Translating Cuba

1 – Yesenia Álvarez, young intelligent, successful….strange combination. Tell me about yourself, this organization over which you preside, your professional and family education, and when and why you had this passion for Cuba.

If in our countries we let our talents flourish in freedom we would not talk about a strange combination. I am sure that many young people in Peru take this path; however, there are a lot of reasons the youth of Peru and Latin America are able to fully enjoy the possibility of being successful if we express our talents without any populist, authoritarian or interventionist State appropriating the product of our work. Freedom, once you achieve it, should be constantly guarded. There is no way of assuring it will last forever. That’s the price of taking it: taking care of it. For this reason, in the IPL, the organization over which I preside, we are committed to spreading and demonstrating the benefits of living in freedom.

I studied law, and since the university, in the first years with my study of the origin of constitutional law, I remained captivated by liberal ideas, so always the situation of freedom and human rights in a long-lived dictatorship like the Cuban one has been my preoccupation since those years. I should add that in Peru as in other Latin American countries, the myth has been created that Cuba, rather the Cuban government, should be a model to imitate for our countries.

When I discovered liberal thought, I felt that I had always been liberal and am now committed to spreading it as a philosophy of life. I wanted to help demystify the supposed “social accomplishments of the Cuban government” that make many people, some certainly intelligent and well-intentioned, be condescending with one of the most perverse dictatorships of the continent.

2 – “Freedom is important to achieve development” is an interesting phrase that is attributed to you on the Internet, and it has generated comments. Aren’t you excluding those who don’t have something so relative and that many call “freedom”?

It doesn’t make it exclusive precisely because the phrase seeks to encourage countries that don’t have freedom to take this path, since where there is freedom there are conditions for each individual to construct his own destiny, there is the possibility of development, opportunities to generate wealth, to be successful, to improve your quality of life, and to accomplish your dreams. When you let someone else choose your future or destiny, which is what the populists and the “welfarists” want, you are condemned to what they elect to give you, and of course experience clearly shows that the life they want to give you is very poor.

What the Cuban government does is for me an example of this. There are many cases, I shall focus on one that ought to merit the indignation of anything called democracy, that is, they say that in Cuba they have the best quality education, but I ask myself, Can you call it education and even more one of quality if the students don’t decide what to study? If in order to study they have to affiliate themselves with thought that is only revolutionary? Can it be the best education if the student can’t decide what to do with that education, if the student can’t improve his quality of life because of an economic system that exploits him? There is nothing like self-development in Cuba from education. Can you call it education if once educated the student cannot read or say what he wants?

I’m speaking of the people, not those privileged ones who are close to power. The ones who exclude are those authoritarian members of government who exclude the citizens from the advantages of freedom. It’s easier to ask for revolution, socialism, a welfare state, the sacrifice of freedom when this sacrifice is for others. I say this in relation to all those who support the regime from outside, saying that “it’s worth sacrificing civil liberties in exchange for social accomplishments” but who are not capable of living in that dictatorship, like those people who are not privileged with power.

The freedom is the absence of those privileges acquired at the cost of the individual people who live in oppression. Freedom is a value and should not be sacrificed in exchange for other values. When it happens it soon becomes noticeable that freedom has been lost and also those values in exchange for which liberty was removed. In the name of a supposed better education those in Cuba who dare to think differently from the government are punished.

3 – In 1980, a small group of Cubans – in my opinion desperate, and on board a bus – broke into the Peruvian embassy. And although many Cubans have forgotten, this one event marked a “before and after” in my country’s history. Tell me, Yesenia, what you know about this, and relate to me, please, how they are now living, these Cuban families who generated the Mariel Boatlift and who remained stranded in Lima; people to whom more than 120,000 Cubans, instead of ignoring them, should owe them eternal gratitude?

