Alternative Cheese Cake / Rebeca Monzo

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Ingredients:

3 eggs, from the bodega.

1-1/4 C. powdered milk, sold door-to-door.

1-1/4 C. yogurt, sold door-to-door.

1 C. of white sugar from the ration book.

1 T. of vinegar from the farmers market.

1/2 tsp. of salt from the neighbor.

Directions:

Pour three whole eggs into a bowl.

Add the powdered milk, yogurt, sugar, vinegar and salt.

Stir and strain all. Pour into a mold you’ve put caramel in beforehand.

Cover and leave on medium heat for about 50 minutes.

Check that poor Marie’s* water does not evaporate.

The cake will be ready when you stick a toothpick, or whatever you have at hand into the middle, and it comes out clean.

Let it cool before inverting the cake onto a plate.

Serves many people, depending on the appetite of the guests.

*Translator’s note: A bain-marie (also known as a water bath) is a French term used in cooking in which a smaller container is filled with the substance to be heated or cooked and fits inside the outer container, usually filled with water.

April 1 2011

Clarification for the Reader / Francis Sánchez

“Man in the Clouds ” is my personal blog. My expectations are based on fulfilling the natural mandate of God to live and express myself as a rational social being, like any creature with free will. I believe my right to think and share my thoughts is a universal inalienable right. I am open to sharing, in this sense, works that are literary, informative and of a diverse nature, including from other authors when appropriate.

I have not the slightest chance of regular access to the internet, not even to email. I cannot read, much less moderate, the comments that readers leave on my site, though the latter doesn’t interest me. Although I would like to post more often, it’s impossible for the same reason.

Opening this blog and making my thoughts “visible” has had a very high cost to me in my “real” life in Cuba, in an inland area and a province where there is no tradition of this kind of independent action. For now, I will not describe the consequences. Suffice it to say that certain defamatory comments, certain personal attacks, are only the tip of the iceberg that weighs on me and my family.

I believe I can summarize the human dignity offered by Christ as an ethical basis in which I aspire to remain firm, a consistent being. And, as I myself expect, in this blog I can expect my work to be censored and must adjust to that.

I have never belonged to any political organization.

I belong to my family, period.

As an intellectual, the cloud I am in is just as easy: literature, freedom, and the agony of living inclined to goodness and truth.

Although tomorrow I could feel myself destroyed, reduced to less than dust, whatever happens, whatever is said, whatever is done to me, I believe that the clouds or the beauty in which I rest my thoughts will not let me contradict myself.

March 31 2011

Silence / Laritza Diversent

[Translator: This is one in a series of posts]

The silence of the Ministry of Health was considered to show “profound lack of respect and to be almost an insult to this group of workers who were honest enough to draw attention to the harsh reality that knocks at the door every day and circles overhead.”

“The very same worker who at the most crucial and darkest hour of the Special Period remained at his post on no more than US$3.00 a month, thus ensuring that post was worthwhile, and who deserves to feel that his opinions are taken into account” they added.

“Despite the fact that justice is the supreme ideal of the Revolution, the salaries our workers currently receive, even after decades of effort and commitment, are not fair or proportionate, when other state sectors are being paid several times more. This situation flies in the face of the Marxist principle: …’to each according to his work’.

Doctors also warned that their concerns were “just the tip of the iceberg; the problem itself is far more controversial and deep-rooted and will never be resolved through soothing remedies or small wage increases. We can just provide this timid warning: those who have ears, listen. Reality is much harsher than any words and even though it may hurt, it is too big for any speech.

March 21 2011

Medical Collaboration Abroad / Laritza Diversent

[Translator’s note: This is one of a series of posts…]

According to what the doctors argue in their second letter, they are now “flying the flag on internationalism” through medical collaborations abroad, thanks to health professionals and technicians who stay on the island and take on “the work of those who have been sent on missions.”

“One doctor has to cover the work previously done by 3 or 4 colleagues, and there are cases where it is even more dramatic, all this while trying to deliver the same level of care to the patient and receiving in exchange the same salary they received before,” they argue.

The doctors state that their internationalist colleagues “receive several hundred dollars a month” and return to the island to “a monthly stipend that is completely negligible under existing circumstances.”

