Translating Cuba

Without having been able to go and join the Ladies in White, I didn’t feel like publishing anything today. Until I found out that my experience also needed to be told: Why, if the Cuban opposition is peaceful and I haven’t seen any Ladies expressing themselves in a way not suitable for the ears of children, couldn’t I go with my small daughter to the headquarters, or to the Santa Rita Church, on the anniversary of the death of Laura Pollan?

We all know the answer: The opposition in Cuba, which is peaceful, confronts the repressive apparatus of the State dictatorship which is violent, which is outside or above the Law, an immense Corporation to intimidate and harm, with the ideological alibi that all this is done to get “all justice.” No wonder the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a gap on the shelves of the Revolutionary bibliography, because it is the text where you can most clearly understand why prejudice against humanity is the policy of the current government and, of course, the government itself, which alone can lift to our sight, like a wall, its manipulative campaign, its ideological alibi, that strangles our freedom because it does not reflect who we are, what we think, what our true feelings are.

Thirty-one Ladies in White were arrested. From Friday October 12 they mounted a police operation with State Security agents, who literally besieged the headquarters, blocking off the surrounding streets, until the end of the day on the 14th.

In addition to blocking many of the women from leaving their provinces, they kidnapped some for 24 hours to prevent their attending church. I think that when a person is detained arbitrarily and without recognition of their rights, not even being allowed to phone their families, it is kidnapping. If the kidnappers are government agents that turns the goverment into a kidnapper.

I also know, from the report of Berta Soler, leader of the “Laura Pollan” Ladies in White Movement, that the agents “Samper” and “Alejandro” presented themselves at the headquarters at approximately 9:00 in the morning on Sunday to communicate to the Ladies that they “would concede” a range of movement and series of restrictions, under threat; to which the Ladies answered “no concessions” and demanded the immediate release of the women arrested and the breaking of the cordon at 3rd and 26th that State Security had also mounted to prevent their getting to the church.

The first anniversary of Laura’s death is over. I continue to recommend that everyone see Pier Antonio Maria Micciarelli’s movie “I Am the Other Cuba,” where you can clearly see how a car in which Laura is being interviewed is hit by another vehicle on a Cuba highway.

A few months later Laura would die in the Intensive Care ward of the Calixto Garcia Hospital of a mysterious “dengue fever” acquired after having been bitten and injured by some sharp instrument among the Act of Repudiation mob of the last Day of the Virgin of Mercy she would attend on this earth. There was no investigation into her death and while it was still being denounced it was followed by the death of Oswaldo Paya.

October 16 2012

My suitcase has worn out its wheels in five years of rolling around the house, from one corner to the other. The underwear stored in the little thing has lost its elasticity and its color has faded. The airline tickets I never used are gone, after postponing them over and over they ended up in the trash. My friends have said goodbye to me so many times and so many times I didn’t go, that the farewell has become routine. The cat adopted as his own that handbag I never managed to take on a plane, and the dog chewed on the shoes meant for a trip I could not take. Nor did the picture my friend gave me of the “Virgin of Good Travel” resist the test of time and even the shine in her eyes has gone out.

After five years of demanding my right to travel outside the country, today I woke up to the news of travel and immigration reform. My first impression was to shout “Hurrah!” mid-morning, but as the day advanced I considered the shortcomings of the new law. Finally the objectionable Permit to Leave has been eradicated, as well as the annoying Letter of Invitation that we needed to leave our own country. However, now in the issuance and validation of passports they will define those who can cross the national frontiers and those who cannot. Although the costs of the paperwork will be less and I imagine the time required shortened, this is not the new travel and immigration law we were waiting for. Too limited, too narrow. But at least it has put in writing a legality as a starting point from which we can now demand, protest, denounce.

In my case I am going to believe – until January 14, 2013 – that I am not on any “black list” and that the ideological filters to leave have come to an end. I will fill out the application for a new passport, and wait with that dose of ingenuousness necessary to survive, to not become apathetic. I will be there when they open the doors to decide which Cubans can board a plane and which will continue under the “insular imprisonment.” And my suitcase will be at my side, with worn out underwear, unworn shoes, and a pale picture of Mary who no longer knows if she’s leaving or returning, if there are reasons to be happy or to be satisfied.

