English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
I get up, got to the mirror to brush my teeth, and discover that my eyes are slanted. I can’t turn on the light because Rafa is sleeping; I prefer to think that I didn’t sleep well and that it’s because of the shadows in the room and I leave it. I turn on the … Continue reading “Pyongyang’s Plan / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado”
I get up, got to the mirror to brush my teeth, and discover that my eyes are slanted. I can’t turn on the light because Rafa is sleeping; I prefer to think that I didn’t sleep well and that it’s because of the shadows in the room and I leave it. I turn on the … Continue reading “Pyongyang’s Plan”
Jesus still believes that he should not have to pay off a debt for enjoying foreign television. The restless Jesus Martinez approaches and asks them if they can help him. He was staring all over the place with his thick glasses while he whispered something about his grandmother being at the verge of a depression … Continue reading “Watching Foreign TV: A Decade of Debt / Laritza Diversent”
When I started working at the independent press agency, Cuba Press, in December of 1995, internet sounded like a science fiction concept. Very few of us knew anything about it. In that highway of information we just saw a complicated trick of interconnections destined only for computer specialists. And according to what the government would … Continue reading ““The Internet is the brainchild of the CIA,” the Cuban government tells us / Iván García”
Pursuant to the uprisings that have taken place in countries of North Africa and the Persian Gulf, many views seem to converge in Cuba. The recurring question, “why don’t Cubans rebel?” leaps out in every conversation with journalists or foreign friends, while among many Cubans living outside the Island a cyber-rebellion seems to have become … Continue reading “To Do Nothing / Miriam Celaya”
It was shortly after I learned that candy is sweet and fire burns, when I came to realize that Cubans are allowed to join organizations created by the government but we are punished, to teach us a lesson, if we decide to create our own groups. And so, as children we were automatically enrolled in … Continue reading “Friends of Salamanders / Yoani Sánchez”
Blogging is a challenge and pleasure to me, just as much professionally as personally. It gives me the opportunity to say what I think, as well as feel, without prohibitions. The possibility to escape the control. Writing online is not easy for Cubans. A challenge. And we have to be brave to face it. Because … Continue reading “Blogging, A Necessity / Laritza Diversent”
Respected colleagues: I have learned, by email, about part of the exchange of opinions stirred up by the appearance on the Cuban TV program “Imprint” about Luis Pavón and Jorge Serguera, interviewed in “The Difference.” I don’t know the contents, and now I’m actually in Spain invited by the Ateneo “Jovellanos” de Gijón. I confess … Continue reading “Message from Loly Estévez / POLEMICA: The 2007 Intellectual Debate”
In Cuba there is no tabloid press following the famous, but many Cubans are up-to-date with gossip about artists, singers, and famous sports figures — national or foreign. The news comes in by the “antenna”, as they call the illegal connections that permit programs transmitted by Miami channels to be seen. Lacking Internet, their access … Continue reading “News and “News“ / Iván García”
It’s been many years since I saw an Australian film whose title I chose for today’s post. It told of a romance between a white city girl, lost in the middle of the desert, and a young native. I don’t agree with how the story ended, but I haven’t forgotten the distress of those characters … Continue reading “A Meeting of Two Worlds / Reinaldo Escobar”
I met Pedro Cruz Mackenzie when we were both taking university prep classes. It was during those difficult years which came to be known as the Special Period. In between classes we would entertain ourselves by collecting oranges, bananas, and any other source of food we could get to ease that hunger which was so … Continue reading “A Freed Black Man / Luis Felipe Rojas”
The neighbor downstairs heard the salsa and the one upstairs the rock and roll. At any hour of the day you could walk past the building and hear the incredible fusion of Van Van and Metallica. They called it the “strength test” and it consisted of round after round of raising the volume. The first … Continue reading “At Full Volume / Claudia Cadelo”
At the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution they are talking about the guidelines for the next Communist Party Congress. Despite the fact that, according to the Official Gazette, some of the proposals in the guidelines have already been passed as laws and the parliament hasn’t had its chance to display its unanimous approval, … Continue reading “These Peculiar Guidelines / Claudia Cadelo”
Just a few hours ago a shocking even took place in my semi-wintry Bayamo: at approximately seven at night this Wednesday, December 22, a young man of 34, Alexander Otero Rodriguez, appeared at a central corner of the city, accompanied by his wife, Aliuska Noguer Tornés, 18, along with their baby, born 48 days ago. … Continue reading “One Family, One Tragedy / Ernesto Morales Licea”
People on the street in Cuba look sideways at the recent reforms designed for the impoverished national economy. Few are counting on these changes put forward by president Raúl Castro. They don’t believe they will make the country function more efficiently. They know what a group of Cubans think. In a survey of 48 persons … Continue reading “Economic Reforms: More Questions than Answers / Iván García”
