Translating Cuba

Click Here –> Message for International Women’s Day

March 8, 2011

DesdeCuba.com has been down for over a day. Two experts are working on it back and forth with the host in Spain and in communication with Yoani who, of course, does not have the internet access needed to fix it herself. The site has been thoroughly reviewed and there is no evidence of any kind of hack, denial-of-service attack, or anything “bad.” It’s possible that, with over a million comments, the contents have simply gotten “too big” for the structure. Stand by… Hopefully it will be up again VERY SOON.

The following show appeared last night on Cuban State Television. A quick summary of the contents is here (read down past the news about Alan Gross).

On February 10 the Havana International Book Fair began in the La Cabaña fortress, extended to March 6 in the capital’s bookshops and in the provincial centers of books and literature, which sold more than 2,000 titles of publishers from Cuba and abroad, among them the Bicentennial Alba collection with a score of works from Latin America and the Caribbean, on the occasion of 200th anniversary of its independence and the 220th anniversary of the Haitian Revolution (1791).

The 20th edition of the fair is dedicated, also, to Jaime Zaruski and Fernando Martínez Heredia, National Award winners for Literature and Social Sciences, respectively.

Our publishers still have not released the names of the major works and authors presented, but there is talk of writers such as the Nicaraguan Rubén Darío (Gruesome Tales), the Dominican Juan Bosch (The Caribbean, imperial Border), the Ecuadorian Edna Iturralde (Simon Was His Name), the winners of essay contests, Casa de las Americas, “Carpentier”, etc . — the essential Jose Marti, José Lezama Lima and the aforementioned Martinez and J. Heredia Zaruski, as well as works that emphasize the historical and social issues from the perception of power at the expense of those writing at the margin of the canons inside or outside the island.

Organized by the Cuban Book Institute and others attached to the Government and the Communist Party, such as the House of Books, UNEAC, the Casa de las Americas and the Office of the Historian of Havana, the Fair circulates titles representing the variety of genres of literature both universal and Cuban, prepared by Arte y Literatura, Letras Cubanas, Ediciones Unión, Ciencias Sociales, Editora Política, the provincial book centers, the Publications Office of the State Council and texts of specialized flora fauna or science, and publishing collections of Andalusia and regions of Spain and Europe each year setting up their booths at the fair at La Cabaña.

By being dedicated to Latin America and the Caribbean for the Bicentenary of independence, they increased the genres of essay, biography and testimony, primarily on Haiti and Venezuela, whose government is financing many of the books on the market, almost all on the Bolivarian revolution, a recurring theme on the capital’s bookshelves for the last give years.

Notably absent are the Cuban authors who went into exile or created their work in the diaspora, such as the narrators Lino Novas Calvo, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Reinaldo Arenas or Guillermo Rosales; the poets Gastón Baquero, Heberto Padilla and Raul Rivero; the playwright José Triana; the essayists Jorge Manach Carlos A. Montaner and Rafael Rojas; the biographer Carlos Marquez Sterling biographer and the historians Levi Marrero, Mario Moreno Fraginals.

The catalog of exclusions includes dozens of artists who went to the United States, Mexico, Spain or Germany in recent decades. Names such as Joseph A. Conte, Eliseo Alberto, Jorge A. Aguilera, Wendy Guerra, Emilio Ichikawa, Néstor Díaz de Villegas, Amir Valle and a long list that obviously also includes writers who remain in Cuba, among them dozens of reporters and bloggers who assume freedom of expression and denounce the arbitrariness of power.

Although the books transcend the time of purchase, the new offerings from the Havana Fair are marked by the burden of censorship, the abundance of volumes that attempt to legitimize the dictatorship and the absence of authors demonized by the curators of the culture office. Among the latter we cite Vaclav Havel with “the power of the powerless”, in whose work and referring to the dissent he states they “are a force that defies the order and puts it in danger ….” We finish with those permanently absent from our stands, the visionary George Orwell, with his 1984 and Animal Farm, not to mention the forbidden biographies of Lenin, Stalin or Fidel Castro.