There’s a strong bond between Peru and Cuba. I have heard many stories, and all are sad. No one deserves the mistreatment and abuse that those people suffered in their attempt to leave the country. There you can see the evidence of how the Cuban government has been the main separator of families. I don’t understand how people as sensitive as Silvio Rodríguez, García Márquez and others can be so condescending with a dictatorship that has separated Cuban families during all these years. It’s the symbolic story of Cuba, fathers, sons, brothers, families who want to be together and have been separated for years, because many people in exile can’t return.

The desire to flee of thousands of Cubans in 1980 should make us think. According to a recent report, hundreds of people came to Peru and after 30 years there are something like 60 left in Villa El Salvador. You would have to look at these stories, I am very interested in this, of how they managed in those years, those who left Lima, others who did well in Lima and also those who did poorly. Thirty years have passed and are not important.

Today Peru is not the same as then, Today they breathe the air of freedom but with certain barriers that we have to conquer so that we citizens can successfully build our future. We should value the fact that we have freedom of expression, of denouncing corruption, of opposing the abuses that citizens suffer with commercialism, to ask what they do with our taxes and above all the possibility of conquering poverty with our creativity. We should take care of the freedoms that we now enjoy and fight for more freedoms.

“Cuba and the Elephants” seemed to me to be a critical work, demystifying, respectful and real. You are a lover of peace, justice, and a defender of so many noble causes that, unfortunately, as I understand it, are partially lost today. Tell me, why did they expel someone like you from my country, and even more, prohibit you from entering?

For something that doesn’t happen in the middle of the 21st century in an open society. Together with four other Peruvian women I visited the Ladies in White in a public place, at the Church of Santa Rita in Havana. We did it in December 2007, on the eve of the International Day of Human Rights, to express out solidarity with their valiant and heroic effort against the dictatorship.

Even now I remember the fear and the uncertainty of our fate that day, first persecuted by Havana and then interrogated and detained at the hotel, forbidden from leaving and stripped of our passports. If there is something that works well in Cuba, it’s the repressive apparatus. Paradoxically, there we were without rights on the International Day of Human Rights.

5 – It’s been an honor to know you, and I’m pleased to be your friend, Before ending, and because someone like you always arouses the passion of my readers, I would like to ask, are you married or single? Do you know how to sing? Do you like to dance?

It’s also an honor for me to know you, Juan. I admire your work and your bravery which is why I very much appreciate beginning this friendship, which I predict will be long-lasting. I am single, I don’t know how to sing but I enjoy this talent in others. I have been told that I dance very well, although I’m a little old for that. One of my passions is basketball, and I adore movies and television series. Since my childhood I’ve liked to read a lot and to listen to thrilling stories about life. Thank you very much.

Translated by Regina Anavy

January 3 2011

“The Arms of Yesterday” is the title of the book of memoirs by the Chilean businessman Max Marambio, 63. In his presentation during the 2008 Havana Book Fair, Marambio said, “In Cuban I found my model of society.”

Two years after its launch, I wonder if Marambio will the same after the Cuban Ministry of the Interior releases an arrest order for him.

What armor with the Chilean use to defend himself against accusations from the government he defended? How will he feel after his fall?

The Fat Man, the nickname he’s known by, came to Cuba in the mid ’60s. He contacted Fidel Castro and started to live the romantic dream if the bearded guerrillas, under the command of Manuel Piñeiro, alias Redbeard.

The same Revolutionary project that yesterday inspired in him an ethical commitment for life, now accuses him of crimes of bribery, acts to the detriment of economic activity or recruitment, embezzlement, forgery of bank documents and fraud.

In 1973, Cuba was the perfect place for his self-exile, today it is a place quite dangerous for his freedom and personal security. If he returns to the island, he’s likely to end up in jail.

Marambio did not return the call of the prosecutor from the Ministry of the Interior, Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Estrada, who summoned and questioned him on 19 July and 23 August. The Fat Man knew the Cuban judicial system well. He particularly knows the few safeguards offered to the accused.

