English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
I met Boris by an odd coincidence. One day he came to my house to find some music and we ended up talking about literature. I discovered that we had a world in common: the desire to be free, to know the truth, to dream about another, less battered, Cuba. He left me this text … Continue reading “Homage to Coco Fariñas / Claudia Cadelo”
Photo: Luis Felipe Rojas On Saturday, I was finishing telling my friends over the phone to upload this post onto my blog, and on Sunday, the 10th, two political police officers show up to my house once again to take me to San German police station. Like always, the reasons for this detention are unknown … Continue reading “Repressive Machine Without a Counterpart / Luis Felipe Rojas”
Cubans who opine publicly regarding the Government, are condemned to suffer confiscation. The Customs Office for Post and Shipments (APE), an entity which is part of the General Customs Office of the Republic (AGR), has a filter for seizure for shipments abroad, applicable to dissidents. Within the last 2 months, this agency has confiscated 2 … Continue reading “Custom Filters / Laritza Diversent”
The official Cuban press insists on justifying a single-party system. Some of the arguments are based on the fact that Martí created a single party, how lack of unity led to revolutionary failures, how the very existence of the nation depends on preserving unity, and how a multiparty system would be co-opted by imperialism. The … Continue reading “What Does Martí Have to Do with a Single Party? / Dimas Castellanos”
Fidel Castro loves to make references to the numerous economic, paramilitary, and political aggressions of the 11 administrations that have been through the White House throughout these 51 years the strong-man of Cuba has been in power. The United States is far from being the ideal neighbor. In the first 40 years of the revolution, … Continue reading “The United States: A Necessary Enemy / Iván García”
Photos / Luis Felipe Rojas The Alianza Democrática Oriental (Eastern Democratic Alliance) energetically condemns the imminent arrests under a prosecution devoid of legal guarantees of five brave activists from Eastern Cuba. Néstor and Rolando Rodríguez Lobaina, Enyor Díaz Allen, Francisco Luis Manzanet Ortíz and Roberto González Pelegrín received non-written communication, that is, only verbally from the secret police, that … Continue reading “The Double Standard Policy, a Daily Routine / Luis Felipe Rojas”
Minister of Finances and Prices In July 2009, The Minister of Finances and Prices, a member of the Council of Ministers, ordered the confiscation of property obtained by Teófilo Roberto, the father of Antonio Roberto, during the period from 1998 to 2008. The action was taken under the authority of Decree-Law 149 (“Regarding the seizure … Continue reading “Minister Places Citizen in Indefensible Position / Laritza Diversent”
I heard an old joke the other day while I waited at the bus terminal in Havana. It was about the ex-president Fidel Castro Ruz, who returned to the media during the last weeks of July, despite his deteriorated state of health. Such an appearance was subject of much irreverence. However, the official press of … Continue reading “Retiring the Demons / Miguel Iturría Savón”
Jehova is among those who help me. – Psalm 118:7 On Saturday, July 24, I received a letter from the Postal and Shipping Customs Center, belonging to the General Customs of the Cuban Republic. With that letter, I was notified that a process was underway to confiscate a package from the US that had been … Continue reading “To My Compatriots in the Diaspora and Friends of Promoters of Democracy and to the Emergent Civil Society in our Country / Eugenio Leal”
Cuba is excluded from YouTube’s digital world map. What happens behind the closed doors of this paleopolitical Internet Island is of no concern to YouTube and, in consequence, nor to the audiovisual eyes of the world. The clever papal slogan from the past century and millennium resonates now like a coarse cathedral comedy script: “Let … Continue reading “YOU TOO, YOUTUBE…?”
Voces Tras Las Rejas was begun by Pablo Pacheco, one of the prisoners of conscience from the Black Spring of 2003. It is a collection of thoughts and first-hand experiences of various political prisoners that reside behind bars in Cuban jails. Getting their voices out of their cells and into this blog is made possible … Continue reading “Voices Behind The Bars”
Psychologist and freelance journalist, 48-years-old, based in Santa Clara, Cuba. He joined the opposition and since then has spent 11 years in prison. His most recent hunger strike before now was in 2006, to demand unrestricted Internet access for all Cubans. It resulted in many after effects and this time his family fears that the … Continue reading “Guillermo “Coco” Fariñas”
Miriam is a Habanera of the island, belonging to the generation that has lived torn between disillusionment and hope, whose members reached adulthood in the controversial year 1980. She has published collaborations in the digital magazine Encuentro en la Red, for which she created her pseudonym. Miriam started this blog under the pseudonym Eva Garcia … Continue reading “Miriam Celaya”
It was by chance that I heard the story of this twenty-nine-year-old doctor and her husband, Horacio Piña Borrego, 42, a freelance journalist imprisoned for the cause of 75. As she told me the odyssey of her fate, it was as if she was reading from a chapter of Wuthering Heights. These things don’t happen … Continue reading ““My husband is worth it,” Telephone Interview with Suyoani Tapia Mayola (I)”
San Rafael Boulevard was swarming with pedestrians on Wednesday, July 7. Braving insufferable heat and humidity, an old newspaper vendor, his face unshaven, his clothes patched, loudly announced the news of the moment. “Learn about the release of the political prisoners,” the old man shouted, while a line of fifteen or sixteen people bought the … Continue reading “While Waiting for Raúl Castro's Speech . . .”