March 21 2011

Other Claims / Laritza Diversent

[Translator’s note: This is one of a series of posts…]

The doctors asked, what justifies that an MGI specialist or dentist in the area, even the latest super-specialist from the Institute can’t satisfy their basic needs, and that not being the case, the expenses of some office, and never from their salary as professionals?

According to the doctors, in their letter, Cuban doctors are forced to seek alternative sources of income “from sources as exotic and unlike their profession that it’s stupefying: raising pigs, taking in ironing, selling pizzas, ham or eggs, as a bricklayer, carpenter, shoe repairer.”

In the opinion of the doctors these activities, “undermine morale and take time from professional development, they take away from what should be their only concern, study, and they should be able to focus their complete attention on their patients from the point of view of a scientist.”

March 21 2011

Public Message in Answer to a “Confused Reader” / Miriam Celaya

Mr. Calvet:

Welcome back to our arena. You are really proving to be an itsy-bitsy difficult reader. You’ll have to excuse me, but, with your comment to my March 21st post that you uploaded on the 23rd, you almost succeeded in confusing me. As I see it, your questions have the wrong focus from the beginning. For starters, why should Yoani or anybody else have to explain “reasons” to visit an embassy? Why can’t an average person have “contact” with foreign officials? Why are such things turned into crimes by the Cuban authorities? What would happen, for instance, if an American should walk into the Cuban consulate in Washington? Doesn’t the fact that Yoani (and others) go openly into those embassies tell you that we are convinced that we are not committing any violation? Don’t you know that the embassies that the Yeomen of the Cuban regime mention will not refuse entry to any Cuban citizen who requests it, whether he is a revolutionary, dissident, or completely oblivious to matters of politics? Do you have any idea of how prohibitive the costs of accessing the Internet are from the scarce and generally slow public sites, if such access is not denied, as can happen? Don’t you know that some embassies allow time to access the Internet not just to members of the independent civil society or the terrifying opponents, but also to individuals who side with the government? The interesting detail is that the latter don’t have the authorization of their very own government to enter these embassies. Curious detail, right?! And do you know, outspoken reader Calvet, why permission is not granted to them? Because the “rations” of Internet that the Cuban government offers –- and only to its most devoted supporters — are also carefully monitored by intelligence agents, which could not be possible if such connections were carried out inside a diplomatic environment. You got that? Or are you still confused about this?

In another paragraph, you consider Cuba’s “reasons” are proven truths rather than suppositions. They are outlined in an official TV video, and such “reasons” are actually those of the Cuban authorities, not of “Cuba”. That’s why you assume that there really are 90,000 cyber-warrior agents at the keyboards and that Obama has placed in our hands all kinds of equipment and technology to overthrow the Castros (it’s obvious you have never seen my old and dear second-hand cell phone, a present from a friend, on which I allow myself to send twitter messages barely once a week). You obviously believe in what the soppy words of a young official revolutionary blogger by the name of Elaine suggest, who appears in the government’s video babbling about her “not having Internet at home” and informing us that “her granddad is happy though he doesn’t have Internet”. That is to say, the underlying message is that alternative bloggers do have home connections and that, unlike the girl’s loving grandfather, we have a very consumerist concept of happiness. As if the government would allow us to have a home network! Look here: you and people like you are one of the “reasons” the Cuban government goes to the trouble of concocting such poor quality stuff.

To your disappointment, I can confirm that the slender, long-hair girl with the orange blouse and sunglasses in the video presenting her credentials at the checkpoint to enter the SINA is indeed Yoani Sánchez Cordero. Even better, I, Miriam Celaya González, am the woman in the brown skirt, black strappy knit top and also wearing sunglasses standing beside her. That day, we both went to collect our passports and visas (I suppose you know that visas are processed at the consular offices of the countries where one is expected to travel, and not at the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution), and, by chance, we happened to coincide with the SINA press officer, an extremely nice and caring Puerto Rican whom we got to know because that lady is interested in press matters (she is so rare!) and we bloggers carry out a special kind of press, known as civic journalism. Can you grasp the issue now?