The criminal proceedings against him are in the preparatory phase, when the diligence previous to the opening of the oral arguments is performed, such as pre-trial detention for the offenders.

The Chilean also knows that few can work with their lawyers long distance. They need to appear and apply a precautionary measure on the part of the process, and so be legally represented.

So what will he do then? What all prudent men would do.  Stay in his country and forget about the land that dazzled him in his youth.

The Fat Man is also aware that the publication of the summons and charges, in the Cuban Republic Official Gazette, is a formal requirement. The Cuban government is not going to go after him internationally.

But neither are they going to pardon him. It won’t be like in 1989, when he survived a political scandal that ended with the firing squad for General Arnaldo Ochoa and Colonel Tony de la Guardia.

Surely, to Marambio they will declare him in default and try him in absentia. A very subtle form of expulsion. He can’t return and he will lose everything he has in Cuba. The only country in the world where a foreigner and close friend of Fidel Castro has the chance to become a millionaire. However, no one now with save him from the confiscation of his property.

Mystery surrounds the case. What happened to the protegé of the elder Castro? Inconvenient for the younger brother? Evidently the arms of yesterday don’t serve Max Marambio today.

September 3, 2010

Good afternoon everyone:

To the Dutch ambassador who has kindly offered his home for the ceremony, to the members of the Prince Claus Foundation who organized the presentation of this award, to the diplomatic corps, to my family, my friends, to the bloggers present here and also to the readers, commentators and translators of my blog who join in this moment from cyberspace. A special greeting to the other 2010 winners of this important award. In short, to everyone, I thank you for your physical, virtual or spiritual presence on this day.

The words I say to you this afternoon are imbued — in part — with the experiences I have had in the last three years, since April 2007, when I started to write my blog, Generation Y. I could dedicate long minutes of this speech to emphasizing the scenes that make up what I call “my path of pain”; this tortuous trail I’ve traveled, determined to live freely in a country full of masks. I could also tell a pitiful tale of stigmatization, of constantly being watched, of pressure on my family and demonization of my community, of police citations and even physical attack.

But I will not focus on those obstacles, but on the other path, that of the gratification and the gift of personal fulfillment, and on future projects. This beautiful part of the journey that begins when I go out into the street and someone — overcoming their fear — approaches me and says, “I read you,” “keep going,” “resist.”

I also have the gratification, every day, of a growing number of my fellow citizens who seek my opinions, debate with me, or sympathize with my point of view. And now, more and more, they use the tool of a blog to express, in the virtual Cuba, the differences of opinion still penalized in the real Cuba. This path of professional and civic growth is one I want to share with others.

The Prince Claus Award is an award that looks forward, a stimulus that invites dreams and the setting of higher goals. This year, 2011, could be the stage to realize some journalistic challenges that I have fantasized about for a long time.

Our Island is desperate for arguments, debates and information. We cannot simply denounce intolerance, describe what doesn’t work, or point fingers at what we don’t like. It is time to begin to change. For those of us who reject another cycle of frustration and tension, who reject the mistrust looming over us, it is also time to do something, however small.

I like to work with the written word and with news and I feel my place is appropriately in kilobytes, pages of newspapers, a mouse and a keyboard. This does not mean I am going to lock myself in the ivory tower and write, quite the opposite.

Words do not always behave like barricades or like thrown paving stones; fortunately words also behave like an effective balsam on a distressed nation. I believe in the medicine of free information, and in the imperfect democracy we Cubans will, one day, manage to put into practice in our country. I am a dreamer, I know, but so are all of you here… and we are not alone.

This year new cracks will appear in the state monopoly on information. Any provincial blogger armed with a mobile phone could jeopardize official newspapers and could transmit his words, photos, audio and video direct to the Web. I like to say — half joking, half seriously — that if Cubans can invent ground beef with no beef in it, as we did during the most difficult years of the Special Period when banana skins became meat, we can invent an Internet without the Internet.

