English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
There are two laws in Cuba: the first, written in ink, the second in frustration and pain. The first, a symbolism that rests on sterile paper, in the Constitution and legal codes, which allegedly belong to all Cubans, without distinctions of any kind, and its romantic spirit, theoretically, we are all equal in powers and … Continue reading “Two Laws in Cuba / Jeovany J. Vega”
I was able to hear, via a radio show being transmitted from Miami, the reading of an article by a Cuban writer named Eduardo del Llano. It was a perfect sonata defending the right of Cuban workers and dissidents to strike. “Why not?”, asked del Llano. I was greatly impressed by the light and fresh … Continue reading “Dreamer and Disconnected / Luis Felipe Rojas”
July is almost over and I have not heard or read anything about the operation of fiber optic cable which, with great optimism and media hype, was laid between Cuba and its Bolivarian sister [Venezuela]. In military life I imagine they’ve finished the implementation plan, but must be keeping it secret like all things there. … Continue reading “And the Cable? / Regina Coyula”
“The chocolate is over!” screamed my two friends, as I opened the door that night of July 31, 2006. They were alluding, with their improvised slogan, to the latest plan pushed by Fidel Castro to distribute a chocolate quota to every Cuban through the ration market. When the doorbell rang there were only two hours … Continue reading “Five Years / Yoani Sánchez”
Yosuan is a sixteen year old high school student who has a special plan for his summer vacation: beach and reggae. His father is in jail. He got an eighteen-year sentence for killing cows. When his mother can afford to she gives him some hard currency, and then he can go to a high-class discotheque. … Continue reading “Vacations in Cuba / Iván García”
Our authorities have the absurd habit of changing the names of streets, parks, shops, businesses and even some public places, according to their short-term political interests. Thus, Presidents Avenue, El Vedado, built during the Republic and along which appear monuments, statues or busts of various Cuban presidents, degenerated into a the so-called Avenue of the … Continue reading “Original Names / Fernando Dámaso”
Small private businesses are beginning to multiply again throughout the city, including on my Tulipan Avenue, where just months ago they were wiped out. It’s like the weed that never dies, but in this case it is a good herb that should never die, and should become stronger and become leafy trees, with deep roots … Continue reading “Cautious Optimism / Fernando Dámaso”
The American Gary Marks’s stay in Cuba, from 1998 to 2002, and his contacts with segments of our intelligentsia anchored in everyday survival, sparked the interest of the northern professional in documenting the contrasts. How? Through a DVD documentary about the unbreakable friendship of two artists, one who went rafting to Florida during the mass … Continue reading “Dream Havana / Miguel Iturria Savón”
It was July 15 or 16, 1994 when Angela Medina, my children’s aunt, asked me to accompany her to a house in the Purisima neighborhood, Cotorro municipality, where she saw her neighbors shot with water cannons in Havana Bay by the military who shipwrecked the tugboat, 13 de Marzo, in which she had meant to … Continue reading “Sad Memory / Miguel Iturria Savon”
My brother and friend, Priest Pastor Bautista Mario Félix Lleonart Barroso, told me “the beast grows angry when it is reminded of its dead” in a text message that reflected his worry because of the arbitrary arrest of my wife Katia Sonia Martín Véliz and Aimé Cabrales Aguilar, on the morning of July 13. Unfortunately, … Continue reading “The Beast Grows Angry When it is Reminded of its Dead / Ricardo Medina”
In my stroll around the neighborhood, camera in hand and absorbed in my thoughts, I sensed the voice of a man walking beside me talking to himself. I can’t bear to look at him — not even if he’s that old — I thought. When his eyes met mine, taken by surprise, he said to … Continue reading “The Magnification of the Absurd / Rebeca Monzo”
Under the title, “The place of citizenship, political participation and the Republic in Cuba,” the Padre Felix Varela Cultural Center was the scene, Saturday, July 2, of a lecture by a lawyer and university professor, Julio César Guanche. The institution, belonging to the Archdiocese of Havana, occupies the building which, until last January, was the … Continue reading “The Citizen, A Debt to Padre Varela / Dimas Castellanos”
It was a very fashionable refrain when we were kids. Right now, it again seems to occupy the foreground in the media of our planet: rescue the railroad right of ways, rescue agriculture, rescue the sugar industry, rescue the fishing fleet, rescue urban transport, rescue the dry cleaners, rescue the hair salons, rescue the bovine … Continue reading “R&R Cigar / Rebeca Monzo”
The Nuevo Vedado neighborhood is excited. In the blink of an eye, four new restaurants have sprung up, very well put together, and a few cafes, not to mention a number of improvised timbiriches — small kiosks — where their offer various products doubtfully handled. The new paladares, private restaurants with this name — meaning … Continue reading “Playing at Capitalism / Rebeca Monzo”
Click to view slideshow. Katia Sonia Martín Véliz, Eastern Coordinator of the Cuban Independent and Democratic Party, delivered a Constitution Proposal at noon on July 21, to the People’s Power National Assembly in the name of the National Executive Committee of the CID. The proposal of the Constituent Assembly is the fruit of months of … Continue reading “Cuba Independent and Democratic Party Delivers Constitution Proposal to Cuban Parliament / Ricardo Medina”