Category: Translator: BW

The Color of Humanity / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado

For many, black is a color, in spite of the definition that contends that it is the absence of visible light energy, that absorbs the light and that’s precisely why it isn’t it. Whether from the light emitting groups or the pigments, black has been linked historically and obscurely with the negative, perhaps because of it likeness to the night, that is a dangerous space, that has been the time chosen by many writers to tell tenebrous stories about outlaws and animals that hide in the darkness. Othersalso relateit with what is filthy and dirty.

The astronomers call the extremely dense celestial body that absorbs whatever matter and energy located in its gravitational fielda black hole. For the geographers and people of some countries — in addition to the phenotypic difference — black is a name of rivers, streams, and similar places, of a hill, a volcano or a road; it’s also a sea in Eurasia and in the plural, a Philippine island.But in this writing, I want to highlight superficially the voices that have survived the times, and about the topic on which they record human words and phrases.

Black theater is a cinematic genre developed in the United States, in 1940 and whose plot developed in a violent and criminal environment. Likewise, black friday was a day of financial panic in the United States and also Black Monday in 1987, also related to the prices of stocks. Black Thursday is a day that the fall of the stock market in New York began and signaled the beginning of the great depression in 1929.

The so-called black plague (or bubonic plague), was a devastating pandemic that devastated Europe in the 14th century and that considerably decimated the European and world population; the yellow fever was a devastating epidemic in the 14th century, that was also known as black vomit; lista negra is a translation of English word blacklist to give a name to people or institutions that should be discriminated against.When used in a positive sense, they are given the name “whitelist.”

To distinguish underground or illegal business one adopts the phrase black market; the black catis related to superstition or bad luck, and equally a black vultureis a bird of prey or feeds on dead animals — a bird that doesn’t bode well — to which a bad omen is attributed to; in the same way that black magic is a superstitious witch practice, in that they invoke the presence of a demon and the malignant power to cause damage, the “white” kind is the complete opposite. The expression, “had a black day” is an allegory on unhappiness or bad luck. A black authoris a person who, like an intellectual slave, writes to order and anonymously,

The European colonial powers kidnapped and tore from their communities, families, culture and land from millions of Africans and carried them to America to work as slaves. Furthermore, in order to perpetuate the system of slavery, they imposed a distorted image of black people. Historical and shamefully, the classification of people into one race or another has been used and is used to support keeping groups of humans in a state of subjection, in living conditions of oppression, ignorance and dependence.

I prefer to think of the human race and that stage will come, when we eradicate prejudice and discrimination against people based on racial, ethnic, sexual, religious, ideological, social class or of any kind. I’m sure that one day there will be no need to legislate or circumscribe a moral code of respectful behavior that should be taken as natural behavior of living together and not leave room for racist acts or reprehensible.

Translated by: BW

January 17 2012

The Color of Humanity

For many, black is a color, in spite of the definition that contends that it is the absence of visible light energy, that absorbs the light and that’s precisely why it isn’t it.  Whether from the light emitting groups or the pigments, black has been linked historically and obscurely with the negative, perhaps because of it likeness to the night, that is a dangerous space, that has been the time chosen by many writers to tell tenebrous stories about outlaws and animals that hide in the darkness.  Others also relate it with what is filthy and dirty.

The astronomers call the extremely dense celestial body that absorbs whatever matter and energy located in its gravitational field a black hole.  For the geographers and people of some countries — in addition to the phenotypic difference — black is a name of rivers, streams, and similar places, of a hill, a volcano or a road; it’s also a sea in Eurasia and in the plural, a Philippine island.  But in this writing, I want to highlight superficially the voices that have survived the times, and about the topic on which they record human words and phrases.

Black theater is a cinematic genre developed in the United States, in 1940 and whose plot developed in a violent and criminal environment.  Likewise, black friday  was a day of financial panic in the United States and also Black Monday in 1987, also related to the prices of stocks.  Black Thursday is a day that the fall of the stock market in New York began and signaled the beginning of the great depression in 1929.

The so-called black plague (or bubonic plague), was a devastating pandemic that devastated Europe in the 14th century and that considerably decimated the European and world population;  the yellow fever was a devastating epidemic in the 14th century, that was also known as black vomit; lista negra is a translation of English word blacklist to give a name to people or institutions that should be discriminated against.  When used in a positive sense, they are given the name “whitelist.”

