English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
We are not talking about the “cuadros” or canvases done by Cuban painters. This has nothing to do with art. This is about someone who is a combination office manager and sleazy ideologue. Someone who often veers between being a bored bureaucrat and a white collar criminal. In the peculiar jargon of the party such … Continue reading “Cuban "Cuadros" / Iván García”
In one of those programs that State Security shows on Cuban television, I have seen one of the men I most admire for his courage in this saga for the freedom of Cuba. But State Security did not really present Antúnez, nor speak of his years as a political prisoner, of the horrors of Cuban … Continue reading “May being brave not be so costly, and being a coward not so worthwhile* / Lilianne Ruíz”
For years it has been the practice of totalitarianism to try to divert attention from the complicated situation that exists in Cuba by showing the problems that exist in other countries, often exaggerating them to make people believe our own are not that serious. This is done by taking advantage of the disinformation possible through … Continue reading “The Speck in Our Own Eye / Oscar Espinosa Chepe”
The sun is still rising in Cuba. The natural cycle of birth and death never fails to mock ideology and power. It is the rag that will wipe away all the actors of this diabolic drama. Recently I got to know through a friend who is a veteran of the Ladies in White, that a few … Continue reading “Laura Pollán Is With Me / Lilianne Ruíz”
It is no coincidence that the women who struggle are called crazy, because in reality they must underestimate something, and this has been thus in the history of humanity, because it is very difficult for them to recognize that woman also has a brain… Elisa Carrió, founder of the Argentine political party “Affirmation for a … Continue reading “The Rosa Parks Girls Close the Capitol in Havana / Dora Leonor Mesa”
By Julio Cesar Alvarez Public enemy number one for the Cuban State is not longer the Ladies in White, but rather the images captured by the lenses of independent journalists and common citizens, which can show the dark side of our society. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. In politics this … Continue reading “The New Enemy / Julio Cesar Alvarez”
In Cuba, there have been few priests who have bended their knees on the ground with the poor and persecuted, like Oscar Arnulfo Romero, the Salvadoran Archbishop assassinated in 1980. Or the Peruvian, Brazilian, Colombian and Spanish Jesuits who, in 1972, founded the Theology of Liberation. This defense of the most underprivileged and those repressed … Continue reading “Cuba, the Catholic Hierarchy and Power / Iván García”
Hearing a journalist talking on the shortwave radio about the upcoming Pope’s presence in Cuba, he referred to it using the word “tour”. This gave me much to think about, because the church has taken very good care to emphasize that the visit of Benedict XVI to our country is a pilgrimage to Our Lady … Continue reading “The Tour of Benedict XVI / Rebeca Monzo”
Protests in La Iglesia de la Caridad. By: Mario Hechavarria Driggs Members of the Republican Party of Cuba (PRC) and the November 30 Movement, remain entrenched from the afternoon of Tuesday 13, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity, located in the Havana municipality of Centro Habana. The opponents demand an end to repression … Continue reading “Opponents occupy a church in Havana; the church hierarchy calls the protest “vindictive and inappropriate” / Mario Hechavarria Driggs”
From her basilica in El Cobre, she watches us so we can be bathed in the love that she radiates. Three boats carried the Spanish conquistadors to the New World. One of them – the flagship named Santa Maria – never returned to the Old World, it was destroyed on the island La Española. So … Continue reading “The Cubans’ Virgin / Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada”
Daniel, 39, made a trip of 6,000 kilometers from Spain, to hacerse santo’* in Havana. He bought a low fare ticket from Iberia and brought in his wallet his savings from ten years as a computer programmer. It all started one night when he was reunited with a childhood friend. Things were going well with … Continue reading ““To make a saint”: A prosperous business in Cuba / Iván García”
The Executive Committee of the Party for an Independent and Democratic Cuba (CID) has launched an appeal calling on all Cuban women to unite in demanding their rights and freedoms, in a statement read out by Santa Clara activist Gladys Beatriz Medina González and the Ladies in White, after attending the Sunday mass and march … Continue reading “CID Appeals to All Cuban Women to Unite in Demanding Their Freedom / Katia Sonia”
The house of the lady Emiliana had been deteriorating with the passage of years, without painting or repairs, but still, surrounding by identical badly-constructed buildings full of bright colors, it stood in its nobility in the center of an area of a hundred square yards, planted with fruit trees and flowers which, like a solitary … Continue reading “EMILIANA / Fernando Dámaso”
On the rainy afternoon of October 14 Laura Ines Pollan Toledo went to dwell in her Father’s house, without the cause of her death stated. The independent journalist Lucas Garves was visiting my house when he received a call on his cell phone. It was the former prisoner of conscience Adolfo Fernández Saínz, from Radio … Continue reading “Proud to Serve Laura Pollan After Her Death / Ricardo Medina”
It couldn’t be true that Laura had died. It was Friday and had gotten dark earlier, perhaps because lately the rain in Havana hasn’t let up, when I got that fatal message from Yoani on my cellphone: “Laura Pollán has just died.” My first thought was it couldn’t be true. Shortly after some friends called … Continue reading “Laura, the Rebellion of the Gladioli / Miriam Celaya”
