of teachers in several territories, a problem that last year amounted to a deficit of 10,300 teachers island-wide.

For the upcoming school year, among the provinces with the most significant lack of teachers are Ciego de Avila, where an exodus to other lines of work has caused a shortage of 663 education professionals. These positions will be covered, according to Barbara Rodriguez Milian, Provincial Director of Education, with “personnel contracted for on a hourly basis, a university contingent, and methodologists and the boards of directors of the schools,” as the official told the local press. continue reading

In Villa Clara, meanwhile, Director of Education Esperanza González Barceló recently acknowledged that there is “a deficit of over 1,000 teachers” in that territory. The official said that it was necessary to “seek alternatives” to cover the deficit, and said she will appeal to “professionals and college students, whether or not that have teaching degrees,” so work under contract.

The limited number of staff is a problem compounded by the physical state of the schools because, according to Gonzalez Barcelo, more than 60% of the schools in the province are in critical condition.

Santiago de Cuba province is one of the few that is in good shape, and according to local media has “filled all the positions” and created “a reserve of 620 teachers” for primary education. The department head said that the territory has “met the needs for pencils, notebooks and crayons” despite “the economic limitations of the country.

Education authorities have tried to play down serious deficit of teachers in the media as September approaches, and during an appearance in Camagüey, Velázquez Cobiella said that “more than 5,000 new teachers” just graduated from the School of Education and will take their places in front of classrooms nationwide in a few days, but that number fails to cover the accumulated shortages.

In a measure to accelerate the training of teachers, for the next school year, a teaching degree program will last only four years, not five as it had been up until the last school year.

New scenarios, such as the restoration of relations between Cuba and the United States have introduced some issues in the training of teachers, a detail that was not absent from the preparatory workshops for the new school year. Now teachers should emphasize during their classes on topics related “to the teaching of history, the prospects of relations between Cuba and the United States, the ideological and political subversion,” among others.

Since the fall of the socialist camp in Eastern Europe Cuban education has been undergoing an accelerated process deterioration, affecting materials and educators. The complaints of the population over the poor quality of teacher preparation, the reduction in the number of classes and the excesses of ideology when teaching certain subjects, have grown in proportion to the collapse of the sector.

The exodus of teachers into other employment sectors and emigration led the authorities to implement a teacher training program at the beginning of this century called “emerging teachers” – that is starting students not yet out of high school in teacher training programs and placing them in front of classrooms with as little as two years of preparation – as well as the introduction of classes taught by TV and videotape. These measures failed and are currently being reversed.

See also:

The Instant Creation of Emerging Teachers

Cuban Teachers Desert an Increasingly Despised Profession

The Challenges of Young People

From the Denial of the Denial to the Denial of the Obvious

They Taught Us to Lie, Steal and Pretend

Reaping the Whirlwind

 

Cuban Military Takes Over Businesses of Havana Historian’s Office / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Mario Penton

In its 23 years of work the City of Havana Office of the Historian has created more than 13,000 jobs directly and thousands indirectly. (14ymedio)
In its 23 years of work the City of Havana Office of the Historian has created more than 13,000 jobs directly and thousands indirectly. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar (Havana), Mario Penton (Miami), 16 August 2016 — “Do you see that building? Ten years ago it was full of stinking water, rats and trash. When people passed through the doorway a balcony could fall on their head. Today it is housing, thanks to the work of Eusebio,” Mirna says excitedly.

After expressing her gratitude to the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana (OHCH) for having provided her a home, this 68-year-old woman confesses her concern for the future of this institution, which has passed gradually into the hands of the military. continue reading

It is an open secret that the majority of the Historian’s companies have been transferred to an entity of the Armed Forces. It has not yet been published in any official decree nor has the national press spread the news, but the Historian of Havana, Eusebio Leal Spengler, has confirmed to 14ymedio that assets have been transferred to the Business Administration Group (GAE), a consortium managed by the Army. “It has not been transferred to the Armed Forces, but rather to GAE, a development company with investment capacity and prestige, which the Historian’s Office maintains the power to advise on the conservation of the work and also on new projects,” he explained via email.

Leal assures that the institution is calm because “the work of conservation now extends to the heritage cities of Cuba.” However, the historian expresses his sorrow at what this means for his efforts to protect the national patrimony. “It hurts us, that at the time when perhaps the greatest respect for the circumstances of life is required, the mediocre who lack any work are taking advantage, the poor in spirit, to hurt and damage many who have worked over the years to save the patrimony of a nation, whether in Cuba or anywhere else on earth.”

The Office of the Historian of Havana emerged in the ‘30s, in Republican Cuba. In 1967, after the death of the first title holder, Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring, Eusebio Leal took the helm of an entity that gradually grew not only in size and income, but also autonomy.

Its uniqueness comes from the ‘90s, when the OHCH received by Decree-Law Number 143, the freedom of economic initiative. The Government, in an unusual gesture of decentralization, entrusted Leal with creating a corporate structure that would allow social reinvestment and restoration of buildings. The institution responsible for the conservation and rehabilitation of the historic center of Havana, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, would be answer directly to the Council of State, and would have a special legal jurisdiction, personality and permissions to import and export, among other prerogatives.

