Art and Necessity / Yoani Sanchez

Installation on the Havana Malecon for the XII Havana Biennial
Installation on the Havana Malecon for the XII Havana Biennial(14ymedio)

The man approaches and pulls a fork from the work Delicatessen that is being exhibited on the Havana Malecon during the XII Havana Biennial. Nearby, two neighbors speculate that, at the end of the event, the sand used in Resaca (Hangover) will be given to the surrounding residents to repair their homes. To art appreciation are added hardships and daring, incorporating the spectators into a show they want to make their own, by taking it home and reusing it. continue reading

The arrival of the Biennial to our city is a good time to enjoy the aesthetic surprises that await us around every corner, but it also confirms the collision of art and need. Near the artworks employing major material resources the inquisitive eyes of a guard are always watching. The protected works, with their “Don’t touch” signs or surrounded by closed perimeters, abound on sidewalks and in parks, more than they should. A contrast between the interaction sought by the artists who place their works in public spaces, and the excessive protection to which they are subjected, precisely so that this public doesn’t end up taking them away in their pockets, piece by piece.

The guard who prevents vandalism or looting also adds an ideological curator who ensures that no installation, performance or show deviates from the official script. A group of watchdogs of the artistically correct impeded Tania Bruguera from entering the Museum of Fine Arts at the end of last week. These censors of free creation also forced Gorki Aguila into a car, after preventing him from hanging the face of the graffiti artist El Sexto on the same walls where he had left us his indelible signature.

Need marks each work of art of the Havana Biennial. Material need, where a screw used in some pedestal could end up in the door of a home, or in a chair or even in the bed where four people sleep every night. And the other need, that of freedom, makes us approach the art to take for ourselves a piece of its rebellion, before the guard blows his whistle and we leave, empty handed.

 

The Risks of Journalism / Yoani Sanchez

Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 21 May 2015 – If you has asked me a year ago what would be the three greatest challenges of the digital newspaper 14ymedio, I would have said repression, lack of connection to the Internet, and media professionals being afraid to work on our team. I did not imagine that the another obstacle would become the principal headache of this informative little paper: the lack of transparency in Cuban institutions, which has found us many times before a closed door and no matter how hard we knock, no one opens or provides answers.

In a country where State institutions refuse to provide the citizen with certain information that should be public, the situation becomes much more complicated for the reporter. Dealing with the secrecy turns out to be as difficult as evading the political police, tweeting “blind,” or becoming used to the opportunism and silence of so many colleagues. Information is militarized and guarded in Cuba as if there is a war of technology, which is why those who try to find out are taken, at the very least, as spies. continue reading

Belonging to an outlawed media makes the work even more problematic, and gives a clandestine character to a job that should be a profession like any other. Now, if we look at “the glass half full,” the limitation of not being able to access official spaces has freed us, in 14ymedio, from that journalism of “statements” that produces such harmful effects. To quote an official, to collect the words of a minister, or to transcribe the official proclamation of a Party leader, has been for decades the refuge of those who do not dare to narrate the reality of this country.

Lacking a press credential to enter an event, we have approached its participants in a less controlled setting, one where they have felt more free to speak

Our principal limitation has become the best incentive to seek out more creative ways of to inform. Government silence about so many issues has motivated us to find other voices that can relate what happened. Lacking a press credential to enter an event, we have approached its participants in a less controlled setting, one where they have felt more free to speak. From Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, who answered several of our questions outside the press conference where our access was denied, to employees who alert us in whispers about an act of corruption in their companies or anonymous messages that put us on the trail of an injustice.

It has also been hard to work out our true role as providers of information, which is different from the role of a judge, a human rights activist and a political opponent. It is our role to make facts visible, so that others can condemn or applaud them. In short, as journalists we have the responsibility to inform, but not the power to impute.

Nor can we justify our failings because we are outlawed, persecuted, stigmatized and rejected. No reader is going to forgive us if we are not in the exact place of history’s twists and turns.

Yoani Sanchez Wins 2015 Knight International Journalism Award / 14ymedio

Logo of the International Center for Journalists
Logo of the International Center for Journalists

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, 19 May 2015 – The director of 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, has won the 2015 Knight International Journalism Award, the International Center for Journalists reported today. Priyanka Dubey, an independent Indian journalist has won the same award for exposing the atrocities of rapes, child trafficking and forced labor through her in-depth reporting, despite threats from human traffickers and gangs in her country.

