English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Once again they are celebrating another boring anniversary of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) on my planet. As time goes on, fewer and fewer people lend their efforts to this farce. As I was visiting a friend yesterday afternoon in Vedado, I was able to observe in the formal garden of … Continue reading “The Silence of the Cauldrons / Rebeca Monzo”
Yesterday afternoon, quite by accident, I bumped into one of the activists with the CDR (Committee for the Defense of the Revolution) on my block. I have known her for many years, since 1971, when I moved to this apartment where I currently live. Although we have never been friends, since we have nothing in … Continue reading “The Power That Has No Power / Rebeca Monzo”
A few days ago a lady who has a seat on the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) knocked on my door. I thought it was a mistake or forgetfulness that brought her to our door, as we haven’t been members of the CDR for nearly a decade. But the thin woman was … Continue reading “Cachita — The Virgin of Charity of Cobre — Returns to Cuban Hearts and Homes / Yoani Sanchez”
I read this phrase that I chose as a title on Facebook, and in the background were photos of Fidel and Raul Castro, the brothers who have tyrannically ruled Cuba for more than fifty years. It’s true, those Dictators rule because we Cubans on the island obey, because to confront them is to fear losing … Continue reading ““They Rule Because You Obey” / Angel Santiesteban”
Leaving the house, any indistinguishable morning, on the park’s second bench a group of neighbors. Happy retirees. It is not that they are happy for having learned some kind of existential revelation in the autumn of their lives. It would not be impossible although I venture it difficult to believe. Above all after having trained … Continue reading “Fortune Empress of the World / Lilianne Ruiz”
By Laritza Diversent This 5th of July, the State Council invited Cubans to participate in the elections of municipal and provincial council members and national MPs. This convocation inaugurates the general election, taking place every 5 years, to renew the positions in the Popular Assemblies and the State Council. Now in 2012, 16-year-old Cubans will … Continue reading “Cuba in Elections / Cuban Legal Advisor, Laritza Diversent”
On March 13, 1968, Fidel Castro, in one of his miles-long speeches, announced to the Cuban people what he called “the Revolutionary Offensive*.” In reality, it had nothing revolutionary about it, on the contrary, it was an essentially counterrevolutionary measure intended to eliminate the urban petty bourgeoisie. And with it to eliminate one of the … Continue reading “Do You Remember the Revolutionary Offensive of 1968? / Haroldo Dilla Alfonso”
Cubans who did not have to rush off to a psychiatrist’s office in order to prevent a nervous breakdown after reading their nation’s newspapers this week should consider themselves lucky. The front page began with an official announcement on the moringa plant—a type of American tree grown in the French tropics, with a white trunk … Continue reading “A Good Psychiatrist / Fernando Dámaso”
I am writing in order to release my anger, because this morning Agustin has been attacked by a mob of people from that neighborhood “El Globo” –The Globe– in Calabazar, from where I was able to take him out by force with love and hot meals. He doesn’t live there any more, now he lives … Continue reading “Samsara / Lilianne Ruíz”
These days I have wandered with my lawyer through the “legal systems” of Cuba. The Castro brothers, who own the Birán estate that was previously their father’s, later extended the fence to the limit of the jurisdictional waters and converted the estate into Birania. They seized the rest of the nation and have “governed” it as if it were their personal fiefdom, … Continue reading “My Case File Disappeared / Angel Santiesteban”
It’s been several days since I published on my blog due to, among other things, a big accumulation of work and personal matters that have affected me. The last thing I published was related to the first of May and the impact it had on me. In these days I have had to dedicate myselfthoroughly … Continue reading “A Curious Event / Rebeca Monzo”
By Alexis Jardines José Daniel Ferrer suffers in the dungeons of State Security in Santiago de Cuba, subjected to psychological pressures and macabre practices (like night attacks from swarms of mosquitoes) that seek to break his health. What has Raul Castro gained by the detention and harassment of the leader of the Patriotic Union of … Continue reading “The Great Bubble and the Complicit Silence / Estado de SATS, Alexis Jardines”
To whom it may concern: I, Hector Riscart Mustelier, declare in writing what really happened on Wednesday, November 16, 2011. We left the “National Cabaret” where we were working — the Herencia group — a reggae band of which I am the director. We were Adrian (props), Daniel (drummer), Zenén (sound engineer) and myself; we … Continue reading “The Trial is Today, April 13. Solidarity with Zuraima, Wife of the Rastifarian Priest Imprisoned in Cuba: +53-52519247 / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
No one pays us to reclaim our freedom, that misconception of the phenomenon has been viciously spread in Cuba and outside Cuba by the filthy State Security. It’s not so, because it is absurd. If we protest it is because we are those who suffer from the lack of law and freedom, and if someone … Continue reading “The Waters, First / Lilianne Ruíz”
My neighborhood seems peaceful at night, but it operates in an irrational paradox, because in some streets the few lights that work are on in the day and at dusk they go off giving an atmosphere complicit with criminals and lovers. In the middle of the night we sometimes hear the exalted meows of some … Continue reading “Feline Needs / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado”