But, since you brought up the point, and I am assuming that you are full of good intentions and that your doubts are sincere, I will add information that was not published in the video “Cuba’s Reasons”. Both Yoani and I were then in the midst of visa negotiations because we had been invited –- by academic institutions and not by the Federal government — to a trip that included universities in Canada and the United States. This was in the year 2009, that is, they are pretty old images, but they were the only ones that the front men for the dictatorship had on hand. The friends that invited us on this trip processed the invitation letters in our names and paid for the appropriate consular transactions to the Cuban authorities at the exorbitant prices that the system stipulates. Not only did such letters never come to be in our possession, though we went to the International Legal Counsel in Cuba to claim them, but, in addition, our friends were never reimbursed for the money they paid, though they tried to claim it by presenting all receipts and vouchers from the process. Got that?

I am glad that you saw the bloggers’ video “Civic Reasons” which I was honored to participate in, with friends whom I deeply admire and respect, and I am glad you came away with the impression (true and correct) that we have no link to what has been called the “U.S. interests.” Let me take this opportunity to point out that if the assumed grim imperialist interests are for Cubans to have freedom and democracy, I openly declare that I agree with them, which does not mean I am a “salaried” employee of that government or that I have “feelings of annexation” or any such label. I would also like to make it clear that “the Cuban dissident blogosphere”, as you refer to us, and this is what we are, does not constitute an organization, does not have a common agenda, is not affiliated by bases or statutes, but instead, we are part of a spontaneous phenomenon, individual in its character, so that neither Yoani Sánchez nor Ernesto Hernández Busto are “at the head” of something that has no head. It is an official maneuver of the Cuban government specifically to try to create a visible head in order to be able to decapitate it. Speaking for myself, personally, I am not subordinate to anyone. I just subscribe or co-write the documents and principles that I share. Is it really so difficult to understand this? Such inflexibility is not expected from someone who lives in a free society.

A sound suggestion, Mr. Calvet: dissociate yourself from all prejudice; watch videos, programs, or blogs with a critical eye, and think with your own intellect, though you don’t need to share my views. Long live diversity of beliefs! The easiest thing, as I see it, would be for all of us — Tyrians and Trojans — to orchestrate a campaign for free Internet access for Cubans on the island, especially now that the very supportive Hugo Chávez has pitched our way a fiber optic little cable, and our current capabilities can spread to very high levels. I invite all bloggers, the free and the bound, to unite our wills in a desire that should be common: free Internet. How much do you want to bet that the government and its paid bloggers will not support this initiative? I hope I have made clear (for the second time), at least to some extent, your great confusion.

Regards,

Eva-Miriam

Translated by Norma Whiting

25 March 2011

ON THE RECORD / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

CARTER IN CLOSE-UP

Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

So we talk about everything with Jimmy Carter. Briefly, but everything. Except, of course, the boring state that is as stable as the price of peanuts in America (with respect there was only a small debate about whether it was or wasn’t indigenous to the region, but that was soon abandoned diplomatically in the absence of Encarta to settle the misunderstanding).

More than the use of the new technologies for freedom of expression, the former president was very interested in the new trends in reggaeton on the island, whose peaceful but subversive texts could constitute a popular source of the state of opinion contrary to the official discourse. Names of bands were mentioned and titles of discs, there was talk of “ethnic and generic imbalance,” and the lack of distribution of the reggaeton artists — in the face of state monopoly over the mass media — was lamented, just like for webpages considered alternatives to the status quo (something of a mea culpa was left floating in the air from this part of the meeting).

Three hundred and fifty-seven cordially presented proposals for transitions without foreign intervention — with their respective headings by stages — reached the ex-president. Carter accepted them all and promised to read them personally (in international politics he had learned not to trust “in the translators” he joked) and he would reach a consensus before the end of two democratic presidential terms in the White House.

A provincial writer read paragraphs of his upcoming epistolary novel, already censored by the Cuban Communist Party Secretariat of other province, violating this organ of maximum power’s own internal legislation, and he drew applause and tears for the autobiographical character of his tale in letters.

The star reporter of the BBC on the Island asked the ex-president if he knew, personally, the current leader of the United States of America, to which James Carter responded that, off the record, he remembered having attended his inauguration years earlier, but he would not dare to say so publicly for fear of committing perjury and being tried in Cuba (mutual smiles created a good-natured atmosphere of complicity between the speaker and his audience).

