English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
A group of civil rights activists gather every Tuesday and Thursday between 6:00 and 8:00 PM in the park at 31st and 41st, at the corner of the “League against Blindness” hospital, very much in tune with the function of activists to tear off the Cubans’ blindfold and teach them to overcome their fear. To … Continue reading “Citizen Evening: First Free Territory of Cuba / Angel Santiesteban”
I know that logically I don’t have to respond to the mostly anonymous commentators in Internet forums. But this time I’ve decided for forget protocol to respond here because so much raving frightens me. I don’t deny the education that I received, but I most thank my mother, who often skipped breakfast so that her … Continue reading “Answer to Innocence / Angel Santiesteban”
Chapter 3: Dissident Muralist* The procedure was simple. Very simple. You looked for a piece of cardboard and painted it with a phrase against the Government. You hung it around your neck and went out into the street. Like in the reality shows where a naked man comes out into the light of day starkers, … Continue reading “Instructions for an Escape / Ernesto Morales Licea”
Photo taken by Amnesty International by Pablo Pacheco Avila The future is unpredictable and our day to day experiences prove this. Just a few months ago my life was being consumed in a jail cell of the Canaletas Prison in the province of Ciego de Avila. Meanwhile, in other corners of the world thousands of … Continue reading “Chronicle of my Trip to London (Pt. I) / Pablo Pacheco”
The following is a testimony from Abel Lopez Perez who, a few days before the 3rd of December, was transferred from the Provincial Prison of Guantanamo (in his native city and where he served a political prison sentence) to the horrid dungeons of a prison in Camaguey, where Orlando Zapata was also taken. In that … Continue reading “Abel Remembers the Last Days of Zapata in a Prison of Camaguey / Luis Felipe Rojas”
Havana, October 15, 1999 Your Excellency: Respectfully I salute you and express my admiration to you and your people, and join this celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in which your country became free from the communist yoke through a peaceful revolution. The example of Czechoslovakia has left a deep impression in … Continue reading “Letter to Vaclav Havel, President of the Czech Republic / Oscar Elías Biscet”
In my judgment, few issues of the Cuban reality are more complex to objectively analyze than the controversial economic, financial and trade blockade-embargo which, since 1962, the United States has maintained against the Island’s government. While there are topics that we can dissect almost surgically, separating their components with pinpoint precision, on this topic there … Continue reading “Blockade vs. Embargo: Reason Hijacked / Ernesto Morales Licea”
From the silence, the impunity, and with the same contempt for the activists who promote human rights in Cuba, the political police triggered the arrests and threats in Havana and other cities in the country, between July 10 and August 12, which coincides with the resumption of activities by ex-president Fidel Castro and the official … Continue reading “Repression as Signs of Identity / Miguel Iturría Savón”
This is about José Cano Fuentes, one of the most active defenders of human rights in Guantanamo. His membership in the Eastern Democratic Alliance has put him in the middle of the most talked about repression of recent weeks. On Wednesday, July 7, when he was returning from supporting Idalmis Reinosa Núñez, who was also … Continue reading “One More Beating?”
