English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 15 March 2023 – In the film The Lives of Others, the writer Georg Dreyman encapsulates his break with the regime in a report about suicides in communist countries. He writes it in red ink on a secret typewriter and under the vigilance of secret agent Wiesler, alias HGW XX/7. When … Continue reading “The Havana Law: The Authentic Face of the Cuban Tourist Paradise”
Note from Translating Cuba: Somehow this article from December of last year got ‘missed’ and so we are posting it now. 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Desde Aquí, Havana, 12 December 2022 — I could add more names to the title, mentioning, for example, Félix Navarro or Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, but Jose (here without an accent) … Continue reading “I Have a Friend Unjustly Imprisoned, His Name is Jose Daniel Ferrer”
14ymedio, Madrid, 21 November 2022 — Journalist Carlos Manuel Álvarez tried to return to Cuba this Sunday from Miami, but American Airlines employees informed him that he could not board the flight due to Havana’s refusal to authorize his entry into the country. ” ’You have been denied from Havana’, they told me,” the writer … Continue reading “Carlos M. Alvarez Will Return to Cuba ‘By Any Other Way’ After American Airlines Denied Him Boarding”
14ymedio, Madrid, 14 November 2022 — On Monday the organisations Democratic Spaces and Cuba Decide asked the Canadian government to sanction the Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel and a further nine officials, as well as the bodies known as the boinas negras (black berets) — the National Special Brigade of the Ministry of the Interior; and the boinas … Continue reading “Canada is Asked to Sanction Diaz-Canel and Others for the Repression in Cuba”
14ymedio, Ariel Hidalgo, Miami, 9 November 2022 — With the increasingly profound crisis of popular representation in the Cuban dictatorship and a government about to collapse, there will come a time when a power vacuum requires the constitution of a Civic Board composed of people who have earned the respect of the population in their … Continue reading “The First Decrees of the New Cuba”
14ymedio, Madrid, November 10, 2022 — The controversial Cuban rapper Denis Solís has been in Germany for a few days with an aunt, an uncle and a cousin, like the activist Daniela Rojo, who is in the same refuge in Nuremberg, and who spoke to 14ymedio. Together with his relatives, the artist crossed the border … Continue reading “Cuban Rapper Denis Solis, of the San Isidro Movement, Seeks Asylum in Germany”
14ymedio, Havana, 14 November 2022 — The Cuban artist Hamlet Lavastida has been awarded the Freedom of Expression in the Arts prize, presented by international organisation Index on Censorship. The award recognises the creator’s work in documenting human rights abuses on the Island. “Our winner in the Arts category is Hamlet Lavastida, who is pleased … Continue reading “Cuban Artist Hamlet Lavastida, Wins Freedom of Expression Prize from Index on Censorship”
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 9 November 2022 — To the grave situation in the sectors of economy, food, finance, energy, politics, social justice, migration and health — all from which Cuba is suffering — we may add a new crisis that could deliver the final death blow to a fading, crumbling model. Because if … Continue reading “The Culture Crisis of the Cuban Revolution”
14ymedio, Anna Mahjar-Barducci, Jerusalem, 20 October 2022 — On 19 October 2022 a ’mash-up’ of two tracks: Patria y Vida [Homeland and Life] and Baraye (For the sake of…) was uploaded to the Azadi channel on YouTube. The former was performed by Cuban rappers Yotuel Romero, Descemer Bueno, Maykel Osorbo Castillo, El Funky, and the group Gente … Continue reading “The Iranian ‘Patria y Vida’, A Song That Unites Havana with Teheran”
14ymedio, Havana, 7 October 7, 2022 — Thais Mailén Franco, one of those arrested for the demonstration on Obispo Street in Havana in April 2021, has been in U.S. territory since the early hours of Wednesday. “Crossing the California border, crossing the entire desert,” says the activist herself in a video posted on her social … Continue reading “Thais Mailen Franco, One of the Detainees from the Obispo St. Demonstration, Arrives in the U. S. by the ‘Route of the Volcanoes’*”
14ymedio, Havana, 30 August 2022 — “If a door were opened for me right now, where I could go into exile, brother, I’d go, do you understand?” The words of Maykel Castillo Osorbo, in a telephone conversation from prison with Armando Labrador, owner of the Cántalo TV YouTube channel, suggest that the artist is willing to … Continue reading “From Jail, Rapper Maykel ‘Osorbo’ Suggests He is Willing to Leave Cuba”
EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, August 16, 2022 — The composers of the song Patria y Vida will be recognized with the Medal of Freedom that will be awarded to them by the Latino Composers Hall of Fame (LCHOF) at the welcome gala for its new members, which will be held on October 13 in south Florida. … Continue reading “Cuban Composers of “Patria y Vida” — Homeland and Life — Will Receive the Medal of Freedom”
14ymedio, Havana, 13 August 2022 — In the midst of the growing reaction against the Cuban government for the deaths in the Matanzas Supertanker Base fire of several young people who were doing military service, regime spokesman Humberto López, in an attempt to appease the indignation of relatives and the solidarity of thousands towards those … Continue reading “State TV Newscaster Humberto Lopez Accuses Cuban Exiles of Being Behind Acts of Vandalism”
14medio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 8 June 2022 — The Biblical story relates that, shortly after the universal flood, humanity spoke a single language and wanted to erect a tower so high that it reached the sky. Such arrogance aroused the wrath of the God of the Old Testament, who used a sui generis strategy … Continue reading “Cuban State Security and its Operation Babel”
The opposition rapper Denis Solís, a former prisoner of conscience recognized by the United Nations, and subsequently forced into exile, is in a situation of extreme poverty in Novi Sad, Serbia, where he has lived since he left Cuba at the end of 2021. The organization Prisoner Defenders has tweeted an alert about the situation … Continue reading “Cuban Rapper Denis Solis is Living in Extreme Poverty in Serbia”
