Translating Cuba – Page 121 – English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island

Cuban Faces 2024: Omara Portuondo, 94 Years Old and Postponing Retirement

“Each person decides how he wants to live and die too,” the artist said

Portuondo was born in 1930 and remains one of the great references of Cuban music abroad /EFE

14ymedio, Havana, December 30, 2024 — Omara Portuondo has long been taking two fundamental things to her concerts: a doctor who monitors her health and a chair from which she offers her songs. It’s also been a long time since the followers of the 94-year-old artist predicted her departure from music, and last October the news finally arrived.

After an episode of disorientation on a stage in Barcelona, Ariel Jiménez, son and agent of the diva of the Buena Vista Social Club, announced her retirement. However, exactly a month later, another statement by Portuondo left the public perplexed: “I am not retiring from music.”

Before the stumble at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona, Portuondo’s active career was already generating controversy among her followers, but the episode of “fatigue” that caused the artist to stop singing Lágrimas negras was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The audience, who paid up to 75 euros for a ticket, shouted “exploiters” and “let her rest” to the organizers, to which Ethiel Failde, director of the homonymous orchestra that accompanies her on stage, replied that the screams showed a lack of respect. “She herself asked to sing,” he said, and recalled that “Omara has always said that she wanted to die on stage.” continue reading

The audience, who paid up to 75 euros for a ticket, shouted “exploiters” and “let her rest” to the organizers

The justifications of the Portuondo team came shortly after, when Jiménez alluded to a “definitive retirement.” “By medical recommendation, the possibility that she continue to sing, rehearse and record, contributes favorably to her mental health, although at a moderate pace and always according to her physical condition. For this, periodic examinations are carried out, and her indicators are monitored,” he said at the time.

That same enthusiasm, Jiménez defended, was what led the family to organize together with the Cuza Agency and the Failde Orchestra, a tribute to the legendary Buena Vista Social Club group. “She would appear to interpret a few songs, from her condition as an exceptional protagonist of that project and in the same way she did with the original group,” said her son. There would be four concerts outside Cuba, two of which had already ended, in Gran Canaria and Colombia.

However, a statement from Portuondo weeks later explained that, although long and live concerts were now out of her reach – “I get tired, and it’s natural at my age” – she would continue to make recordings and “other activities” that her health allows.

A statement from Portuondo weeks later explained that she would continue making recordings

Also known as the Bride of Filin* she added: “As long as I have strength and people who want to listen to me, I will continue to sing. Because as I always tell you: music is in me, heaven, earth, sea and sun, joy and reason.”

Portuondo was born in 1930 and continues to be one of the great references of Cuban music abroad, but her career, especially on the Island – where she stopped singing years ago – was not free of stumbles either. Her loyalty to the regime and, in 2003, her initials on the letter that supported the shooting of the young people who hijacked the Regla ferry to escape to the United States, cost her the animosity of many followers.

However, if Omara Portuondo has made something clear, it is that she has always lived according to her own rules. “With respect for all the people who sincerely appreciate me, each person decides how they want to live and die too.”

* A style of singing resembling a jazz ballad, championed by Portuondo.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The Birth Rate in Cienfuegos Fell by More Than 25 Percent in 2024

There are 24,000 Cuban doctors on “international missions” and 32,000 who emigrated from the Island this year

Cuban authorities are concerned about the low birth rate, but they put it into perspective in public / Flickr/Sanutri

14ymedio, Madrid, 30 December 2024 — This year 703 fewer children were born in Cienfuegos than last year, the provincial newspaper 5 de Septiembre published this Sunday in a very short report. It expresses concern about the province’s low birth rate, which is among the worst in the country.

The data are confusing, however, since the media points out that in 2024 2,127 cienfuegueros arrived in the world, but the demographic yearbook indicates that in 2023 there were 2,895, a difference of 768. In any case, taking the gross numbers for granted, the drop in births is 26.5%, well above the average that was offered for the Island with the data of the first semester.

In the middle of the year, in the ordinary session held by Parliament in July, Catherine Chibás Pérez, national head of the Maternal and Child Program (Pami) indicated that in the first six months of 2024, 34,648 live births were recorded throughout the country, 19% less than in the same period of the previous year. On that date, there were 8,157 fewer births in Cuba than in the same period of 2023.

“For 2025, work is already underway to increase birth rates and thus achieve the replacement that society needs”

“For 2025, work is already underway to increase birth rates and thus achieve the replacement that Cuban society needs, which is noticeable in the demographics of difficult times in the face of the phenomenon of emigration,” says the newspaper, without specifying what measures are expected to stimulate the birth rate in the midst of a galloping economic crisis and with the massive emigration of people of childbearing age. continue reading

The information appears on the same day that the Latin American edition of the leftist American magazine Jacobin publishes an interview with Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Cuban Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, in which he openly talks about the problem posed by the lethal combination of the Island’s demographics.

“Cuba resembles European countries in terms of social development. Advances in education, professional opportunities for women and women’s rights in general have an impact on the reduction of fertility rates,” the senior official said in response to a question about the decrease in young adults in Cuba.

“However, we have practically no immigration and emigration is relatively high,” he says. Labelling this ‘relative’ is surprising, when the Island has lost 18% of its population in the last two years according to official data. In the United States alone, in the last fiscal year, from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 217,615 Cubans arrived. The US Customs and Border Protection Office counts 860,000 Cuban migrants who entered in the last four years. To this must be added thousands of migrants to other countries, mainly Spain.

“Does this put the continuity of the social security network in imminent danger?” asks the interviewer. To this, Fernández de Cossío responds bluntly: “It puts it in danger, yes. I wouldn’t say that it leaves it on the verge of collapse, but it puts it in tension.” Next, the deputy minister strives to argue that many of those who appear as emigrants are not really emigrants, but temporarily reside outside Cuba. “Some go and work part-time in the United States or other countries and return,” he says.

The official rejects the argument, raised by the journalist, of whether the Island is more like other Latin American countries due to its high emigration

In addition, the official rejects the argument, raised by the journalist, of whether the Island is already more like other Latin American countries due to its high emigration – although Cuba has been expelling population for 60 years – and affirms that this happens because the United States stimulates the exodus with its legislation.

In the interview, Fernández de Cossío also provides official data for the doctors who are abroad. He defends them abundantly for their solidarity, because – he maintains – they only receive compensation “in the case of economies greater or better than the Cuban one.” “If any institution in the world provided vital services,” he says, “an administrative expense of, let’s say, 30% would be needed to cover the services. But when the Cuban government does it, it is called ‘slavery’.”