The bar of La Luz Restaurant. (14ymedio)
The bar of La Luz Restaurant. (14ymedio)

In addition, it gave the Office the ability to have entities not subordinate to it and encompassed within in the prioritized are contribute to the conservation of buildings with payment of 1% of their income from operations in national currency (Cuban pesos, of CUPs) and 5% from operations in hard currency (Cuban convertible pesos, or CUCs).

Within the broad and complex business fabric that OHCH has woven for more than two decades are the Habaguanex hotel chain; the San Cristobal travel agency; the Opus Habana cultural magazine; the Habana Radio station; the Bologna publishing house; and several websites for marketing its products. The company also controlled two real estate agencies, Aurea and Phoenix; more than fifty cafes and twenty restaurants; museums, concert halls and shops; an import company, a workshop school and three construction companies (later merged into one), among other assets.

In its 23 years of work, the Office has created more than 13,000 jobs directly and thousands indirectly. According to research published by the University of Havana, of the 500 million dollars generated during this time, 60% has been earmarked for social works. In addition, the company has received more than 30 million dollars in funding from international cooperation.

About 55% of tourists coming to Cuba visit Havana, and 90% of them tour the Historic Center. Tourism revenues are soaring, therefore, in this area, reaching 2,185 CUC per resident compared with 245 CUC for the whole city.

“The best part of the cake is Old Havana, everyone knows that, so they are taking all of Leal’s businesses,” said a worker in an old-age home funded by the Historian.

Leal confirmed that the Office retains some financial instruments, including the 5% tax on any public or private activity in the historical district and the shops considered heritage, linked to the system of museums. In addition, other State institutions continue to contribute to the operation of the entity.

The Historian’s Office was getting fat in the first decade of the century when it added to his portfolio the Traditional Malecon, in 2003, and Chinatown in 2005. Following the publication in the independent press of several corruption scandals related to its administration, some of the OHCH companies were taken over by other state agencies.

“The process of disengagement has been slow. They have been removing one company after another to save Leal. The comptroller has uncovered a very large embezzlement and the only way not to charge the Historian, who actually had nothing to do with these thefts, is to exempt him of responsibility for these companies,” said a Cuban economist who prefers to remain anonymous.

Leal flatly denies these allegations and explains that “wherever someone is willing to sell his soul to the devil there will be administrative or corruption scandals.” The historian also says that “it is simply about consolidating efforts for development that we can not handle within our own means.”

But there are other theories. Eugenio Yanez, a Cuban academic who belongs to the study center Cubanálisis, believes there are three problems the transfer is designed to solve: “First, Raul Castro has a more pragmatic view, so he may want there to be a specialized management company that is responsible for business in Havana. Then there is the issue of the Leal’s deteriorating health, and thirdly there is the problem of serious corruption in the Office of the Historian companies. The Comptroller has discovered shady businesses. The solution has been to the transfer them to the Army, which is trusted by Castro.”

Self-employed individuals in Old Havana say they feel protected by the OHCH. Some expressed to 14ymedio their misgivings about the transfer of the Office of the Historian’s business to GAE. “The state always promotes its own restaurants, hotels and businesses instead of private businesses, so we don’t know what will happen now,” said Reinaldo, who operates a fashion business.

Camilo Condis, self-employed, who works with Gilberto Valladares (Papito), the hairdresser who spoke with President Barack Obama during his visit to Cuba, says that small and medium sized businesses have worked in Havana as managers of local development. “Without the Historian’s Office the work we do would not have been possible,” he said at a meeting of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (ASCE).

As of August 1, the institution that has saved at least one third of the historic center of Havana has seen its activities reduced to “museum management, promoting cultural activities and conservation of the heritage,” says a source at the Vitrina de Valonia cultural center.

No one knows how the restoration processes in the capital will proceed from now on, but many fear that the military will not know how to manage the legacy of the Historian and will seek a more immediate profitability, without taking residents into account.

“When we achieve justice we can build a new society” / 14ymedio, Ofelia Acevedo, Mario Penton, Luz Escobar

Note: The video is a brief excerpt from the interview and is not subtitled in English.

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Mario Penton, Luz Escobar, Miami, 22 July 2016 – His name is tattooed on the skin of a Cuban graffiti artist (Danilo Maldonado, known as El Sexto) or is suggested by the letter L, standing for Liberty, formed by the angle between the index finger and the thumb, increasingly displayed by those asking for democracy. The legacy of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas (1952-2012) and Harold Cepero (1980-2012) lives on in the nation for which they worked their hearts out and ultimately sacrificed their lives. Four years after the tragic crash that claimed their lives, and that their families and international organizations have classified as a settling of accounts by the repressive Cuban apparatus, 14ymedio speaks with Ofelia Acevedo, widow of Payá, former president of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL).

14ymedio: A few days ago the one year anniversary of the reopening of the embassies between the United States and Cuba was celebrated. Could we be closer to justice in the case of Harold Cepero and Oswaldo Payá? continue reading

Acevedo: The restoration of diplomatic relations has been good. It is clear that it is the Cuban government that does not continue the normal process that this rapprochement should take. On the other hand, justice is the most important step to achieve real change in the Cuban nation. To look forward in our country we need justice. The Christian tradition makes it very clear: if there is a recognition of the truth, there will be justice and forgiveness.

