English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Corruption — the action of corrupting — is the result of many causes, that range from personal conduct to the political-economic system of each country. It is an ancient social phenomenon to that occurs to a greater or lesser extent in all societies and has been present throughout the history of Cuba. In the colony, … Continue reading “Corruption and the Morality of Survival / Dimas Castellano”
One of those sentenced to prison following the prostitution scandal revealed in Bayamo, Cuba, in May 2010, after the death of a 12-year-old girl, has declared a hunger strike and as of today and has gone 16 days without eating. Ramón Enrique Álvarez Sánchez owned a rental house for foreigners in Bayamo, and was arrested on … Continue reading “Man Convicted in Bayamo Child Prostitution Ring is on Hunger Strike / Ernesto Morales Licea”
Humberto Gonzales Otaño 56 years old, a jeweler in San Miguel, died violently on the morning of September 14, 2010. Two men entered his home while he and his wife slept. On 28 November the Court of Havana tried six “marginals” from Mantilla, one of the poorest neighborhoods of Havana, accused of organizing and executing … Continue reading “Guilty by Conviction / Laritza Diversent”
The pronouncement of the Cuban Workers Center (CTC), regarding the measures taken by the Government to deflate workforces and to bring about greater self-employment, published in the Journal of Communist Party on September 13, 2010, is a good reason to discuss the dependence of the Cuban labor union movement with respect to the State. According … Continue reading “Independent Unions Versus Updating the Model / Dimas Castellano”
On Thursday November 10 Decree-Law 288 on the legalization of the sale of homes took effect. Complemented with six ministerial resolutions, the decree significantly changes the legislation in effect in this area since the 60′s of last century. With the new provisions Cubans, formal owners of property, become actual owners. Now they can not only … Continue reading “A First Step / Dimas Castellanos”
[I have decided to publish, before this blog is closed down, some texts that I didn’t publish at the time because it was practically impossible to do it because of obvious difficulties or because as time passed I doubted that it would be the best idea. Due to recent events, I think it is best … Continue reading “Closed by Demolition / Francis Sánchez”
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”
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”
On February 11th, they left a comment in the blog: Sorry for the bother. I am a Spanish professor at a French school and in our classes we our studying the subject of free press in Latin America and, more specifically, in Cuba. We have studied an article about the Cuban bloggers, taken from the … Continue reading “The Students of Delphine”