He places the number of doctors on “international missions” at 24,000, doctors needed on the Island, where the Maternal and Child Care Program (Pami) has been suffering for years from the lack of professionals. To them should be added the 32,000 doctors that, according to the National Bureau of Statistics and Information, Cuba has lost this year. The 5 de Septiembre report speaks of an improvement in the data of recent years, for example in the low birth weight index of 6.3%, where there were 30 cases fewer than in 2023.

Last week, the Minister of Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, announced the improvement of the infant mortality data, which stood at 7 per thousand for all of Cuba, excluding the data by provinces, where recent abysmal differences are seen. In 2023, the rate had already improved slightly compared to the pandemic years, which led to catastrophic data.

Last year the rate was 7.1 deaths per thousand live births, compared to 7.5 per thousand in 2022 and 7.6 in 2021. However, in 2018 there were barely 3.9 per thousand, so the indicator, while good in relation to the surrounding countries, has worsened significantly. Although the pandemic aggravated the situation, in the case of Cuba there are key elements, as experts have highlighted: the lack of professionals due to the exodus – both abroad and to the private sector – and the disinvestment in the Pami, which for decades had enviable figures for a Latin American country.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Faces 2024: Martha Beatriz Roque, the Woman Most-Hated by the Cuban Regime

The tireless opponent will turn 80 on May 16, and she has dedicated more than 35 of those years to the fight for democracy

Roque has been working for years to constantly support the families of political prisoners. / EFE/Ernesto Mastrascusa

14ymedio, Havana, December 28, 2024 — The cell phone of former political prisoner Martha Beatriz Roque doesn’t stop ringing. People call from the most remote prisons, from the most humble homes and from countless radio stations in exile. Her wisdom, deep knowledge of Cuba and wide network of contacts within the Island have made her an essential reference to understand the Cuban dissent that still resides within national borders.

The tireless opposition leader will turn 80 on May 16, and she has dedicated more than 35 years to the struggle for democracy in Cuba from within the Island. This year she was one of the 12 winners of the 2024 Women of Courage International Award.

The award is given by the United States Government to recognize the work of women worldwide who “have demonstrated exceptional courage, strength and leadership in defending peace, justice and human rights.” Roque could not collect the prize in Washington because she is not allowed to leave the country.

The only woman in the group of 75 opponents arrested by the Fidel Castro regime during the Black Spring of 2003, the opponent told foreign media that this international award is the first she has received of this magnitude. “For me, it is as if all the dissidents received it.” continue reading

“The people of Cuba have no food, no medicine, no transportation, no water, no electricity, nothing”

About her condition of being regulated [forbidden to travel] and not being able to attend the ceremony, she told 14ymedio that the regime preferred “an empty chair” to listening to what she had to say, and added: “The hatred they have for me is terrible.”

As the doyenne of the Cuban opposition, for years Roque has carried out a work of constant support to the families of political prisoners. Mothers desperate about their children in Cuban prisons and activists seeking help have passed through her house, with their health affected after years of opposition. Her solidarity and perseverance have earned her a special place among those most affected by repression and harassment.

Regarding the current situation on the Island, she recently told The Associated Press that she is “pessimistic.” “The people of Cuba have no food, no medicine, no transportation, no water, no electricity, nothing. And the dictatorship is still there,” she explained.

Given this scenario, “what people are looking for is to leave.” “The current opposition does not suffer prison; it goes to the United States before anything happens,” she said. However, Roque thinks “firmly” that the solution of the Cuban people is “within the country, just as other countries have come to solve their dictator problem.”

Roque signed in 1997, together with Félix Bonne Carcassés, René Gómez Manzano and Vladimiro Roca, the document La patria es de todos ’The homeland belongs to everyone’

Roque signed in 1997, together with Félix Bonne Carcassés, René Gómez Manzano and Vladimiro Roca, the document La patria es de todos, which criticized the management of the Castro regime and called for an opening. The so-called Group of Four was given sentences of between three and five years in prison for the alleged crimes of “actions against the national security of the Cuban State” and “sedition.”

Amnesty International considered Roque and her three companions prisoners of conscience. She was released in May 2000 and three years later received a 20-year prison sentence after being arrested during the Black Spring. Then, the former professor at the University of Havana obtained an extra-penal release for health reasons.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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The 14 Cuban Faces of 2024: Fugitives, Deceased, Priests, Freemasons, Athletes, Artists and Ministers

This year has been especially hard, because we have had to put together the faces of a year that, in reality, is missing too many pieces.

Choosing among those Cubans who stood out, based on their contribution or their detriment to the country, was traditionally a difficult task. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Havana, 24 December 2024 — For a decade, 14ymedio has shared each December the 14 faces that marked the year that is ending. More often than not, the task of discarding some names from the long initial lists has been complicated by the many people who stood out with resounding achievements or resounding failures. Choosing from among those notable Cubans, based on their contribution or their detriment to the country, has traditionally been a difficult task. However, in 2024 it has been especially hard because we have had to put together the face of a year that, in reality, is missing too many pieces.

To achieve this list that we present today, we have even had to break two important initial rules. Until this year, the group had to be made up of living people residing in Cuba, but we have come to understand that in a country that escapes and dies, maintaining both premises is unsustainable. So among these faces there are the dead and the fugitives; ministers in disgrace and loyal athletes; released prisoners and fuel distribution bosses; murdered reggaeton singers and priests who distribute prayers or food in the mountains of the Island. All of them are the pieces that we have managed to put together and that make up the torn and irregular appearance of the nation.

Faces of 2024:

Melody González, a repressive judge with ’parole’ for the US

“It is forbidden to be discouraged”: Angélica Garrido’s message for Cuban political prisoners

Esther Lilian Pérez Trujillo, the big shot of Havana’s gas stations

El Taiger, a Cuban celebrated in Miami and on the Island

Mijaín López, 130 kilograms in the service of the Cuban regime

Omara Durand conquered Paris 2024 with three gold medals

Mario Urquía Carreño, the man who almost destroyed Cuban Freemasonry

Priest Leandro Naun, chef and “war correspondent” in Santiago de Cuba

Jorge Luis Perdomo Di-Lella, another ‘done for’ under the shadow of corruption

Martha Beatriz Roque, the woman most hated by the Cuban regime

Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, the “minister of Facebook”

Bernardo Espinosa, the face of the bad news of every day

Omara Portuondo, 94 years old and postponing retirement

Marta Valdés, the discreet velvet voice

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Cuban Faces 2024: Marta Valdés, the Discreet Velvet Voice

The singer, composer and music critic passed away on October 3 in Havana at the age of 90.