To distinguish underground or illegal business one adopts the phrase black market; the black cat is related to superstition or bad luck, and equally a black vulture is a bird of prey or feeds on dead animals — a bird that doesn’t bode well — to which a bad omen is attributed to; in the same way that black magic is a superstitious witch practice, in that they invoke the presence of a demon and the malignant power to cause damage, the “white” kind is the complete opposite.  The expression, “had a black day” is an allegory on unhappiness or bad luck.  A black author is a person who, like an intellectual slave, writes to order and anonymously,

The European colonial powers kidnapped and tore from their communities, families, culture and land from millions of Africans and carried them to America to work as slaves. Furthermore, in order to perpetuate the system of slavery, they imposed a distorted image of black people. Historical and shamefully, the classification of people into one race or another has been used and is used to support keeping groups of humans in a state of subjection, in living conditions of oppression, ignorance and dependence.

I prefer to think of the human race and that stage will come, when we eradicate prejudice and discrimination against people based on racial, ethnic, sexual, religious, ideological, social class or of any kind. I’m sure that one day there will be no need to legislate or circumscribe a moral code of respectful behavior that should be taken as natural behavior of living together and not leave room for racist acts or reprehensible.

Translated by: BW

January 17 2012

Women Leaders in Conditions of Failure / Dora Leonor Mesa

Political Participation of women and Psychology (Extract)

J. Fransciso Morales* – Isabel Cuadrado**

The distance that measures the expanding legislation to favor the political participation of women and the data that, again and again, speak about a permanent male domination of this field serves as a reminder of the struggles of women to achieve equality.  These have been developing without interruption since the days of the first suffragists until now and, as is widely-known, with an active opposition and tenacity of extensive and important parts of society, opposition that, not having been the object of systematic analysis, is unknown in its structure and dynamics.

The question is what can psychology contribute in this area, meaning, if and how can it help reveal the enigma of the disequilibrium of genders in political participation.  At first glance, it appears that it can reveal only a little.  Definitely, and as Garzon indicates (2001, p. 347), traditional Political Psychology has its objects of study perfectly delimited (in words of the author, it has “a circumscribed collection of topics”), and between those one cannot find the central issue that is revealed in this work.

At the current time, Political Psychology is open to new ways of thinking.  Concretely, the new approach of political psychology as a resource is moving away from the traditional concept of discipline and is becoming “a strategy, a tool to relate different realities.”  Upon attempting to demonstrate that the male domination in the confines of politics is a reflection of consolidated social practices and that its disappearance would require a deep social change, it is connected with the newly supported approach by the cited author.

The glass cliff in the political world

In an attempt to understand the low female representation in the political leadership, Ryan, Haslam and Kulich (2010) have investigated the types of political opportunities that women are offered, the positions they achieve when they take on political positions and the barriers to them that they face up to to carry out such positions.  For that reason, they examine those aspects from the perfect of the “glass cliff” (crystal precipice).  This focus supports his view that women have a better chance than men of occupying positions of leadership that involve a higher risk of failure (Ryan and Haslam, 2005, 2007).

This line of investigation has centered until now on organizational leadership.  In this world, the authors start reviewing the data from 100 British businesses and confirming that women tend to be in positions of leadership in those companies that are going through moments of crisis.  Over the various studies carried out in different contexts and with diverse participants, Haslam and Ryan (2008) confirmed that it was considered more appropriate for a women candidate to occupy a position of leadership than a man when the performance of a company is worsening (as opposed to when it is improving).

A study carried out recently in Spain (Cuadrado, Molero, and Garcia, 2009) has confirmed this fact, showing that, in conditions of failure, the women are better evaluated than the men, meaning, they are considered more competent to occupy those positions.  On the contrary, men are better evaluated than the women in conditions of success.

Due to that in said study it is unknown if this phenomenon is due to the experience or lower qualifications of women in this scope or if it is due more directly to gender, per se, Ryan et. al. (2010), carried out a study in that they control this and other variables.  In the said study, they examined the preference for men or women candidates in the selection phase of a fictitious by election (local elections held to fill a position when the holder resigns or dies).  It was found that women emerge as the preferred candidate for a difficult seat to win, while if the possibility to win it are raised, a man is preferred.

