English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
I recently heard Carlos Alberto Montaner in a presentation on art and literature in exile which I had the good fortune to attend. According to Montaner, one of the points on which the Cuban regime undoubtedly has been shrewd, is the negative connotation they have managed to associate with the terms “anti-Castro” in global eyes, … Continue reading “Cuba Yes, Dictators No / Ernesto Morales Licea”
Fantastic! In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the declaration of socialism and for its continuity. Thus says the propaganda, lately, that saturates the programming of the already politically overloaded national television. But, as if this were not enough, for more than a month those of us who live around the famous Plaza of the … Continue reading “Achievements and Continuity…! / Rebeca Monzo”
Pursuant to the uprisings that have taken place in countries of North Africa and the Persian Gulf, many views seem to converge in Cuba. The recurring question, “why don’t Cubans rebel?” leaps out in every conversation with journalists or foreign friends, while among many Cubans living outside the Island a cyber-rebellion seems to have become … Continue reading “To Do Nothing / Miriam Celaya”
Like a soap opera, the marches and riots in Tunisia and Egypt were followed in Cuba by people committed to the future of their country, like the opposition, independent journalists and bloggers. Those citizens wishing for political and economic changes saw on TV the biased opinions of local experts, and they listened on short-wave radio … Continue reading “When Will Change Reach Cuba? / Iván García”
Wires have been omnipresent elements of our culture, especially during the past few decades. There are those fine, multicolored wires, those you find scattered on the streets after telephone lines have been repaired. These, up until a few years ago, were sought for and collected by empirical artisans who, given the scarcity of paste jewelry … Continue reading “If It’s Wires We’re Talking About… / Rebeca Monzo”
In the space of twenty years, Cuba ceased to be the world’s sugar factory and began to import the sweet grass and turn its main national industry into heaps of scrap metal in forgotten sugar refineries. The great culprit for the shortage of sugar—and for the sugar tradition becoming an anecdote—is a man who now … Continue reading “Sugar Cane in Three Chunks / Iván García”
Near but Distant: The Universe Next Door Yoss In 1998, during the only visit to Cuba by a pope, Juan Pablo II delivered the now famous phrase, Let the world open itself to Cuba, let Cuba open itself to the world. Leaving aside the multiple sociopolitical implications of the phrase to concentrate on its literary … Continue reading “Review in VOICES 1 / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Yaima Beltran, 32, wants to contribute to the public treasury. “I have spent 13 years practicing prostitution. I have gone to jail twice for hooking. And I always return. It’s not easy to go around scared at the prospect of getting caught by the police. I propose that President Raúl Castro legalize prostitution. I know … Continue reading “I Propose That the Government Legalize Prostitution / Iván García”
A storm is coming to the national sport in Cuba. In the last session of the monotone parliament in December, against all odds, the government maintained its strategy of not allowing ball players and other athletes to compete in foreign leagues. Since 1991, more than 350 ball players have fled the island. By maintaining the … Continue reading “Cuban Baseball Defections Could Increase / Iván García”
The formation of the ‘New Man’ has been a sterile task in Cuba. His precursor, Ernesto Che Guevara, was convinced that in the future society they were creating on the island they had to start by designing a human being from the laboratory. Che, a Maoist and radical revolutionary, dreamed and thought it possible, that … Continue reading “Of Che and His “New Man” / Iván García”
When the high creole hierarchy enjoyed the arrival of the 51st anniversary of the insurrection which elevated them to power on 1 January 1959, a violent cold front was ravaging the west of the country. In Mazorra, a psychiatric hospital located on the highway that leads to the principal airport, a major scandal was uncorking … Continue reading “In 2010, Bad News Abounded in Cuba / Iván García”
You can’t imagine the quantity of pacts, commercial treaties and political deals that are planned over mojitos, cubalibres, and daiquiris. Perhaps you don’t know a part of those who risk investing in the island took their first step when their heart was trapped by a mulatto woman with an insatiable sexual appetite. Robert, an Italian … Continue reading “Cuba: Where Real Politics Are Cooking / Iván García”
In an interview published on December 14, 2009 in El Mundo/América, Juan Juan Almeida García told me, “I don’t see the time when Raúl Castro will let me leave Cuba.” Finally, his wish was fulfilled. On Thursday, August 24, he arrived at the Miami airport, where his wife Consuelo and their daughter Indira were waiting … Continue reading “Juan Juan’s Time Arrived / Iván García”
It remains to be seen if, in the latest shuffling of the executive furniture by Spanish president José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero, the new Foreign Minister, Trinidad Jiménez (Málaga, 1962), will continue the policies set by the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Party) since 1982, or try something else. The cardinal sin of the Spanish politicians, as I … Continue reading “Trinidad’s Turn / Iván García”
Anyone who claims to be from Havana has visited, at least once in their life, the old baseball stadium in the majority-black marginal neighborhood of Carraguao, in Cerro. On October 26 it will be 64 years since the Cerro Stadium opened. One Sunday in 1946 it opened with a game between the Almendares and Cienfuegos … Continue reading “Cerro Stadium, The Worst It’s Been in Its 64 Years / Iván García”