Once we have achieved justice we can talk about reconciliation between Cubans. We Cubans must seek it, starting by reclaiming our rights. This is a key step for the future. The greatest injustice is to deprive the Cuban people of our rights, because of this there has been so much misery and we have not progressed. Human rights are natural and inherent in the person. When we achieve justice we can build a new society, and for this it is important that this crime does not go unpunished.

14ymedio: How has the family faced the loss of your husband?

Acevedo: We are a very close family. We love each other very much and miss him so much. We live in our faith that sustains us. Our faith makes us believe that truth, justice and democracy are possible for our people. All of Oswaldo’s work is imbued with a great deal of hope, of Christian hope. That is what helps us go on in the midst of the adverse environment in which we sometimes live. Oswaldo believed greatly in the betterment of humanity and in the individual, as José Martí said. He looked for ways to give Cubans the tools to decide their future. He understood that change begins with the ability to decide. He affirmed that dialog is the only way to change Cuba, an unconditional dialog, one without exclusions and among all Cubans.

14ymedio: How do you perceive the Cuban opposition four years after the death of its most prestigious leader?

Acevedo: In Cuba there are probably more opponents than there were in Central Europe in 1989. The Cuban opposition has done a great job. We know that the government and intelligence services create moles, “construct” figures, infiltrate groups, defame and blackmail their opponents. This has existed and does exist, they are intransigents with those who don’t think like they do and who have the courage to raise their voice to express it. We Cubans who want changes have to think for ourselves and think about others, think about the Cuban people. We have to forget about egos and go where the people are to explain what are the steps for them to begin to demand their own rights, because they are the ones who should decide. We have to be with the people in this.

14ymedio: What happened to the Christian Liberation Movement after the death of Oswaldo Payá?

Acevedo: The movement received a very strong blow with the death of Oswaldo and Harold. Even before, the persecutions against them were very strong. It was the movement that had the most political prisoners and they were all exiled to Spain without the option to stay. At this time, within Cuba, the MCL is decimated, is my impression. The repression against them is very strong.

14ymedio: How was the experience of exile for your family? Will you return to Cuba?

Acevedo: My family never thought of going into exile. After Oswaldo’s murder I made the decision to go into exile for my children, because State Security was focused on my oldest son. They prevented my daughter Rosa María from starting work at a research center where she already had a place. I panicked and decided to leave because of “them” (State Security). Friends, neighbors, everyone was terrorized, because the whole world knew what had happened and that they enjoy total impunity.

I am working as a teacher and wondering when I can return to my country. I want to return to Cuba, but I hope that things improve because it costs me a lot to have to face them. My rejection of them is huge. I know I have to deal with them but it’s very difficult, because of what they are doing, what they did, how they have made my family and our people suffer.

The car in which Harold Cepero and Oswaldo Payá were killed four years ago
The car in which Harold Cepero and Oswaldo Payá were killed four years ago

Acevedo: The only meeting I had with them was a week after Oswaldo’s funeral. They called me in to ask if I was going to ask from compensation from Angel Carromero [the leader of the youth organization New Generations of the Popular Party of Madrid, who was driving the car in which Payá died and who was convicted of manslaughter). I told them I would not accept their version and I wanted to talk with the survivors. They never granted me that. The Cuban penal code does not give the victims a chance. My children were not allowed to attend the trial, which the regime had announced would be public. There was an immense repression in Bayamo [where the trial was held]. We could not carry out any legal action because a lawyer friend of the family said there was no chance to demand anything because of the criminal code.

I asked the government and the hospital for the autopsy report. They have never given it to me. I spoke to State Security, with Legal Medicine. Everyone told me that the hospital had to give me the report. The hospital administration, at six in the evening, after I did whatever paperwork was possible, told me to send it to them by mail and gave me a telephone number. The number didn’t work and we are still waiting on the autopsy. I wrote to the minister of Public Health. Rosa María tried to deliver a letter to the Cuban embassy, but they wouldn’t even let her enter the diplomatic site. Then we sent the letter in Cuba and we we had a receipt for it, but they have never answered.

14ymedio: What did Aron Modig (former leader of the Swedish Christian Democrat Party youth organization who was also in the car at the time of the crash) say about the day he Payá and Harold died?

Acevedo: Modig maintains his position. He doesn’t remember anything until reaching the hospital. It is a selective loss of memory. To me there are things that bother me sometimes in the media, because they talk about an accident, when we all know that it was a murder. A report by the international organization The Human Rights Foundation and another by physics professors at Florida International University demonstrated that it is impossible for [the crash] to have happened in the way the Cuban State says it did.

14ymedio: What legacy have Harold Cepero and Oswaldo Payá left?

Acevedo: The blood of freedom fighters is the seed of free men. This applies to Harold, Oswaldo, to all who have given their lives for human rights. The blood of innocent people, those who give their lives for others, is not spilled in vain. They crashed Oswaldo’s cars* when he was in the street. We keep fighting to give the Cuban people the possibility of deciding, which was Oswaldo’s fight as well. The Cuban government, in exchange, fights to destroy Cubans’ hopes.

*Translator’s note: There was a similar incident with another vehicle Oswaldo Payá was traveling in prior to the fatal crash.