16 October 2012

I have accumulated twenty negatives in just five years to my requests to travel. Twenty times I have tried to leave my country and just received a “no” as a response from the Cuban authorities. Although it is hard to accustom oneself to such an absurdity, the truth is that I have learned to live on my island prison. I have consoled myself by saying that all the raw material of my writing was on this Island, in its reality and that it would also be very hard for me to be separated from my family for even a few weeks.

But these were phrases of relief that I repeated to myself from frustration and anger at my inability to travel, so as not to suffer emotional hurt. It was a way of maintaining mental hygiene amid a feeling of seclusion.

This week a new travel and migration law has been approved that will be effective on 13 January 2013. As reflected in its multiple clauses, from that date Cubans will not need permission to travel outside our country, nor will we need a letter of invitation from a stranger or relative who emigrated. Long-awaited news that has been greeted with joy by millions of Cubans within and outside the Island.

In any event, although still lacking a test of the reality of the limits and scope of the new provisions, there are some suggestions that the government will maintain a filter for professionals and critics of the system.

For now, I’m packing my suitcase. I have started to tell myself that it is possible, that they will let me go, that I will board the plane in January. But maybe it’s just one more optimistic phrase that I repeat to myself. In a few months I will have my proof.

Angel Carromero has been sentenced to four years in prison for the traffic accident that killed two opponents of the regime, Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero. The Granma Provincial Court issued the sentence Monday, October 15, after the public trial which took place on October 5. According to the official website Cubadebate, the leader of New Generations of Spain’s ruling Popular Party is considered “guilty of the crime of murder while driving a vehicle on the public right-of-way.”

This case which has kept Cuban and Spanish public opinion guessing, now enters the appeal phase after the court ruling. Both the defense and the prosecutor can challenge the decision before the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court. It is expected that once confirmed or reduced, the Havana government will proceed to apply the treaty on serving of sentences signed by both countries. In which case, Angel Carromero could serve his sentence in some Spanish prison.

This young man of 27 has been judged according to article 177 of the existing Criminal Code, in which it is established that “the driver of a vehicle who, violating traffic laws or regulations, causes the death of a person, incurs the sentence of privation of liberty of from one to ten years.” Initially the prosecutor demanded a sentence of seven years, which has been reduced by three in the sentence dictated by the court. However, the family of the Oswaldo Paya, the leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, demanded an independent investigation of the facts of that Sunday in July near the city of Bayamo.

Of the four involved in that unfortunate event two died and the Swede Jens Aron Modig returned to his country without any charges being presented against him. Angel Carromero was involved in a police investigation that has had wide repercussions, including in the official Cuban press. Many denounced that the case has been used by the Island’s government against the internal opposition, and has even served as a mechanism to pressure Spain’s Popular Party administration. As of today, a new scenario opens for all parties.

According to the official version of events, Carromero was driving at an excessive speed and lost control of the car on a road under repair. With improper use of the brakes, the car left the highway and crashed into a tree. The official note released this Monday asserted that the trial had analyzed “wide material evidence” and had complied with “the established legal safeguards, in accordance with the seriousness of the facts.” However, at that trial held over a week ago, Oswaldo Paya’s children along with dozens of activists who tried to reach the court, were not allowed access. Arrests, home detentions and threats marked the day during which the trial was held, which Granma newspaper itself had previously announced would be “oral and public.”
The Spanish government, for its part, on hearing the sentence, has reaffirmed that its main motivation continues to be that Angel Carromero “return as soon as possible” to his homeland. “Right now there is a process of analysis and study (of the sentence), with the objective that he will return here as soon as possible,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirmed to the AFP press agency. For its part, the Cuban Consulate welcomed “with relative satisfaction” the “sensible reduction” of the sentence the prosecutor had asked for against the young man. The Consul General on the Island, Tomas Rodriguez-Pantoja, explained that by not exceeding five years the sentence left a “range of options” to implement the bilateral convention on the serving of sentences.

However, for both the defense and for many Cuban dissidents, the sentence is excessive. Elizardo Sanchez, president of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, expressed himself opposed. “I expected absolution due to the extenuating circumstances that were present in this case. Among them the bad conditions of the highway and the worse road signage,” the activist said. For their part, many official voices — many of which are anonymous or using pseudonyms — commented on Cubadebate and other websites that the sentence seemed “too short.”

Along with the extenuating circumstances raised by Human Rights activists on the Island, is added that fact that the families of those killed in the accident did not themselves file charges against Angel Carromero. An element which has led many to believe that the sentence imposed on Angel Carromero would be minimal and symbolic. Thus, the announcement this Monday has unpleasantly surprised those who supported the idea of a possible acquittal.

