The Health of Hugo Chávez Disturbs Many in Cuba / Iván García

When some days ago the Venezuelan chancellor Nicolás Maduro read a plain official note, announcing that President Hugo Chávez Frías, aged 54, would be undergoing surgery in the lower abdomen, few in Cuba paid attention. Maduro’s message was issued in Havana, during a bilateral meeting as part of the strategic alliance signed by Cuba and … Continue reading “The Health of Hugo Chávez Disturbs Many in Cuba / Iván García”

RIDING MISTER ROJAS / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

RIDING MISTER ROJAS, originally uploaded by Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo In art, like in politics, the speeches of epigones, now free of the original guilt of the Messiah, start attempting a liberal rereading of the revolutionary scripture and end up being pure fascism. The Cuban intellectual Fernando Rojas, beyond his high governmental charge (every now … Continue reading “RIDING MISTER ROJAS / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”

The Age of Reptiles / Miriam Celaya

The times are propitious for the unveiling of the proverbial national fickleness. The blurring of the mythical figure of the supposedly invincible commander within the Cuban panorama–his disappearance from the Roundtable talk show and from the public eye in general–has unleashed a wave of criticism of the earlier period of this same process called the … Continue reading “The Age of Reptiles / Miriam Celaya”

Hugo Chavez’s Secret / Yoani Sánchez

Hugo Chavez’s announcement that Cuban doctors had found and removed a cancerous tumor, coming after weeks of speculation about the Venezuelan president’s absence from public life, touches a particular chord for Cubans. For decades, the health of the Cuban president was information cloaked in secrecy. It was the least transparent topic in our national life, … Continue reading “Hugo Chavez’s Secret / Yoani Sánchez”

White Meat Crumbs / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado

I turned the corner located half a block from my house and I heard somebody yelling to another neighbor, ” Mercedes, they are giving out chicken instead of fish.” The piece of chicken that the Cuban State sells us at subsidize price and by their orders we must consume it in one month, is only … Continue reading “White Meat Crumbs / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado”

White Meat Crumbs

I turned the corner located half a block from my house and I heard somebody yelling to another neighbor, ” Mercedes, they are giving out chicken instead of fish.” The piece of chicken that the Cuban State sells us at subsidize price and by their orders we must consume it in one month, is only … Continue reading “White Meat Crumbs”

#TWITTHELP / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

MY POST FOR 2025… Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo The future is so distant. Such a lie that we are going to live it. Such a panic. Such a coward. That. It’s better to inhabit it a bit in writing just now, when no one can see or hear us at the level of the Cuban … Continue reading “#TWITTHELP / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”

In Times of Trouble, the Opportunists Win / Luis Felipe Rojas

Rolando Rodriguez Lobaina is my friend, and because he refused to leave Cuba a few months ago he has been condemned to suffer various unsuspected dangers which constantly lurk around him. A few days ago I received this letter written by him and I wish to share it with my readers. —Rolando’s Letter— Lately, I … Continue reading “In Times of Trouble, the Opportunists Win / Luis Felipe Rojas”

My Grandchildren’s Country / Fernando Dámaso

At times I’ve stopped to imagine the country I wish Cuba would be in my grandchildren’s future. First of all, and I am being absolutely frank, it shouldn’t be either like the current one, nor the one I’ve been living for the last fifty years, disregarding the happy and sad times it has given me. I would rather … Continue reading “My Grandchildren’s Country / Fernando Dámaso”

Present Urgencies, Future Imperatives for Cuba / Dimas Castellanos

Last Thursday April 28, as part of the lecture series that regularly takes place in the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Room, Mr. Roberto Veiga, editor of the journal Lay Space, took as his topic “Present Urgencies, Future Imperatives of Cuba,” which was presided over by an emotional and illustrated introduction from Brother Manuel Uña, … Continue reading “Present Urgencies, Future Imperatives for Cuba / Dimas Castellanos”

In Havana There Are State, Illegal and Hard Currency Pharmacies / Iván García

Every time that Niurka needs vitamin C or an albutamol (albuterol) inhaler for her asthma, she knows where to find it. First, before asking Fermin, a medicines peddler, she tries to get it by slipping a 20 pesos bill over the closest state-owned pharmacy counter. If the pharmacist opens her eyes incredibly wide, it means … Continue reading “In Havana There Are State, Illegal and Hard Currency Pharmacies / Iván García”

The “Rescue” of a Manipulated Term / Fernando Dámaso

According to dictionaries, a revolutionary is someone who favors or causes a complete change. Is directly related to the new, the cutting edge, never with the old and obsolete nor with the retrograde. In Cuba, in different eras, it was the one who fought for new ideas as opposed to the old, who proposed to … Continue reading “The “Rescue” of a Manipulated Term / Fernando Dámaso”

The Model* and the Republic / Rebeca Monzo

Many have officially cursed the once booming Republic, now so tainted For the new generations, born with the Revolution, it is like talking about a love gone bad. Or they act like it never existed. Whenever I can, I recommend to everyone around me, that they visit the model of Havana. There they will appreciate … Continue reading “The Model* and the Republic / Rebeca Monzo”

Constantin Answers in Diario de Cuba / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

Human Damage in an  Environment of Punishment Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo Talking with Henry Constantin, expelled for life from the country’s universities. The worst of a prolonged war, is not the hunger of the siege, nor the exhaustion, nor the despair, nor the dead left in the dust of no man’s land. The atrocious, the … Continue reading “Constantin Answers in Diario de Cuba / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”

Join, Silence, Kill / Yoani Sánchez

I could barely sleep last night. A book left me tossing and turning, staring at the ceiling grid in my bedroom. “The Man Who Loved Dogs,” the novel by Leonardo Padura, shaken by his sincerity, by the corrosive acid he throws on the evasive Utopia they wanted to impose on us. No one can remain … Continue reading “Join, Silence, Kill / Yoani Sánchez”