February 9 2011

José Martí, in addition to many other things, was a great poet, he imagined an ideal nation with all and for the good of all, quite difficult to realize in the real world, where personal interests and collective work function, and humans possess a wide range of contradictory feelings. This nation dream became the reason for his existence and, devoting all his forces, he came to the martyrdom. He showed its theoretical underpinnings, but could not access its practical realization.

With the Republic installed, with its pros and cons, closer to the imagined nation, Cubans began to fight for it, because as the years passed its realization became more complex. Loyal to the Marti ideal, frustration was preying on them and those who shared their aspirations, and a process of negating everything that was done began, and did not respond exactly as expressed by the Apostle. This attitude further distanced the imagined nation from the real nation, creating suitable breeding ground for political demagoguery, which continues today.

Instead of devoting all efforts to improving and consolidating the real nation, providing it with laws and institutions to strengthen them, step by step approach, where possible, the ideal Marti, the fratricidal struggle overshadowed much of the twentieth century and destroyed what was built in a national act of political suicide.

Perhaps, the goals envisioned to be achieved by Martí were outside the actual scope of the Cubans, or, obsessed by them, we forgot that a nation is built day by day, negotiating realities and facing ongoing problems, there are no fixed and unique recipes for solutions, but at times we advance or take steps back on the road to development.

Today, to refound the nation is an inescapable necessity. It is not wise to lose more years and pass the frustration to new generations of Cubans. The nation is still a valid dream goal to achieve, but we must prioritize the real nation and not fall, as happened to us in the error of supplanting one for the other. A nation’s dream is reached by way of the real foundation of the nation.

January 26 2011

This February 23 commemorated the first anniversary of the passing of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a man who paid with fearlessness for his ticket to immortality. He was serving a penalty imposed by a court composed of jailers, judges and police, where all were mentally uniformed and carrying the same intellectual arms. This tenacious fighter did not shrink or fold before his demand for better living conditions in Cuban jails, to stay with his comrades and not with the common criminals — commonly used aggressive instruments of the political police — and medical care, better nutrition and more humane treatment.

This mestizo and bricklayer, poor and from eastern Cuba, who went through door of death and entered history last year, belonged to that group of 75 Cubans arrested in March 2003 for exercising freedom of conscience. His claims were wrongly and cruelly misrepresented and purposefully distorted in broadcasts by Cuban authorities: only those accustomed to power and those who enjoy their “shark splashing” gifts try to maintain and feed this fiction.

Since February 23, 2010 the presence of Orlando threatens the repressive system of Cuba, where freedom is kept in handcuffs. Thus, there is the sad irony that even after death they continue police operations and harassment around his humble tomb in the town of Banes. This town that once provided the country with a former dictator, today, today, despite the sadness at the loss of a son, boasts of having given us a martyr. This humble mason, assigned by his oppressors to a modest slab in the cemetery of Banes, has built himself a lavish memorial on the altar of the history of the country.

March 7 2011

CUBA and her People from Puta Armienne on Vimeo.

Notice to the Press

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will host the 2011 International Women of Courage Awards Ceremony with special guest First Lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday, March 8. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer and other U.S. and foreign dignitaries will also participate. The event will be held at approximately 11:00 a.m. in the Dean Acheson Auditorium of the U.S. Department of State.

The prestigious Secretary of State’s Award for International Women of Courage annually recognizes women around the globe who have shown exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for women’s rights and empowerment, often at great personal risk.

Since the inception of this award in 2007, the Department of State has honored 38 women from 27 different countries. This is the only Department of State award that pays tribute to women activists worldwide.

The names of this year’s honorees follow and full biographies and photos are available below:

• Her Excellency, Roza Otunbayeva, President of the Kyrgyz Republic;
• Maria Bashir, Prosecutor General, Herat Province (Afghanistan);
• Nasta Palazhanka, Deputy Chairperson, Malady Front (Young Front) non-governmental organization (Belarus);
• Henriette Ekwe Ebongo, journalist and publisher of Bebela (Cameroon);
• Guo Jianmei, lawyer and Director of the Beijing Zhongze Women’s Legal Counseling and Service Center (China);
• Yoani Sanchez, Innovator and Blogger, Founder of Generación Y blog (Cuba);
• The Honorable Agnes Osztolykan, Member of Parliament, Politics Can Be Different Party (Hungary);
• Eva Abu Halaweh, Executive Director of Mizan Law Group for Human Rights (Jordan);
• Marisela Morales Ibañez, Deputy Attorney General for Special Investigations against Organized Crime (Mexico);
• Ghulam Sughra, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Marvi Rural Development Organization, (Pakistan)