The award, which will be delivered in Washington DC on November 10, has as its objective to honor journalists who, through pioneering work or technological innovation, have produced high-quality information and news that has had a significant impact on the lives of people in the developing world. continue reading

Yoani Sánchez has overcome censorship, arrests and poor Internet access to give the world a rare glimpse of daily life under Cuba’s communist regime and to open the door for other independent voices” read a press note on the announcement.

“Our winners this year show uncommon resolve in tackling censorship and sexual violence,” said ICFJ President Joyce Barnathan. “Thanks to their courageous reporting, Cuba’s closed society is more open and India’s democratic society is more responsive to the plight of abused women.”

“These winners are committed to upholding the best principles of journalism—acting as information leaders in communities that need it most and capturing stories in new and innovative ways,” said Jennifer Preston, Knight Foundation vice president for journalism. “Their work continues to have wide impact and holds valuable lessons,” she concluded.

How Do You Tame Computer Users? / Yoani Sanchez

User on Revolico, the Cuban "Craigslist" (Silvia Corbelle, 14ymedio)
User on Revolico, the Cuban “Craigslist” (Silvia Corbelle, 14ymedio)

Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 18 May 2015 – Nimble fingers over the keyboard, a life divided between reality and the digital world, plus the gratification of amusing yourself, learning, teaching and being free through technology. These are some of the points shared by those of us in Cuba who have linked ourselves to information and communication technologies, whether for professional reasons or simply from personal passion. Now, a new association is trying to support these enthusiasts of circuits and screens, although the management of the organization proposes many limits on autonomy and ideological ties. continue reading

The new Computer Users Union of Cuba (UIC) will enjoy the official recognition that has been lacking until now for independent groups of bloggers, gamers and programmers. It will have statutes, a code of ethics and members will be able to rely on support and visibility through its structure. Nor is there any doubt that at the next international event where “pro-governmental civil society” appears — in the manner of the Summit of the Americas — the new affiliates of the UIC will attend.

If the promoters of these activities, in whatever part of the world, want to know how a pretend non-governmental organization is generated, they should pay attention to the details of the genesis of the new organization that will bring together Cubans engaged in new technologies. It will be an excellent opportunity not to see “a star being born,” but to witness how a black hole is created that that will seek to engulf one of the wildest, freest phenomenon parallel to power in Cuban society today.

They will try to engulf one of the wildest, freest phenomenon parallel to power in Cuban society today

The process for signing up for the UIC will be open until July 15. Applicants must submit the registration form, a photocopy of their academic degree, and sign a letter accepting the draft Bylaws and Code of Ethics, which first must be downloaded from the Ministry of Communication’s website. It is surprising that at this point the organizing committee which emerged from the entity’s constituent congress – despite its undeniable technological capabilities – doesn’t have its own digital site. It would have required a “civilian” portal that does not include “.gob.cu” in its internet address, because that would identify it as subject to the government… not as an NGO.

The UIC defines itself as an organization with a professional profile, with both voluntary and at the same time select affiliation, created under Article 7 of the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba. A glance at this part of the Constitution clarifies that these organizations “represent their specific interests and incorporate them into the task of edification, consolidation and defense of the Socialist society.” As if that isn’t enough, the president of the organizing committee, Allyn Febles, who is also vice rector of the University of Information Sciences, told reporters that “the new organization has as a base the unity of it members in support of the social project of the Cuban Revolution.”

An attempt, no doubt, to assign a political color to kilobytes, tweets and apps. As if they felt the need to demarcate the limits of technologies starting from Party considerations. Why are they so crude? Why isn’t it possible to create a Union of Cuban Computer Users dedicated to teaching the population to use the tools that allow them to more freely and easily access new technologies? Why do they have to interpose themselves between the keyboard and the social networks, and not just from any ideology but from a particular sectarian and exclusionary ideology?

The restrictions don’t end there. In its introduction, the ethics code defines a priori computer users as “committed to our Socialist Revolution…” while in Article 3 it imposes maintaining conduct “in accord with the norms and principles of our Socialist society.” The situation worsens, because Article 13 of the code itself imposes on the UIC members the obligation to inform on colleagues who incur offenses. Rather than an entity to preserve the rights to technology enthusiasts, it is creating an oversight body to control them.