Marta Valdés was fascinated by the idea of “remembering”, especially about Cuban music / sancristobal.cult.cu

14ymedio, Havana, 30 December 2024 — The artist Marta Valdés died in 2024 at the age of 90. Although she did not have the fame of other musicians of her generation, notably all those from the Buena Vista Social Club project, her talent as a lyricist and composer was extraordinary, and her songs became immortal.

She herself told this newspaper ten years ago that although she did not enjoy recognition from the market or the media, she was lucky enough to have her songs become famous before she turned 25. “My songs have never been, nor will they be, songs for the market, or for the media. Above all because they were not made for that, they were songs made from the heart, for the love of music. The singers who understand that are those who have sung my songs,” she said then.

Songs such as Palabras, Deja que siga sola, En la imaginación, Canción simple, José Jacinto, Llora o Tú no sospechas, full of complexity in form and content, took the traditional bolero to another level.

They became famous in the interpretations of legendary singers such as Bola de Nieve, Elena Burke, Fernando Álvarez, Omara Portuondo, Vicentico Valdés, Cheo Feliciano, Miriam Ramos and Pablo Milanés, and, more recently, Haydée Milanés, Martirio and Sílvia Pérez Cruz. However, in her velvet voice, discreet like herself, but deep and exciting, they were unmatched.

Her role as a music critic was also very relevant. She herself explained that she was fascinated by the idea of “remembering,” especially about Cuban music, because the Island, she said, “is a goldmine of music.” Her influence on the new generations of creators, for whom she served as a teacher and mentor, is exemplified by her important role in the creation of the Cuban musical duo Gema and Pavel, and in her work as a promoter of artistic spaces.

Although she was marginalized in the 70s and 80s for being a symbol of a night-time Havana showbiz uninhibited in its sexuality, both the official press and government websites never stopped referring to her as an artist “faithful to the process.” During her lifetime she even received awards from state institutions, including the 2007 National Music Prize, the Replica of Máximo Gómez’s Machete from the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and various distinctions from the Hermanos Saíz Association and the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, of which she was, incidentally, a founder.

Thus, she was “honored” upon her death by the Ministry of Culture, which praised her “artistic sensitivity, her poetic word and her great musical talent.”

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‘The Government Must Understand That Only We Can Provide Food to the People’

Faced with the new restrictive measures, many Cienfuegos merchants have closed their businesses

The caution of private entrepreneurs is noticeable even on their product boards / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, 31 December 2024 — The before and after that marks the arrival of a new year raises a universal question: what will 2025 bring? Cienfuegos, immersed in a deep crisis like so many places in Cuba, is no exception. Doubts are greater among entrepreneurs, a sector that in recent months has changed from initial euphoria to fear of the new official measures that regulate wholesale trade.

On Dolores road, in stores with wide portals on both sides, the caution of private business owners is noticeable even on their product boards. Where before there was a long list of sweets, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages and all kinds of imported food, now you can barely find anything.

Norberto avoids making predictions for the new year. “They have shaken up the board,” he explains to 14ymedio about the new regulations that force micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to sell wholesale with the mediation of the State and the explicit prohibition of doing so for self-employed workers. His small private store was fed, precisely, by a private business that imported large volumes from Mexico.

“In our establishment, the stable sale of oil, chicken, picadillo and other products highly demanded by our customers was guaranteed,” Norberto points out. This end of the year, however, in fridges and on shelves, the frozen chicken drumsticks have disappeared, along with the wide variety of beans that until recently were offered and the decreased options for pasta and tomato sauce. continue reading

Entrepreneurs avoid making predictions for 2025 and are careful with the products they exhibit / 14ymedio

Norberto’s store is a distillate of the effort of several generations of his family. The large family estate, on the outskirts of the city, was for decades the productive epicenter of his grandparents and parents. But a few years ago, when the purchase and sale of houses and land was finally allowed, his relatives decided to finish planting the farm with crops, fruit trees and add a pigsty. The resulting money went to a house on the Dolores road and a small grocery store.

Now, the Cienfuegos man has many questions about the future of his business: “Will state-owned companies be able to maintain a permanent assortment of the merchandise we need? Will there be new measures with more restrictions and prohibitions? Will they include more products on the list of capped prices that they now impose on us?” His doubts are not exaggerated, because since he opened the doors of his store less than two years ago “there has been only bad news.”

However, Norberto is not going to give up for the moment. “Our MSME will renew the license, but we are also preparing in case we finally have to close,” he admits. “The problem is that you can’t have it both ways: either I stay open or I close. There comes a time when you have to choose.”

Gonzalo is one of many entrepreneurs who, this Christmas, instead of garlands and red hats, has dressed in the costume of uncertainty. In a space on San Carlos Street, near Martí Park, the owner of another shop repeats similar questions. “I bought directly from a private person in Punta Gorda, but they are already liquidating the products they have left because they don’t want to do business with the Government. Who am I going to buy from in January?” he asks.

Many merchants maintain the illusion that “something will happen” that forces the authorities to implement greater economic openness

At the moment, he is not considering liquidating his business. Hope is the last thing that is lost when there is so much money at stake. Many merchants maintain the illusion that “something will happen” that will force the Cuban authorities to implement greater economic openness and eliminate the restrictive measures recently adopted. “We can see that it will be very difficult next year, and it is possible that this will make the Government understand that only we can provide food to the people.”

For Gonzalo, there is an inversely proportional relationship between what happens in the stores of the rationed market and the role that private shops are playing. “To the same extent that the supply of rationing is smaller and more unstable, MSMEs have been growing in offers and variety, and we also have places that make you want to enter – beautiful, well-decorated with good attention to the customer. Buying right now at a state ration store is depressing.”

The entrepreneur, however, recognizes that many Cubans cannot pay the high prices of the MSMEs: a liter of vegetable oil, 800 pesos this last week of December in Cienfuegos; a pound of chicken around 310, and a 500-gram package of spaghetti for 300 pesos. For retirees and state employees who do not receive remittances from abroad or have any informal sources of money, the private shops are prohibitive.