Yoani Sanchez of Cuba – Unable to attend the ceremony
Innovator and Blogger, Founder of Generación Y blog
Blogger, technological innovator, and emerging civil society leader Yoani Sanchez has attracted an international following for her blog, Generacíon Y, which gives readers unprecedented insight into life in Cuba. She has worked to improve the ability of ordinary Cubans to access and disseminate information, and to expand information flow and free expression throughout Cuba. She has been credited as the “founder” of the independent Cuban blogosphere. Her work has expanded beyond blogging to training and advising dozens of newcomers to the blogosphere, providing a voice for young Cubans and for established civil society leaders.
Languages Spoken: Spanish
Age: 35

My friend came from Europe and we went out to eat together. While waiting for her husband we asked for a drink and after a while the waiter asked her:
– Is the drink good?

Though I, too, had finished my drink he wasn’t interested in my opinion. My friend was insulted. I laughed.

Her husband came and we ordered. Once more the waiter approached the table and asked her:
– Do you like the food?

I lost my composure. I started laughing out loud and the guy looked surprised. I remembered the joke about the man who goes to a psychiatrist and tells the doctor that people ignore him, the doctor looks at the door and shouts, “Next!”

We asked for the check and, for the third time, he returned to the theme:
– Did you like the place?

This time I answered:
– I liked everything except the fact that you only asked her.
– It’s because I don’t speak English. Could you ask her in English if she liked the food?
– I’m not talking about her, I’m saying you should have asked me too.
– It’s because I don’t speak English.

My friends ended up laughing too, the waiter was happy with his work and I discovered what it means to speak the same language and not understand. I left asking myself, with some uneasiness, what we Cubans have come to.

7 March 2011

The overthrow of Mubarak in Egypt has encouraged the idea that a similar event could occur in Cuba. That conclusion, based on similarities, doesn’t take into account the differences between the two scenarios.

The governments of both countries emerged in the 50’s of last century, formed one-party systems, nationalized economies, and lacked or limited civil liberties. Both, in the midst of the Cold War, played a game of strategic interests alien to their own peoples. In Egypt, the withdrawal of Western economic aid for the construction of the Aswan Dam and then the adverse outcome of the war with Israel in 1967, led them to turn for aid to the Soviet Union. In Cuba, the rupture of relations with the United States, and later the failure of the 1970 sugar harvest, conditioned dependence on the Soviet Union and Cuba’s entry into Comecon. Despite these similarities, other political, historical and cultural factors led the two countries in different directions.

In Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, at the head of a group of soldiers, overthrew the Egyptian monarchy of King Farouk I in 1952, created the Arab Republic of Egypt where he held the post of prime minister and then president. At his death in 1970 he was replaced by Anwar al-Sadat, who, without abandoning the totalitarian model, gave a twist to the previous policy, establishing a government with the head of state as President of the Republic and a regime of economic liberalization and policies to attract the capital of the West. Egypt recognized the State of Israel and, on the failure of its peace project, allied with the Soviet Union and launched the war against Israel in 1973. Though negotiations it regained the Suez Canal and the Sinai oil fields. Then, at Camp David, Sadat signed an agreement to resolve the conflict, for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize.

On the death of Sadat in 1981, Muhammad Hosni Mubarak came to power and introduced some political reforms that allowed the Muslim Brotherhood greater participation. However, due to its support for sanctions imposed on Iraq for the invasion of Kuwait, and his military contribution to the coalition that confronted that country in the Persian Gulf War, his enemies initiated violent actions that led to hundreds of victims and, in response, the Government executed dozens of opponents. In this situation, in 2005, Mubarak presented a new proposal for constitutional reform which, among other things, changed the form for presidential elections, but the protests continued, demanding deeper civic and political freedoms.

In the 56 years that transpired between Nasser’s becoming president and Mubarak’s overthrow, power was held by three governments, that without renouncing to totalitarianism, introduced changes that allowed certain legal and public participation in important sectors of civil society, without which the current outcome would have been much more difficult if not impossible.