It is expected that the members of the UIC will put intolerance ahead of information sciences, being soldiers ahead of being internauts…

Like a ghost of the past, the little check box of “political membership” reappears on the application form for admission to the UIC, where the applicant must put checkmarks next to organizations such as the Communist Party, the Young Communist Union or… the Federation of Cuban Women, the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, and the Cuban Workers Center. Which contradicts the official spokespeople who shout themselves hoarse saying that these latter three are not political but rather social entities. Which is it?

The nice part of the UIC’s founding documents is where they warn that the UIC “will be working to create a climate of scientific and technical creation and for the elevation of its members to a professional level and a permanent technological upgrade, encouraging the identification and the recording of the knowledge of its associates and their preparation and fitness to undertake specific projects, as well and the identification of opportunities to impact the economic development of the country and the exporting of goods and services, and in this way contributing to an increase in the welfare of its members.”

But why, in order to receive these undeniable benefits, must they show political obedience and loyalty? The answer is simple: because it is expected that the members of the UIC will put intolerance ahead of information sciences, being soldiers ahead of being internauts… being censors ahead of being young people who play with binary code.

Cuba and Venezuela, in the same mirror / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez

Line to buy food in Venezuela (Twitter)
Line to buy food in Venezuela (Twitter)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 14 May 2015 – “I got soap and some toys for her son,” one Venezuelan mother was telling another in Tocumen Airport in Panama. At her feet a carry-on looked like it was about to explode it was so full, as the lady enumerated everything she was taking back to her country. The conversation reminded me of my own compatriots who return to the Island with luggage stuffed with products, including everything from toothpaste to sewing needles.

In a situation of scarcities, we human beings end up looking like those “leafcutter ants,” capable of carrying a part of the forest back to their anthills. But the task of seeking what we lack at any cost also locks us into a cycle of obsessions, where buying eggs, stocking up on milk or locating the market that has toilet paper will consume a major share of our time and energy. We end up trapped in a cycle of survival, in which we can hardly concern ourselves with our role as citizens. continue reading

However, there will also be some who want to explain the hardships in their own way. Like the official analyst who, some days ago on Cuban television, addressed the scarcity of basic goods in Venezuela. In that lady’s opinion, the blame for the shortages falls on the sector that hoards, or fails to import, merchandise in order to provoke social chaos. In her discourse, the “evil rich” make it difficult for the “good poor” to put a plate of food on the table. A line of argument so ridiculous that I stopped to listen to it, as if it were a comedy show.

The biased analyst was an outstanding student of the school of “Castroism,” in which Hugo Chavez and Maduro were also trained, and where they learned that while filling political discourse with a constant reference to the enemy may not serve to appease the burning hunger in the stomach, at least it keeps the needy entertained. A policy of fanfare, where there are always “the others” who do evil things and boycott the government, which claims to be the target of attacks coming from all sides.

A policy of fanfare, where they are always the others who do evil things and boycotting the government, which claims to be the target of attacks coming from all sides

The truth is that long lines outside markets are not a media hoax nor an exaggeration of the Venezuelan independent news media, but a reality that affects the entire country. Flour is unavailable for everyone and economic instability knows no social classes nor distinguishes ideologies, although the corruption and an extensive network of privileges awarded to those closest to power offer them a significant material respite. In these circumstances individuals are reduced to their condition as desperate consumers, a situation that results in a more controllable society, and a citizenry less attuned to the political scene.

As in a warped mirror, we Cubans see our worst moments reflected in Venezuelans. If previously we could say with pride that we share a culture, a language, and even geographic proximity, now we see ourselves in issues no one would want to brag about.

We are both a people who have learned to wait, stand in long lines, always carry a bag to catch on the fly any rumors of a reappearance of some product. The luggage we check at the world’s airports travels loaded with the same things and full of the same anxieties of deprivation. When we listen to ourselves speak it is now difficult to distinguish if we are in Havana or Caracas, if we are waiting outside a market in Maracaibo, or in Santiago de Cuba. Are we them or are they us?

Welcome Hollande, Goodbye Hollande / Yoani Sanchez

François Hollande and Raul Castro, at their meeting at the Palace of the Revolution. (EFE)
François Hollande and Raul Castro, at their meeting at the Palace of the Revolution. (EFE)

Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 12 May 2015 — The official reception at the airport, the photo shaking hands with the host, the wreath laid at the statue of José Martí and the expected lecture at the University of Havana. How many foreign politicians have followed this script in recent months? So many that we have lost count.