See also:

Rosa Maria Paya’s Press Conference on the Crash That Killed Her Father and Harold Cepero

Angel Carromero Details Car Crash That Killed Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero

Interview with Rosa Maria Paya / Lilianne Ruiz, Rosa Maria Paya

The Political Legacy of Oswaldo Paya / 14ymedio

Human Rights Foundation suggests “Direct Responsibility of the Cuban Regime” in the death of Paya / 14ymedio

Carromero’s Courage / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

Surprising Sentence for Angel Carromero for the Deaths of Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero in a Car Crash / Yoani Sanchez

Roberta Jacobson Queries the Castros’ Crime / Rosa Maria Paya

The Christian Section of the ‘Weekly Packet’ / 14ymedio Luz Escobar

Abraham Campos, from team 'Luzvisión'. (Frame)
Abraham Campos, from team ‘Luzvisión’. (Frame)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana 8 July 2016 – For decades, Cuban evangelicals have lost the ability to operate their own schools, to defend their ideas on the radio, and to distribute their written publications in the newsstands throughout the country. However, new technologies have allowed them to place their new audiovisual media in the popular ‘weekly packet,’ where political topics are not allowed, but religious ones are.

In 2009, group of young developers involved with the Communications Center of the Assembly of God in Havana, began creating a compendium of videos with news, proselytizing and life tips, which they call LuzVisión (Light Vision). It is promoted as the “Christian family channel” and updated weekly on the alternative distribution networks. continue reading

Abraham Campos is one of the five members of the team that designs “a varied program, which is both informative and dramatic,” he explains to 14ymedio by phone. Since this initiative began, he emphasizes, they have wanted to prioritize the promotion of the activities of the Evangelical Church.

When selecting materials, he clarifies, everything “goes through a filter of the doctrinal purity of our denomination,” which ensure that it does “not affect any other sector of the country, neither social, nor political, nor economic.”

Campos says that the benefits of expansion through the weekly packet are numerous, as it has opened the possibility for their product to reach those who do not receive material through disks or magazines and serialized publications, such as Arpeggio or Buenas Noticias (Good News).

Although they have not found a reliable way to measure their audience, they receive constant signals that the message is now reaching a larger number of users. “We are signing up more people and the acceptance is very good.”

Several distributors of the weekly packet have told this newspaper that the folder with the “Christian” label containing the LuzVisión productions is in “high demand.” There are more than 900 churches and 1,640 homes of worship legally authorized in Cuba, according to an article by the Ministry of Foreign Relations on Ecured, a state-managed website.

On San Lazaro’s central street and a few yards from Infanta Street, lives Juan Carlos, 33, one of the sellers of a weekly packet, an alternative compendium of videos, TV shows and digital sites.

“What most people want are telenovelas and newly-released films, but I have several clients who are looking for religious material,” says the vendor. He explains that many of them are “older people, mainly women, but there are also young people who live in religious families or who attend church.”

Campos does not mince words. The objective of the channel is “to concentrate God’s people in one point,” but also to reach “those who do not know the Word. It is, also, an evangelistic medium, although the principle focus is to concentrate on the church and its edification.”

He says that LuzVisión draws on all of the collaborators in their “different denominations.” In addition, he professes that it is very useful for young people who want their work and the Church to be known, and it is greatly enriched by the international Christian music that is included every week. “It helps to expand your music archive and repertoire,” he says.

In his selection he also collects a summary of “activities and community events” that are held in churches and on the street. One of the objectives of Campos and the rest of the creators is that “the young Christian, instead of subscribing to the weekly packet to feed on other things that perhaps distance him a little from his religious activity, obtains instructional materials within his faith.”

LuzVisión is something that for many is starting to be established, but “nobody knows how it will play out tomorrow.” Campos dreams of having, in the future, “a radio station or a TV channel,” although he confesses that he has prayed for it for many years but has not achieved it. “But in the end it will come,” he says optimistically.

The young man says that the distribution through the weekly packet is “training” that helps them to involve themselves “naturally in this communication medium. We all want, when the time comes, to have a space on national television and for that we must prepare,” he says.

Cuban LGBT Community Celebrates Gay Pride Day With A Kiss For Diversity / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar

Project Rainbow validates the importance of the Stonewall events to celebrate 28 June as Gay Pride Day, beyond the official 17 May in Cuba. (14ymedio)
Project Rainbow validates the importance of the Stonewall events to celebrate 28 June as Gay Pride Day, beyond the official 17 May in Cuba. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 29 June 2016 — A rainbow of diversity and another formed in the sky by the light and humidity at sunset were the stage for Kissed by the Diversity and Equality on the afternoon on Tuesday, Gay Pride Day, where some thirty participants in Havana marked the Stonewall Inn riots in New York in 1969, a series of protests and demonstrations that were the beginning of the movement for the rights of the LGBT community.

Without any collaboration from official institutions or dissemination in the national media, for an hour 23rd Street from the Cuba Pavilion to the wall of the Malecon, became a tribute to the diversity of sexual preferences, freedom and love. continue reading

“Kissed” was organized by the Rainbow Project, a group not recognized legally that defines itself as “anti-capitalist and independent” and that fights against “the stigma and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the current context of Cuban society, and in its institutional and cultural spaces, from the LGBTI community.”