Once the sentence was announced, Ofelia Acevedo, Oswaldo Paya’s widow, confirmed her opinion that Carromero “should have been at home a long time ago. Perhaps he will not have to serve the sentence in Cuba and will be expelled from the country.”

16 October 2012

The sign is small, peeking out with a certain timidity over the balcony wall several yards above ground. A simple “For Sale” that would go unnoticed if it weren’t that in the apartment next door you can read the same phrase painted on a window. Two floors higher, the neighbors on the 6th floor have been more creative and have hung a piece of acrylic where they include the square feet available, to motivate possible buyers. But the sellers won’t have it easy. The building is ugly, grey, one of those built in the eighties under the “microbrigade” system. Many who read the classified on websites — such as Revolico.com and Cubisima.com — on arriving at the building don’t even knock on the door, because they can see it is one of those behemoths of concrete and bad architectural taste that were constructed during the years of Soviet subsidies.

The variety and quantity of homes for sale seems to exceed the real capabilities of Cuban wallets right now. Many homes have quickly come on the housing market that was banned for decades and, despite the need for housing, lacks the main prerequisite: money to buy them. It’s amazing to see properties for sale for a quarter or a half million convertible pesos, in a country where the average salary doesn’t exceed 20 convertible pesos a month. Hence, the greatest movement in buying-and-selling is taking place in the cheapest homes, which are, therefore, smaller, in worse locations, and in poor repair. Meanwhile, in the luxury residence sector everything goes more slowly, down, at the level of a room in a tenement or an apartment without windows the movement is quite noticeable, especially for all those people in the interior of the country who are taking advantage of the opportunity to get themselves a home, even if it’s just a few square feet, in Havana.

What is also interesting is the stark and pragmatic assessment that is made of each home for sale. The ads have become sophisticated, accompanied by photos and favorable descriptions of the house’s “good water supply,” its magnificent location in a quiet neighborhood, or the possibilities to enlarge it and build on the roof. But there is one qualifier that no one neglects to add if their housing warrants it, and that is “capitalist construction,” if it was built before 1959. There is a clear parting of the waters and implacable divide between that built before the Revolution and that which has risen during it. If the apartment building is from the decades of the 40s or 50s the price soars, while those apartments built by the microbrigades*, who raised their prefabricated towers during the years of Sovietization, are relegated to an inferior level of offerings. The housing market brings out — with all its toughness — a scale of values that is far from the official discourse and that reassigns a new amount to everything, an objective yardstick for measuring quality.

*Translator’s note: Microbrigades: “Self-help housing” through assigning groups of people from each workplace to build large apartment houses. Yoani, her husband Reinaldo Escobar, and son Teo live in a microbrigade building erected by Reinaldo and others from his workplace.

15 October 2012

There were no surprises. Chavez’s victory in the recent Venezuelan elections, though not at all “strong” or “overwhelming”, as the leader would have liked and as the official Cuban media insists on calling it, was the most likely forecast. However, the Capriles’s undeniable summoning power and his achieving 44% at the polls, the highest in the whole process of the “Bolivarian” revolution, shows that the opposition is a consolidated force to be reckoned with in that nation. Henrique Capriles remains, after the presidential election, the candidate of hope, the promise of a possible future.

I, of course, wished Capriles his victory. Not only to turn another irksome page of Cuba’s begging and dependency under the setting of the Castro totalitarianism, but to enjoy the end of another threat to democracy in this hemisphere rolled into the person of the arrogant Venezuelan president. I’m of the thinking that prolonging Chavez’s stay in the presidential armchair will not save the Cuban regime’s from its defeat, and that the solution to the Cuban problem must come from the hands of Cubans on all shores and not from external junctures, though they can apply their influence for or against the speed of the decomposition of the dictatorship. Chavez, after all, is an annoying accident that will leave the stage eventually. Maybe nature will complete what the opposition could not accomplish this time.

Without trying to lay down guidelines, I believe, nonetheless, that democratic Venezuelans should not be discouraged by the results of these elections. Rather, they should understand how much they have achieved and advanced. It would be wrong to leave the country and allow the would-be dictator to continue squeezing it at will; it would be a shame to solve it by taking flight or feeling defeated. Some Venezuelan friends have written to me with deep regret, announcing that now they would leave the country. Please don’t. Let good Venezuelans look through Cuba’s mirror: stampedes are a relief for dictatorships and only succeed in extending their time in power. Don’t become, like us, a country of migrating mourners, and don’t allow them to wrench from you, as the Castros did to Cubans, what is rightfully yours.