“We do not set prices on a whim. Our business has many expenses to cover, and the lack of fuel has made the transfer of goods, the payment of employees and the investment to turn the main room and the door of the house into a pleasant little shop are expenses that prevent us from selling cheaper.” Christmas offers and year-end sales are not the order of the day because the bills keep coming.

Christmas offers and year-end sales are not the order of the day because the bills keep coming. /

Other merchants got ahead of events. Liuba, 48 years old, sensed what was coming. Resident in the Junco Sur neighborhood, the businesswoman liquidated her small business earlier this year, a tiny store where customers could find everything from sweet cookies, malts and beer to packages of minced turkey, a food very helpful for those who cannot pay for other animal proteins. “I knew all this was coming because I have a relative who works in the Ministry of Foreign Trade and he warned me of what was being cooked up.”

Liuba didn’t lose too much money. “I finished selling the merchandise I had in stock and told the owner of the house, who was renting me the space, that I was no longer going to continue and handed over my license.” Now, Liuba offers some products through WhatsApp groups. “We have food combos that are paid for from abroad by Zelle. My husband, my eldest son and I deliver them to your home.” The new modality, absolutely informal, has given her a break: “I got rid of the inspectors, the prices and the maintenance of the premises.” Now, I put together the packages by buying goods from agricultural producers and other MSMEs. “I sell less, but I’m calmer.”

On the wide road of Dolores, the offer boards have very few products at the end of the year, but the new official restrictions have not affected the combos that Liuba has prepared for Christmas. “If next year they remove all these absurd laws, I will reopen my little grocery store,” she says, but for the moment she prefers to stay “under the radar” and sell outside the law.

Translated by Regina Anavy

See here for one report on average incomes in Cuba for 2024.

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Cuba Closes 2024 With Fewer Femicides but More Children Orphaned for This Reason

The number of femicides on the Island exceeds the 47 recorded in Spain.

Of the femicides in Cuba in 2024, according to this newspaper’s count, eight were recorded in November / EFE

14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 31 December 2024 — Machista violence in Cuba claimed the lives of 54 women this year (the 14ymedio database counts 52 verified cases; the number is lower because two cases are not considered femicides). However, despite the fact that the number was lower than in 2023 (85), the number of orphans increased significantly: a total of 62 (21 more than in 2023).

Of the femicides in Cuba in 2024, according to this newspaper’s count, eight were recorded in November, the month this year with the most crimes of this kind, leaving behind October, when seven were counted. Of the total, 41 were committed by the partner or ex-partner of the victims.

The number of femicides on the Island exceeds those recorded in Spain, with a population that is five times greater. Hours before the end of 2024, the Spanish authorities confirmed the murder of a woman, adding up to 47 sexist crimes, and the murder of 9 girls and boys in vicarious crimes committed by their mothers’ abusers.

Of the femicides in Cuba in 2024, according to the count of this newspaper, matched by EFE, eight were recorded in November, the month with the most sexist crimes in the year

As happened the previous year, most of the femicides on the Island, based on the records of Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo, were committed by current partners (25) and former boyfriends (20).

The average age for victims rose to 36 years – there was a 90-year-old – from an average of 35 in 2023.

The victims include two teenagers – 15 and 16 years old – both in Santiago de Cuba, because of the injuries inflicted, one of them by her ex-partner and the other by her boyfriend, who killed her on the street, a space that has been the scene of several of these events. continue reading

At least five of the femicides were by men with a history of violence against women, and one of them was in pre-trial detention for acts of that nature. In addition, there is the death of a trans woman and another of a man for gender reasons (he was murdered along with the woman).

A protest in Spain against femicide; the country closes 2024 with 47 sexist crimes, a figure lower than that of the Island / EFE

The provinces with the most significant indices – in correspondence with their population – were Santiago de Cuba (11), followed by Havana (8) and Holguín (6).

Cuba closed the first semester with 28 machista crimes verified by independent feminists, 43% fewer than for a similar period in 2023. This drop can be attributed mainly to the difficulties in confirming cases due to the fear of reporting by relatives and because most activists operate anonymously or from outside the Island.

As an example, Alas Tensas has cited six cases that are pending confirmation because they need to access the police investigation. In addition, there is a general lack of public information.

Their report indicates that at least two out of three victims of such violence in Cuba were under 40 years old, and in more than half the cases they had dependent minors. In 46% of these cases, the alleged aggressors were their partners, and in 42% they were ex-partners.

According to the references documented in those reports, 2023 remains the worst year for femicides in Cuba since the independent registrations began. There were a total of 85 fatalities, compared to 36 in 2022 and 36 in 2021.

In the Criminal Code of Cuba, femicide is not classified as a specific crime, and the terms ’femicide’ or ’machista crime’ are not used in the official media

The independent groups mentioned have insisted on the importance of the Government of Cuba declaring a “state of emergency for gender violence,” and they demand the promulgation of a comprehensive law against sexist violence on the Island.

In the Criminal Code of Cuba, femicide is not classified as a specific crime, and the terms “femicide” or “machista crime” are not used in the official media.

The Government confirmed last August that the courts identified a total of 110 women over 15 years of age murdered by their partners or ex-partners in trials held in 2023.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel declared “zero tolerance” against such violence, and although information about femicides is not frequent in the state media, in recent months reports and articles have appeared about this problem, and its dimension has been recognized.

At the end of last July, the Government of Cuba approved a national system of “registration, attention, follow-up and monitoring” of machista violence in the country and announced the launch of the “No More” campaign, focused on the prevention and response to aggression against women, with the participation of official organizations, the Italian association Cospe, and the Martin Luther King Christian Center, among other groups.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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I Left Home on an Adventurous Night

Cuba is still the same at the end of this year, and according to Dr. House, it will continue like this, because people never change

“Chicharrón y frijoles negros” Chicharrón and Black Beans], oil on canvas by Roberto Fabelo, painted in 2016 // Fabelo Studios

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, December 29, 2024 — If you are given the choice between staying at home and watching “Dr. House” – especially that episode in which Wilson asks him not to confuse medicine with metaphysics and he answers that it doesn’t matter, because the truth is the truth – or visiting a place related to Cuba, even if it is the most innocent, always choose the first. And not only because House’s philosophy is always better than nationalism and nostalgia, but because everything that has to do with that country is tired, historical or transcendental. Even more so if it is the end of the year, when every act is a summary, a compendium of what has been lived and an announcement of the future.