Isbel Diaz Torres, one of the young participants said that this year offered a “tribute to the people in Orlando, back in Florida, who died as victims of hatred, homophobia and all the misunderstandings that exist in this world. And also in Cuba.”

Torres regretted that the official Cuban press ignored the “two Cubans, two very young boys” who were among the victims of the Orlando attack. “For them and their families our embrace, our kiss,” he said. “Nowhere in the world are we still safe, so we have to keep fighting a lot. I think it is our great duty on behalf of the Cuban LGBTI community to continue organizing to protect us and keep coming together of course.”

The writer and playwright Norge Espinosa was pleased because “Stonewall, where all this struggle for gay rights began, has been declared a place of historical value by the US presidency, there is a feeling of recognition of this history.”

Two young men distributed papers in which they condemned the attack against the gay club Pulse in the United States. With phrases such as “We are Orlando” and “Orlando could be any city. We cannot be silent,” the demonstrators walked from N street to the iconic fountain a few yards from the sea. On some corners there was a visible operation by State Security agents, and the press outnumbered the demonstrators two to one.

Yasmin Silvia told 14ymedio that Project Rainbow has a regular commitment to remember this anniversary, something it has done since 2012. “We want to remember, in Cuba, June 28th as the anniversary of Stonewall and as a significant event in the LGBTI movement, in terms of rebellion and the spontaneous and self-organized exercise of power.”

The activist believes that “Kissed” is “a peaceful form of expression that sums up the willingness to occupy public spaces by a minority that cannot occupy and express themselves freely within them.”

Silvia said that the event is intended to be a day for the collective to be free in expressing its feelings in a safe space. “And demonstrating to other people that, first, we are not ashamed of who we are,” she added.

“Heterosexual people are not losing anything because two gay men or two lesbians kiss each other,” remarked Silvia.

The officially-recognized National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX) does not organize activities for Gay Pride Day because Mariela Castro – Raul’s daughter and the organization’s leader – “says that she does not like to imitate the Americans. That is the political reason not to celebrate on 28 June,” says the activist.

CENESEX gives more prominence to 17 May, as the anniversary of the exclusion of homosexuality from the list of mental diseases by the World Health Organization in 1990. “That was followed by this line critical of the celebration of June 28th and its commercialization, and a resolve to promote in Cuba the Day against Homophobia, which is what 17 May has become,” says Silvia.

Rainbow Arc maintains a position critical of the official posture, and commemorates both dates. “If the commercialization of June 28th bothers you, it also bothers us because we are an anti-capitalist group,” she emphasizes.

At the conclusion of “Kissed,” Pedro Manuel Gonzalez, known as Roxy, thanked those who came, saying that “joining together is always an act of love for one’s neighbor, no matter what their identity or preference, whomever comes is always welcome to join us.”

Cooling Off / 14ymedio, Luzbely Escobar

Boys bathing in the rain in Havana. (14ymedio)
Boys bathing in the rain in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luzbely Escobar, Havana, 21 June 2016 — With the coming of summer the evening downpours are back. Almost daily, in the evening, the sky is loaded with black clouds about to burst. Sometimes we get the “deluge” and sometimes not. When it happens, invariably the boys in the neighborhood come out together to have fun in the rain.

Most of the students in the country are on vacation in these weeks, and don’t miss an opportunity to play soccer or baseball on any corner. When the downpour comes, instead of trying to find shelter under a roof, they walk the streets looking for puddles to splash in and enjoying everything falling from the sky. continue reading

The heat of recent weeks has been very intense, a bath in the cool rain in the afternoon fits these young people like a soft glove. However, for those coming from work it becomes a headache to return home after the workday.

This year is competing with 2015, which was classified as the warmest of the last six decades. In different localities, the thermometers have reached figures greater than 99F, as was the case in the village of Velazco, where the temperature reached almost 102F.

This historical average, which was 77.9 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the Climate Center of the Meteorology Institute, was surpassed last year at 1.8 degrees. The phenomenon is related to El Niño, along with the process of global warming.

These late afternoon rains do not occur only in the capital. Yesterday’s rainfall record occurred in Manzanillo, a municipality in the east. This area has been affected in recent months by a severe drought, so any rain is very well received, by both residents and reservoirs.

While the more conservative remain indoors, looking to mitigate the effects of the dog days of summer with the air of a fan or a refreshing drink, the more daring take advantage of the downpours to counter the high temperatures.

Rain Causes 17 Building Collapses in the “Wonder City” / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar

The facade of No. 418, where you can see the stairway filled with rubble. (14ymedio)
The facade of No. 418, where you can see the stairway filled with rubble. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 8 June 2016 – The residents of 418 Villegas Street, in Old Havana, were unhurt after a building collapse at nine o’clock Wednesday morning. The collapse of the roof of the house on the first floor was one of the 17 partial and total building collapses that occurred in the Cuban capital, four of them in the historical district, as a result of the heavy rains of recent days.

With very few belongings salvaged from the rubble, residents of the place waited Wednesday afternoon for the authorities to address their situation. “We’ll sleep outside here, even though it’s raining, so that no one steals anything,” said a young resident of the property, who maintained the illusion that “some police officers to guard things” would arrive. continue reading

Leticia Ramirez, seven months pregnant and also a resident of the collapsed building, said that if something had happened “at six o’clock, when everyone was in the house, it would have ended in a tragedy.” She explained that the collapse “could have been avoided” because the three families affected by the collapse of part of the building had started “years ago” the process to obtain a bank loan to undertake repairs.

