English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
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”
On April 16, 1961, just before the end of a fiery speech at the speech delivered during the funeral for the victims of the bombardments that marked the prelude of the Bay of Pigs invasion, Fidel Castro exclaimed: “Comrades, workers and peasants, this is the Socialist and democratic Revolution of the humble, by the humble … Continue reading “Did Fidel Castro Make a Revolution Of the Humble, By the Humble and For the Humble? / Ivan Garcia”
If, from the island, a person wants to read about the rusty North Korean freighter Chong Chon Gang, where the Cuban regime was caught with obsolete Russian weaponry, they must pay 4.50 CUC an hour — ten days of a worker’s wages — in one of the 118 Internet rooms opened on June 4. They … Continue reading “Cuba Maintains Silence About North Korean Ship / Ivan Garcia”
Dear Angel, Today is August 2nd and it’s your birthday, locked up in this filthy and inhumane Concentration Camp of the dictatorship that is Prison 1580. They try to freeze you, isolate you, silence you. Nothing has succeeded. Not only because you are stronger morally than that tremendous State apparatus put to work to control … Continue reading “Does a Good Man Wake Up Younger Every Day? Angel Santiesteban Who is Celebrating His Birthday Today In Prison”
I am in search of the forbidden book, like the Golem, or like the treasure of Eternal Youth. Why does a presidential, dictatorial or authoritarian edict decide to ban, hunt down and remove a book from a country. Faced with these questions I went looking with my Facebook friends and put an invitation on the … Continue reading “The Banned Book in Cuba / Luis Felipe Rojas”
Yesterday, faced once more with the frustration of not being able to connect to the internet, my friend and I decided to go shopping in the stores of the area. She needed a faucet for her kitchen and I didn’t take any money as I went along just to look. We got to the complex … Continue reading “Kafka’s Stores / Rebeca Monzo”
HAVANA, Cuba, www.cubanet.org Recently Cuban “parliamentarians” discussed the issue of prostitution among young people. According to the press official, they drafted strategies to face this evil, as well as pandering, widespread today all across the Island. It is known that, since 1959, the regime openly proclaimed that women would not have to sell their bodies, … Continue reading “The "Yumas" Pay Between 80 and 120 CUC per Night / Leon Padron Azcuy”
HAVANA, Cuba, July 2013, www.cubanet.org.- When a Cuban family is afflicted by disease there are many who depend on the favor of some neighbor with a car to take them to the hospital. Moreover, the paramedics and nurses of the Comprehensive Emergency Medical System (SIUM) depend on the “thanks” for their patients to “resolve” a chance … Continue reading “Up To 12 Hours to Attend Medical Emergencies / Lilianne Ruiz”
“Here, no one surrenders” With tremendous size and a weight of 15 tons, in Antonio Maceo Plaza in Santiago de Cuba, on the size wall of the Heredia Theater, this Tuesday the lights were turned on to inaugurate a steel frame that recreates the image of my father, Commander Juan Almeida Bosque. I think so … Continue reading “Monument to My Father / Juan Juan Almeida”
HAVANA, Cuba, July 29, 2013, David Canela / www.cubanet.org.-The civic project Estado de SATS this Saturday celebrated its three years of existence with a children’s party. About 10:30 in the morning Rodiles’ house was full. At the party two clowns performed, exciting the children with games, dances, songs and puppets. Children’s music videos were also … Continue reading “Estado de SATS Celebrates Three Years / David Canela”
The renowned activist and Castro regime opponent Antonio G. Rodiles, director of the Estado de SATS movement (an independent and intellectual group that encourages the exchange of ideas) will visit the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) at Casa Bacardi, 1531 Brescia Avenue at the University of Miami, Tuesday, 30 July 11:00 am to … Continue reading “Antonio Rodiles Will Return to Miami This Tuesday / Estado de Sats, For Another Cuba”
(Exclusive, Iván García in Havana) If you want confirmation that socialism does not work, do yourself a favor and visit Alamar. This community, twenty minutes east of Havana, is an example of real urban chaos. A place without rhyme or reason, ugly, poorly constructed buildings rise four, five, even eighteen stories high along poorly paved, winding roads. … Continue reading “An Interview with Berta Soler, Leader of the Ladies in White / Ivan Garcia”