But it happens that one chooses both things, and with the promise of returning to television at midnight – tea or cigar in hand – he immerses himself in the cold of Salamanco, zero degrees while I write for the reader’s information, and overcomes the mileage that separates him from the Domus Artium, the monstrous enclosure that houses the collection of Cuban art by Luciano Méndez.

Méndez, an old banker born in Salamanca, is one of the quietest and most famous collectors of Cuban works. Money, more will, more contacts. Residence – I think – in Havana. More than 600 pieces preserved, judging by the explanation of the attentive receptionist of the Domus Artium, in vaults safer than Winston Churchill’s bunker. Of these, the work of several contemporary painters is on display until February. Take advantage, boy, whispers a little devil or a cemí [Taino spirit] on my shoulder. continue reading

Deliciously touristy, very warm, the guide gives her best so that the Europeans can savor the tropical flavor

Well, here I am, eight at night, about to start a tour. I am accompanied by my wife and, together but not scrambled, a tall German woman who looks like Tilda Swinton, a couple of university students – I would say they appear to be stoned if it were not a cliché – two French housewives and the guide, Cuban by the way. It promises to be an immersive experience, so I stay away from the motley group as much as possible.

Deliciously touristy, very warm – did I mention that we are now at minus one degree? – the guide gives it her best so that the Europeans can savor the tropical flavor. The excess of maritime metaphors – the exhibition is called “Log of an Unfinished Journey” – leaves Swinton and company cold, and they soon disperse and contemplate the paintings, turning their necks with the elasticity of those possessed.

So much solemnity overwhelms me, and I begin to see the exhibition from the end to the beginning. If the crossing is unfinished, if the logbook is incomplete, if the sailor has an elegant name for the raft, I will have no problems. Serious mistake. Because of my recklessness, Fabelo assaults me at the start. Fabelo is to painting what Padura is to literature. They no longer surprise us but we like to have them on hand, on the wall, in the shower or on the bookshelf, the better to insult them.

For his ornamental vocation and how good he looks on a coaster or a curtain, Fabelo is a great favorite of collectors

For his ornamental vocation and how good he looks on a coaster or a curtain, Fabelo is a great favorite of collectors. The guide explains to the survivors that the master is not only a prodigy at painting tits – we are facing a great breast observer – but also works with everyday objects of the country, and that the blackened coffee maker, that Celtic cauldron, that toothless fork truly belong to the families of that aboriginal civilization. I am amazed, because Fabelo’s junk enjoys better health than the utensils of any Cuban house.

I come across Alejandro Gómez Cangas’ megalithic lines. Lines that are scary, lines that confirm what we already knew: even after death we Cubans form a line. Faceless faces, broken flip-flops, the eternal string bags. It makes you want to ask who’s the last [in line], but we get to Sosabravo’s paintings. I am bewitched looking at the transparent indigo of “La Soprano Calva” [The Bald Soprano]- death, according to Cabrera Infante – and I pass by Sandra Ramos, Daniela Águila, the photos of Roberto Chile, that Landaluze of Castroism, and Manuel Mendive.

I have always wondered why a country that has Belkis Ayón needs Manuel Mendive and if the Devil would not allow us the metaphysical trick of exchanging him for her. In the Cuban afterlife, Belkis is the queen, and Mendive, if anything, an altar boy. But, according to taste, there are orishas and the Sikanese.

In Cuba artists have to express themselves in allegories, she says, because there may be censorship

Before Elizabeth Cerviño’s El Deshielo [The Thaw] the guide stops. Absorbed in front of the canvas, without sparing opinions, she explains the ideological caliber of the painting and its historical dimension. In Cuba, artists have to express themselves in allegories, she says, because there may be censorship. Tilda Swinton, until now half-dead, wakes up. “Das darf doch nicht wahr sein!” [That can’t be true!] she exclaims. “And critical artists, can they return to their country?” “Of course not!” answers the guide. “As long as you don’t attack the Government head-on, you can return, of course.”

Mein Gott, I think, and I vanish. Ciao, Chano, and thank you for the paintings. With citizens like that who needs counterintelligence? Dr. House says that everyone is lying and I hope he’s right. He also says that the truth is the truth, and that the idea of nation is one of the most stupid and dangerous that the human being has devised.

It’s now the end of the year and every act smells like a summary, a compendium of what has been experienced and an announcement of the future. Cuba is still the same, and according to House’s diagnosis, it will continue to be so, because people never change. Or the change is slow and sometimes life is not long enough to see it. Hope is a narcotic that my generation, unlike the previous ones, never smoked. I go back home and thaw out. My little thaw. Is there more homeland than this sofa?

Translated by Regina Anavy

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Cuban Faces 2024: Priest Leandro Naun, Chef and ‘War Correspondent’ in Santiago de Cuba

Naun’s style is not that of other priests like Alberto Reyes or Lester Zayas, who are much more direct when it comes to criticizing the regime.

For some time now, the voices of the clergy and nuns have been the only ones within the Catholic Church that question the Government. / Facebook/Leandro Naun

14ymedio, Havana, 27 December 2024 — The Catholic priest Leandro Naun made headlines in the independent press abruptly. Three masked men had entered his parents’ house in Santiago de Cuba. They slashed his father with a machete and beat his mother. He was out of the country and told 14ymedio how for him this event, in addition to being a family incident, was confirmation of the absolute moral deterioration in which the country finds itself.

He concluded his story with a gesture: instead of stealing and leaving, the thieves were caught ransacking the refrigerator and devouring the food they found. Naun told the story not so much to vent about the theft as to denounce a wave of violence that has only worsened since then.

Naun’s style is not like that of other priests such as Alberto Reyes and Lester Zayas, who are much more direct when it comes to criticizing the regime. He advances at full speed through the mountains of Santiago de Cuba, distributing food and teaching the guajiros how to improve their lives with few resources. Most of the time, in fact, it is he and his gang of collaborators who provide food or ingredients to prepare it on site.

In almost 70 YouTube videos, the priest has filmed – between laughs and jokes – the hardships of life in the mountains of Santiago. Born in El Cobre, he knows every hamlet like the back of his hand and does not need to say a word about what the camera records: the old women thin to the bone, the grateful faces before continue reading

a jar of jam or a loaf of bread, the guajiros who welcome him with relief.

In almost 70 YouTube videos, the priest has filmed the harshness of life in the mountains of Santiago

His mantra is that “there is nothing more subversive than living and being happy where many barely survive.” His ideal mission, he told this newspaper: to have waited “in a clearing in the Darien jungle” for the Cubans who were traveling the route of the volcanoes to the United States. For him, the relationship between the Cuban person and the Cuban State is that of a 19th century slave with his master: when he gives him a little rum and a party, he lowers his head and submits. Priests and nuns must, above all, teach Cubans to open their eyes.

