Translating Cuba

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

Cuban authorities, as has been their custom for years, have launched a new campaign against the U.S. embargo, taking advantage of the start of high-level United Nations General Assembly sessions. The worn-out script began with a press conference by Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Minister of Foreign Affairs, in Havana on September 20. The only thing that could be called new was the announcement that the cumulative damage to the economy is now calculated to be one 1.76 trillion dollars. It is not known where he got this figure or how it was calculated.

Of course, the minister omitted the fact that the United States is one of Cuba’s principal commercial trading partners and that, according to official statistical annuals, supplied more than 4.1 billion dollars in food products from 2001 to 2002, making it the main provider of these commodities during this period.

He also forgot to mention that, thanks to President Obama’s easing of restrictions, approximately 400,000 members of the Cuban community arrive in that country annually. They provide substantial help to their families and friends, and their remittances constitute 85% of one of the chief sources of hard-currency earnings for Cuba. There has also been an easing in restrictions limiting the direct shipment of packages and money meant to aid family members. All this disproves the fallacy that the embargo has stiffened under the Obama administration.

If the Cuban government is not purchasing medications, it is because of its perennial financial insolvency. All the world’s other countries are willing to sell Cuba all the goods its requires — including products from the United States — provided it can pay. This is the real problem for the Elder of the Antilles, now a parasite state.

In addition to the damage brought on by the embargo, it would be appropriate to evaluate the disasters caused by a regime which for fifty-three years has destroyed the very foundations of the nation.

It is worth asking how much the destruction of the sugar industry, the backbone of the economy, has cost the country. Or the destruction of the livestock sector, another national treasure, now devastated to the point of not being able to guarantee that children over seven years old have a liter of milk or a piece of meat, something Cubans hardly recognize anymore.

One should consider the destruction of coffee and cocoa production, and the fact that a prominently agricultural country now imports 80% of its food, including such staples as yucca (cassava) to supply the tourism industry, as has been recently reported in the official press.

Perhaps the American embargo is responsible for the poor quality of new construction, which develops leaks immediately after completion and has many other problems. Are U.S. administrations responsible for Cubans not having access to the internet and the human knowledge to be gained from it?

Is the United States responsible for the continued decapitalization of Cuba, or for the fact that it invests half of what other Latin American countries do, causing it to sink progressively into backwardness?

Can external factors be blamed because people in the principal inland cities have to get around in wagons and carts pulled by horses, or because farmers have access only to old hoes and mule teams?

Have external factors caused the destruction of a large part of the roadway infrastructure and the housing supply? Are they responsible for the insignificant amount of housing construction, which has led to overcrowding for generations of Cubans? Or that 50% to 60% of piped water is lost due to the poor condition of water mains and the inadequate state of plumbing in homes? Or that the nation’s electrical energy system is showing signs of collapse due to obsolete Soviet and Czech thermo-electrical plants, most of which have been in use for forty years without adequate maintenance, and some of which are fueled by high-sulfur heating oil?

Is it because of an imperialist plot that the health care system is falling to pieces, as Cuban doctors recently claimed? Or that Calixto García Hospital finds itself in a calamitous state, with only ten of its thirty operating rooms even able to function. Or that, meanwhile, the other great “achievement” of the revolution — education — is marked by a drop in the quality of instruction?

Perhaps it is because of a sinister CIA scheme that Cuba will have an unsustainable population base by 2035, with more than 34% of the populace over 60 years of age, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

One might mention the many calamities resulting from completely irrational decisions taken over the course of the last fifty-three years which have cost the nation hundreds of billions of dollars. These would include programs such as the character deforming country schools, the Cordón de La Habana, the Revolutionary offensive of 1968, the Harvest of Ten Million, the social workers, the emerging and comprehensive teachers, and many more of the mad ideas that seem to have been schemes intended to ruin the country.

Was it an international plot to fragment Cuban society by separating families and causing personal upheaval by forcing people to abandon their homeland? Who is to blame for the growing marginalization of society, the runaway growth of corruption at all levels, the fifth largest rate of incarceration in the world, or the acceptance of new moral and ethical codes which justify any actions as means of survival in the the jungle that Cuba has become? All this has resulted in the greatest loss of moral values of all time.

It is clear that, by the time he realized that the country was on the edge of a precipice, President Raúl Castro was already aware of many of these problems. However, his commitment to the past seems not to have allowed him to take effective measures to rectify, at least in some way, all the damage caused to the nation that was unrelated to external factors.

It is hoped that the resolution on the embargo, which is scheduled for a vote on for November 13, will once again condemn it. We have never supported the embargo, which has been used by the Cuban government as a justification for all its failures and repression.

However, to condemn only the embargo is a decision that would not take into account the most important aspect of the Cuban experience, which is the blockade imposed by authorities preventing the people from realizing their potential and from enjoying their rights. We, therefore, feel it would be fitting that the resolution to be approved, in addition to condensing the American embargo, also demand that the Cuban government take the following steps:

That it promote freedom for Cubans, respect for human rights and the introduction of real economic reforms to allow them to fulfill their creative capabilities;

That the National Assembly of People’s Power ratify the the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, endorsed in writing by the government on December 10, 2008.

Democratic countries would make a great contribution to the Cuban people if a balanced resolution were approved in the current session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Translated from Cubaencuentro

Oscar Espinosa Chepe, Havana
25 September 2012

The 21st century. A country called Cuba, where it citizens fight for a transparent democracy and for the freedoms that this encompasses. There are very few resources to achieve the power of the people in a country tossed into the abyss 53 years ago.

The Cuban counterrevolution, the opposition or the fighters for human rights in Cuba; whatever you want to call them, they have exhausted almost all their resources. The only one left is the most drastic option, the HUNGER STRIKE.

The opposition in Cuba has always tried to come to an agreement with the government, but it has always avoided any change and its governmental ideal.

Thus, the hunger strike has become a weapon against the Castro tyranny. Despite the fact that it is a weapon that destroys human being who undertakes it.

In reality the government has no interest in the deaths that could happen with this desperate measure. They are only focused on not losing their totalitarian power and avoiding democracy on the island. Space

But with a clear objective and a well defined goal, this weapon has become the Achilles tendon of the Castros.

October 8 2012