English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
And now, what do we do?… What right do we have to continue breathing, treading on this Island that she so defended in the face of insults, threats and beatings?… I know that “to die for the Motherland is to live”*, so why are so few interested in living and prefer to live in silence, … Continue reading “Laura Pollán Has Died / Angel Santiesteban”
In the same days when Laura Pollán lay dying in intensive care, Cuban television rebroadcast a dogmatic serial where they insulted the leader of the Ladies in White. Among the most notable signs of the Cuban government’s pettiness is its failure to respect a political adversary, even when she is dying. A system that so … Continue reading “Laura is gone, Laura is no more / Yoani Sánchez”
My dear friend Marta Cortiza, married to my other friend, the blogger Eugenio Leal, often used the phrase in the title of this brief posting whenever she called me: “Hello Miriam!, How are you? I’m calling just to make an appearance”. And after the usual introduction we would often get entangled in long conversations that … Continue reading “Making an Appearance / Miriam Celaya”
Normally, the emergency room of a hospital is a chaotic place, where ambulances are constantly arriving or cars bring in injured people, you hear screams and cries. But not always, at least not in the neighborhood polyclinics. Here things are more relaxes, as the emergencies go direction to the hospitals, as do the people who … Continue reading “Emergency Room / Rebeca Monzo”
For my granddaughter Isabel. In the neighborhood of Vedado, there was a prestigious store where they prepared food for delivery to homes (gourmet service). After some years of abandonment, in the year 1966, in the same place, a beautiful English-style red cake restaurant was opened, called The Little Rabbit (El Conejito), where they sold all … Continue reading “The Little Rabbit / Rebeca Monzo”
Being old in Cuba is a problem. Check this, if a young family have to work miracles to bring three meals a day to the table, buy clothing for their children and try to make money from who knows where to repair their shack, you can imagine how hard can be for an elder. It … Continue reading “Cuba is Not a Country For the Elderly, Especially if They are Black / Iván García”
Benito is 85 years old. Every morning, outside a butcher shop in the Havana neighborhood of Vibora, he sits down with one of his ekobios (sect members) to chat about baseball, religion and politics. He’s a tall black man, stern and full of infirmities. For 63 years he has been part of a abakuá sect … Continue reading ““In the Underworld, being abakuá means being a tough guy” / Iván García”
The money came in a white envelope, brought to the door by an agency — alternative and illegal — that distributes remittances. It was accompanied by a letter from the uncle who went to New Jersey thirty years ago and never returned. “Use it to celebrate Christmas,” he wrote, in his stylized handwriting, ending the … Continue reading “What to Buy? / Yoani Sánchez”
After letting me in, they pointed to the hospital bed with clean linens and asked me to sit. They both attempted, with their subtle tricks, to hide the cylindrical cube full of cotton balls stained in red that laid right beneath it. They couldn’t. “How are you, how are you feeling?” the male doctor asked … Continue reading “Paper Talismans / Ernesto Morales Licea”
In September, Havanans venerate three virgins: on September 7 the Regla virgin; the following day the Virgin of the Charity of Cobre, and the Merced virgin on the 24th. Regla and Charity are mixed race, and one of them, Our Lady of Charity of Cobre, is the Patron Saint of Cuba. Rain or shine, Havanans … Continue reading “The Cachita of Central Havana / Iván García”
When Compay Segundo and Ibrahim Ferrer launched themselves at the world with Buena Vista Social Club, “And What Have You Done?” by Eusebio Delfín, it was already one of the favorite traditional ballads. It is among the top 100 best ballads of the twentieth century in Cuba. In Yucatán, Mexico, they know it by another … Continue reading “Eusebio Delfín, the Cuban Aristocrat Who Made Music / Iván García”
There is a bit of a soap opera in the life of Omara Portuondo. The diva of the Buena Vista Social Club was born on October 29, 1930 in the Havana neighborhood of Cayo Hueso. Her mother, Esperanza Peláez, belonged to a rich family of Spanish ancestry, and hoped she would marry a white man, … Continue reading “In Cuba We Lack A Lot of Things, But We Have Omara Portuondo / Iván García”
The Carlos III shopping center in the heart of Havana looks like a giant beehive. From the time it opens, after 9:30, A tide of people are hurrying about their business. The bespectacled white-haired old grandfather has the convertible peso cents to buy a packet of milk powder. Beside him, a sweaty fat lady does … Continue reading “Shopping in Havana / Iván García”
2010 — Mario Vargas Llosa, Peru 2009 — Herta Mueller, Romania and Germany 2008 — Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, France and Mauritius 2007 — Doris Lessing, United Kingdom 2006 — Orhan Pamuk, Turkey 2005 — Harold Pinter, United Kingdom 2004 — Elfriede Jelinek, Austria 2003 — J. M. Coetzee, South Africa 2002 — Imre Kertesz, … Continue reading “AND WHAT ABOUT MY CUBA…? / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
The dialogue between the government of General Raúl Castro and the top hierarchy of the Catholic Church continues to generate discussions between different opposition groups and the independent civil society sectors. It was expected that half a century of stagnation would bring, as its first consequence, the creaking of rusty hinges when trying to turn … Continue reading “The Cuban Catholic Church and the Opposition: An Unnecessary Conflict / Miriam Celaya”