Carter elaborated on the advantages of direct sales of genetically modified vegetables and meat for human consumption in Cuba, and how with the passage of decades it would be seen that this practice was in fact harmless to native genome evolution and not mutate in any national Cuban race, which would remain a single nation and the homeland and in exile.

Carter fantasized “with his feet firmly planted on the ground” about the idea of a Cuban-American space program, where especially the intelligentsia of our country could “see things from an unusual perspective” without the “romanticism” typical of any “Revolution that is respected” as was “obviously” the case of Cuba.

Nor should one assume that a sharp silence is always sign of rudeness.

After the performance of “The Silence of the Peanuts,” the former president hummed a part of the Cuban national anthem in English: Never fear a death full of glory, since to die for our country is to live... and I ventured to return the gesture in Spanish with the American national anthem: O dí tú, puedes ver…

The expert Eduardo Fontes was missing, having declined to attend the conclave because it was held during working hours. Phones were returned and apologies made for the inability to twitter in real time, because this practice further disconcerted the former president. There were anonymous pats and hugs. He never asked for discretion. The sun was three pairs of timpani in the Plaza de Armas (we prefered to retreat on foot before the put us in the Yutong bus cage that State Security offered us no additional cost).

March 31 2011

Reaction / Laritza Diversent

[Translator: A post in an on-going series]

The first letter originated in “political factors,” a reaction described by the doctors as “disproportionate and unnecessary.” A Communist Party official in the town of Artemisa, publicly called them “shoddy practitioners.” The text was released by the complainants into the hands of the Party and the Hospital Union.

The youths were questions by provincial level officials, who used methods that ranged from “acts of repudiation,” disrespectful attacks at their work, and even threats to “suspend their titles” and other “administrative measures.”

Nevertheless, Sorelis Victor Castillo, the wife of plaintiff Vigoa Martinez, was removed from her post as Head of Service of the Dental Clinic of Artemis. The dentist was one of those who supported the initiative.

“This document has no double meanings, it is very clear in its thesis and does not deviate an inch from the truth,” said the specialists in medicine, referring to the first letter sent to the leadership of the ministry, for the purpose of calling for reflections on the nerve problems of the sector and demanding an urgent solution.

“Anyone read it… all those who signed it did it with full consent, of their own free will… just like those who didn’t… from fear of the consequences they barely mentioned it to us, all without exception sharing this opinion, even those who disagreed with the method uses which, incidentally, although unusual, is not remotely illegal.

March 21 2011

“Bad Handwriting” in “La Joven Cuba” / Regina Coyula

With regards to the post, “The benefit of the doubt.”

Greetings. Feelings are polarized as often happens with public figures. I knew Yoani from before Generation Y. She continues to be the same person as always. She obtained the technical knowledge to start a blog, and had the conviction to say what she wanted about things, now that she had a space, albeit a virtual one.

She began building her blog in HTML, not knowing if anyone was reading it, and was the first to be surprised by the media attention. Before receiving the famous awards she had accumulated a lot of patient work. The success came from being a pioneer in offering a different and well-written view of Cuba reality. For the first time in a personal voice, from the everyday, a young woman and a mother offering up a Cuban far from the Revolutionary aura.

The authorities did not look kindly on this independent voice, increasingly heard, and greatly harassed this “made up” person that had become a reference point for public opinion about Cuba. They are very concerned that the image presented in the official media has been undermined and discredited. Recently they showed an image of Yoani entering the U.S. Interest Section on television, with the intention of discrediting her to people as a pro-imperialist. These images were taken from when she visited the USIS to obtain a visa. The visa was granted, but not the exit permits.

Yoani worries the government, they are worried about the sympathy she inspires, worried about the sector of the society that identifies with the Cuba narrated from Generation Y. There is nothing more common, nor uglier, that to take an attitude or a phrase out of context.

March 31 2011

Translator’s note: La Joven Cuba is a website of students at the University of Matanzas and Regina has begun to engage them in conversation through their forum. She also posts her comments there, here.