With those little cellular gadgets, we have learned to send and receive the total spectrum of information from this Island. I feel I am also a missionary of the creed of spreading knowledge and tools that make us free throughout the whole Island. Because each one of us can become our own press agency, without bosses or censors.

I have dedicated recent months to this, through the magnificent experience of an academy with 27 students, five professors, workshops, thematic conferences, and advice and support for those who have recently opened a space on the web. In the coming months, I intend to extend the reach of these courses. The blogger virus will ultimately infect thousands of Cubans.

A more difficult dream — and so a more recurring one — is the creation of a new media outlet. Many who are here today, though they may not know it, are the future editors, photographers and correspondents of this newspaper. Without all of you, it will not be possible. Without the talent and energy that can infuse the pages of this planned information space, it will all remain the fantasy of one small blogger.

So these few words are also to say to you: Help me, join me in this unpredictable adventure of empowering ourselves as citizens, of behaving as free people in a country full of fear, without losing our way on the path of differences that feed our pluralism, and avoiding the known error of unanimity. There is room for everyone in this project. What’s more, without you I could not  accomplish it.

Thank you very much,

Yoani Sánchez
Havana, January 7, 2011

Please try to search on my name (Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo) in the (ophidian) official site http://www.cubaliteraria.com.

At this point all I am to the rancid bureaucracy of my country Cubita: a malicious code…!!!

It’s audacity made law. Illiterates who work for a wage. Erasing memory with an impunity they will pay dearly for, sooner or later, we are taking names, do you understand? Unless you desert on your first little jaunt out of the country, like so many hypocritical censors do.

For this we haven’t advanced in 50 years, abusers. Tell me something, Lagarde! Varela, embolden yourself and throw me a caricature with this national atrocity. Let’s see, Abel, are you still in office…? Barnet, please let me know. Iroel Sánchez, was it you? Jorge Ángel Hernández Pérez, do you have anything to declare besides your own talent? Bladimir Zamora, jump! Chang…, nothing, man.

You blotted out Tomás Piard’s documentary TROCADERO 162, BAJOS just because I show up and photograph well and speak with humanity. Now you shit on the prestige of the CUBALITERARIA site by censoring its search engine so nobody knows I’m a writer and that, before the hysterical tantrum you’ve thrown against me, you published a thousand things by me there in http://www.cubaliteraria.com.

Translator’s note: Searching on OLPL’s name at this website yields: Intento de envío de código malicioso. It means “Attempt to send malicious code.” Thus, conveniently erasing Orlando Luis from one source of Cuban literary history.

January 7 2011

She was an attorney at a business in Camagüey until the Day of the Magi, when her gift was a layoff notice. Disheartened, she took home her plastic drinking cup and the small-leafed plant that adorned her desk. At first, she didn’t know how to tell her husband she was no longer employed, nor how to call her parents and tell them their “little girl” had been left aside in the new reorganization of the workforce. She endured and remained silent while eating dinner, as the national news spoke optimistically about a new path to greater efficiency. Only when she was lying down in the dark bedroom did she tell him not to set the alarm because she didn’t have to get up early the next day. Her new life, without a job, had begun.

After cutting the workforce, the administrator at her Camagüey office hired a law firm to deal with legal matters. If before the company’s attorney had handled all the legal paperwork for only 500 Cuban pesos a month (less than 25 US dollars), now the company had to pay 2,000 pesos for the assistance of an outside institution. The arithmetic haunts the unemployed attorney because she can’t even console herself by knowing her dismissal make the company more profitable. Not only that, the most politically reliable and the director’s closest friends remained in their jobs. They managed to acquit themselves well declaring their incompetent bureaucrats, as if in reality they were directly linked to production. Thus, the Cuban Communist Party General Secretary appears now — to the eyes of possible inspectors — as if he were a lathe operator, when everyone knows he vegetates behind a desk piled high with old yellowed documents.