Extracted from the article, “PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ABOUT THE IMPLICATION OF WOMEN IN POLITICS”

UNED*- University of Almería**   Political Psychology, N 42, 2011, 29-44 ]

Translated by: BW

February 2 2012

Hot War / Lilianne Ruíz

Since the socialist camp fell, our politicians miss the Cold War and now should be celebrating the possible war between the dictators and the western democracies.  They have worked for years with this objective.  But they still talk on the radio about their ideological press releases, hypnotizing multitudes, that “the world cries out for peace.”

If the world were governed by religious dictators or by a proletariat dictator, there would not be much hope for human beings.  If, although they didn’t come to dominate, two blocks of power were established as in the fateful Soviet times, the fate of civilians would be like in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, where they jailed and abused citizens with the impunity that conceded the Cold War, in that the priority of the whole world was to not descend into a nuclear war.

It is not that the dictators have learned to respect religious differences, nor differences in sexual orientation, nor have they come to the time in which they have to respect political differences, there were concessions they made at some point, with their call of the “sense of the historical moment” to preserve their power.  If this sense changes they will return to show how they are:  “if the enemy tires out you have to annihilate them”, land of macho men, atheists, and revolutionaries.

People say that in the 80s, the markets were packed with food, condensed milk at 20 centavos, all we children went to school and we believed that the Americans were very evil and that some mercenaries had come to invade us and that bearded figurehead who would not stop speaking and gesturing had brought at last the first defeat of Imperialism in Latin America, and that was good.

Nobody told us in school that the President of the United States withdrew support of that invasion where imperialism wasn’t defeated but other Cubans coming from the country that historically has been the refuge of Cubans to overthrow tyrants.

In that historic lie taught in school, one can discern traits of the beneficiary of the lie.  If I had been an adult in that time and I wouldn’t have agreed that there was an abundance of food in the markets and never would have believed that that figurehead was better than me or my friends, because in all of the versions from my life, in all the endless pastures of space, in parallel universes, I detest the underdevelopment and servility of Castrocommunism.

What surprises me the most is the similarity with Stalinism, it isn’t possible they haven’t even learned the most minimal details.  It comes to them from inside, it is human nature.  Like an opportunistic sickness, they appear when capitalism has left the masses of people discontented, they offer them a better society, but they don’t tell them the conditions of this contract that never appears anywhere means that the payment will be the person himself, a debt that will not be paid with money because the leaders are in charge of that and nobody can own anything because they can’t be unequal, a lot of poverty for everyone and no freedom of conscience, nor of expression, no type of initiative.

All the dictators are similar, the same aesthetic, a grey curtain, a photo of the leaders, some flowers, very bad energy.  Now that the news in Cuba suspiciously announced the manifestations of support for Putin and the legality of the elections in Russia it makes me wonder if a secret fraternity exists with the KGB. I who in those days looked on with so much happiness, with more than 20 years of difference, the documentary about M. Gorbachev, on the History Channel on pirated video.

 Translated by: BW

December 19 2011

Resonance / Laritza Diversent

Cuba, the little island difficult to locate in the Caribbean Sea and the big booty in the new world order. Often I hear that it is under siege by the voracious appetite of the empire, its eternal enemy. Other big powers in the great Europe also lurk for prey.

A nice opening for a fiction novel.However, we Cubans feel we are at the center of the world, thanks to the eagerness of the socialist government for persecution. “The little besieged nation survives the attempts to dominate it.” Lyrical and melodramatic. In reality, we are the oldest of the Antilles, but not as important nor the most well-known among the citizens of the world.

It is there where the problem lies of those who decide to say, from within and faces uncovered, what they feel and think. How can we make ourselves heard in this world, inside a great act that is called the Socialist Revolution, when the media does not allow us to use new information technology. How can we show up the other side of the system and with angered eyes of repression?

It’s not a question of patriotism. It’s necessity. The human being is nothing without self-expression. Nevertheless, the problem remains.How can we make the world listen when we are surrounded by such obvious successes, free health care and education. Resonance is the only way we can make our voice heard.

Moving away from the methods, the positions, including the work of lobbying the diplomats and politicians, it is fair to recognize that in Europe and United States there are many people who help and multiply our voice, overcoming the differences in customs and languages. Also, its true that many times we don’t attach enough importance to or know how to appreciate the extent of this support.

On a personal level, I am thankful that they are where it is impossible for us to be, they help us get around the exit permit and conquer the borders of the Ministry of the Interior. Also I know that many of us hope for more. Some an aggressive Europe and other a less intransigent United States. Nevertheless, we ask for a little and nothing from ourselves.

