Search results for: Yo Sí Te Creo

To Change of Not to Change in Cuba: That is the Question / Jeovany Jimenez Vega

Jeovany Jimenez Vega, 19 July 2020 — Anyone unfamiliar with the endless capacity for pretence and cynicism on the part of the Castro dictatorship, could perhaps see in the recent words of the latest occupant of the Finca Biran (Fidel Castro’s birthplace) a sincere call for reform. When Diaz-Canel, in an admirable fit of sincerity, accepts publicly … Continue reading “To Change of Not to Change in Cuba: That is the Question / Jeovany Jimenez Vega”

Looking for a Mailman

14ymedio, Pedro Acosta, Havana, May 21, 2020 — “The mailman finally came. Let’s see how long he lasts. The previous one lasted the longest, about eight months, but he disappeared once the pandemic started,” laments Roberto Gomez, a resident of Havana’s Casino Deportivo neighborhood. “For the last three years the newspaper has not arrived on … Continue reading “Looking for a Mailman”

14ymedio’s Faces of 2019: Dianelys Alfonso, La Diosa, Artist

14ymedio, Havana, 30 December 2019 — The artist Dianelys Alfonso, La Diosa (The Goddess), started a Cuban version of #MeToo this year, after making public her personal history with the musician José Luis Cortés, El Tosco, a history of harassment and sexist violence. It all started when La Diosa (b. 1981) told a Miami show that she had been beaten and … Continue reading “14ymedio’s Faces of 2019: Dianelys Alfonso, La Diosa, Artist”

The Year of Women in Latin America

14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Havana, 22 December 2019 – Analysts will give other names to the year 2019, now about to end. Perhaps they will label it as a time of great social outbursts in Latin America or as the 12 months of an economic stagnation that has affected many of the nations that make … Continue reading “The Year of Women in Latin America”

Ecuador Ends its Medical Agreements with Cuba

14ymedio, Havana, 12 November 2019 — The Ecuadorian government of Lenín Moreno has put an end to medical agreements with Cuba, in which about 400 doctors were hired from the Island. The Minister of Government, María Paula Romo, argued that at least 250 people with an official Cuban passport entered the country during the violent … Continue reading “Ecuador Ends its Medical Agreements with Cuba”

A Lost Gastronomic Legacy / Rebeca Monzo

Rebeca Monzo, 23 October 2019 —  The loss of Cuba’s gastronomic legacy began in 1959 when private companies, factories and businesses began to disappear after the so-called “triumph of the Revolution,” appropriated entirely by the totalitarian regime. Back when Cuba had six million inhabitants, there were also six million head cattle along with many sheep, … Continue reading “A Lost Gastronomic Legacy / Rebeca Monzo”

We Don’t Understand Each Other: The Myths and Facts of Baragua

14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 3 September 2019 — The phrase is attributed to Antonio Maceo, general of our Wars of Independence and one of the essential pillars of the foundational theogony of the Cuban nation, whose feats and proverbial value in the insurgent camp, added to his majestic bearing and mestizo complexion, earned him the … Continue reading “We Don’t Understand Each Other: The Myths and Facts of Baragua”

Self-Employed Cubans Ready to Defend Their Rights / Ivan Garcia

Iván García, 3 December 2018 — A 1950s General Motors truck with an American body and a powerful Italian Iveco six-cylinder inline engine parks in front of a house in a neighborhood west of Havana. Several men begin unloading sheets of drywall, bags of joint compound and galvanized steel beams. Twice a week Jesús orders … Continue reading “Self-Employed Cubans Ready to Defend Their Rights / Ivan Garcia”

On a Fractured Identity

14ymedio, Vicente Echerri, New York | October 20, 2018 — The destruction — and transformation — of the Cuban nation has become not only a commonplace, but a perennial lamentation among our own. Those of us who live in exile hardly have another subject, especially those who identify with the so-called “historic exile,” although many … Continue reading “On a Fractured Identity”

Revolutionary Hunger in Venezuela

14ymedio, Reyes Theis, Caracas, 26 June 2018 — “My husband and I eat only vegetables, yucca or potato, we leave for the kids what the box brings.  Sometimes I give them rice with butter in the morning and another little bit at night.”  So says Aurimar, seated on the wall of the San Bernardino church, … Continue reading “Revolutionary Hunger in Venezuela”

Bodeguita del Medio, a Gold Mine That Lives Off the Past

14ymedio, Zunlida Mata, Havana, 27 April 2018 — Tourists landing in Havana have, at a minimum, two goals: tour the city in an old convertible and have a mojito at La Bodeguita del Medio. The emblematic restaurant, which has just turned 68, owes its fame to the bohemian intellectuals who frequented it for more than two decades. On … Continue reading “Bodeguita del Medio, a Gold Mine That Lives Off the Past”

Cubans Air Their Views on Miguel Diaz-Canel / Ivan Garcia

Ivan Garcia, 20 April 2018 — Summer 1993. When night fell in Falcón, a little place next to the Central Highway, crossed by the Sagua la Chica and Jagüeyes rivers, people were sitting by their front doors, telling stories, and drinking home-made rum distilled with cow-shit. Those were the difficult years of the “Special Period“, and in Falcón, … Continue reading “Cubans Air Their Views on Miguel Diaz-Canel / Ivan Garcia”

Freedom in Cuba from a Bird’s Eye View / Jeovany Jimenez Vega

Jeovany Jimenez Vega, 2 September 2017 — After the experience of a trip to Cuba, the Peruvian columnist Alfredo Bullard remains convinced that the solution to the Cuban problem involves everything from liberation from the government of Donald Trump to more business activity and travel by Americans to the island. I believe that expressing an opinion … Continue reading “Freedom in Cuba from a Bird’s Eye View / Jeovany Jimenez Vega”

Our Everyday War / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner

14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, 31 January 2016 – Let’s get right down to it. The current conflict that divides half the planet, and especially Latin Americans, is between neo-populism and authoritarian democracy, against liberal democracy. I just developed a short course on the subject at the Francisco Marroquín University in Guatemala. I do not know … Continue reading “Our Everyday War / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner”

Is There a Cuban Style? / Rebeca Monzo

Rebeca Monzo, 13 November 2015 — As I see it, it would be incorrect to claim there is a Cuban style. During the last fifty years Cuban men and women on the island have been dressing any way they can with whatever was sent to them by overseas relatives, by repurposing old clothes or, in … Continue reading “Is There a Cuban Style? / Rebeca Monzo”