But the greatest anguish for this woman who has fallen into idleness is not the future of her state employer, but the direction her personal life will take. She has never done anything but fill out paperwork, write contracts, amend declarations. Her seventeen year professional life has been spent working for the government boss who, today, threw her out in the street. She knows nothing of hairdressing, nor of the manicure arts that might let her open her own beauty salon. She barely knows how to work a computer and speaks no other languages. Nor does she have the initial capital to open a coffee shop or to invest in breeding pigs. The only thing she’s good at is analyzing legal decrees and finding the loopholes in legal articles. In her case, the layoff is the end of her working life, her return to the kitchen. It is the perennial silence of the alarm that used to go off at six in the morning.

January 7, 2010

January 6, 2010

Foto: Claudio Fuentes Madan

How much do you make? That was the question a faceless journalist asked a man on the National Television News (the best science fiction saga on Cuban television, after, of course, the reading of Fidel’s Reflections). As he earned about three hundred pesos a month, she was wanted to know how much of that salary was spent on food for his family: Almost all — then he hesitated — All.

I looked at the screen with suspicion. What are they up to? Because obviously they are not going to raise the salaries, and even if they did it wouldn’t be enough to eat. Sometimes I wonder how the government can be so completely shameless with the salaries it pays. Suddenly the camera pans to show an organopónico, an urban garden site. I bust out laughing and my family looks at me strangely. What can I do? I justify myself. I could cry but I’ve seen the same movie too many times and have developed a certain cynicism. So instead of earning more money, what we have to do is plant a few furrows on the apartment balcony and grow some onions, right? My father used to grow herbs in the nineties until he realized he didn’t have any food to season.

I was sixteen when I first read, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera and I have never forgotten its analysis of the eternal recurrence of Nietzsche and human historicity. What happens to us when events are repeated over and over again? We could be more serious about overcoming them if they were unique and not the same ones, always repeated. Then when on TV some poor guy doesn’t earn enough money to feed himself and they show him  in front of a plot of dirt, instead of crying it makes me laugh, and he, instead of slapping his boss starts to garden, though he knows that his crop will never be enough. And if you live in Vedado and don’t have any dirt it doesn’t matter, the imperative is to eat, but the system is stuck in neutral and perpetuates itself.

I seem to have the syndrome of eternal return: nothing moves, nothing really changes. I would like to make a video in which I take each phrase said over the last fifty years that proves my theory, every “but now…” “perfecting…” “redevelopment…” “updating the model…” “correcting the mistakes…” Maybe on seeing it all together we would remember that there is another way to live, one in which we move forward over time, and not just go around in circles.

Since December 30 Yamil has been on a hunger and thirst strike, to demand his freedom, and that they comply with what was established in the criminal procedure law, in the last correspondence. It is illegal that he is still in prison. We are presenting a writ of Habeas Corpus.

December 12 2010

December 20 2010

Signs that only I read…

December 21 2010

The Cuban filmmaker Tomás Piard now faces ideological pressure in his work for having interviewed me in his most recent documentary “TROCADERO 162, LOWER,” filmed last November for UNEAC, its producer. The debut of the film planned for 19 December 2010 (the 100th birthday of the Cuban writer José Lezama Lima, the subject of the film) is postponed.

This coming week Tomás Piard will face a meeting to “analyze” the “situation” created by my interview and also the sequestering of the original film and censorship of it in the name of the Abel Prieto, Minister of Culture.

All those in charge are cowards! Petty mercenaries (assassins who kill beauty and truth for wages). Look what they do with this honest and lonely man…!

SOLIDARITY WITH TOMAS PIARD, CUBANS! A CREATOR WHOSE SOLE PURPOSE WAS TO OPEN THE LUNGS TO BREATH IN THE CLAUSTROPHOBIC REPRESSIVE ATMOSPHERE INTO WHICH OUR BUREAUCRATS OF THE 21ST CENTURY HAVE CONVERTED THE CULTURE IN THE TIME OF THE REVOLUTION!

December 25 2010