Notes from Captivity XIII / Pablo Pacheco

"FIRED" (Photo is of Felipe Perez Roque)

“Hidden Declaration in a Lighter”
by Pablo Pacheco Avila

After the success of the hunger strike, we began to elaborate a plan to confront the ex-Minister of Exterior Relations, Felipe Perez Roque. The lies he had told the national and foreign press about the existence of services for political prisoners were about to be proved false by us prisoners.

The control exercised over the prisoners in each of the corners of “The Polish” seemed to be never ending. Common prisoners would actually give us ideas on how to clandestinely send out notes for the press. Some would do it out of genuine solidarity while others actually did so in order to later denounce us to the authorities, gaining their share of benefits.

Roberto Pinto Perez, a common prisoner from Villa Clara province who was sentenced to more than 40 years of prison for serious crimes, suggested we hide the notes by attaching them to the soles of our shoes. Manuel Ubals failed at the attempt and suffered a few days of punishment for it. Yosbany, a prisoner from Camaguey condemned to a life sentence for murdering a soldier at his local jail, suggested we hide the note in the hem of our pants. We failed at that as well. Lastly, the prisoner Yoexis Rodriguez Sarmiento, from Cienfuegos and with a 46 year sentence for homicide and other violent crimes, told us we should be astute, for the police had 8 hours to watch us and we had 24 hours to think.

On the day before the family visit of Alexis, he wrote us a letter where he said that bringing the note out would be his responsibility. For security measures, and to avoid the guards snatching the note from us, he did not give much details on how he would go about doing this. And we understood him. Solitary confinement trains you to see unexpected and imaginative paths. We realized this with time and carried it out with many good results.

When Alexis returned from his visit, he wrote us another letter saying that the declaration would be made public as soon as his wife, Luisa Maria Lebeque Gilart, arrived to Santiago de Cuba. We were not expecting any of this. He wrote down the declaration and he folded it so small that he managed to hide it inside a “Cliper”-brand lighter. When the guards searched him and asked him about the lighter he told them he was giving it to his wife so she could re-fill it. Fortunately, the guards could not imagine that in such an innocent lighter there was a note denouncing crimes committed by them and the government they represent.

Two days later, the world knew that the words of Felipe Perez Roque were lies dressed with cynicism and bad intentions.

Soon thereafter, common prisoners carried out their own subtle investigations about how we were able to surpass the guards and get the note out. Luckily, we had already grown accustomed to such indigent attitudes, and they never found out how we overcame the fierce censorship of the authorities.

Weeks later, we were very surprised by the progress of the jail services. For the first time ever we were given 5 minutes of telephone time to talk with our wives or relatives. Medical assistance increased. Letters finally started getting to our hands. Our food was being prepared with more quality, and they lent us some books from the penal library.

The accusations worked, and common prisoners also benefited. In order to not acknowledge our victory, police guards extended the assistance to common prisoners and we were happy about that, for not only are they also humans, but we had won their support.

During one afternoon we noticed that one of the guards had tuned into Radio Marti by mistake. This is a station which is located in South Florida and which broadcasts to Cuba. It became the voice of those who least have voices on the island: peaceful dissidents, independent journalists, and human rights activists.

I was very surprised when I heard the voice of Jose Luis Ramos, a reporter from that station, reporting some news about my mother. We quickly noticed and we all remained silent until the news report concluded. We then spoke about what just had happened and continued listening to other news. Upon hearing our comments, the convict Raidel Casanova called the guard and told him he was listening to a counter-revolutionary station and that if he did not change it he would tell the State Security officials.

Taken by surprise, the guard quickly turned the radio off. But he could not extinguish the happiness we felt for having lived those quick moments of freedom. Many other common prisoners hurled insults to Raidel. His attitude confirmed our suspicions about him being an informant. Luckily, similar experiences with the radio kept happening every once in a while, seeing as Matanzas and South Florida are very close in location to each other. Despite all the interferences the Cuban authorities have tried against that station, the signal would reach us with clarity.

In addition to the family and conjugal visits, listening to Radio Marti, even if just for a few minutes, moved me away from loneliness and misinformation. They were glimmers of freedom during moments of gloom and they inspired me to continue down the path I had chosen. For this reason, among others, the cross I carried was made less heavy and the taste of imprisonment was less bitter.

March 28, 2011