However, Ramirez says that the bureaucratic process to obtain permits to undertake the work in the Havana historical center took too long. “And in the end look what happened.” The woman enumerated all the problems, pointing to a pile of rubble that on Wednesday blocked the passage of cars and pedestrians.

The plight of the residents of the Villegas Street began long before the June rains. Banking authorities took three years to approve a subsidy request to allow them to purchase materials for the reconstruction of the building. Money was only allocated last December.

From that moment there began a series of impediments from the inspectors and specialists from the Office of the City Historian, in particular with regards to the authorization to place scaffolding around the façade of the building to undertake the repairs. The signature of Eusebio Leal Spengler’s office didn’t arrive in time.

Ramirez’s mother went back and forth for months, “from one office to another,” says the young woman, but “without resolving anything.” The pregnant woman stresses that she will not accept shelter near the well-known Casa del Pedagogo “with a mattress thrown on the floor,” a place that frequently shelters neighbors who have lost their homes in building collapses.

We are owners and nobody here wants to go into the shelter,” insists the woman, who noted sarcastically that a few hours before the building collapse Havana had been declared a “Wonder City.”

Some onlookers come for a first hand look.
Some onlookers come for a first hand look.

Older residents were clearly desperate over the loss of their roof and a good part of their furniture and personal possessions. Adelaida said that they had been awarded a subsidy but that there were so many obstacles to “purchasing materials” that the work hadn’t begun.

As night fell, they still remained at the site waiting for the fire department to finish evacuating the contents of the building. As of noon on Thursday, none of the affected residents had received a visit from any representative of the People’s Power.

Some 1.7 million households, representing 39% of the housing stock in Cuba, is in fair or poor condition or worse, according to a report from the Housing authorities. During 2015, only 23,003 new houses were built throughout the country, of which 10,417 were built by people’s own efforts, a good part of them financed by loans awarded by state banks.

Between 2012, when the granting of credits to “natural persons” began, to the end of 2015, they had awarded 5.1 billion pesos (212 million dollars), of which 60% was earmarked for home repairs, according to the official press.

Rafael Alcides Close Up / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 6 June 2016 — Cuban filmmaker Miguel Coyula participated in the New Media Film Festival of Los Angeles with the seventh chapter of his series Rafael Alcides. The short film was part of a more than two-hour interview with with the well-known poet and writer, addressing topics such as art, beauty and Cuba past and present.

Filmed in Havana, with a minimalist presentation, in this seventh installment the actress Lynn Cruz recites the poem The Stranger, which gives its title to the chapter, in a moving and unadorned interpretation that salvages the lyrical work of an author now silenced in Cuba’s official catalogs and anthologies. continue reading

In the previous installments of the series, Alcides reflects on the relationship between intellectuals and power, the figure of Fidel Castro and the role played by the Cuban people in several events of the last 150 years.

The Stranger is competing in the Web Series category, along with submissions from 37 countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, France, Germany, Spain, Russia and Vietnam. The festival will take place June 7-9 at Landmark Theatres in Los Angeles and the short, just over two minutes long, is being presented as a world premiere.

The showing in Los Angeles will constitute the premiere of an official exhibition of the series directed, edited and designed by Miguel Coyula, who is also in charge of photography. However, the film has been available for weeks on the filmmaker’s Youtube channel.

During the last Young Filmmakers Exhibition, Coyula was invited to participate in the panel Routes and Routes, Cuban Cinema of the Diaspora in the 21st Century, organized by the researched Zaira Zarza. This panel debated the peculiarities of the diaspora and the formulas to keep alive contacts between “those who leave” and their audience on the island.

In his presentation, Coyula formally introduced the sixth chapter of the series dedicated to Alcides, under the title Capitalism. The filmmaker maintains in these recent creations his particular style of independent and artisanal production, relaying on clean and simple visual effects that build to a striking finale, with his pinpoint accuracy in mixing music, voice and image.

Coyula’s debut in feature films was Red Cockroaches and among his most outstanding productions is Memories of Overdevelopment, which was chosen in 2010 as the Best Cuban Film of that year by the International Film Guide. After several years living in the United States, the filmmaker has returned to live in Havana, where he is filming his third feature film: Blue Heart.

See also:

“I want more movies and fewer laws” / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar

Miguel Coyula: All Movies All The Time / Regina Coyula

Resignation Over Censorship / Miguel Coyula

Independent Cinema, Dependent Cinema / Miguel Coyula

 

Filmmakers Reaffirm Their Demands / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar

A meeting of the Cuban Filmmakers G20 group held last year in the Fresa y Chocolate Cultural Center. Standing is Juan Carlos Cremata a recently censored Cuban filmmaker. (14ymedio)
A meeting of the Cuban Filmmakers G20 group held last year in the Fresa y Chocolate Cultural Center. Standing is Juan Carlos Cremata a recently censored Cuban filmmaker. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Luz Escobar, 21 May 2016 – Three years after the first meeting of the G20, a group of Cuban filmmakers who are demanding a Film Law, the group continues to wait for an institutional response that addresses their demands. This week a letter was made public reaffirming their demands for greater recognition for filmmakers and the legalization of independent productions, among other benefits.