For months now, the isolated voices of the clergy and nuns have been the only ones within the Catholic Church to question the government. With a Bishops’ Conference in check by the Office of Religious Affairs of the Communist Party, a Pope who appears to be in favour of the regime and a cardinal who has disappeared from the public scene, priests like Naun are aware of their solitude in the face of any aggressive move by the system.

But Naun doesn’t let that bother him. The text that accompanies his latest video – the artisanal production of a papaya candy – is a profession of faith: “While our friends in other lands talk to us about the latest car models, artificial intelligence, cyborgs and other unimaginable scientific advances, I am going back in time to meet Columbus. We Cubans have the time machine calibrated to the past! I am not creative, I am just trying to survive without perishing in the attempt.”

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Cuba’s Tourism Projects in Ciego de Ávila Are Going Full Steam Ahead, While Housing Construction Stagnates

Delivery of materials to rehabilitate the runway of the Jardines del Rey International Airport and the roads in the area is guaranteed

The works aim to increase hotel and other vacation-rental capacities “with high-standard facilities.” / ’Granma’

14ymedio, Havana, 31 December 2024 — Despite “a difficult economic situation in the country” and a 45% deficit in the housing plan for 2024, work in the tourism sector in Ciego de Ávila is going full steam ahead. According to the newspaper Invasor, the province is working on developing the tourist destination Jardines del Rey, “the second sun and beach enclave in Cuba and one of the most prominent in the Caribbean region.”

Although the article does not indicate how long the works will take or the total investment, it indicates that the Provincial Construction Materials Company (Avilmat) is participating in the project on the keys located in the north of Ciego de Ávila and Camagüey, with the aim of increasing hotel and non-hotel tourist capacity, “with high-standard facilities.”

To do this, Avilmat, “an example of a socialist state entity,” sells and transports construction materials to Cayo Cruz. The company, according to the text, will produce more than 260,000 cubic meters of materials such as sand, granite and gravel, despite the “complex situation with energy carriers, interruptions in the electrical service and the allocation of only 49% of the fuel planned for the year.” continue reading

Invasor also highlights that to ensure that tourism development takes place, Avilmat will produce 660,000 blocks of different sizes, “a figure greater than 30,000 square meters of flooring, 4,500 tons of mortar and more than 18,000 tons of crushed gypsum, the latter being an essential raw material for making cement.”

To ensure that tourism development takes place, Avilmat will produce 660,000 units of blocks of different dimensions

However, just over a month ago, the same newspaper reported, when assessing the residential housing plan in the province for this year, that only 240 of the 670 planned houses would be built. Much of the problem, according to the official newspaper, was due to the lack of construction materials throughout the country. “The main obstacles facing the territory are related to the lack of cement and steel, the lack of financing for subsidized housing and the still scarce local production of construction materials.”

The newspaper was critical in its report, saying that 2024 will join a long history of deficiencies and failures in the construction sector. “Currently, the housing stock in Ciego de Ávila shows a deficit of around 35,000 homes. At this rate, it will take almost 40 years to meet all the demand; and that assumes that in the next four decades cyclones and construction deterioration do not demolish a single house,” it reported on November 26.

Regarding road works for tourism in Jardines del Rey, Alberto Suárez Cid, deputy director of Avilmat, also reported that they provided resources for the repair of the runway at the archipelago’s airport.

According to Invasor, this material also made possible “the improvement and construction of roads in the aforementioned tourist development area, ensuring appropriate conditions for the safe movement of visitors and workers who provide services in these places.”

This “prosperity” highlighted by the newspaper contrasts with the poor conditions of the province’s roads, which have claimed five lives in recent days.

This “prosperity” highlighted by the newspaper contrasts with the poor conditions of the province’s roads, which are used by the majority of the population and which have contributed to two road accidents in the last eight days, which have claimed the lives of five people, two of them minors .

The policy of prioritising tourism development at the expense of the housing plan is repeated in other provinces of the country, such as in Sancti Spíritus, where, of the 390 million pesos that the Ministry of Construction dedicated to the sector in 2023, almost 60% – 227 million – went to the Meliá Trinidad Península hotel project, owned by the State and managed by the Spanish company. This measure meant that, of 100 homes planned that year, barely 35 were built.

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The Prosperity of Cuba’s Sugarcane Fields of La Julia, Where the Guajiros Barely Survive, Is Over

Ruined by the decline of the sugar industry, a cooperative rents the land to grow beans, rice or vegetables

“The land was in poor condition and we had to prepare it with our own hands,” lament the guajiros. / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Yankiel Gutierrez Faife, La Julia (Villa Clara Province), 1 January 2025 — “It was hard work, but it was worth it. Now we have beans to eat at home this year,” says Jorge Luis Pérez. The 46-year-old farmer from Villa Clara decided to plant beans on a plot of land provided by the Dagoberto Cubela cooperative, in a desperate attempt to revitalize its former sugarcane fields, which, this time, is working.

“The land was in poor condition and we had to prepare it with our own hands, but I don’t have any land of my own and this was an opportunity,” says Pérez, who achieved his first harvest in less than four months thanks to the support of his family and despite his limited resources.

For decades, the Dagoberto Cubela was a symbol of prosperity in La Julia, Villa Clara. During the glory days of the sugar industry, the sugarcane fields stretched out like an endless sea of green, reflecting the hope of a community that lived to the rhythm of the harvest. The grinding was an event in the batey, the sugar company town. Curious people came to watch how the combines – an agricultural machine designed in the Soviet Union (KTP-1 and KTP-2) – harvested the sugarcane, and the loaded trucks crossed the town with the sweet aroma of molasses permeating the air.

For decades, Dagoberto Cubela was a symbol of prosperity in La Julia. / 14ymedio

“It was a different time,” recalls Roberto Machado, a farmer who still works in the cooperative. “All the men in the village were linked in one way or another to sugar. There was work for everyone, and sugar cane was the most common thing in the landscape.”

Over the years, that image faded. The lack of inputs, the deterioration of machinery and structural problems in the sugar industry began to take their toll. What were once lush fields were transformed into damaged lands, invaded by weeds – especially continue reading

the aroma plant, an invasive plant in many regions of the Island – and marked by abandonment.