A true shower of presidents, foreign ministers and deputies has intensified over Cuba without daily life feeling any kind of relief from such illustrious presences. To this parade of world leaders has been added, this week, the French president François Hollande, who assured us that his country wants to “strengthen ties with Cuba” so that both nations, “assume greater international leadership.

During his stay, the politician met with Raul Castro, visited Fidel Castro in his home, and awarded the Legion of Honor to Cardinal Jaime Ortega y Alamino. The agenda did not include, however, any meeting with dissidents and activists. His vision of the Cuban stage could not be completed with a critical eye on the Government’s relationship with its own people. As the presidential plane lifted off, the official version of events barely registered on the retinas and ears of the French. continue reading

In a lecture at the University of Havana’s Great Hall, Hollande said that “to come to Cuba is to come to a country that represents for Latin America a form of expression, of vindication of dignity and independence.” Although he didn’t say it, the French president knows that he is in a nation with prisoners of conscience, without political parties, where opponents are threatened and repressed. A land without union rights, with an illegal independent press, and a military power that is handed down in the family.

On this visit we needed reaffirmation that the France of the Rights of Man still believes in the unshakeable values that recognize the rights of individuals to disagree, to express their differences without fear and to organize around them. We demanded some words of support, words that would confirm for us that the government of the European country is willing to support, in Cuba, the desires for freedom that have so marked and modeled its own national history.

In the minds of many, the first French president on Cuban soil will be remembered for his complacent posture toward the authorities

A man who has declared that French and Cubans have “shared the same movement of ideas, the same aspirations, the same philosophical inspiration, cannot believe that he has visited a country where citizens have chosen by their own free will to subordinate themselves to a totalitarian power. Does Hollande think that we have tacitly chosen the cage? Does he suppose, perhaps, that we are comfortable in our chains?

On the positive side of this visit, we will be left with the opening of the new Alliance Francaise headquarters, and a wider collaboration in tourism, education and health. However, in the minds of many, the first French president on Cuban soil will be remembered for his complacent posture toward the authorities. Hard to remember, after all these years, a trip with a script so very played-out.

Hollande was accompanied by a business delegation made up of companies such as Pernod Ricard, the hotel chain Accor, Air France, the distribution group Carrefour, the telecommunications company Orange, and several banks. Closing deals in the energy and tourist sectors was ultimately the most substantial share of their presence in Cuba, although the meeting with Fidel Castro has dominated the headlines.

Time will pass and our country will progress to a new political situation. We will hear some historians say that the influence exercised by the French president was decisive on this path to change. But that will be later, when the historians rewrite the past and adorn it at their convenience. For now, it is difficult to know how this insipid visit could influence our future.

The Two Halves of Raul Castro / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez

The meeting between Raul Castro and Pope Francisco. (EFE)
The meeting between Raul Castro and Pope Francisco. (EFE)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 11 May 2015 – Raul Castro arriving in Italo Calvino’s other homeland, like the Viscount of Calvino’s book, landed divided in two, split down the middle. He came from a flood of soldiers and armaments at the Red Square parade in Moscow, where he showed his Communist nostalgia recalling the “glory days” of the Soviet Union. In Rome, however, he arrived with his other side taking the lead. At the Vatican he became the man educated in a Jesuit college and even confessed to Pope Francis that he might be disposed to return to the Church and once again take up prayer.

This Sunday, the two contradictory and irreconcilable pieces of Raul Castro have returned to Cuba, a country also fragmented between the celerity with which it feeds hopes and the slow pace of reality. The official media only reported the tour of one of the General’s parts, that of commitments and continuity and the embrace of the Kremlin comrades. However, with regards to the meeting with the pope, they only reported the words of thanks for the mediation between Cuba and the United States, accompanied by a reference to the pope’s upcoming visit to the Island. continue reading

Why did neither prime time TV news nor the newspaper Granma report Raul Castro’s declarations about a possible return to the faith? Because this part is not suitable to be aired indoors, it should only be exposed to a foreign public. Inside the house, within the national frontiers, the image must continue to be that of a tough, strong man of clenched fist, who neither wavers nor exhibits any weakness. In Cuba he is not willing to show the moderation or the diplomatic side on display during his trip. Here, he wants to make it clear who leads and reaffirm that there is no room for differences nor opposition.