That support achieves much more. It counteracts the loneliness when friends are afraid to share with you so that the State Security doesn’t place a mark on them. Only God knows how many times I asked myself, if what I do really is worthwhile. The attention of the outside world feels like a pat on the back, that keeps us from surrendering.

The interest and help from the outside world, in my opinion is an important factor in our struggle for freedom. It shows, as if we, ourselves, were the other side of the coin: the beatings that the Ladies in White received, the arbitrary detentions, the conditions of political prisoners, the persecution of news reporters, the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo and most recently of Laura Pollán.

The part that touches me, I not only am thankful, I also admire those in the outside world who morally and materially support the Cuban dissidents. Especially so to those, knowing the risk, who come to Cuba and contact us.

I am not interested in the background if there is one, for me it is pure altruism. If another were in my situation I don’t know if I would be interested in those who endure repression in this world and, regretfully, there is no shortage. For that reason, I am extremely thankful to those in the outside world who make the voice of the Cuban dissidence resonate.

Translated by: BW

January 31 2012

One Hand Washes the Other / Rebeca Monzo

My friend lives in a beautiful apartment building from the 1950s, on Línea street. This morning, as always, she prepared to leave for work, when suddenly, the washbasin that had heroically resisted the pounding of 50+ years of survival, had given way to the implacable advance of the years, and a crack had finally caused it to burst.

That same afternoon, when she arrived at the office, she started the arduous task of finding a plumber, who in addition to knowledge of his profession, would give his word and come to repair the breakdown.After two days of making multiple calls to different telephone numbers recommended by neighbors and friends, she finally found one who promised to go without fail that same afternoon, to see if he could take a look at it. Actually, the man lived up to his word and turned up for the appointment. The judgment was finally declared to be a malfunction of the washbasin. That is where the odyssey began.

The first thing he did was to look into different chains of stores with a hardware department to learn which one to go to and not lose time and gasoline, that is really $1.15 CUC per liter, although that’s not what I’m talking about now. After going around to the best stores fruitlessly in the city, finally he found it in Roseland, at half the price of the same thing that he had see in Palco days before, and couldn’t buy because it was excessively expensive.

Happy about the discovery, she arrived at the store with measurements recommended by the experienced plumber. The happiness ended there. The salesperson that was in the department in question, told her — after greeting her “good afternoon”, and finding out what the client would like — that she couldn’t help her because today she was lacking many workers.

Before many requests and pleas from the possible buyer, the employee, with a very bad character, decided to call another sales assistant so that he could work on the issue. The first thing that this person did, was to talk with my friend about the annotated measurements that she brought, telling her that they didn’t exist, but at her insistence, visibly contradicted, she agreed to go down to the warehouse, but at that moment, it created a tremendous discussion between the two employees, where the person who just recently arrived told the bad tempered worker from the department: I’m going to have to kick your A-S-S.

My friend, horrified but turning a deaf ear, told the boy, Go on, I’m going to give you $2 if you help me, to which this swift guy answered, if you want me to help you give me $5, now you know, madam, one hand washes the other, and two hands wash the face.

Note: the facts are true and if someone from the Roseland store, is, by chance, reading this post, he knows that what is related here is absolutely truthful.

Translated by: BW

January 30 2012

Line up; Line up / Liliane Ruiz

Line up; Line up

It’s the end of the year. An avalanche of informative year-end summaries brings me news of some economic successes that I have not really known how to interpret. The Great State Machinery, in all of its propaganda, is said to be ready and willing to meet the challenges of the new year that begins.There are testimonies of a contented populace or gentle criticisms related to the price of consumer items. There’s a celebration of bank credits for families to construct their own homes; how good it is that at last some will see the possibility of constructing their own home as having come closer to reality. It’s all very nice, very finely painted in these images. In the end, everything seems aligned, with a touch of “before things were worse but now, everything will be better” added.

But the only thing that makes me laugh at all this is that is the testimonial evidence that before, under the command of the Castro descendant, everybody knew it was bad, very ruined, and with respect to this other moment, unable to speak openly.  A spokesperson of the Ministry of Construction declared that: “After the ruins accumulated from previous years”…  How bad everything was during the first Castro, until the next one seemed preferable. Now we continue being unable to speak openly. That shit we can’t say if they don’t give us permission…  I feel outside of all that. The monopoly of the state good, the good intentions of the dictators, a painted people, organized, insisting that everything be lined up, and me facing all that is so small, perhaps “evil”, a “worm”, someone who doesn’t want to work for the State, that doesn’t surrender anything and doesn’t want to owe anything. Mercenary without a salary, individualist. I am a butterfly, a butterfly witch, nocturnal, with unbreakable wings. I sleep during the day and I am active at night. How will those who rebelled in times of Soviet prosperity feel?  What will they have lacked? Submission irritates me. The state confinement gives me claustrophobia, the fucking old ideology.