In Cuba, Fidel Castro led the insurrection that attacked the Moncada Barracks in 1953, landed on the island in 1956 and took power in 1959. From that moment began a process that nationalized the economy, formed a single party system, dismantled the existing civil society, established absolute control over the media, and controlled citizens through the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. Thanks to grants from ideological allies, he could ensure systems for health, education and sports, and the sale of subsidized products through the rationing system which, along with the dispute with the United States, served to attenuate the inconsistencies between state and society.

If changes Egypt began in the 1970s, in Cuba they did not begin to materialize until 2008, after the appointment of General Raul Castro as President of the State Council. Those changes, limited and conflicting, are taken shape since December last year, when Raul affirmed that 2011 would see the beginning of a gradual and progressive implementation of structural and conceptual changes in the Cuban economic model.

These differences in conditions explain why the events in Egypt are not manifested equally in Cuba. However, what occurred in that country could become a lesson of global scope for the present-future, depending on how Egypt’s process evolves to the establishment of democracy, freedoms and civil rights.

Egypt’s lesson is that in the history of social changes that emerge from revolutions led by elites or charismatic figures, which take up the demands of their time and place to move the “masses” to overthrow the existing order, once they assume power they ive themselves the right to generate regimes that are similar to or even worse than the ones they overthrew. However, recent events break this trend, because the subject of the changes has not been a single figure, the elite, a movement or a political party, but rather the people, The consolidation of this process depends on the capacity of citizens to put pressure on the Army, which has the responsibility to establish a democratic regime.

If the objectives sought by the Egyptians are achieved, then, to the thesis that history is made by men, we must add two observations: one, that so far some men have participated in their condition as “the masses,” or the objects of other men — drivers, leaders, strong men, chiefs — who in reality have become subjects; another, that what happens with many revolutionary processes must be considered proto-historic, because even the Egyptian lesson, the people of those counties have not been true subjects, but objects. Then, the thesis that history makes men assume their full value only when people participate in their condition as subjects.

(Printed in Diario de Cuba, , 18 February 2011)

February 21 2011

Walking from the base camp Playa Inglés to the Ismaellillo Camp, on the south coast in Cienfuegos Province, took me about forty minutes. I stopped now and then to take a photo like a dream. There was no time to lose. I was overcome with the joy of a parent who sees that his son is happy playing football for the first time in an official event for children from ages 9 to 10. It was held during a school break between February 6 to 11: The Football Tournament for All Boys and Girls, sponsored by UNICEF and the Ministry of Education.

Walking with me were three mothers of players from Sancti Spiritus province, who had moved to be as close as possible to their children. At times I saved them from some half-dead cow, crab or lizard. Impromptu charcoal makers here and there, scratching out a living, guided us through the tangle of marabou weed, or “aroma,” as this plague that dominates the island countryside is also known.

About the tournament: All winners, happy. The provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Villa Clara and Granma took the top places in that order. Ciego de Avila improved from last year’s 14th place, moving up to a decent 8th place, with only 1 loss (to the champion), 3 draws and 3 wins. We had the peculiarity that each team had three girls, and in ours they were the defining factors in at least a couple of victories in penalty shootouts. From my cheerful and definitely impartial and paternalistic point of view, the captain of that team and Number 7 — with dreams of being like the famous footballers Guaje Villa and Cristiano Ronaldo — made the decisive goal in the final game, against Sancti Spiritus itself.

Luckily, at that culminating moment, the trio of colleagues and mothers who are friends, hid away not too far from there, removing the pressure from their little ones. It was a scratch, or the dream of a deep scratch on the diamond of happiness. You can’t give up feeling and holding the fragile carbon, what will be a petrified spark on the next day, because of the stains which form around the eyes.

I prefer to pass over the heartaches. When running on the field, or where there is the heart of a child, everything is perfect. For such a perfect balance, I would set aside, file away, any suspicions that championship can leave some defenseless innocents, in the hands of experts, teachers of very humble backgrounds who want to earn a trip or a “mission” at all costs. One could forget, at times, that they are children, supposedly fifth graders, who seem too large and mature, kicking a ball with an objective beyond the simple joy of playing.

February 23 2011