“We saw how life was fading away from these lands,” says Marta Álvarez, one of the current directors of the unit. “Year after year, we tried to recover production, but the lack of fertilizers, herbicides and fuel made us fall further and further behind.”

During the glory days of the sugar industry, the sugarcane fields stretched out like an endless green sea. / 14ymedio

In the last year, the situation reached a critical point. With seven fields planted with sugarcane in terrible conditions, the cooperative was faced with an unsustainable reality: the crop was not thriving, animals were devouring the shoots and the resources were simply not enough to save the harvest.

“The decision to look for an alternative was not easy,” explains Alvarez. “We are a sugar-growing-unit by essence, but to insist on cane under these conditions was to condemn us to the end of the unit.” Thus the idea arose to temporarily hand over the land to local farmers, allowing them to grow other crops while an almost impossible solution to recover sugar production was sought.

What were once lush fields have been transformed into damaged lands, invaded by weeds. / 14ymedio

Pedro González, a 56-year-old widower, is another who has found in this initiative a way to support his family. “I decided to plant peanuts because it does not require as much effort as other crops. Now I can sell my production and pay the cooperative its percentage without any problems,” he explains.

According to the agreement, farmers assume 100% of the investment and work on the plots ceded and, in exchange, give 30% of their production to the cooperative if they grow basic foodstuffs such as beans, rice or vegetables. In the case of products less consumed in local dining rooms, such as peanuts or sesame seeds, farmers can keep 100% of their production, but must pay in cash the equivalent of 30% of the value of the harvest.

With seven sugarcane fields in terrible conditions, the cooperative faced an unsustainable reality. / 14ymedio

“It’s a win-win model,” Alvarez says. “They have access to land that would otherwise be abandoned, and we get income to maintain the unit.”

Despite the initial success, the farmers of La Julia face the usual difficulties, including a lack of inputs, such as fertilizers and pesticides, which they must acquire on their own. In addition, the cooperative cannot offer them logistical support, since their machinery is paralyzed by the lack of fuel. This is what condemns this initiative to being a simple survival option for guajiros without access to credit or state aid.

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Cuban Faces 2024: Bernardo Espinosa, the Face of Every Day’s Bad News

In a year marked by blackouts, this journalist tells how much darkness awaits Cubans, although many of them can’t even tune in to Canal Caribe

Bernardo Espinosa is based at the headquarters of the Unión Eléctrica de Cuba / Canal Caribe

14ymedio, Havana, December 29, 2024 — One of the most popular faces on Cuban television is that of Bernardo Espinosa Moya, and not precisely because of the joy he usually brings. This journalist, based at the headquarters of the Unión Eléctrica de Cuba, has almost had to form a duet with Lázaro Guerra, engineer and general director of electricity of the Ministry of Energy and Mines.

In a year marked more than ever by blackouts and total disconnections, Espinosa is the voice that every morning tells how much darkness awaits Cubans, although many of them cannot even tune in to Canal Caribe, because a programmed or untimely power cut prevents them from turning on the television or seeing a fragment of the Buenos Días Magazine on social networks.

Espinosa graduated in journalism in 1990 from the University of Oriente and has specialized ever since in hydraulic resources, transport and the mining and energy sectors. His official biography indicates that he has carried out missions in several Latin American countries (Honduras, Guatemala, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia) and African countries (Zimbabwe and Mozambique). He was given awards by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo in Nicaragua, by Félix Elmusa of the Union of Journalists and by the Ministry of Public Health for his coverage of the so-called “medical missions.”

Another recognition that draws attention in his career is the one made by the Ministry of the Armed Forces for his coverage of the “funeral honors of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz”

Another recognition that draws attention in his career is the one made by the Ministry of the Armed Forces for his coverage of the “funeral honors of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz.” Among his special reports, in continue reading

addition, are those of the 7th Congress of the Communist Party, the 6th plenary of the Central Committee of the PCC, sessions of the National Assembly and “weather events and National Energy Contingency.”

Little or none of this matters to most Cubans, who only see in Espinosa’s face the bad news of each day. Although they sometimes wake up with happy news, such as that the payment was finally made that allows a ship to unload liquefied gas or oil that temporarily relieves their worries, or that some thermoelectric plant or the other was back online, the expert usually talks about a growing deficit in electricity generation.

The blackouts are nothing new in Cuba, which has experienced two years of pain in this regard. Thermal power plants are dying from old age, and “maintenance” consists of a bandaid on an open wound. The supply of crude oil is increasingly inaccessible due to the lack of foreign exchange, despite the efforts of Venezuela, Mexico and Russia. These problems, in addition to the lack of governmemt investment when it was still possible to avoid this disaster, suffocate the national electricity system (SEN) so much that this end of the year has been agonizing, with three total disconnections and the constant threat of another one at any time.

In summer, the Ministry of Energy and Mines presented a plan for the construction of solar parks with the collaboration of China that, if it had been implemented ten years ago, would have been timely. Minister of Energy and Mines Vicente de la O Levy announced in September – coinciding with the decommissioning of the 60-year old Tallapiedra thermoelectric plant – that in early 2025 there would be almost 500 megawatts of installed solar power that would improve the situation. The minister then believed that after the winter, when demand falls due to the relief of temperatures, the new year would give a break to the sector. The worst was yet to come, with the complete collapses of the National Electric System in October, November and December. Experts predict that, at best, the Chinese solar parks will not begin generating electricity until 2027.

Translated by Regina Anavy

Cuba Releases Salvadoran Raúl Cruz León, After He Completed a 30-Year Sentence for Terrorism on the Island

Arrested in Cuba on September 4, 1997, the foreigner was accused of placing six explosive devices

Archive photo of Raúl Ernesto Cruz León / EFE

14ymedio, Havana, 31 December 2024 — Salvadoran Raúl Ernesto Cruz León was released this Monday in Cuba, where he served a 30-year prison sentence for carrying out terrorist attacks against tourist facilities on the island, official media reported. “Today, after serving his sentence, Cruz León has been released, demonstrating that Cuba respects its laws and guarantees justice, even for those who have committed serious crimes,” said a statement published in Cubadebate.

The article notes that Cruz León, “was arrested, tried and sentenced to death in Cuba. However, in an act of coherence and humanity, the Cuban legal system commuted his sentence to 30 years in prison.” In addition, the statement points out that his release, after serving his sentence, “is an example of the fairness of the Cuban legal system, which applies the laws impartially and consistently.”

