English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Rebeca Monzo, 23 October 2019 — The loss of Cuba’s gastronomic legacy began in 1959 when private companies, factories and businesses began to disappear after the so-called “triumph of the Revolution,” appropriated entirely by the totalitarian regime. Back when Cuba had six million inhabitants, there were also six million head cattle along with many sheep, … Continue reading “A Lost Gastronomic Legacy / Rebeca Monzo”
14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 3 September 2019 — The phrase is attributed to Antonio Maceo, general of our Wars of Independence and one of the essential pillars of the foundational theogony of the Cuban nation, whose feats and proverbial value in the insurgent camp, added to his majestic bearing and mestizo complexion, earned him the … Continue reading “We Don’t Understand Each Other: The Myths and Facts of Baragua”
Iván García, 3 December 2018 — A 1950s General Motors truck with an American body and a powerful Italian Iveco six-cylinder inline engine parks in front of a house in a neighborhood west of Havana. Several men begin unloading sheets of drywall, bags of joint compound and galvanized steel beams. Twice a week Jesús orders … Continue reading “Self-Employed Cubans Ready to Defend Their Rights / Ivan Garcia”
14ymedio, Vicente Echerri, New York | October 20, 2018 — The destruction — and transformation — of the Cuban nation has become not only a commonplace, but a perennial lamentation among our own. Those of us who live in exile hardly have another subject, especially those who identify with the so-called “historic exile,” although many … Continue reading “On a Fractured Identity”
14ymedio, Reyes Theis, Caracas, 26 June 2018 — “My husband and I eat only vegetables, yucca or potato, we leave for the kids what the box brings. Sometimes I give them rice with butter in the morning and another little bit at night.” So says Aurimar, seated on the wall of the San Bernardino church, … Continue reading “Revolutionary Hunger in Venezuela”
14ymedio, Zunlida Mata, Havana, 27 April 2018 — Tourists landing in Havana have, at a minimum, two goals: tour the city in an old convertible and have a mojito at La Bodeguita del Medio. The emblematic restaurant, which has just turned 68, owes its fame to the bohemian intellectuals who frequented it for more than two decades. On … Continue reading “Bodeguita del Medio, a Gold Mine That Lives Off the Past”
Ivan Garcia, 20 April 2018 — Summer 1993. When night fell in Falcón, a little place next to the Central Highway, crossed by the Sagua la Chica and Jagüeyes rivers, people were sitting by their front doors, telling stories, and drinking home-made rum distilled with cow-shit. Those were the difficult years of the “Special Period“, and in Falcón, … Continue reading “Cubans Air Their Views on Miguel Diaz-Canel / Ivan Garcia”
14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, 31 January 2016 – Let’s get right down to it. The current conflict that divides half the planet, and especially Latin Americans, is between neo-populism and authoritarian democracy, against liberal democracy. I just developed a short course on the subject at the Francisco Marroquín University in Guatemala. I do not know … Continue reading “Our Everyday War / 14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner”
Rebeca Monzo, 13 November 2015 — As I see it, it would be incorrect to claim there is a Cuban style. During the last fifty years Cuban men and women on the island have been dressing any way they can with whatever was sent to them by overseas relatives, by repurposing old clothes or, in … Continue reading “Is There a Cuban Style? / Rebeca Monzo”
Iván García, 12 November 2015 — Liudmila and Sheila are prostitutes and they don’t know about business or cutting-edge technology. But a colleague sent them a text message telling them, “Come here, the yumas (foreigners) are wild.” They put on stunning high heels, tight clothing and perfume with an anesthetizing fragrance. Their plan was simple: to … Continue reading “The Havana Fair: Hookers, Heat and Beer / Ivan Garcia”
Ivan Garcia, 26 September 2015 — Let’s climb aboard a time machine. Into the future, of course. By now, Raul Castro has given up the throne. His son Alejandro has been tried for abuse of power, financial corruption and violations of human rights. Luis Alberto Rodriguez Lopez-Callejas, the Cuban Martin Borman, has fled with a … Continue reading “Cuba 2019 / Ivan Garcia”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 3 February 2015 – Any day can be the eve of a celebration or a disaster, as much for those who hurried to exchange their convertible pesos (CUC) to Cuban pesos (CUP – also known as moneda nacional, or “national money”) as for those who are purchasing foreign currencies or who … Continue reading “Without Confidence in the Money / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar”
Under a brightly colored umbrella, a representative of Gaviota, a tourism chain, the property of businessmen in the Cuban military, offers an inclusive leisure package for the summer. The bureau of reservations is nestled in an old parking lot of a strip mall in 5th Avenue and 42nd, Miramar, to the west of Havana. It … Continue reading “Cuba: Is Varadero for People of Another Social Class? / Ivan Garcia”
In Havana, the good medical specialists always have at hand two kinds of treatment for their patients. “If it is a person with family abroad or of high purchasing power, I propose that he go to the international pharmacy to buy the medications in foreign currency because they are of higher quality and more effective. … Continue reading “Cuba: The Tricks of the Embargo / Ivan Garcia”
Fidel Castro has been an effective gravedigger. He buried sugar crops and the agricultural abundance of old. Recently, Cuba had to import sugar from Brazil and the Dominican Republic to meet the consumption needs of international tourists. With this type of negative aura that has always surrounded Castro, it makes sense these days what baseball fans were saying after the dismal … Continue reading “Is Baseball Finished in Cuba? / Ivan Garcia”
