English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Cubanet, Luis Cino Alvarez, Havana, 30 March 2015 — Despite the fact that on the three occasions I ever visited Varadero my experiences were not particularly pleasant, that beach – which today for the majority of Cubans is almost as inaccessible as Waikiki – occupies a special place in my nostalgia. The first time I … Continue reading “When I got to Varadero* / Cubanet, Luis Cino Alvarez”
The potential complications of the renewed diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba. Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo It was about time. Uber taxi drives agree. Academics agree. Minority leaders agree. American social activists agree. Radio, TV and press editors agree. Even comedians agree. It’s the only point of consensus in the polarized US politics. No need … Continue reading “Diplomacy, yes. Democracy, what for? / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Desde Aqui, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 27 March 2015 — On a cold November morning in the late eighties, some two hundred of us were trying to come to an agreement to organize a line to buy interprovincial bus tickets at an agency in Havana’s Playa municipality. As usually happens in these cases, the line had … Continue reading “A Leader Of Civil Society, A Real Story Without A Moral / Reinaldo Escobar”
14ymedio, Fernando Donante Ochoa, Holguin, 23 March 2105 – the Holguin municipal government decided to hurriedly solve the problem of sewage running down 8th Street between 29th and 35th, in the La Quinta neighborhood, after having received a letter signed by more than 100 people who threatened not to vote in the elections for delegates … Continue reading “Holguin repairs a street after a hundred residents threaten not to vote in the elections / 14ymedio, Fernando Donate”
Ivan Garcia, 15 March 2015 — The dirty, dilapidated produce market — its floor covered with red dirt and its shelving rusty — in Cerro’s crowded El Pilar neighborhood is ten minutes by car from the center of Havana. Sandra, a housewife, has spent two nights in line here waiting for potatoes. “At three in … Continue reading “Cuba: Potatoes from the Ration Book (When Available) / Ivan Garcia”
14ymedio, Rosa Lopez, Havana, 22 March 2015 — Spring has officially arrived, but without the rain. Every day the drama worsens in the Cuban countryside, especially in the East. Throughout the length and breadth of the country, the private agricultural sector is experiencing a very difficult situation, because of the precariousness of resources and the … Continue reading “In Cuba Drought Wreaks Havoc on World Water Day / 14ymedio, Rosa Lopez”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 18 March 2015 — Twelve years after the Black Spring, 14ymedio chats with some of the former political prisoners currently living on the Island. Two questions have been posed to those activists condemned in March 2003: one about their decision to stay in Cuba, and the other about how they see … Continue reading ““No matter where I live, I will keep working for the freedom of Cuba” / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar”
Ivan Garcia, 13 March 2015 — For a group of sixth grade students at the elementary school named after Juan Oscar Alvarado — a 19-year-old underground fighter, assassinated in 1958 in a house in the Sevillano neighborhood where they hid arms — located in that peaceful Havana neighborhood, their plans for the future are far … Continue reading “The Conversations and Aspirations of Many Cuban Students / Ivan Garcia”
14ymedio, ORLANDO PALMA, Havana, 9 March 2015 — Last weekend, the arrival of the potato in several farmers markets in Havana provoked fights that recalled the despair of the most difficult years of the Special Period. Hours after the squabbles ended, it was possible to buy potatoes in the same places, but from the hands of those clever … Continue reading “The Annual Potato Ritual / 14ymedio, Orlando Palma”
Iván García, 24 February 2015 — One summer during a stay in Camaguey — a province 340 miles east of Havana — the owner of a house where I was staying listened from early morning to Radio Marti, a network created in 1985 under the administration of Ronald Reagan with the goal of providing Cubans … Continue reading “Radio Marti: The Voice of Cuban Dissidents / Ivan Garcia”
Orlando Zapata Tamayo Luis Felipe Rojas — I published this post a few days after that needless death. Now I again denounce the death and express the same ideas about it. It’s my homage to my brother, Orlando Zapata Tamayo. I am still experiencing the pain caused by that avoidable death, and I feel impotent … Continue reading “Seven Steps to Kill Orlando Zapata Tamayo / Luis Felipe Rojas”
Iván García, 4 February 2015 — For the prolific and noteworthy Cuban composer, Jorge Luis Piloto Alsar, born in the winter of 1955 in Cárdenas in the town of Matanzas, some 145 kilometers north of Havana, not in his wildest dreams could he have imagined that his songs would achieve international fame. Let’s get into … Continue reading “Seven Hours with Jorge Luis Piloto in Miami / Ivan Garcia”
14ymedio, Orlando Palma, Havana, 9 February 2014 – “The flour trail is easy to follow,” says a retired baker whose hands, for more than five years now, haven’t mixed ingredients nor added leavening to a dough. “I left it all behind, because the administrator of the bakery where I worked changed every six months and … Continue reading “Follow the Trail of Flour / 14ymedio, Orlando Palma”
The photographer’s work was the pretext that Havana used to suspend negotiations with the European Union 14ymedio, Ernesto Hernandez, Miami, 23 January 2015 — Marius Jovaiša is a Lithuanian photographer, 41, who has spent much of the last five years taking photos of Cuba from a perspective never before seen: from above. He started the … Continue reading ““This is your country, and no regime can take it from you” / 14ymedio”
Warning: The regime in Havana has prepared a new legal trap for Ángel. As is already public knowledge, Ángel Santiesteban has been held in a military border patrol base in Jaimanitas since August 13. He was placed there after several days of detention in the Acosta Police Station, following his surrender after having taken 5 of the … Continue reading “If it were up to them, they’d shoot me / Angel Santiesteban”