At home, the image must continue to be that of a tough, strong man of clenched fist, who neither wavers nor exhibits any weakness

To add to the contradictions, while the General-President was engaged in a foreign tour, Fidel Castro published some reflections that reinforce the choice of Marxism-Leninism. Speaking out for an atheistic and materialistic ideology a few hours after his younger brother was received by Saint Peter’s successor. It was not a coincidental text, nor a careless one. It focused on reining in the reformist side that Raul Castro exhibited before democratic governments. The commander-in-chief also needed to make clear the limit of the transformations Cuba is experiencing, which so far have been timidly focused on the economic sphere without going so far as political changes.

Like the story written by Italo Calvino, it is very difficult for these two halves to coexist without confrontation. The pope, the French president and Barack Obama, among others, have shaken the hand of the politician who says he is willing to talk. They do not observe how the military and intolerant side, that is also a part of him, behaves on Cuban soil. Under this Raul Castro are authorized the acts of repudiation against the dissidents, State Security’s harassment and surveillance of activists and the greater part of the population which doesn’t even dare to criticize the system out loud.

A Raul Castro who maintains a benign moderation towards the outside world and a harsh authoritarianism within Cuba would be a terrible scenario for the future

Which of the two halves will prevail? A Raul Castro who returns to religious faith, propels a comprehensive reform of the country and sits down to talk with the internal opposition? Or that other, raised up in military intransigence, who incites political hatred and puts the interests of his family clan above the urgent needs of the nation? Will there come a time when he cannot sustain such duplicity?

In the last part of the book by the famous Italian-Cuban writer, the two halves of the protagonist are sewn together and live in harmony after trying to annihilate himself. In the Cuban case, that could be the most devastating of the choices. A Raul Castro who maintains a benign moderation towards the outside world and a harsh authoritarianism within Cuba would be a terrible scenario for the future.

Our Children Make Us Less Cowardly / Yoani Sanchez

Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, 10 May 2015 – There is a memory I often escape into. At times of greatest tension, I travel back to that August morning when I held my son for the first time. If I feel overcome by fear, I visualize the tiny fingernails that had grown inside my womb, soft and bent around the tips of his fingers. I also calm myself evoking the backs of his hands, with the marks of amniotic fluid in which they were submerged for so long. I take refuge in the memory, feeling that no repression nor hatred can reach me, because I am protected by his birth.

Our children give us the gift of will. When our eyelids are heavy and the most powerful alarm clock cannot get us out of bed, it’s enough for them to whimper in their crib for us to wake up. If they come into the world while we ourselves are still students, they give us the confidence to believe that standing up to the test of motherhood means that no diploma can resist us. They, with their gaze and their questions, also force us to be less cowardly. How can we explain to a child the opportunistic silence, the masks, the faking it… without destroying, in these declarations, a part of the paradigm we represent for them?

Our children are always better than we are. So today, while in Cuban homes mothers celebrate their day, some surrounded by their loved ones and others with the sadness of distance, I am going to give my “little boy” a gift. It will be a small present, simply making lunch together, which will allow us to talk while he chops the spices and I start to heat the pan. Perhaps he will tell me about last week, or about some book or a girl that he knows. While we chat, I will sneak a peek at his hands, now larger and stronger than mine. I will compare the sounds of a baby with his current deep voice, and conclude that this man of today also gives me strength to continue, a great strength.

Twenty years have passed and I still don’t need any other present for Mother’s Day… I already have it, standing in front of me.

From Ferry Line to Internet Line / Yoani Sanchez

Key West-Havana Ferry, takein in 1951 (Miami History Archives and Research Center)
Key West-Havana Ferry, taken in 1951 (Miami History Archives and Research Center)

Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, 7 May 2015 – Toward the other side of the sea, that point on the horizon that so many Cubans dream of, several of the curious were gazing yesterday as they sat along Havana’s Malecon. Hours earlier word begun to spread that the United States has authorized “certain specific licenses for passenger ferry service” to Cuba. The rumor was enough for many to play with the idea of how this country would change if it were connected by boat to the other shore. A thousand and one illusions have been unleashed in recent hours, although the four ferry companies authorized by the U.S. Department of the Treasury have yet to receive approval from the Cuban authorities. continue reading

However, the symbolic effect of this relaxation reaches dimensions that transcend the political gesture. We live on an island and this has given the sea, for us, the character of an insurmountable frontier, a wall that isolates us from the world. When a Cuban prepares to visit another country, we rarely use the verb “to travel,” but rather appeal to a more dramatic word, salir: which means to “go out” or “get out” or even “break away.” To escape our insularity, to get to the other side, we have to saltar: “leap over.” A catamaran from Florida arriving along our coast every day would break – at least metaphorically – this geographic isolation used, for the last half century, for ideological purposes.