Ignored by the official media and frowned upon by the authorities who should be responding to these demands, the group has also been transformed over its three years of existence. Exhausted, worn out and with the responsibility of other commitments, a group that formerly contained 22 names now has only eight members. continue reading

However, those who remain in the independent group believe that only united can they achieve the objective of having filmmakers’ expectations valued, and address everyone’s proposals in a practical way,” says the letter. They see that in this way they will be able to “confront the tasks ahead quickly, efficiently and responsibly.”

The artists make it clear that the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) should not disappear, but rather be transformed. The group recognizes the institution as the “rector of the film industry in the country” but clarifies that by saying that “the ICAIC is all of us.”

The highlight of their demands is the creation of a new Film Law to give a “cultural and legal coherence to the film and audiovisual system in the country.”

In earlier statements the filmmakers stressed the urgency of seeking better management and regulation of financial relations, banking and taxes for their work in a “transparent and efficient” way, in a context in which producers who not tied to the ICAIC now work without legal or institutional support.

The filmmakers see as a ray of hope the use of the word “cinema” in one of the new Guidelines emerging from the 7th Communist Party Congress held earlier this year. In addition, comments on the concept of new forms of economic management, made by Raul Castro at the Party Congress, have fueled hopes that audiovisual creators could be included.

The document that has circulated this week by email summarizes the events of the past three years and says that the effort has both “found support and run into misunderstandings.” The objectives that led to the creation of the G20 “have not been realized,” note the authors of the letter.

At the head of the mission to overcome misunderstandings and multiply support around the demands of filmmakers, are Manuel Perez Paredes and Fernando Perez—both winners of the National Film Award—Jorge Luis Sánchez, Magda González Grau, Dean Luis Reyes, Pedro Luis Rodriguez, Mijaíl Rodriguez and, although his name does not initially appear as a signatory of the letter, the filmmaker Enrique (Kiki) Álvarez.

The group emphasizes in its missive that it will continue “faithful to its founding objectives.” It also says that it will revisit the “meetings and exchanges among artists of three generations,” which it qualifies as “one of the most legitimate conquests of these three years.” These meetings take place in the Fresa y Chocolate Cultural Center in Havana.

The current legislation on cinema dates from 1959, when the ICAIC was founded, but the emergence of new technologies, the appearance of independent producers and the economic problems being experienced by the ICAIC, along with the notorious cases of institutional censorship, have exposed cracks in the regulations.

“The only chance for Cuban cinema to overcome its current ethical and aesthetic poverty is a Film Law with all and for the good of all*,” director Kiki Alvarez told 14ymedio. “The rest, the circumstantial debates, are detours, delays and we never know anymore who favors them,” he added.

*Translator’s note: A quote from José Martí repeated without cease by the Castros.

Pedicabs, A Battle For The Streets / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar

Pedicab in Havana. (14ymedio)
Pedicab in Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, 16 May 2016 — A fine drizzle falls on the city and Felix, a pedicab driver for 22 years, takes advantage of the chance to take a break. Beside Havana’s Capitol building the man recalls a protest held last Monday by a group of his colleagues in the Plaza of the Revolution. They were demanding the right to use several streets that are now closed to their tricycles, along with less harassment from inspectors.

From a pocket in his fanny-pack he extracts a wad of papers and displays them with chagrin. They are the traffic fines that have been imposed on him so far this year, some thirty folded gray papers from the many he displays. Every one bears a stamp where we can read the word “paid.” continue reading

“Every day I have to keep all these receipts with me,” the man explains, and recalls that once he had to spend three nights in the police station because the data base of traffic fines hadn’t been updated with his information. “They work very badly, sometimes after paying, your name still shows up on the list of the defaulters,” comments Felix.

While he details the police harassment they receive, another pedicab driver arrives. The driver, Alejandro, joins the conversation and points out that even though they pay for a license to do their work, they don’t have “the right to travel on many of the important streets, like Galiano, Reina and Monte.”

Those three major arteries connect several districts and for decades have been the principal thoroughfares for this mode of transport, greatly used by Cubans for short distances. However, the pedicab drivers complain that the travel restrictions have been imposed on them under the justification of moving traffic at a higher speed on the avenues.

Yaseil Rodriguez, who has made his living pedaling for nearly a decade, says that the authorities have informed them that these vehicles move “very slowly.” A justification that does not convince him. “We aren’t allowed on these streets and the horse-drawn carts full of tourists managed by Eusebio Leal are?”

Pedicab drivers in Havana. From left to right, Yasiel Rodríguez, Noslen López y Hector Hernández. (14ymedio)
Pedicab drivers in Havana. From left to right, Yasiel Rodríguez, Noslen López y Hector Hernández. (14ymedio)

Rodriguez enumerates the streets where it is no longer possible to travel in a pedicab: “Monte, Monserrate, Zulueta, Prado, Egido, Industria, San Lázaro, la Avenida del Puerto y Cuba.” This latter “was a street in Old Havana where we were always able to travel without problems.”

The fines imposed for violating these restrictions range from 700 to 1,500 Cuban pesos. The police pay special attention to keeping the pedicabs outside the area around Fraternity Park. But the fines are not the most severe punishment; the worst is having the vehicle held at the police station until the driver pays or clarifies the situation.

