English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
#SanGeely This photo was taken November 6, 2009: they knock and they know what they are doing…! Translator’s note: The day this photo was taken Orlando and Yoani Sanchez were kidnapped “Gangland Style” by plain-clothes Security Agents, beaten in the car, and then thrown back out on the street. The photo in this post is … Continue reading “#SanGeely / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
We were waiting for a ride on 23rd when Ernesto Morales’ cell phone rang. It was Yoani Sánchez, worried about him because he could have taken AeroCaribbean Flight No. 883. We were stunned for a few seconds and then Ernesto told me: “I was going to travel on that plane.” I felt helpless to express … Continue reading “Catastrophe / Claudia Cadelo”
How many human dramas around each victim in the crash of Aerocaribbean Flight 833. The similarity of names in the passenger list suggest that parents and children, brothers and sisters, couples with their offspring, have been lost. I remember that among the names mentioned on the news this morning was that of a Japanese tourist, … Continue reading “Personal Catastrophes / Yoani Sánchez”
We believe every human being in the world has the right to health, with no consideration of costs. Juan Juan: Solidarity Without Frontiers is a relatively young organization with very defined purposes. Somewhere I read, “Our membership is composed of doctors who have fled the Cuban communist government, and today live in the United States … Continue reading “Julio Cesar Alfonso, Executive Director and President of Solidarity Without Frontiers / Juan Juan Almeida”
Havana, October 15, 1999 Your Excellency: Respectfully I salute you and express my admiration to you and your people, and join this celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in which your country became free from the communist yoke through a peaceful revolution. The example of Czechoslovakia has left a deep impression in … Continue reading “Letter to Vaclav Havel, President of the Czech Republic / Oscar Elías Biscet”
From Canaleta prison in Ciego de Ávila, Pedro Argüelles Morán political prisoner, 62, called me on Friday the 22nd and said a State Security had told him he could be released this Sunday, October 24. Other relatives of the dozen of prisoners from the group of 75 who, like Argüelles Morán, do not wish to … Continue reading “This Weekend the Prisoners Who Don’t Want To Leave Cuba Are Expected To Be Released / Iván García”
It had already been leaked to Cuban dissidents that the journalist and psychologist Guillermo Fariñas enjoyed a big lead in the voting for the 2010 Sakharov Prize. Among the local opposition the distinction has received more applause than criticism. Still, ‘Coco’ — as we call him — was surprised and the phone in his house … Continue reading “Expected Prize / Iván García”
In my judgment, few issues of the Cuban reality are more complex to objectively analyze than the controversial economic, financial and trade blockade-embargo which, since 1962, the United States has maintained against the Island’s government. While there are topics that we can dissect almost surgically, separating their components with pinpoint precision, on this topic there … Continue reading “Blockade vs. Embargo: Reason Hijacked / Ernesto Morales Licea”
After a mass at her shrine by the Bishop of Santiago de Cuba, the Virgin of Charity of Cobre began on 8 August a pilgrimage across the country, with a message of dialogue and reconciliation, which will run until 10 December 2011. The precession, commemorating the 400th anniversary of her appearance in Cuban water, coincides … Continue reading “The Virgin of Charity of Cobre / Dimas Castellanos”
The official Cuban press insists on justifying a single-party system. Some of the arguments are based on the fact that Martí created a single party, how lack of unity led to revolutionary failures, how the very existence of the nation depends on preserving unity, and how a multiparty system would be co-opted by imperialism. The … Continue reading “What Does Martí Have to Do with a Single Party? / Dimas Castellanos”
CUBA: DR. OSCAR E. BISCET CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER AND PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE January 2010 “I say to my brothers in exile, the international community and the Cuban people that I feel kidnapped only for defending the right to life and the right of all Cubans to live in freedom. REMEMBER I WILL NEVER BETRAY A … Continue reading “Oscar Elías Biscet”
There’s a discrepancy between the sign board and program schedule at the Casa Gaia, located in Teniente Rey, between Águila and Cuba Streets in the historic quarter of Havana. That’s where art and thought now come together, but the sign board at the entrance announces the staging of Flechas del Ángel del Olvido (The Angel … Continue reading “Live Culture at Casa Gaia / Miguel Iturría Savón”
Voces Tras Las Rejas was begun by Pablo Pacheco, one of the prisoners of conscience from the Black Spring of 2003. It is a collection of thoughts and first-hand experiences of various political prisoners that reside behind bars in Cuban jails. Getting their voices out of their cells and into this blog is made possible … Continue reading “Voices Behind The Bars”
Born in Havana on November 14… well the year doesn’t matter, I’ll just tell you I am of the era of the four-speed record player and the pressure cooker. I am a teacher, a “quasi-journalist” (I lacked one semester to finish), I worked in radio for two years, I was a diplomat in Paris and … Continue reading “Rebeca Monzo”
Yoani Sánchez, born in Havana, 1975. I studied for two terms at the Pedagogical Institute, majoring in Spanish Literature. In 1995, I moved to the Faculty of Arts of Letters, and after five years finished a degree in Hispanic Philology. I majored in contemporary Latin American Literature, presenting an incendiary thesis entitled, “Words Under Pressure: … Continue reading “Yoani Sánchez”