People in the street, however, are waiting for more than allegories. Now hopes focus on trips by Cuban-Americans becoming cheaper with the new maritime connection. Many dream that the holds of these boats can also bring the resources for private enterprise, agriculture and domestic life. “The pieces I’m lacking for my Russian-made Lada car,” Cheo, an engineer turned taxi driver, dreamed yesterday. His brother bought some Soviet car parts in Miami but he can’t send them because “they weigh too much and it’s too expensive by air.”

In the afternoon, two men were arguing in a crowded bus about whether the Cuban government would authorize a ferry landing in Havana. “Not even crazy people are going to allow that, boy,” shouted the older one, continuing his argument with, “Do you really think they’re going to let a boat with an American flag dock here?” The younger one, however, turned the conversation to his interests, ”What we need them to do, in addition to a ferry line, is put in an Internet line.” And so he finished with an ironic laugh.

Cubans appear ready to make up for lost time. To fit into the world in every way possible. To convert the sea that for so long was a barrier into a path, a road, a connection.

‘Cachita’ and ‘Paquito’ / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez

Francis I greeting the faithful. (CC)
Francis I greeting the faithful. (CC)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 4 May 2015 – He is Argentine and she Cuban. Separating them are the thousands of miles between the Vatican and the Sanctuary of Cobre. This coming September they will be very close, when Pope Francis I visits this island where the Virgin of Charity is adored as the patron saint of all Cubans. Cachita – as we call our Virgin – has spent decades listening to the prayers springing up on all sides; some pleas that will soon be known, first hand, are those of the one we already affectionately call Paquito.

The visit to Cuba of the head of the Vatican City State, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, could usher in a new era for the country. If last December’s announcement about the restoration of relations between Cuba and the United States opened the door to hopes of substantial change, perhaps the arrival of the Pope will grant to the current negotiations a character that transcends the agreement between the two governments. continue reading

As a mediator of the secret talks held between the White House and the Plaza of the Revolution, Francis knows that the process will be plagued with obstacles. Perhaps he believes that the greatest danger lies in one of the parties deciding to abandon the negotiations, but the risk is elsewhere. The most alarming would be that this spirit of understanding will not be completed with the dialog, so needed, between the Island’s authorities and its civil society.

The little David of this story is personified by the Cuban people, while the great Goliath is represented by an authoritarian government that controls and silences

Like a biblical scene, the Pope will find that the little David of this story is personified by the Cuban people, while the great Goliath is represented by an authoritarian government that controls and silences. The urgent medicine is directed to making the intolerant and aggressive giant see that it should not continue to censor its own population, but usher in a new time of freedom and respectful coexistence. Is there a possibility that Paquito can help us elevate these desires?

We also hope that during his stay among us Francis will go beyond asking for the release of activists, as happened with previous papal visits. These quotas of prisoners handed over to the “shepherd,” and in many cases forced to leave the country, would not provide sufficient relief right now. We Cubans need to put an end to political imprisonment. Hasten to close a stage of our national history during which so many people have been behind bars from thinking differently from the ruling party.

Francis can help us to close the chapter of the criminalization of dissent and suggest to the authorities of the Island that they make a public commitment to accepting “the other,” regardless of their political orientation. Returning to our compatriots in the diaspora their right to enter, reside in, and freely leave the country, would be another historic act of justice that would eliminate the painful and artificial separation between “Cubans inside” and “Cubans outside.”

Cachita’s nation needs a new project for the future that includes economic relief and returns to citizens the rights of free association and free expression

Simply by setting foot on Cuban soil, the pope will perceive that Cachita’s nation needs a new project for the future that includes economic relief and returns to citizens the rights of free association and free expression. In the circumstances facing Cuba, also urgent is a process of understanding that lets Cubans know that there is life after authoritarianism. That it is possible to have a prosperous country without faking a political affiliation, bowing to one party, or offering up one’s own children to the altar of ideological indoctrination. It is time to end this absurdity and fully enter into the 21st Century, with all the advantages and risks that this signifies.