Yesterday, around midnight, I got a message from my friend Antonio Rodiles on my cell phone. It read: “I thought Venezuela would turn into a democracy first, but it seems that we will be the ones…” It was an encouraging message that reminded me of the importance of keeping the faith and fighting for what we want. Democracy continues to be the dream that Venezuelans and Cubans pursue. I would tell free Venezuelans today: Don’t dismay, only you can prevent the triumph of authoritarianism… the polls spoke loud and clear about you. May it be so.

October 8 2012

Thanks to a hundred dollars from some relatives in Miami, the Calderón family knew they could eat well for four days. And Oneida, the seventy-one year old homemaker in charge of feeding the seven members of her family—five adults and two kids—could take a little break from the long lines and having to go to the farmers’ markets at closing time when things go on sale.

Let’s take a look as the Calderon’s menu for those four days. On Thursdays there was white rice, black beans and one hamburger per person. For salad, a slice of avocado. Only the children had dessert—a little scoop of ice cream purchased at a small privately-owned cafe.

Friday’s meal was not bad. There was a tenderloin filet, delicately thin, which she got on the black market for fifty pesos* per pound. White rice and chickpeas, purchased at the mall, with artisanal ham and chorizo from private farmers’ markets. Cucumber salad and, for the children, an ice cream popsicle covered in chocolate, which are sold by street vendors on bicycles for five pesos a popsicle.

The winning streak continued on Saturday.Congrí,braised beef, yucca with garlic sauce and fresh guava juice. For dessert the children had a surprise—pastel oriental, prepared by freelance cooks.

Traditionally in Cuba the biggest meal of the week is usually prepared on Sunday. That afternoon the Calderón’s dined on two chicken drumsticks per person – purchased for 2.40 convertible pesos* a kilogram—rice with black beans and green bean salad. There was dessert for everyone that day—guava jam with homemade cream cheese.

With their bellies full, the men of the house passed the hat and went out to buy a liter of Havana Club white rum for 3.85 CUC*. They drank it while watching a pre-recorded broadcast of English league soccer. The women chatted, waiting for the soccer game to end so they could watch rented videos of the final episodes of Pablo Escobar, Boss of Evil, a mini-series that half the island is hooked on.

Once the three hours of her day-off had ended, Oneida went back to worrying. For those three meals—including cooking oil, seasonings and condiments—she had spent 56 CUC. The next day, with the 136 pesos and 9 CUC remaining, she had to plan the menu for the upcoming week.

The Calderón family lives in a three-bedroom house in a Havana suburb. In Castro’s Cuba they could be considered “middle class.” Except for Oneida and the two children, everyone in the family is a professional. If their monthly salaries, paid in non-convertible pesos, are combined and hard currency remittances are included, they bring in a total of 3,258 pesos a month—much higher than the average Cuban family’s income.

The Calderon’s spend 95% of this on food. And they only have one meal a day. For breakfast they eat bread with homemade mayonnaise and coffee. For lunch there is omelette or croquette and juice or a soft drink. When an overseas relative sends them $100, things get better. They can buy good fish, chicken from the hard currency store, a leg of pork, cured meats and even beef. But not everyone has relatives in the United States or Europe who can regularly send dollars or euros. For them the issue of food becomes real headache.

It’s always good to remember that journalism is reiteration. A year ago a list of food prices, in hard currency and in pesos, was published inEn La Habana, which showedyou can eat well if you have enough money. The price of powdered milk had risen substantially, from 5.25 to 5.80 CUC for a one kilo box in the malls. On the black market a two-pound bag was going for 60 to 80 pesos. Keep in mind that the average monthly salary in Cuba is 450 pesos, the equivalent of $18.

Oneida buys and reads the papers. So, when on September 13 she read in Granma that “approximately 19% of Americans have trouble buying food,” she could not help but smile. “At least there the figures are released and are known. And only two out of ten people are in this situation. I can assure you that here it’s everybody. Except those in charge, of course,” she said sarcastically.

Eating has been and continues to be a big problem for Cuba. Eating well is a subject for another chapter.

Photo: Roast pork, a typical Cuban dish.

