English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
In the nineteenth century, slave crews were rented out after the harvest to other landlords, providing the slaves a few trifles. HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 12 — The recent “defection” of Cuban doctor Ramona Matos Rodríguez, who provided services in Brazil under an agreement signed between that country and Cuba, part of the program “More Doctors … Continue reading “Slaves in White Coats / Miriam Celaya”
I don’t belong to the nomenklatura, I don’t receive remittances, I’m not self-employed, I don’t work in any foreign firm not in the tourist sector, I don’t operate in the black market, for me the New Year celebration is as modest as for the majority of my countrymen. But when one thinks things couldn’t get … Continue reading “The Curse of the Evil Eye / Regina Coyula”
“Communals” is the People’s Power Company charged with garbage collection, among other tasks. Behind the “12 Floors,” as they call the building in the block formed by Tulipán, Loma, Colón and 39th streets in Nuevo Vedado, the solution to trash collection for this gigantic apartment block, as well as for the adjoining houses, has been … Continue reading “NONcommunal Solutions / Rebeca Monzo”
On Tuesday we learned of the beating of Marta Beatriz. They didn’t just beat her, they also dragged her up the stairs, 31 steps, beating her neck and whole body. I did not ask Marta’s age but she is an older woman, perhaps older than 60. She was the only woman in the group of … Continue reading “Marta Beatriz Roque, Injured by State Security / Lilianne Ruiz”
This last 13 September, a Friday, while the Instituto Cervantes de Berlín was presenting my novel “El verano en que Dios dormía” (The Summer God Was Sleeping), the winner of the Czech Republic’s International Franz Kafka Prize of Novels from the Drawer, I was overcome by fever. The dengue fever virus had taken over my … Continue reading “Prison Diary LVIII: Inside Prison, Outside the Drawer / Angel Santiesteban”
HAVANA, Cuba, September, www.cubanet.org – At almost the same moment that Mariela Castro declared that Cuba only penalizes pandering, but not prostitution, police officers in uniform and in plainclothes conducted an operation against prostitutes who frequent Águila Street, between Monte and Estrella, in the municipality of Centro Habana. The place had lately become a stronghold … Continue reading “They Pick up the Prostitutes but Not the Trash on the Streets of Havana / Orlando Freire Santana”
For his friends, colleagues, and all who are interested in continuing, in some way, to help: Right now Angel Santiesteban is better [after having been admitted to the hospital for dengue fever], and is no longer in the hospital. They took him back to the military facility, where is he very weak from the time … Continue reading “Update on Angel Santiesteban / Lia Villares”
SANTA CLARA, Cuba , September 3, 2013 , Yoel Espinosa Medrano / www.cubanet.org.- Two men and a woman are hospitalized in the Marta Abreu clinic in the Brisas del Oeste neighborhood, infected with cholera. Gilberto Caballero is one of the names of those infected; he is in serious condition. The outbreak began in the Caibarién … Continue reading “Vacationers Infected with Cholera in Caibarién, Cuba / Yoel Espinosa Medrano”
Cuba has serious medical problems at home. There have been cases reported of cholera, tuberculosis and dengue fever — already at epidemic levels — and other illnesses that have not been seen for decades in this country. In towns and cities there is also a disastrous sanitation and epidemiological situation which has been exacerbated by … Continue reading “The Story of the Good Pipe* / Fernando Damaso”
Although a sputtering Russian-made truck and its crew passed through the Sevillano neighborhood picking up trash and garbage in the streets the night before, debris had once again accumulated on the street corners by morning. “It never ends. At dawn every morning we go through areas of Diez de Octubre picking up trash. We take … Continue reading “Havana, Between Filth and Social Indiscipline / Ivan Garcia”
By Ivette Leyva Martínez CaféFuerte.com offers for the consideration of its readers a selection of 12 events that affected Cuba and Cubans during the past year. The selection was made considering the impact of these events on the political, economic and cultural life of the country. They were organized chronologically, not according to relevance. It … Continue reading “12 Important Events for Cuba and Cubans in 2012 / Ivette Leyva Martinez”
When I was a child, I heard my grandmother talk about the hard times of cholera, and of how her family had escaped from this terrible disease. That was all I knew of this plaque, pure history. And it turns out that now, in the 21st century, in “my beloved planet”, that terrible word is … Continue reading “Of Horror and the Times of Cholera / Rebeca Monzo”
From the posters placed around the city urging people to protect themselves from cholera through a set of preventive measures, the increase is visits to doctors and nurses asking about acute diarrheal symptoms, the prohibition of offering smoothies, natural drinks and even water, if they are not industrially canned or bottled, in coffee shops and … Continue reading “Cholera Appears / Fernando Damaso #Cuba”
For the first time ever since I can remember, I am seeing butcher shop employees wearing gloves and caps. The ones who don’t have gloves use plastic bags. The same is true at bakeries, where employees routinely handled bread with their bare hands, though a few minutes before they might have been smoking, scratching the … Continue reading “Scandalous Cholera / Miriam Celaya #Cuba”
Let’s take a look at government predictions. According to state technocrats, Cuba’s GDP will grow 3.7% in 2013. Spokesmen for General Raul Castro claim that, in spite of an economic crisis affecting half the world, social services will remain at 2012 levels. The “good news” keeps on coming from the Palace of the Revolution. The … Continue reading “Cuba 2013; A Cautious Forecast / Ivan Garcia #Cuba”