Nor should they wait any longer to end the shameful acts of repudiation where Cubans confront Cubans. These picketers who use screams, insults and hatred to intimidate defenseless people should be condemned to the past in our lives. May the crozier and miter contribute to promoting a national healing process, where the victims and the victimizers recognize their roles as simple pieces on a board of polarization that has ensured fear doesn’t give way to a civic conscience.

It will be difficult for Francis to exceed that January 1998 when John Paul II breathed faith into the Catholics of this Island and hopes for those who do not embrace any religious creed. Now, the current pope comes when it seems that Karol Wojtyla’s prediction will come true: that Cuba will open itself to the world, and the world will open itself to Cuba. Paquito, for his part, could pass into our national history by encouraging a new goal: “Let Cuba open itself to Cuba.” Only then will Cachita stop hearing to so many stories of separation and pain, to be the patron saint of a country that looks to the future.

A Flooded May Day in Havana / Yoani Sanchez

The sewers can barely deal with the mud from the storm (14ymedio)
The sewers can barely deal with the mud from the storm (14ymedio)

Yoani Sanchez, 1 May 2015 – The El Cerro neighborhood is mud and tears right now. One of Havana’s most populous municipalities is trying to recover from the surprise rains that left three dead in the city, more than 1,400 houses affected and 27 partial or total building collapses. Many families lost their most precious belonging and the whole city has that smell that is left after floods, a mixture of sewage, garbage and pain.

The main scene of the tragedy experienced in the Havana capital is indoors, in the homes where they couldn’t save even a chair, but the official press tries to minimize it because it happened a few hours before the “triumphant” First of May, which is meant to show the world “the Cuban people’s attachment to the socialist system.” continue reading

The drama of those still cleaning out the mud with own efforts, shoveling it from their living rooms and bedrooms, doesn’t fit with today’s “workers’ glory,” foreign guests, and even Nicolas Maduro’s trip to share the platform in the Plaza of the Revolution with those who live in houses well-protected from inclement weather. Meanwhile, a few yards from the place where they waved flags and chanted slogans this morning, those affected by Wednesday’s storm tried to recapture the rhythm of their lives. The high water mark, which reached nearly six feet in some areas, is still fresh on the facades and in memories.

They should have suspended a parade that has cost thousands of pesos needed to help the victims

There are countries where it costs a president his job if he doesn’t personally go to the scene of an accident or a natural disaster. The absence of government officials in an area affected by a storm, a volcano or an earthquake earns the enmity of the citizens in many places, and the condemnation of the international community. In Cuba, however, fanfare has been imposed as a strategy to divert attention from the problems. This May Day has been an example of how official propaganda privileges triumphalism and minimizes misery.

A lady was sitting on the corner of Amenidad and Infanta Streets this morning, looking at the sky. Her hands wet from bailing out the water from the downstairs apartment where she lives. “I’m just waiting for the parade to end,” she said in a loud voice to anyone who would listen, with that wave of courage that overcomes us when we no longer have anything to lose. “When that’s over, maybe they will remember us,” she reaffirmed with a certain illusion.

They didn’t organize any parties in this miserable place. Out of shame, they should have suspended a parade that has cost thousands of pesos needed to help the victims. A little political sanity would have been required… but, who can ask those who have lived as well-to-do bourgeoisie for 56 years to think like the proletariat?

Yoani Sanchez: “I am not expecting that Obama is going to demand our rights” / 14ymedio

14ymedio bigger(EFE) Santiago de Chile, 22 April 2015 – Yoani Sanchez said on Wednesday that the normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States gives new hope to the inhabitants of the Island, but stressed that Cubans themselves must exert pressure to demand their rights.

“I am not expecting [US president, Barack] Obama, from the White House, is going to demand our rights, it is up to us,” said the regime opponent and journalist at a press conference in Santiago de Cuba, where she had arrived for a three-day visit.

On the normalization of relations between the two countries, the blogger felt that the United States has made several concessions so far, but the Government of president Raul Castro has been hiding his cards. continue reading

“The issue of human rights and freedoms, such as of the press, has been knocking on a closed door, but we don’t know if the Cuban government is going to cede anything,” she said.

Beyond the scope of the negotiations, Sanchez said that it is a beneficial process because it gives hope and externalizes the “conflict between the Cuban people and the Cuban government,” which, in her opinion, is the real conflict on the island.

“I would like for this process of negotiation to also bring acceptance on the part of the Cuban government of a multiparty system, of the legal existence of independent media, and a commitment not to violate human rights,” the journalist said. She predicted, however, that the regime will cling forcefully to the “absolute control” that it exercises.

