English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Translator’s note: The translation of this post was delayed; Voices 7 is now out. Friday night, November 12, was one of magic and joy for the sponsors and witnesses of the journal Voices, developed since last August by Yoani Sanchez, Reinaldo Escobar, Luis Orlando and other creators from the Academy Blogger in Cuba, who distributed … Continue reading “Voices 3 About to be Released / Miguel Iturria Savón”
Valle Grande Prison Havana Feb 3, 2011 To: Silvio Benítez Márquez. President of the Liberal Party of the Cuban Republic (PLRC) Dear Silvio, today when I have completed exactly 1 year and 3 months of being unjustly imprisoned, I am writing to you in order that the world should know, whether the European Community, Alaska … Continue reading “Letter From Valle Grande Prison / Silvio Benítez Márquez”
Written by: Yadaimí Domínguez Faced with the delay of the Attorney General of the Republic, his refusal to modify the terms of custody and to violate the terms provided in the law, my brother started a new hunger strike on December 30 with only four months of recovery from another that lasted 107 days. In … Continue reading “The Pitcher Can Only Go To The Well So Many Times Before It Breaks / Yamil Domínguez”
The Villa Manuela Gallery extended until the end of November the exhibition Beyond the border, of the painter and engraver Eduardo Roca Salazar (Choco), who according to N. Echevarria, “returns to drawing and even makes a foray into three dimensionality through a set of “sculptured” figures, the inclusion of “Choir” (2010), anchored in earlier works, … Continue reading “The Borders of Choco / Miguel Iturria Savón”
Eliseo, 39, is considered a public benefactor. A guy who is always welcome. For a decade, this Cuban American has been a ‘mule’. He resides in Miami and makes some fifteen trips to the island every year. Sometimes more. Right now, from his mobile phone, he calls his usual driver to pick him up at … Continue reading “Welcome, Mules / Iván García”
Once again this year, our friend, who does not like to go backwards nor drive long distances, invited us to take her in her car to El Rincon and back again, to lunch in a very good paladar – private restaurant – in Santiago de las Vegas, as a gift for my birthday We left … Continue reading “The Road to El Rincon / Rebeca Monzo”
He arrived home on Saturday. After 7 years and 8 months behind the bars of a cell and the creaking of locks, the dissident economist Arnaldo Ramos Lauzurique, 68, at 6:30 in the morning of his first Sunday in freedom, sat in the park facing the modest apartment where he lives in the neighborhood of … Continue reading “Who is Arnaldo Ramos? / Iván García”
I want to start, this time, making a critical clarification: what I intend to address in this post will be an exception in the blog. The purpose of this blog is to inspire thinking, offer journalistic texts (and on occasion literary ones), where analysis and critical thinking predominate, in a manner of speaking. Whether I … Continue reading “Dissecting a Modus Operandi / Ernesto Morales Licea”
This is not the first time I felt like telling Mariela Castro* that she should have remained silent. It’s a strange reaction in me, because normally I encourage others to express whatever they want to say. With her, however, it is hard for me, and there is something called decency which — for those who, … Continue reading “The Missteps of the Princess / Claudia Cadelo”
I never knew my grandfather Miguel Coyula because he died on 23 November 1948. But his influence has touched even the Coyulas who came after me, the last of his grandchildren. We grew up listening to the courage that earned him the rank of commander of the Liberation Army, standing in the galaxy of young … Continue reading “A Commander Grandfather / Regina Coyula”
On the overcast morning of September 28, the historic leader was in his favourite environment. Public events. The adulation of the masses. His natural state. It is in big gatherings where Castro has given speeches of up to 14 hours, true Guinness records, and where he whipped them up into a state of delirium. The … Continue reading “Fidel Castro in his Element after Half a Century / Iván García”
When he played Cuban baseball, Aroldis Chapman de la Cruz was called “the Cayo Mambi missile,” after the town in Holguin where he was born on February 28, 1988. Now, in the United States, they call him, “the new king of speed.” The left-hander recently made major league history, throwing a fastball at 105 miles … Continue reading “Aroldis, the Cayo Mambi Missile / Iván García”
Excerpt from article: Insomnia is a very persistent. But the vigil could be much worse. Nietzsche asked to see the sleeping beings to discern their true nature. Photographer Carlos Otero and Enrique Rottenberg offer only the empty beds, single beds, the landscape of a country without the protagonists of so many failed plans and safety-pin … Continue reading “Cuba Fits in One Bed / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Despite the fence and police surveillance that I’ve won by being a disobedient Twitterer, I was able to go to Guantánamo on November 8. I knew that Rolando Rodríguez Lobaina, José Cano Fuentes and Yober Sevila were already back home after their arrests and beatings from October 31 in Banes, and their confinement in the … Continue reading “Making Them Value Citizen’s Rights / Luis Felipe Rojas”
The Cuban generals converted into businessmen felt a morbid fascination with the Chinese model. It was always the “narrative” they shared with their followers on the island. But in 1968, Fidel Castro decided to play the Russian card. After diplomatic disagreements and an aggressive discourse, Havana broke with Peking and bet big on the line … Continue reading “It is Hard to Eat Black Beans With Chopsticks / Iván García”