However, it adds: “We cannot forget that the intellectual authors of these terrorist acts, who planned and financed the attacks, have lived and died in the United States without facing justice.”

It also states that Cuba “has faced terrorism with firmness and respect for legality, investigating and sanctioning those responsible for criminal actions that have caused pain and loss to its citizens and visitors.” The note reiterates that the United States “has allowed the intellectual authors and financiers of these terrorist attacks to live free and unpunished in Miami.” In that sense, it points to Luis Posada Carriles, who died “without being tried for his crimes,” and to “other promoters of terrorism against the Island who continue to enjoy impunity on US territory.” continue reading

Posada Carriles acknowledged in statements to The New York Times that he had organized the attacks with financing from the FNCA

Cruz León was arrested in Cuba on September 4, 1997 and accused of placing six explosive devices between July and September of that year in the hotels Nacional, Capri, Copacabana, Tritón, Chateau-Miramar and the well-known restaurant La Bodeguita del Medio, all in Havana.

One of those bombs caused the death of Italian businessman Fabio di Celmo, 32, and injured seven other people.

In the trial held in 1999, Cruz León was found guilty of the crime of “continuous terrorism” and sentenced to death after proving that he was sent to the island for those purposes by the anti-Castro organization Fundación Nacional Cubano Americana (FNCA), based in Miami, and by the Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, who died in 2018 in that city of Florida.

Posada Carriles, a former CIA collaborator, acknowledged in statements to The New York Times that he had organized the attacks with financing from the FNCA.

In 2010, the People’s Supreme Court of the Island decided to replace the original sanction imposed on Cruz León with that of 30 years of deprivation of liberty, at the conclusion of his appeal of the death penalty.

Translated by Regina Anavy
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Coppelia, the ‘Cathedral’ of Ice Cream and of the Cuban Regime, Has Died

Not even the ice cream shop employees know when it will reopen its doors.

Inside, only a few foreigners, loaded with cameras and lenses, stroll around and take pictures / 14ymedio

14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 26 December 2024 — Nobody knows when Coppelia will reopen. Cuba’s most famous ice cream parlor, located on the emblematic corner of 23rd and L, in El Vedado, has been closed for months. “The cathedral of ice cream is dead,” was the verdict of a Havana resident when, on Thursday morning, she saw only two employees reluctantly selling cookies.

To 14ymedio’s questions, the workers answered, holding their treats and seated at one of the many entrances of the centrally located establishment: “There is no ice cream and we don’t know when there will be any.”

As the passers-by who walk around the ice cream parlor remind themselves, “Nothing has been sold there since Hurricane Rafael struck,” last November 6.

The crooked sign at the entrance, and the fallen tree trunks and poles, augur that Coppelia’s bad season continues until further notice. / Juan Diego Rodríguez

A month later, at the beginning of December, the Coppelia ice cream factory on Rancho Boyeros Avenue gave the final blow to production after running out of ammonia to refrigerate the product.

The chains that, placed from one fence to another at the entrance, have been blocking the entrance to Coppelia for weeks, are not the only ones that draw the attention of Havana residents. “They also removed the huge continue reading

awnings where the tables were placed for customers to sit and there are many fallen trees.” Even the craftsmen who used to sell their items in front of the establishment have disappeared. “They dismantled all that and we don’t know if the vendors will return, ” another Havana woman admits.

Inside the utopian revolutionary ice cream parlor – created with the idea of giving Cubans a taste of the most exclusive flavors – only a few foreigners, loaded with cameras and lenses, walk around and take pictures after getting the workers’ approval. The crooked sign at the entrance, evoking the legs of a ballerina, and the fallen poles in its gardens, seem to announce the inevitable: after several crises and temporary closures in recent years, Coppelia has finally hit rock bottom.

Translated by LAR

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Cuban Commentator Sergio Ortega, Famous for Inventing Soccer Goals, Settles With His Family in the United States

Sergio Ortega is the son of Manolo Ortega, who was a “personal friend” and official presenter of Fidel Castro at political events.

Sergio Ortega had some privileges on the Island, such as his vacations in the Varadero Hotels. / Adults Only Hotel Los Cactus

14ymedio, Havana, 30 December 2024 — Sports commentator Sergio Ortega of Tele Rebelde has left Cuba. The reporter and his family arrived this Sunday at Miami International Airport. According to journalist Henry Morales, they plan to settle “in South Florida,” where 1.1 million Cubans reside.

The abandonment of Ortega, son of Manolo Ortega, who was a “personal friend” and official presenter of Fidel Castro in political events, caused surprise. As the page La Tijera on Facebook recalls, the communicator “had certain privileges on the Island, such as his vacations in the hotels of Varadero,” whose images he himself spread on social networks, and “other facilities that the rest of his colleagues in the guild could not enjoy.”

Ortega, 67, has not commented on his departure, which could be via humanitarian parole – which has allowed the entry of more than 110,000 compatriots since January 2023 – or through a family reunification visa. In any case, his departure is part of the unstoppable migratory wave, driven by economic and social deterioration, blackouts, and lack of healthcare in Cuba.

A hydraulic engineer by profession, Ortega broke into the Cuban media in 1994. The Coco station – where his father worked – in Havana, gave him his first opportunity in sports announcing. Throughout a career of 30 years, he ventured into the narration of basketball, volleyball and soccer matches, continue reading

among other disciplines. Alongside Renier González, he covered World Cups and Olympic Games.

More than this trajectory, however, he is known by fans for his blunders and his narratives about Cuban athletes who competed under another flag. In the World Cup Brazil 2014, for example, he said, “What a cannon shot!” about a kick by Englishman Raheem Sterling that hit one side of the goal post defended by the Italian Salvatore Sirigu. Seconds later he recognized his mistake: “Ay, if it had gone in, my God!”

An Internet user considered that Sergio Ortega was “the worst thing about the World Cup” in Brazil 2014. “We have bad commentators; they are also partial, which doesn’t go over very well,” said a reader in a Cubadebate article. Cuban sports announcers deserve “expulsion from Cuban TV,” he stressed.

His false goals were common. He celebrated an alleged score by Real Madrid striker Eden Hazard against RB Leipzig. “Real Madrid’s superb collective goal,” he narrated. “Goal at (minute) 80: they were tied and now secures first place in the Champions League group (European club tournament).” The ball never entered the goal.

Ortega was also very loud after he fell asleep during a broadcast, then woke up and invented a soccer play.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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