English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
A storm is coming to the national sport in Cuba. In the last session of the monotone parliament in December, against all odds, the government maintained its strategy of not allowing ball players and other athletes to compete in foreign leagues. Since 1991, more than 350 ball players have fled the island. By maintaining the … Continue reading “Cuban Baseball Defections Could Increase / Iván García”
The formation of the ‘New Man’ has been a sterile task in Cuba. His precursor, Ernesto Che Guevara, was convinced that in the future society they were creating on the island they had to start by designing a human being from the laboratory. Che, a Maoist and radical revolutionary, dreamed and thought it possible, that … Continue reading “Of Che and His “New Man” / Iván García”
When the high creole hierarchy enjoyed the arrival of the 51st anniversary of the insurrection which elevated them to power on 1 January 1959, a violent cold front was ravaging the west of the country. In Mazorra, a psychiatric hospital located on the highway that leads to the principal airport, a major scandal was uncorking … Continue reading “In 2010, Bad News Abounded in Cuba / Iván García”
You can’t imagine the quantity of pacts, commercial treaties and political deals that are planned over mojitos, cubalibres, and daiquiris. Perhaps you don’t know a part of those who risk investing in the island took their first step when their heart was trapped by a mulatto woman with an insatiable sexual appetite. Robert, an Italian … Continue reading “Cuba: Where Real Politics Are Cooking / Iván García”
In an interview published on December 14, 2009 in El Mundo/América, Juan Juan Almeida García told me, “I don’t see the time when Raúl Castro will let me leave Cuba.” Finally, his wish was fulfilled. On Thursday, August 24, he arrived at the Miami airport, where his wife Consuelo and their daughter Indira were waiting … Continue reading “Juan Juan’s Time Arrived / Iván García”
It remains to be seen if, in the latest shuffling of the executive furniture by Spanish president José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero, the new Foreign Minister, Trinidad Jiménez (Málaga, 1962), will continue the policies set by the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Party) since 1982, or try something else. The cardinal sin of the Spanish politicians, as I … Continue reading “Trinidad’s Turn / Iván García”
Anyone who claims to be from Havana has visited, at least once in their life, the old baseball stadium in the majority-black marginal neighborhood of Carraguao, in Cerro. On October 26 it will be 64 years since the Cerro Stadium opened. One Sunday in 1946 it opened with a game between the Almendares and Cienfuegos … Continue reading “Cerro Stadium, The Worst It’s Been in Its 64 Years / Iván García”
A couple of weeks ago, headlines were made by the establishment of the guayabera as the garment for formal occasions, where once reigned a jacket and tie. The guayabera goes well with our climate and although other geographical regions claim its paternity, Sancti Spiritus, in the center of Cuba, is regarded by Cubans as the cradle … Continue reading ““Guayabera-ing” / Regina Coyula”
Big Guy: I was a shoemaker and the Revolution made me an engineer. Big Guy again: Now I’m a shoemaker again. 1st Little Guy: The retraining model is working! 2nd Little Guy: Long Live the Re-Use-Olution! For the forward-looking among us, who lost their jobs before the Government announced its layoffs, the social chess game … Continue reading “The New National Joke / Ernesto Morales Licea”
My grandmothers were called Carmen and Andrea, and my grandfathers, Jose Manuel and Rafael. Names are given according to the era. My uncles and aunts were given common names: Luis, Mario, Candida, Teresa, Maria, Dulce, Augustine, Maximus, Adelaide, Victoria, Milagros, Lidia… The exception was Avelino, no longer in use, and Veneta, of Italian origin. For … Continue reading “And Presenting the Names of Some Cubans / Iván García”
General Raul Castro is trying to give shape to the land he’s promised. El Dorado, the “Cuban socialist paradise,” requires time and patience. And confidence in the old leaders who have ruled the destinies of Cubans for 51 years. The Castros want to dance the old-style danzón. No reggaeton. Farewell to emergencies and haste. The … Continue reading “Raul Castro, On the Fence / Iván García”
PROSPERITY AND KINDNESS: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN of the Enlightenment Marti Mirta Suquet HAVING studied in Cuba, in this world of relative certainties they built for us during the eighties, and having subsequently completed a course at the University of Havana, many doors opened in advance. The fame of Cuban university graduates is … Continue reading “collaborations from VOCES 1… / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Carrying out any sort of political analysis or political prediction in Cuba is almost like an Indiana Jones adventure. The media does anything it can to misinform. They barely extract any bit of information from those in power. There is no way of getting any official statistics or facts. When one is an independent journalist … Continue reading “What Will be the Next Move?”
It is not a date. Nor are they my lucky numbers. They were the digits with which a boorish officer, with a constitution gained from many hours in the gym, called me with a voice of thunder at the door of a walled cell in Villa Marista, home of the Cuban political police. How could … Continue reading “26-6-76 Are Not My Lucky Numbers”
Beginning at Prado street and ending at Galiano, there is a five-block long pedestrian mall in the heart of Havana, replete with stores that take hard-currency or national pesos. Cafes, barber shops, ice cream parlors, markets, a cinema for children and a jewelry store in decline. Throughout the year the boulevard is very busy. December, … Continue reading “Havana Boulevard”