Many pedicab drivers consider the application of the law “excessive.” This disagreement led to some forty of them traveling in a caravan to the Plaza of the Revolution on 10 May, with the intention to demand an end “to the abuse” against the drivers. So far they have received no response from the authorities.

For Nolsen Lopez, another young pedicab drivers, the pressure has become unbearable. “You have to travel looking on all sides as if you were transporting arms or drugs,” he said, explaining the stress he experiences during the workday. The man complains of the excessive cost to keep pedaling, because “you have to pay these fines, pay for the license, pay into social security, insurance, and if I get sick I have to use my savings because they don’t give you anything in these cases.”

Among the demands these self-employed workers are championing is also a reopening of the licenses to practice the occupation. The young man says that at the National Tax Administration Office (ONAT) it’s been ”four and a half years without their issuing permission to drive a pedicab.” For that reason they must work under the category of “helper,” a condition that limits their work even more.

“If the authorities do not respond on this issue, on Tuesday we will go to the Plaza again,” said Lopez, who did not take part in the first protest. “This time I’ll go because abuse has to end, if more of us go, it’s much better.”

 

El Trigal Wholesale Market’s Last Day / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar

A cart driver at the El Trigal wholesale agricultural market in Havana (14ymedio)
A cart driver at the El Trigal wholesale agricultural market in Havana (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 14 May 2016 — The line of trucks extends along the embankment that provides access to the only wholesale agricultural market in Havana. But unlike other days, the farmers who have come with their merchandise neither unload it nor sell it. The place is surrounded by police and someone is passing out a flyer confirming the announcement on TV primetime news: El Trigal market has closed.

Many of those who congregated this Friday in front of the access to large space hadn’t heard the “bad news.” They came with their boxes and sacks loaded with farm products and found the employees as surprised as they were over the suspension of sales in the 292 spaces where, until a few hours ago, beans, onions, avocados and other fruits and vegetables were for sale. continue reading

The driver of a truck loaded with mangos almost begged the custodians of El Trigal to let him sell his merchandise. “I came from Santiago de Cuba and now the whole trip is wasted,” complained the man. “I’m a farmer,” he clarified, to avoid being labeled an “intermediary.” An inspector warned him that if he stayed in the vicinity he would be fined and his product would be confiscated.

After noon the place is a beehive of dissatisfaction and complaints. “Boris Fuentes, the wine writer for Cuba Dice was here,” said one of the carters, a man who until Thursday made a living carrying merchandise from the trucks to the stalls and pallets. The young man recalled when an official reporter wanted to record a program about the high prices of food in a market conceived to lower the cost of basic food supplies.

“People insulted him and asked him why he didn’t do a story about the high prices in the [officially-named] Hard Currency Collection Stores run by the State,” said a carter. A few yards away, Diosbel Castro Rodriguez, 24, can’t quite believe he has lost the job that supports his family. “As long as I work and can feed my family everything is fine. But I have two kids and now without work I can’t stop thinking about what I can do,” insinuates the man.

Rodriguez Castro repeated the claim of many others in El Trigal: “They can’t do this from one day to the next, they have to give us some time, so we can look for other work,” he laments.

Yerandy Diaz, a resident of Fortuna, believes that it was on purpose that the place was closed without any notice to users and facility workers so they “did not have time for anything, for protests or to go anywhere.” According to him, the president of the cooperative that managed the market, Carlos Sablon Sosa, was called to an emergency meeting late on Thursday afternoon.

A group of vendors waiting for El Trigal to be reopened because of people’s pressure
A group of vendors waiting for El Trigal to be reopened because of people’s pressure

While Sablon Sosa was in the meeting a group of inspectors showed up and passed out a paper confirming the closure. “They came here with two police cars to intimidate people and make sure there wasn’t any hassle,” recalls Yerandy Diaz.

Working in the place were 66 carters who paid license fees to exercise their occupation, more than 30 vendors and a hundred people in the dining areas, and “over a thousand peasants who come here to sell every week,” said Diaz. All have been perplexed by the government’s decision to suspend sales.

“We have officially become unemployed, up in the air, they have not given us another alternative work,” Diaz complains facing the police as tempers begin to flare. The young man criticizes the lack of transparency because the TV news reported it was being closed “for illegalities but they didn’t detail them.”

The line of trucks continues to grow, spending hours in front of the door of El Trigal trying to convince the inspectors and the police that “at least give us one last chance to sell what we already brought here,” but authorities do not give in.

Yorenny Cobas, a resident of Fortuna, was carter at El Trigal and explains that he worked moving the product from one place to another. “We charge for the service at the time we provide it, depending on the load, it can be 10, 15 or 20 Cuban pesos; we pay for a license that costs 200 pesos a month, plus more than 87 pesos for social security and 60 pesos a day every time we work, for renting the cooperative’s truck.”

The carter, without much hope, questions an inspector. “Do you know how many families are now left with nothing?” He considers that what happened with El Trigal will bring out “more illegalities” because the farmers “will try to bring the merchandise and sell it.”

The evening falls and El Trigal remains closed, there is another police car and on the market access road a farmer tries, at a whisper, to sell his mangoes at a liquidation price.