Translated by: BW

January 9 2012

Limits to the Tolerance of the Librarian / Lilianne Ruíz

I am still laughing about the first glance at my digital library, in which I have been able to succeed in capturing known authors from many years ago.  To have some of the books saved moves me, including one of the poems, by Carlos Alberto Montaner, a pair of passages from speeches from conferences, by Michel Foucault, novels of Milan Kundera.  It seems absurd and makes me smile to find them beside Madame Bavastky, and a History of the Magi by Elphas Levi, that populate my dreams or being a musician during my teenage years.

But I have my limits like everyone and I also can’t tolerate finding passages from Hitler, and I got rid of them, I root them out with fury as if I can banish them from history, and in the same way, in the same way, those of Eduardo Galeano, that I am pleased to see disappear when I empty the trash.

Translated by: BW

January 17 2012

A History of the Bollywood Restaurant / Rebeca Monzo

A new and beautiful restaurant in Nuevo Vedado, located on 35th street between La Torre and 24th Street.  One Day, its owner, a native of India, like the Genoan Admiral, discovered this little island and stayed, enchanted by her, came from over there to meet and fall in love with a beautiful creole woman.

Once married, the couple decided to travel and settle in London. The marriage didn’t last very long. Then he decided to return to the island and, again, felt struck by lightning for the love of another native.

Now the new couple decided to open an Indian restaurant, in one of the beautiful houses of this neighborhood. The decorating, elegant and totally of the style of the country of origin of the owner, has a mysterious air and coziness.  As I am very curious and I like this gastronomic trend, I visited them with exploratory objectives. I asked for the menu and could confirm a great variety of plates, with a lamb base, beef, shrimp, and pork.  The curry, its essential ingredient, almonds, and exotic spices are the stars in all of the offerings.

The prices, a little high for our pocketbook, but understanding they can’t be cheaper, due to everything they include in their dried fruit confection, something excessively expensive in our country.  I think that for the diplomatic corps and business owners, in a very nice place and suitable for meeting for a nice working lunch or dinner, or simply to enjoy it with their respective family and friends.  Something new and different.  This undoubtedly gives color and attractiveness to the neighborhood, creates new employment and generates for others many services, that allows so many other people to better their economic status.

Now what it really needs is not to take one step backwards, on the contrary, continue giving free rein to new modalities of private business, demonstrating success and the energy of a small private business, that is, definitively, what is working best in our beloved planet.

As soon as my pocketbook permits or some visitor from far away invites me, I will select this place, to be able to speak to you with knowledge about the source of the quality of their culinary offerings.

 Translated by: BW

 

January 25 2012

Reverse Racism / Rebeca Monzo

Much has been spoken about on our media about racism and it continues. Really, on my beloved planet, I have never experienced extreme cases of this social phenomenon.  Since my childhood, I was accustomed to my house being visited by black, white, and Chinese people, all gathering with our family.  I had very beloved little black friends and an adopted grandmother of this color.  She was a large woman, wide, and with a full-moon smile, who we called Grandma Mercedes.  They taught us from an early age to love and respect her.  When she arrived, my brother and I hung around her neck, competing for her first kisses.  My little friends, seeing me so white and blond, were very surprised, but they couldn’t figure out the mystery of these advancedgenetics.  She was, until her death, the best friend of our family.

There was discrimination, it’s true, but, in general, not on the part of people, rather it was an official matter, but not rooted in the human feeling.  It includes, also on the part of the black people who produced this same contradiction but in the inverse, because in their clubs and societies, white people were not admitted.  I have a friend that suffered these divisions in her own experience. Her father, an elegant black chauffeur of a well-known magnate, married a Spanish woman.  Then my friend couldn’t frequent the clubs for her race, since in those days they didn’t allow her mother to enter because she was white, in a time when good girls were always accompanied by their parents.  Also, she couldn’t go to places for whites-only.  Anyway, this seemed like a thing from the very distant past.

