English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
HAVANA, Cuba, August, www.cubanet.org.- Similar to the theme of Steven Spielberg’s movie Minority Report, where someone is imprisoned for crimes they had not yet committed but it was assumed they might commit, the Cuban Criminal Code devotes several articles to “the state of danger and measures of security.” An index of pre-criminal dangerousness is practically … Continue reading “Workers for the Nomenklatura / Lilianne Ruiz”
By Reinaldo Cosano. Havana, Cuba Posted in the blog of Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada The veil covering violent homophobic repression is slowly being drawn back, but the gulity aren’t asking for public pardon. It is hard to specify just how the virus of homophobic repression was incubated, sharp-eyed with the machismo of the days … Continue reading “Taken Out of the Closet, But No One Asks Forgiveness / Reinaldo Cosano”
… Any solution that may result somehow in violence or discord is neither a sensible solution nor can it bring us any good. Juan René Betancourt If there is something the communities of African descendants in America can’t forgive, and especially in the United States, particularly in the fight against racism and the related forms … Continue reading “Point-blank / Manuel Aguirre”
Among the somewhat reasonable excitement over the traveling out of Cuba of some of the most glamorous of the dissidents like Yoani Sanchez, Rosa Maria Paya, and Eliecer Avila, extremely alarming things are happening. Two independent reporters arrested (they released Cedeño but Calixto Roman continues to be locked up). Angel Santiesteban gets of every morning … Continue reading “Bad — Very Bad — News / Luis Felipe Rojas”
Link to Facebook Here Declaration No. 2, 11 November 2012 On Wednesday, November 7, a group of citizens was arrested outside the so-called Section 21 of State Security, at 31st Avenue and 110th Street, in the municipality of Marianao. The group of about ten people was there to inquire about the legal status and whereabouts … Continue reading “LIBERTAD! FREEDOM! / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Citizen Demand for Another Cuba As Cubans, legitimate children of this land and an essential part of our nation, we feel a deep sorrow at the prolonged crisis that we are experiencing and the demonstrated inability of the current government to make fundamental changes. This obliges us, from civil society, to seek and demand our … Continue reading “Citizen Demand for Another Cuba – 536 Signatures and Counting”
Citizen Demand for Another Cuba As Cubans, legitimate children of this land and an essential part of our nation, we feel a deep sorrow at the prolonged crisis that we are experiencing and the demonstrated inability of the current government to make fundamental changes. This obliges us, from civil society, to seek and demand our … Continue reading “For Another Cuba – Citizen Demand for Another Cuba”
It seems that the recent papal visit will be the event of the year in Cuba. The first Sunday of April has passed amid offerings and arrests, while even more arrests, beatings, and violent acts against Ladies in White and other non-violent human rights activists are being reported from a number of provinces. In Holguin, … Continue reading “In the Undertow / Luis Felipe Rojas”
Site manager’s note: The information about the extensive repression leading up to the Pope’s visit is coming to us through Twitter, emails, Hablalo sin miedo (Speak without fear) and other routes, other than blog posts. Raul Garcia Jr., over at Pieces of the Island, has prepared an excellent summary of the most recent reports. Keep … Continue reading “(PARTIAL SUMMARY) Wave of arrests and threats sweep across Cuba just hours before the visit of Pope Benedict. #PopeCuba”
This past 28th of January, the Cuban government presented us a renovated Jose Marti amid the shouts of the little red pioneers, portraits of Fidel Castro, and songs of Silvio Rodriguez. The celebration was also marked by beatings, arrests, and restrictions on movement of various pro-democracy activists throughout the entire island who were trying to … Continue reading “Marti for Everyone? / Luis Felipe Rojas”
What a surprise his Holiness Pope Benedict XVI will find when he visits the two main cities of Cuba. To kick off the Year of Jubilee, the repressive machinery unleashed a wave of aggression in nearly all the cities in the country against dissidents who were simply trying to assist religious mass on Saturday in … Continue reading “January 8th in Cuba: Jubilee and Repression / Luis Felipe Rojas”
I hope that those of you who have difficulties reading Julio Cortazar because of his leftist inclinations will excuse me for this citation. The brilliant Argentine stands on his affective deficiencies (his relationship with dictatorial regimes such as the Castro government or the Nicaraguan government of Daniel Ortega does annul his talent to write fiction). … Continue reading “The Persecutors (Without Other Stories) / Luis Felipe Rojas”
The news of the arrests of more than fifty Human Rights activists throughout the entire country has only further confirmed the violent nature of the regime which governs my country. Some people had illusions. Once again, those detained and beaten in their own homes were peaceful dissidents and their families. No voluntary actions, little solidarity … Continue reading “Dungeons and Physical Blows on Patriotic Anniversaries / Luis Felipe Rojas”
I want to start, this time, making a critical clarification: what I intend to address in this post will be an exception in the blog. The purpose of this blog is to inspire thinking, offer journalistic texts (and on occasion literary ones), where analysis and critical thinking predominate, in a manner of speaking. Whether I … Continue reading “Dissecting a Modus Operandi / Ernesto Morales Licea”
First Convivencia Literary Contest 2010 Minutes of the Jury Prize in the Essay category: Utopia, Challenges and Difficulties in Today’s Cuba. By Dimas Castellanos Marti, of Bayamo, who lives in Havana Unanimously and in one of the most difficult discussions that taken by this jury, it emerged as the decision in the prize for a … Continue reading “Minutes of the First Convivencia Contest 2010”