On being asked for the reasons of the rapprochement between Cuba and the United States, the regime opponent said that Venezuela’s economic and social crisis is a “determining” factor, due to the economic assistance it provides to the Castro regime.

Sanchez also welcomed the announcement of the trip Pope Francis plans to make to Cuba this coming September, before visiting the United States, and expressed her desire for the Pope to promote “the end of political imprisonment.”

We are 1.7 million / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez

A woman checks the list of candidates for the municipal elections. (14ymedio)
A woman checks the list of candidates for the municipal elections. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 21 April 2015 — Years of masks, whispers and fears have made Cubans find delving into political issues as difficult as delving into enigmatic, dark abyss. The few surveys and inquiries conducted independently in recent decades have encountered a suspicion that leads us to question: Why are you asking me that? What will you do with the information?

However, there are times when our actions are the most conclusive and direct of responses. As in the elections held last Sunday for the Municipal Assemblies of People’s Power, where more than 1.7 million people didn’t vote, annulled their ballot, or left it blank, or even voted for one of the only two opposition candidates. continue reading

With as 88.3% participation, any foreign observer would think that we take the district elections very seriously. Amid voter apathy of so many democratic countries, the participation of Cuban voters could be misinterpreted as a sign of civility, but in fact it is evidence of the tight controls under which we have lived for over half a century. Going to the polls does not signal assent or support.

To not vote or abstain has for too long signified a act that marks us as disaffected or counterrevolutionaries, in a country where ideological fidelity opens doors, guarantees futures and results in privileges. On the other hand, the act of selecting our representatives has been taken over by automatic behavior, aware of our limited power to influence the solution of local and national problems.

The district delegate becomes a sort of scapegoat, one whose management capabilities are limited and lacking in autonomy

The district delegate becomes a sort of scapegoat, a target of the complaints and demands, but one whose management capabilities are limited and lacking in autonomy. How many years have to told this people’s representative, in successive “accountability meetings,” about the poor quality of the bread, the deterioration of the streets? Without, in the three decades of their existence, these figures managing to improve anything.

Hence the phrase, “everything, if nothing is going to change,” repeated by millions of voters, who also counsel their friends, “Go to vote so they don’t single you out.” A combination of disbelief and faking it, skepticism and fear, has been the principle force for “going through the motions” of marking a ballot, folding it and placing it in a ballot box as closely watched as it is ineffective. A reflexive gesture, some unavoidable paperwork that many try to get done with as quickly as possible, with neither hope nor confidence.

A combination of disbelief and faking it, skepticism and fear, has been the principle force for “going through the motions” of marking a ballot

To the more than 1.7 million Cubans who this weekend showed their disinterest or disagreement with the elections, the same number or twice as many individuals who think the same might join them, but they are afraid of standing out. For every person who doesn’t enter the polling station, scribbles on the ballot, or just writes nothing on it, should be added many more who wanted to but didn’t dare to be so bold. The voting booth might have hidden cameras – they think fearfully – or the ballot could be marked to detect disobedience, they tell themselves.

The president of the National Electoral Commission, Alina Balseiro, said the nearly six percentage point drop in attendance compared to the last municipal elections was due to the absence of the “hundreds of thousands of Cubans” who are traveling abroad. The official has to know that this explosion of travel is also a way to vote against a system that hampers their personal and professional development within national borders.

It is worth emphasizing that the brave who chose not to give in to their fears are more than double the number of those who are active in the Communist Party. The courage it takes for the former far exceeds the effort to pay the annual dues of an organization that has hijacked the name of the country and boasts of representing the soul of all its citizens. In the ranks of those who refused to validate their vote is, therefore, greater willpower and honesty.

This Sunday, we sent a loud and clear message. Without our agreement, without spaces for us in the national mass media, and even in the face of possible punishments, 1.7 million Cubans stepped from the shadows of faking it to the harsh sun of assuming our positions publicly. A force for change that the government fears and that the dissent should channel.

 

Video of “Act of Repudiation” by Cubans Against Cubans in Panama

The video shows Cubans affiliated with the Castro regime screaming “GET OUT!” and “Down with the worms!” and “Murderer!” and singing Cuba’s National Anthem at Cubans not affiliated with the Castro regime, in the Hotel Panama during the Americas Summit

Published on 10 April 2015 on Yoani Sanchez’s Twitter account