The year 1959 arrived and, by decree, they threw out all of these restrictions, but only by decree.  Now, by citing three examples, more exist, I demonstrate the flip side of the coin:

In the year, 1963, when the elect Lucero of the Havana Carnival came out, between the finalists there wasn’t a single black woman, or even a mulata.  The revolutionary panel of judges noticed this mistake and took out a beautiful white girl and in her place brought up to the podium a beautiful mulata, but with a strong juvenile acne that made her face ugly, precisely for which she was ruled out.

On the other hand, it is well-known, that when our country prepared the possible cosmonauts to fly in the soviet spacecrafts, they selected two candidates: one black and one white.  To be honest, people who were involved at that time told us, in this mission, the second candidate was better prepared and met more of the criteria, but the official choice leaned toward the first candidate. Everyone knows the end of this story.

But, many years have passed, we are in the 21st century, and last week, the son of my friend, was just discriminated against by a teacher from his school, due to his pearly-white skin. There was a municipal-level competition, and the teacher, in the face of uncertainty about whether one of proposed candidates would fail, named a third, the needy kid, a genius, one of those that departed from the norm.  Now then, the day arrived, the three were introduced, accompanied by their respective mothers in front of the teacher that waited in the old Havana Institute, the place where they were to meet.  As no student missed the appointment, she preferred to select the little black child so as not be questioned, leaving the other child surprised and frustrated. I don’t need to tell you, rightly, what my friend told the teacher. Tell me if I am mistaken that this isn’t any more than reverse racism.

Translated by: BW

January 18 2012

Christmas Eve For Everyone, Everyone! / Rebeca Monzo

For all of the obstacles that they have imposed on us in all these years, Cubans have done the impossible to preserve the most beloved family traditions: Christmas Eve.

Every 24th of December, the Cuban family or what remains of it, meets around a table, to carry out the traditional dinner, it doesn’t matter what their wealth, the essential thing is spending the night together, and starting early to participate in all the preparations, because that’s how our grandparents did it, later our parents and now it’s our turn to pass the tradition on to our children.

I remember as a little girl that marvelous day when they gave the youngest a little more freedom, because they were toiling in the preparations of that night, the older folks looked the other way in the face of our mischief.

Another of the images that comes to my mind was the going and coming of neighbors, carrying between two enormous grills, a little pig, recently roasted at the bakery.  Others, like us, did it in the house’s yard, digging a hold in the ground and piercing the unhappy pig with a spike, perhaps made with a slice of orange.

One of the things that I liked to participate in the most, and that they allowed me to do, was setting the table. I remember that I loved to make a centerpiece of poinsettias freshly cut from the garden, pity it only lasted a few hours, but they were enough to decorate our table.

The moment of truth arrived, my grandmother, when she convened the family dinner, only said “Everyone Come”, to the table and to the bed, she only called once.

I don’t know nowadays, what I liked more, if it was the pig, with the skin and the tail well toasted, or those sleeping black beans, perhaps the turrones — nougats — the one from egg yolk above all, the sweet dates, the nuts, whose shells were used to make turtles like my mother taught me, or finally, that three colored frozen cake with hard chocolate in the top, that my uncle, in his habitual exasperation tried to cut, hitting it with everything from an ax to a utility knife, which made the table shake and the plates and silverware jump. Anyway, so many pleasant memories, which today we do more simply, it always bring to mind those delicious pictures and the fond memories of faces, almost blurred by time, of those family and dear friends, who always accompanied us and whom we will never forget.

That is why, even though we are already so few, that my children and grandchildren are not with me, that many of our friends are gone, some opposite and others further, again, for the love and respect those traditions that so lovingly they taught me, to make my dinner with what I have, with what I find, but I welcome all, all!

Translated by: BW

December 23 2011

A Beautiful Lady Comes to Less / Rebeca Monzo

Patchwork, Rebeca

Because of the 492nd Anniversary of the Villa of Saint Christopher of Havana, between the many television programs dedicated to this celebration,Hurón Azul, of the UNEAC (Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba), presented some interviews with renowned architects and artists, where they poured out their opinions about the deteriorating image of the city, the beautiful lady coming to less.

Some of the views expressed that, effectively, at present, due to an uncontrolled profusion of little ground-floor businesses, the cast majority of them improvised, depressing small shops (a derogatory term to describe them), are not due only to the bad taste and scanty resources of the owners, but more to the total absence of control and lack of demand that they at least present a small project plan to the managers in charge of granting the licenses or permits.

