English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
When the 20 convicts who accompany me go out on pass for family reunions, I send them off with the joy that spreads to me from their happy faces. They are barely gone when I plunge myself into literature. Nothing will hurt my exorbitant creation, not even the knowledge that they will deny me the … Continue reading “The Solitude of the Barracks Multiplies My Strengths / Angel Santiesteban”
Although article 2.1 of the current Republic of Cuba Penal Code says, “Only acts expressly described as crimes in the law may be sanctioned…” doctrine inoculated for more than five decades managed to change in us the concept of Fatherland, Nation, State, Country and Revolution; this served as support for decreeing that whoever exercises the … Continue reading “Raul Castro’s Black Glasses / Juan Juan Almeida”
Miriam Celaya, Havana, 28 March 2014 – On Saturday 29 March 2014 the Cuban Parliament “will debate” in a special session period the new Foreign Investment Law, another desperate attempt by the regime to attract foreign businessmen who choose to risk their capital and ships where those of others have already been shipwrecked. This time … Continue reading “Cuba for Foreigners / Miriam Celaya”
It’s difficult for a cell to maintain its health inside a sick organism. In an inefficient society the bubble of functionality bursts. In the same way, certain ethical values — selected and filtered — cannot be strengthened in the midst of a debacle of moral integrity. Rescuing codes of social conduct implies also accepting those … Continue reading “Devaluation / Yoani Sanchez”
First page of the handwritten letter Mr. Ruler: On February 28 I completed one year of unjust imprisonment, after a trial where I demonstrated my innocence with multiple proofs and witnesses. In exchange, the Prosecutor couldn’t present one single consistent proof against me, except the malicious – in addition to being ridiculous – one of … Continue reading “Second Open Letter to Raul Castro from Angel Santiesteban”
December starts in New York. The people don’t notice it, because they are not Cubans. But December is the month of death and of hope. The end of a year. We are still here. Another year begins. We don’t know if it will be our final date. Beauty and liberty surround us leaving us no … Continue reading “December Tells Me / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Gorki Águila, leader of the punk rock band Porno para Ricardo, was released on bail a week ago, after a People’s Revolutionary Police (PNR) patrol stopped him in the early morning of Sunday, 29 September, and found in his backpack two tablets of a medication for epilepsy, an illness Águila has suffered from since he … Continue reading “I Don’t Know What They’re Accusing Me Of / Lilianne Ruiz, Gorki Aguila”
Lic. Eliocer Cutiño Rodríguez Many people work in the TRD* chain of shops, subject to what may be called military regulations. A vast number of those workers are unaware of the rights which could help them in the face of possible violations of labor discipline. How could a process be fair in which, per Resolution … Continue reading “Where the Boss is Judge and Jury / Cuban Law Association, Eliocer Cutino Rodriguez”
Among the many phrases repeated over and over in the streets of Cuba, there is one that masterfully summarizes the affect of individual interests. Simply saying “they stomped on my callus,” is enough to let us know that they’ve touched someone’s soft spot, a part of himself that will make him jump, protect himself and … Continue reading “When “The Bad Guys” Carry Calculators / Yoani Sanchez”
Lic. Mérida de la C. Pastor Masson In terms of Civil Law, we have in our society an interesting daily theme which, because it is unknown, we are led to act unwisely on many occasions. We have all once said “this is mine”, “this is my house”, “this is my car”, and these words cover … Continue reading “About the Law of Property (IV) / Cuban Law Association, Mérida de la C. Pastor Masson”
Havana Police. Photo OLPL It was Saturday morning at ten-thirty, and was out with my oldest grandson. I was driving our old little car down a street in Central Havana as we turned a corner and I had to stop. On the left side of the street, a van parked at the curb was taking … Continue reading “Violence in Cuba: People’s Helplessness and Protection of Power / Miriam Celaya”
PUERTO PADRE , Cuba , www.cubanet.org – Dragged into the torrent of criminality by genetic defects or by a social environment prone to crime, not a few inmates who today form the very profuse Cuban prison population, have ended up contracting mental illness. Five maximum security prisons and another 195 prisons form the penitentiary system … Continue reading “Half a Million “Crazies” Loom / Alberto Mendez Castello”
By: Albert Sergio Laguna Before starting my post graduate program on Cuban popular culture, I believed that the members of my family were the most funny and original people on the planet. This opinion lasted until I heard of Guillermo Alvarez Guedes, I sat down with his 32 albums and I bottled myself up in … Continue reading “Alvarez Guedes and exile: A story told through giggles / Albert Sergio Laguna (from the blog of Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada)”
HAVANA, Cuba, August, www.cubanet.org.- Similar to the theme of Steven Spielberg’s movie Minority Report, where someone is imprisoned for crimes they had not yet committed but it was assumed they might commit, the Cuban Criminal Code devotes several articles to “the state of danger and measures of security.” An index of pre-criminal dangerousness is practically … Continue reading “Workers for the Nomenklatura / Lilianne Ruiz”
We make available for anyone who wants to know the truth and have all the evidence of the judicial effrontery against Angel Santiesteban Prats, the complete record and all the documents that form part of this judicial farce behind which they incarcerated him in concentration camp 1580, El Pitirre, San Miguel del Padron, Havana, where … Continue reading “Official statement: We are publishing the complete record of the judicial farce mounted against Angel Santiesteban”
