Search results for: march for change november

A Little Report about Governmental Fraud / Ángel Santiesteban

The last thing able to survive from our Cuban heritage is housing, owing to the totalitarian will of Fidel Castro, who dictated for more than 50 years that everything was his property and only he would decide what was whose and when it stopped being so. Fortunately or unfortunately, the family home was the only thing that couldn’t be sacrificed to survive the … Continue reading “A Little Report about Governmental Fraud / Ángel Santiesteban”

Country of Old Men / Foreign Policy Magazine / Yoani Sánchez

This article will appear in the November print edition of Foreign Policy Magazine, and is available on their website now. At the end of his July 31, 2006, broadcast, the visibly nervous anchor on Cuban Television News announced that there would be a proclamation from Fidel Castro. This was hardly uncommon, and many Cubans no … Continue reading “Country of Old Men / Foreign Policy Magazine / Yoani Sánchez”

Closed by Demolition / Francis Sánchez

[I have decided to publish, before this blog is closed down, some texts that I didn’t publish at the time because it was practically impossible to do it because of obvious difficulties or because as time passed I doubted that it would be the best idea. Due to recent events, I think it is best … Continue reading “Closed by Demolition / Francis Sánchez”

Cuba: the Illogic of the Single Party / Dimas Castellanos

(Published Friday May 27, 2011 on the site: http:www.vocescubanas.com) The common characteristics that identify the human race also have important differences that cannot be ignored. The social character–the most defining and essential peculiarity of man–manifests itself in the diversity of associations that he creates for collaboration, promotion and the defense of his interests; reality that … Continue reading “Cuba: the Illogic of the Single Party / Dimas Castellanos”

The United States, the Intimate Enemy of Fidel Castro / Iván García

One morning in 1958, in intricate landscapes of the Sierra Maestra, after a heavy bombardment by dictator Fulgencio Batista’s air force on defenseless villages, the guerrilla leader Fidel Castro wrote a note to his secretary and friend Celia Sánchez. He vowed to her that after the air raid and verification that the bombs used were … Continue reading “The United States, the Intimate Enemy of Fidel Castro / Iván García”

February 24: Old and New Demands / Dimas Castellanos

Social harmony implies that scientific, technological, economic and cultural rights have a corresponding reflection in social justice, democratization and civil liberties. The absence of this correspondence makes the demands of the past coexist with the present and, therefore, its solution has to be undertaken jointly, which gives a high degree of complexity to the processes … Continue reading “February 24: Old and New Demands / Dimas Castellanos”

Thoughts on Fidel’s “Words to the Intellectuals” and other texts / POLEMICA: The 2007 Intellectual Debate

– From Josefina de Diego – I confess that I didn’t remember the full text known as “Words to the Intellectuals,” delivered by Fidel Castro on June 30, 1961, at the National Library to a group of intellectuals. I think that, like many people, the only thing I remembered from the text was his famous … Continue reading “Thoughts on Fidel’s “Words to the Intellectuals” and other texts / POLEMICA: The 2007 Intellectual Debate”

The English Take Havana / Iván García

The news spread like wildfire in the old part of Havana. A black rapper drained his beer while he spoke rapidly into his cell phone. “Buddy, a big ship of foreigners just arrived. They speak English, they seem to be gringos. Let them know about the girls, I think it will work,” noted the pimp. … Continue reading “The English Take Havana / Iván García”

Who is Arnaldo Ramos? / Iván García

He arrived home on Saturday. After 7 years and 8 months behind the bars of a cell and the creaking of locks, the dissident economist Arnaldo Ramos Lauzurique, 68, at 6:30 in the morning of his first Sunday in freedom, sat in the park facing the modest apartment where he lives in the neighborhood of … Continue reading “Who is Arnaldo Ramos? / Iván García”

Prosperity and Personal Well-being: “Completely contrary to the principles of our society” / Yoani Sánchez

The response of the General Customs of the Republic to my complaint about the confiscation of ten copies of the book Cuba Libre is incredible. See with your own eyes their motivations for declaring these daily vignettes “dangerous.” Translation of “facts” on second page of letter: Fact: I am the Inspector of Customs Control and … Continue reading “Prosperity and Personal Well-being: “Completely contrary to the principles of our society” / Yoani Sánchez”

The Lovers’ Bridge / Yoani Sánchez

There is a false impression, quite widespread, that lovers are people with their heads in the clouds, oblivious to practical details. But there are romances that owe their survival to carefully calculated actions, organized from the beginning. In the city where I live, for example, couples will consider in advance whether they are going to … Continue reading “The Lovers’ Bridge / Yoani Sánchez”

Making Them Value Citizen’s Rights / Luis Felipe Rojas

Despite the fence and police surveillance that I’ve won by being a disobedient Twitterer, I was able to go to Guantánamo on November 8. I knew that Rolando Rodríguez Lobaina, José Cano Fuentes and Yober Sevila were already back home after their arrests and beatings from October 31 in Banes, and their confinement in the … Continue reading “Making Them Value Citizen’s Rights / Luis Felipe Rojas”

Training the Citizenry to Stop Being “The Masses” / Dimas Castellanos

Cuba is immersed in the deepest structural crisis in its history. To emerge from it will require an understanding of its causes and the political will to undertake changes, among which citizen participation in public affairs stands as an unavoidable necessity. Hoping to find new solutions in the behaviors of the past will lead nowhere. … Continue reading “Training the Citizenry to Stop Being “The Masses” / Dimas Castellanos”

Television’s Amnesia on its 60th Anniversary / Miguel Iturria Savón

To the calendar of Cuban celebrations we add, these days, the sixtieth anniversary of the beginning of television, recorded on October 24, 1950, which started in the building in the Vedado neighborhood occupied by the Institute of Radio and Television, expropriated from the founders of the medium, who went with their images and sounds to … Continue reading “Television’s Amnesia on its 60th Anniversary / Miguel Iturria Savón”

Operation Exile / Iván García

Reina Tamayo, mother of the opposition prisoner Orlando Zapata, with family members in Laura Pollan’s house, site of the Ladies in White in Havana. I remember when my mother was doing the bureaucratic paperwork to emigrate to Switzerland at the end of November 2003, She told me she had seen a strange acronym — HP … Continue reading “Operation Exile / Iván García”