English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
This week I had a brief involvement in a radio program, but, unfortunately, there was insufficient time for the issue which I was invited discuss. Of course, this is not the Cuban radio on the Island, nor do I want to make a critical assessment of the program in question in this post. I hold … Continue reading “Surveys, to Please Expectations? / Miriam Celaya”
A debate encounter sponsored by the Catholic digital publication Espacio Laical took place on Saturday, October 29th, 2011. The agency EFE, the leading Spanish news agency, reported the event in a very laudable manner, as published on October 30th on the digital site Cubaencuentro. The report states that “The new role that the Catholic Church … Continue reading “Between the Gun and the Cassock / Miriam Celaya”
(Work originally published in number 9, Voices magazine) Several weeks ago an interview appeared in the virtual space cubaencuentro.com. The two-part interview was conducted by Luis Manuel García Méndez, and the person interviewed was the young American scholar Ted Henken. Titled “Mapping Blogolandia” (May 2011), Henken traces, with remarkable objectivity, his map of the Cuban … Continue reading “Cuban Blogosphere: Stings and Irritations of the Internet in Cuba / Miriam Celaya”
Under the title, “The place of citizenship, political participation and the Republic in Cuba,” the Padre Felix Varela Cultural Center was the scene, Saturday, July 2, of a lecture by a lawyer and university professor, Julio César Guanche. The institution, belonging to the Archdiocese of Havana, occupies the building which, until last January, was the … Continue reading “The Citizen, A Debt to Padre Varela / Dimas Castellanos”
[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”
(Article originally published in the Diario de Cuba on July 8, 2011) The recently published interview granted by Cuban-American businessman Carlos Saladrigas to Orlando Márquez, editor of the magazine Palabra Nueva of the Cuban archbishopric, has provoked numerous reactions on both sides–Cuba and Florida–although, of course, the official Island media have not even mentioned the … Continue reading “Perverse Capital / Miriam Celaya”
By Dagoberto Valdes and the Editorial Board In editorial No. 14 of Convivencia Magazine (www.convivenciacuba.es) of March-April 2010, we said that: “In the last year there has been a visible increase of the natural diversity of expressions of men and women in Cuba. This plurality has been manifested, mainly, in the cultural world. This world … Continue reading “Pedro Pablo Oliva and Henry Constantin: Two Examples of the Blockade on the World of the Cuban Culture / IntraMuros, Dagoberto Valdes”
RIDING MISTER ROJAS, originally uploaded by Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo In art, like in politics, the speeches of epigones, now free of the original guilt of the Messiah, start attempting a liberal rereading of the revolutionary scripture and end up being pure fascism. The Cuban intellectual Fernando Rojas, beyond his high governmental charge (every now … Continue reading “RIDING MISTER ROJAS / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Cuba remains closed, lock stock and barrel. Cuba perpetuates closed doors in such a swashbuckling hermetic fortress thanks to that bastion euphemistically called the White Card (which coincides with the name of a national rum): that is, the dark and tempting Exit Permit that the immigration authorities and the Ministry of the Interior confer, without … Continue reading “APARTHEID OR WHITE CARD…? / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
It’s not the first time an article by Fernando Ravsberg, Cuban correspondent for the honorable BBC, left me feeling frustrated, bittersweet, as a result of, in my judgment, certain skin deep and inconsistent analyses established by him. But it is the first time I’ve decided to comment in writing. Now, after reading his last blog … Continue reading “Letters (Unencripted) From Cuba / Ernesto Morales Licea”
Source: Guama 1. A friend in the US said he doesn’t agree with some of the [Communist Party] Guidelines for… 2. He’s declaring cyberwar on you!!!!!! Today we woke up to the Government’s onslaught against the Rebel Bloggers of the Island, with a two-page article in Granma titled, “Cuba’s Reasons/Special,” and the most special is … Continue reading “Them, The Cyberwarriors / Angel Santiesteban”
Exiled in Spain, the Cuban ex-prisoner of conscience Normando Hernandez, just like the rest of his brothers-in-cause, lived a harsh reality behind the bars of the Cuban jail cells. Now, his new life in Spain is supposed to be full of freedoms and opportunities, but his case has proven otherwise. The Spanish government has denied … Continue reading “Spain Limits Human Rights of Ex-Cuban Prisoner of Conscience Normando Hernandez / Voices From Exile”
Saavedra Lazaro Gonzalez is a Cuban artist. His “interventions” on the email network with works from his “I-MEIL Gallery” often bring to the debate a quick dose of honesty, coherence and force, for which the national intellectual camp always seems unprepared. This is his “Journalism,” received in my in-box on January 28, as an offering … Continue reading “Journalism / Francis Sánchez”
“History is lived forward, but to understand it we must look back.” Kierkegaard The interaction between the lack of administrative capacity, economic inefficiency, hopelessness, widespread corruption and the massive exodus, have made the current crisis in Cuba the deepest of its history. The combination of these factors, sufficient to break any human group that aspires … Continue reading “Seeing the Past From the Viewpoint of the Present / Dimas Castellanos”
Text: Boris González Arenas Photo: Leandro Feal See, see how from the ground rising magnificent in flight searching the air of Cuba. “One Palm” Luis R. Nogueras We don’t play with freedom. We spend our whole lives thinking about the danger of losing it, that once it is lost it is impossible to rescue it. … Continue reading “Searching the Air of Cuba / Claudia Cadelo”
