English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
The facts and news about the sport of balls and strikes, learned during the recently concluded month of July, settle the dispute between amateur and professional baseball in favor of the latter. It started with the debut of Yovani Aragón in the World Port Tournament of Rotterdam, a less demanding event than the Olympic Games and the … Continue reading “Free Baseball vs. Slave Baseball / Dimas Castellanos”
HAVANA, Cuba , September 2013, www.cubanet.org.- He was the most in love Cienfuegan I knew. He was called Oscar Manual Espinosa Chepe, although to most of the people who knew him he was simply “Chepe.” His Dulcinea, Miriam Leiva, was at his side over the last thirty years with a loyalty tested in the harsh … Continue reading “Farewell to the Cienfuegan in Love / Aleaga Pesant”
Total number of people living with HIV/AIDS: 18,261 Total foreigners detected: 675 Havana: Total Persons with HIV/AIDS: 8,660 Diagnosed 2012: 625 Total AIDS Cases: 3,765 People Living with HIV/AIDS: 6,982 Ambulatory Care System: 5,988 Total deaths: 1,434 Deaths from AIDS: 1,321 Deaths from Other Causes: 113 Children in the Study: 74 HIV-positive children: 16 Average … Continue reading “Latest Cuban Ministry of Health Statistics for HIV/AIDS / Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada”
HAVANA, Cuba, 30 August 2013, www.cubanet.org – Resolution No. 32 of 7 October 2010, issued by the Ministry of Work and Social Security, relaxed private work with the approval of 181 activities of self-employment. According to the newspaper Juventud Rebelde, on 17 August of this year, at the end of July licenses has been issued … Continue reading “Self-employment or Private Property / Osmar Laffita”
Giving an accounting of their administration was never among the priorities of the Castro brothers. The modern caudillos are considered beyond good and evil. Indeed, Fidel Castro managed the nation like a private bodega, with outlandish economic plans, bypassing the state budget, bleeding its finances, material resources and human lives sacrificed in civil wars in … Continue reading “Raul Castro: Seven Years of Governing / Ivan Garcia”
Bishop Siro and Father Conrado The first time I heard Father José Conrado Rodríguez, on a visit he made to Havana, I was among those at the back of the huge crowd surrounding him, hanging on to every word he said. To be honest, I must I hung back, because I didn’t know his greatness. … Continue reading “Prison Diary LIII: The Cardinal Cuba Needs / Angel Santiesteban”
When my great grandfather was born, there was an Arab presence in Cuba. It is impossible to exclude from national history the Lebanese Antonio Farah, who arrived on the Island in 1879 and achieved the position of city councilor in the local government of Pinar del Rio. Likewise, there is an ample list of Syrians, … Continue reading “A Thousand and One Cuban Hexes to Enchant Arabs / Juan Juan Almeida”
The few expectations generated by the Ninth Congress of the Union of Journalists and Writers of Cuba ( UPEC ), held last weekend, ended in frustration. The changes that demand journalism plays an effective role in social transformations were conspicuous by their absence. The conclave ignored the issue of press freedom, a vital issue to … Continue reading “UPEC and the Freedom of the Press / Dimas Castellanos”
HAVANA, Cuba, August 28, 2013, Michel Iroy Rodriguez / www.cubanet.org.- The ballplayer Jonathan Machado Tarrago, nicknamed Suzuki, age 14, who was stolen base leader in games held in Taipei, China in July 2011, will not be allowed to participate in the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada, as the son of a regime opponent. … Continue reading “Outstanding Child Baseball Player Marginalized Because he is the Son of Dissidents / Michel Iroy Rodriguez”
28 August 2013
Today, August 28, marks six months since Angel was unjustly imprisoned by the Castro dictatorship, after their having invented crimes he did not commit, making use of his former wife and the mother of his son to perform a show trial in which they were unable to prove absolutely any of these alleged crimes for … Continue reading “Communication: As of today, Angel Santiesteban has served 6 months in prison, incommunicado”
Havana, Cuba, August of 2013, www.cubanet.org — “As long as the Office of Religious Affairs of the Communist Party’s Central Committee exists to monitor pastoral work, one cannot speak of religious liberty in Cuba.” So said Pastor Mario Felix Lleonart from the Baptist Church of Taguayabon to Cubanet in the province of Villa Clara. The … Continue reading “Why Does the Communist Party Control the Churches? / Lilianne Ruiz”
Dimas is second from right. Interview with Dimas Castellanos Marti, historian and journalist. From Havana, Felix Sautie Mederos Por Esto! asks: “Unravel the causes of the crisis our society finds itself in (…) The concept of race as a group of hereditary characteristics seems to lack foundation, as a social construction it has a damaging … Continue reading “Interview with Dimas Castellanos”
This week I will dedicate my post to what is called the Youth Labor Army (EJT), on the 40th anniversary of its creation, which is Saturday, August 3, and nineteen years since my release from its “ranks,” which occurred on July 28. This so-called Army, created in 1973, it’s said, from a merger of the … Continue reading “The 40th Anniversay of the Youth Labor Army (EJT) / Mario Lleonart”
HAVANA, Cuba, August 1, 2013, www.cubanet.org.- The members of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) bluntly expressed their concern “with the persistence of violence against women, including domestic violence in Cuba,” says a report published last July 25 on its official web page. They said that the phenomenon remains underreported, “due … Continue reading “UN Experts Concerned About the Situation of Violence Against Women on the Island / Yaremis Flores”