Translator’s note: Cuba has two official currencies: the moneda nacional or peso, in which salaries are paid and is not convertible, and the CUC or convertible peso, which is pegged at 1.10 to the dollar.

October 14 2012

Arrest at Fonts and Beales Streets (Lawton) NOW of Lady in White (@DamasDBlanco) Aime Cabrales. Phone: 53603463

October 14 2012

Repressors in Lawton arrested Lady in White (@DamasDBlanco) Aime Cabrales Aguilar. Phone: 53603463.

October 14 2012

Waiting for Lady in White (@DamasDBlanco) Aime Cabrales in order to arrest her without charges in Lawton. Phone: 53603463

October 14 2012

Socialist ideas, which enjoyed a certain prestige among some sectors of the world’s population at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, failed spectacularly when put into practice in numerous countries. They resolved none of the problems they promised to solve, plunging these nation’s inhabitants into backwardness and poverty.

In the case of Cuba these ideas were summed up by the term “vernacular socialism”—a form replete with excesses and absurdities—which did not achieve even the minimal successes of its “brothers” in Eastern Europe, requiring the country to be subsidized, principally by the former Soviet Union. Unproductive Pharaonic schemes, the elimination of financial controls, the abolition of money, a foreign policy worthy of a superpower and other follies ruined the nation and wasted the time and resources of generations of Cubans, who were conned by the idea of socialism as a mythic cure for all of society’s ills.

These worn-out banners are now raised only by a few demagogues. Although they do not really believe in them, they use them to confuse the politically naive masses and certain people from the world’s foolish, ingenuous left, who adopt them more as social pose than as real, activist commitment.

In a game of words they sometimes try to equate them with social democratic ideas, which have validity and are successfully applied in some European countries, when one has nothing to do with the other. In these countries freedom of expression is respected, private property exists, and citizens are able to enjoy full rights—things which are non-existent under “real socialism”—because a great deal of attention is paid to these things and ample resources are dedicated to social problems, allowing them to enjoy magnificent health care, education and social security systems, among other benefits.

Trying to sell socialism as a development option is like offering a poor quality product, one that has demonstrated in full (and also in poverty, suffering, pain and even blood) its inefficiency. As a result, those who have experienced it do not want to hear any more about it, much less see it restored in their countries.

“Tripping over the same stone, again and again” seems to be a Cuban trait, along with “overshooting or falling short, never hitting the mark.” “Updating socialism” is simply that— continuing to trip over the same stone.

October 11 2012

Recently I learned, although it has not yet been publicly announced, that the Havana Historian Dr. Eusebio Leal Spengler, has retired his economic motor: “Habaguanex.” I am sure that this gentleman will come to be known as one of the few citizens of the Cuban Archipelago who, in the last 54 years, has done commendable and consistent work to improve our country. I believe, without equivocation, that if free elections were held, he would surely be one of the candidates for president of the nation, given his charisma, intelligence, sacrifice and honesty.

I have also been unable to avoid learning that his trusted men in the construction of “Puerto Carena” are being prosecuted for embezzlement. And now the so-called “domino effect” has begun. It has been served up on a silver platter to the Castro brothers, who for a long time have wanted to sink their teeth into the money that is spent on the historic district of the city of Havana. Without Dr. Eusebio Leal, a great part of it would have collapsed and millions of dollars that now dance in the state coffers would be absent.

Now, in place of Habaguanex, will be some ex-officer of the “armed forces” who responds blindly to Raul Castro and, of course, the deterioration and lack of control will be greater. The analysis of the problems should not focus on the consequences, I have repeated many times, the misrule of the Castros always does the same thing: throws out the baby with the bathwater to avoid getting at the root causes that force the great majority of people to survive with what is within reach of their hands. It is no secret that Old Havana has recovered thanks to the close management of the historian; and also, unavoidably, the housing reconstruction in general has been healthy for the black-market that thrives throughout the country and which, some day, will require a monument of its own as a great savior of the Cuban people.

I sense that the success of the work of the historian is due to the independence he had in all these years of arduous labor, such that he could give us a palpable image of revival the place where we come from. Now I fear that if the economic base necessary to continue his work of safeguarding one of the most beautiful cities of the Hemisphere slows or stops, our architectural history, which is part of our insular essence, will be in danger of extinction. And, without the spaces that are ancestors created, we will never be able to orient ourselves in this labyrinth of confluences that was “St. Christopher of Havana.”

October 9 2012