Undoubtedly, this could also be caused, by the urgency of the government in offering an escape route for the population, before the massive layoffs and their growing disapproval and the hopelessness, accentuating the impossibility of the State’s ability to offer them other work alternatives.

The urgent need of the citizens to cover the basic necessities has made these stalls proliferate in an uncontrolled manner, using doorways, stair landings, gardens and even sidewalks (mostly common-use areas), in those that unfortunately abound in bad taste and precariousness, consequently contributing to making things more ugly in the already abandoned city that formerly was considered one of the most beautiful in the world, and that survives miraculously, going through half a century of indolence and abandonment,without the Cuban authorities having done the least thing to preserve this beautiful heritage inherited by the district and the republic, that is the city of Havana.

Its decadence started very early, back in the 1970s, when they closed up and plunged into total abandonment premises that belonged to local shops, bookstores, stores, and department stores, whose owners went into exile, or else those of the people who stayed were confiscated, while some were subsequently handed over by the State for housing without the necessities nor demands that the future owners undertake a minimum of effort to make them habitable. Thus they urgently tried to solve a problem that years later led to a larger one.

Now, in this new anniversary of the city, they have sounded the warning once again, before the growing fear that they are continuing to lose the architectural value that made Havana so famous.

Translated by:BW

November 22 2011

A Disconcerting Concert / Rebeca Monzo

Yesterday afternoon we were going in our old Lada (Russian car) by road to a house of a friend who had invited us for dinner.  Since she lives in a beautiful building on 9th Street, very close to the Malecón  on a very high floor and they had announced the fireworks that they were going to launch from the Flotilla of Liberty, I thought it would be very convenient; from this height we could watch them in all their promised splendor.

All day it stayed grey and rainy, with the arrival of the Northern cold front, and it didn’t improve in the afternoon.  When we were arriving at the area where she lives, we could see many more police than usual.  I supposed that it was due to the predictions that a great many people would be gathering at the Malecón.

Very experienced in these practices of repressing and counteracting any type of spontaneous demonstration, the authorities had taken methods to avoid any trace of them.

In practically all the parks and open areas of Vedado, the spaces were covered with tents, where they offered edibles and music.  But what most captured my attention was to see the group of X Alfonso, whose concert was first planned to take place on the Streets 23rd and G, putting up the platform and the equipment for it, exactly on the corner of 9th Street and the Avenue of the Presidents, or G Street, as it is popularly known, precisely where one can find the Maternity Hospital of Línea.  In my mind I couldn’t conceive, how is it a concert would be permitted, with the well-known speakers making so much racket, in a place where there should be silence, where woman are hospitalized just about to give birth, and there are recently born children, who mostly need silence and rest.

I could observe the proximity of the Havana Malecón, covered by people, that in any given moment, if the circumstances require, they could be easily be used as an outraged public, to repress any citizen demonstration.

We left the house of our friend before 10 at night, the time the concert was said to start.  I never knew if finally the fireworks could be seen.  The night stayed very rainy and my friend told me, today, that from her window she could see observe the small crowd that went to the concert.  What she says baffled her a bit, was to see the nurses approaching the makeshift podium and after a while returning to the hospital.  It really ended, as I could say, being really disconcerting.

Translated by: BW

December 10 2011

La Rosa Negra (The Black Rose) / Rebeca Monzo

It isn’t a title of a movie or a novel.  It is a bar/restaurant/cafeteria, recently opened in the Nuevo Vedado neighborhood.

They opened hardly 15 days ago and all day it is completely full.  The hook?  Their prices and the quality of their offerings.  With this new example of private initiative, it is demonstrated that, when the businesses have owners and they have an open mind, things work.  Those young investors began working some months ago, to convert an immense parking lot, with the enthusiasm that gives them a feeling of being part of something, and they were transforming something little by little into a pleasant business, with great intentions, but comfortable, with good taste, good cooking and magnificent offerings.

Given that this is a neighborhood that is characterized by its large number of private home rentals, from 8 in the morning they start offering exquisite breakfasts, at modest prices, if they compare with the competition, and moreover, if you take into account that businesses where one can get supplies at wholesale prices still don’t exist in our country. New entrepreneurs are forced to acquire supplies in stores and farmers markets, where the rest of the population buys, something that keeps them from lowering their prices even more.

