English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Havana, 20July 2021 — “They are young, they are not criminals or bandits who went to throw stones or loot stores, they went to fight for the things they lack, that they are drowning.” Berta Baruch, 58, is one of the mothers who gathered on Monday in front of the 100th y Aldabó prison, in Havana, … Continue reading “The Anguish of the Relatives of the Young People Arrested in Cuba on July 11”
14ymedio, Havana, 22 July 2021 — The young woman Amanda Hernández Celaya, arrested on July 11 in the heat of the protests that shook the country, was acquitted this Thursday for lack of evidence after a summary trial was carried out in Havana, as confirmed to 14ymedio by members of her family. Hernández was charged with the same … Continue reading “Amanda Hernandez Celaya, 17, Arrested in Cuba on July 11, Acquitted”
14ymedio, Yaiza Santos, Madrid, 27 May 2021 — The desperate war of songs unleashed by the Cuban Government after the release of the song Patria y Vida, which since February has added more than five million views on YouTube and which immediately became an opposition slogan inside and outside the Island, has gone from pathos to perversity with the theme that celebrates … Continue reading “The Cuban Regime is Not Afraid of Any Song”
14ymedio, Havana, 27 May 2021 — On Wednesday, the newspaper Tribuna de La Habana published an article on its website in which it described as a “group of mercenaries paid by Washington” the group of Cuban artists who have signed a letter addressed to the National Museum of Fine Arts to demand that their works be withdraw from exhibition, in … Continue reading “‘Tribuna de La Habana’ Withdraws an Article in Which it Calls a Group of Cuban Artists ‘Mercenaries’”
14ymedio, Havana, 25 May 2021 — Cuban State Security has released two new videos of the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who as of Tuesday marks 23 days held in the Calixto García Hospital in Havana. The material was leaked by a Facebook profile under the name of Kamilita Cuba which poses as a supporter of the San … Continue reading “Cuban Government Tries to Discredit Otero Alcantara with the Leak of a New Video”
14ymedio, Havana, 19 April 2021 — The Cuban government unleashed a repressive wave against independent activists, artists and journalists this weekend, while the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba was held at the Palace of Conventions in Havana. The artist Tania Bruguera, who had planned to give an online conference last Friday on art, activism and censorship … Continue reading “Cuba’s Political Police Lock Up Opponents in Their Homes and Cut Off Their Phones”
Elías Amor Bravo, Economist, 31 March 2021 — Current attempts by Cuban leaders to solve the problem of self-sufficiency in the capital are giving rise to exceptional proposals, such as the famous ’Marrero patios’. Well, it’s very simple, you have to forget what they say they want to do, before it’s too late. The communists have gone … Continue reading “Another ‘Great Achievement’ of the Revolution: Havana Turned Into an Urban Garden”
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernández, Havana, October 17, 2019 — Joaquín and Modesto are friends and relatives who saw from the beginning that trips to Panama to bring back to Cuba household appliances and electric motorcycles would be a successful business. Since the middle of 2018 they have worked fulfilling on-demand orders, putting an added value on the … Continue reading “For the "Mules," Life Goes On, and So Does Business”
14ymedio, Havana, 5 May 2018 — This Saturday the independent #00Bienal was opened, an event that in recent days has been at the center of official attacks. In the vicinity of the site in Old Havana several members of the State Security dressed in civilian clothes were visible but they did not prevent the more than … Continue reading “Independent #00Bienal Opens in Spite of Official Pressures”
14ymedio, Havana, 3 May 2018 — Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, one of the organizers of #00Bienal, lamented the “lack of respect” with which Cuba’s Writers and Artists Union (UNEAC) and the Hermanos Saíz Association (AHS), have addressed the event and the artists who support it, in the statement made public this Thursday. In the statement, … Continue reading “UNEAC Statements Show “A Lack of Respect” Towards Young Artists, Say Promoters of #00 Biennial”
14ymedio, Havana, 27 February 2018 — The organizers of the Havana #00 Biennial, an independent event whose celebration is scheduled from May 5-15, have won the support of several artists and independent spaces on the island, according to Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, one of the promoters of the initiative, speaking to 14ymedio. Among the artists who have confirmed … Continue reading “Independent Artists and Galleries Join a Biennial Outside Official Institutions”
14ymedio, Pedro Acosta, Havana, 12 November 2016 — Iliana Hernandez and Yusmila Reyna circulated among sculptures and art installations at the Cuban Art Factory this week. The two women recorded some scenes for the program Lente Cubano (Cuban Lens), a program that approaches the reality of the island through culture, complaints, and the stories of success or … Continue reading “Looking at Society Through the ‘Cuban Lens’ / 14ymedio, Pedro Acosta”
Fernando Damaso, 30 April 2015 — Looking over some documents from different eras, I have determined that, when it comes to renaming things, our authorities have broken all records. Victims of their frenzied efforts have included numerous streets, public plazas, parks, virtually all sugar refinery factories, businesses and outlying buildings, towns, cities, provinces, commercial and service establishments, … Continue reading “Give It Time / Fernando Damaso”
14ymedio, Havana, 15 January 2015 — The new regulations on travel, insurance, the import of goods, remittances and telecommunications that the United States will put into effect with respect to Cuba as of Friday, have already provoked the first reactions on the Island. Although the evening news barely mentioned it at the end of the show, the … Continue reading “Cubans Euphoric Over the New Regulations / 14ymedio”
During the summer of 1994, death ruled with impunity in my country. During that period, Cuba, which had been a civilian graveyard for decades, more closely resembled the gallows. In the early hours of July 13, the whirlwind of violence to which the Cuban state was subjecting its citizens came to its criminal climax. The … Continue reading “Remembering the Tugboat Massacre of 1994 / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