The success of this new establishment has obligated the competitors to improve their offerings and lower their prices a little, but even so, they maintain the leadership in this type of business. Other restaurants exist in the neighborhood, but more luxurious with an international menu of high-class cooking, whose prices are too high for the meager pocketbooks of Cubans.  That is why those are frequented mostly by foreigners.

Up until now, La Rosa Negra is the only place where they offer various types of coffee at 15 cents CUC* per cup.  The most expensive dishes, which are the shrimp and filet of veal, cost less than 5 CUC.  The drinks are prepared individually, a difference from the state establishments, according the clients request and almost all cost only 95 cents CUC, including the famous piña colada.  Here the price of a tasty dish of “Ropa Vieja” (a Cuban dish of shredded beef over tortillas over rice) with two sides to choose from is 3.95 CUC, and it tastes like what our grandmothers made.

Those young people are demonstrating what the initiative and drive of the citizen — crushed and hibernated for more than a half century — can accomplish; demonstrating now in a new awakening, that if it isn’t all as free as one would desire, at least they’re trying; that the only thing that truly functions is the law of supply and demand, also creating new jobs, to give the possibility to others to show their qualities and aptitudes, getting a better paid employment.

And, dear readers, let it be clearly understood, they didn’t give me a commission for this. It is just that these new winds of private initiative give me satisfaction and pride.

*Translator’s note: Cuba has two currencies. The CUC, or Cuban Convertible Peso (which is NOT convertible on the world currency market), which is worth roughly one U.S. dollar, and the Cuban Peso, or “National Money” which is worth about 4-5 cents U.S. Salaries (rarely exceeding $20 U.S. a month) are paid in the latter, while many goods are only available in hard currency stores for the former.

Translated by: BW

December 13 2011

Cubans Can Sell Their Homes / Laritza Diversent

This past November 2nd, the Cuban government published the Legal Decree Number 288 that modified the “General Law of the Home”, and permitted the buying and selling of real estate between private parties, until then it was prohibited by national legislation.

The new law took effect the 10th of November and generally permits owners: Cubans and foreign permanent residents in the country to dispose freely of their real estate.

However, it keeps as a legal requirement, the possibility of owning only one family home and another located in a vacations or summer area. With respect to the exchanges, donations, and trading, it establishes that it can be formalized before a notary public of the municipality where the real estate is located, prior to registration in the Property Registry.

The real estate registry started to operate in Cuba in the middle of the 19th century. In the 60s, it came to a standstill with the creation of the General Housing Law, ending legal sales. It was reopened in 2003, due to the requirements of foreign investment. Currently, it constitutes an indispensable requirement to carry out transfers of ownership.

The legal decree also eliminated the existing permit that owners had to obtain from the Municipal Director of the Home, to trade and donate their real estate. Also, it repealed the method of losing a building (confiscation), in cases of transfers of property, construction, expansion, and illegal rehabilitation of houses.

Nevertheless remaining in force are the restrictions of freedom of residence, which impose migratory rules for the capital and for zones of high significance for tourism undergoing a special administrative regimen, as is the case with Old Havana, in the capital, Veradero, and Matanza.

The Legal Rules permit compensation in the case of a difference in the values of the real estate that is traded, which was forbidden before. Also, they reestablish the rights of heirs who are able, in every case, to be awarded the housing, if and when they have no other property. Previously, the beneficiary dweller acquired the property, otherwise, the law recognized the cohabitant.

It maintains the confiscation for leaving the country, but it permits family members to acquire the real estate for free. Before, the state sold the confiscated houses, or some of them, to the co-owner or cohabitant who could show they had lived for 10 years with the emigrant owner. Also, they could not dispose of the housing during the four years before their departure, a restriction that was eliminated.

It imposed the payment of taxes for the Transfer of Real Estate for those who acquire the housing and for the sellers, through Personal Taxes. The taxes on the purchase are based on 4% of the value of the home and are paid in Cuban pesos.

In general, the new law eliminated a series of prohibitions that prevented Cubans from exercising the powers of disposal arising from their ownership. However, it keeps some restrictions pertaining to freedom of movement within the national territory, which impedes the full realization of this right.

On the other hand, it simplifies a series of bureaucratic obstacles. However, the paperwork and the time it takes to exercise this right will be hardly reduced. The state does not have the adequate infrastructure and the conditions for the provision of legal services with the efficiency and the quality that the new regulations require.

Translated by: BW, Haydee Diaz

November 14 2011