English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Ivan Garcia, 2 January 2018 — When the old Soviet-era truck was parked in front of a pharmacy in Havana’s La Víbora neighborhood, a line of more than thirty people soon formed to acquire some of the medicines unloaded. Nearby, at the entrance of a produce market, dozens of retirees and housewives waited to buy tomatoes. In the … Continue reading “Cuba 2017: Waiting for a Miracle / Iván García”
14ymedio, Mario J. Pentón, Miami, 23 December 2017 — Several Cuban economists consulted by 14ymedio consider the growth of 1.6% in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) announced on Thursday by Cuban Economy Minister Ricardo Cabrisas before the National Assembly, meeting in Havana, unlikely. Cabrisas offered a series of growth figures including numbers for construction (+ 2.8%), tourism (+ … Continue reading “Cuban Government Happy Talk About the Economy is Not Convincing”
14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 27 December 2017 — An essential feature of the Cuban socio-political and economic system is the reluctance of the ruling class to offer exact and reliable figures and data about the performance of the economy and finances at the end of each year. December is, for Cubans living in Cuba – … Continue reading “The Cabalistic Exercises of the Managers of the Cuban Economy”
Cubanet, Havana, Miriam Celaya, 22 December 2017 — On the morning of 21 December 2017, it became known in the international media that “the Cuban Parliament” – whose most outstanding feature is not having decided anything at all in its more than 40 years of existence – has “just decided” to extend the presidential mandate … Continue reading “Castro Suspects / Cubanet, Miriam Celaya”
14ymedio, Havana, 24 December 2017 — Young, daring and feminist, La Señorita Dayana (b. 13 January 1984, Las Tunas) vindicates the figure of women in urban music. The author of songs such as A Ti Lo Que Duele and La Mentira is opposed to the role assigned to women as simple objects of mens’ sexual desire. Born in a town in the interior … Continue reading “Cuban Faces 2017: Dayana Chavez Victoria, ‘La Senorita Dayana’”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 22 December 2017 — With the accumulated experience of six decades in power, Raúl Castro knows the political cost of breaching the latest and most widely disseminated of his promises: to leave the country’s presidency on 24 February 2018. Each day he prolongs his presence in that position goes against the … Continue reading “Another Raul Castro Promise Unfulfilled”
14ymedio, Ricardo Fernández, Camaguey, 20 December 2017 — Ciudad Perdida (Lost City) lives up to its name by being in an out-of-the-way spot 40 kilometers from the town of Vertientes, in Camagüey. The small settlement of houses with a palm leaf roofs has its greatest treasure in the surrounding beehives, but this year the production of the honeybees … Continue reading “Cuban State Pays $560 a Ton for Honey and Sells it in Europe for $14,000”
EFE / via 14ymedio, Havana, 21 December 2017 — The president of Cuba, Raúl Castro, confirmed on Thursday that he will leave office on April 21, after the Cuban Parliament extended his current mandate until that date, a mandate which was due to end on February 24. “When the National Assembly is constituted I will … Continue reading “Raul Castro Confirms He Will Leave the Presidency and Urges Elimination of Dual Currency”
14ymedio, Havana, 21 December 2017 — In a last minute turn of events, the Cuban Parliament extended Raul Castro’s current mandate for two months, a decision that extends his presidency beyond February 2018, when he was expected to leave power. The “serious effects of Hurricane Irma across the entire national territory,” has been used to … Continue reading “Raul Castro Extends His Presidency Beyond February 2018”
Juan Juan Almeida, 19 October 2017 — A Marxism professor who is also an official of the Ideological Department of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) is responsible for implementing the Cuban government’s strategy for the use of social networks from the island. Joaquín Suárez González , 52, a graduate of Marxism, Leninism and History at the “Félix Varela” Pedagogical Institute in … Continue reading “Marxism Professor is Cuba’s Social Networks Czar / Juan Juan Almeida”
Juan Juan Almeida — The lack of planning on the part of the Ministry of Agriculture has been the main trigger for the fact that hundreds of poultry farms have generated a crisis now experienced by Cubans as the absence of eggs, along with the high cost of such an important food when it can … Continue reading “Cubans Eat the Most Expensive Eggs in the World / Juan Juan Almeida”
Dimas Castellanos, 13 October 2017 — According to information from the National Defense Council, Hurricane Irma, a category-five storm, hit Cuba between September 7 and 9, causing 14,657 houses to collapse, and another 16,646 to partially collapse, thus totaling 31,303 —not to mention the tens of thousands that suffered other kinds of damage. Between 2002 and … Continue reading “Cyclones, Housing and Revolution / Dimas Castellano”
14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 4 November 2017 — The Catholic priest José Conrado Rodríguez, parish priest of the church of San Francisco de Paula in Trinidad, visited Miami last week to present his book Dreams and Nightmares of a Priest in Cuba. On the way to Miami’s Ermita de la Caridad, where he planned to offer … Continue reading “Obama Made The Mistake Of “Giving In Without Demanding,” Regrets Father Conrado”
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 20 October 2017 — On a corner of Centro Habana an old sofa displays its swollen slats and next to it lie the paddles of a fan. These are the remains left by Hurricane Irma’s flooding of the area, the belongings of families that now apply for bank loans to recover, … Continue reading “Bank Loans Do Not Fix the Lives of Those Affected by Irma”
Ivan Garcia, 17 October 2017 — Chest pains, migraines and inflamed feet alerted Oneida’s family that the 82-year-old with a long history of diabetes and cancer was not well. Her children rushed her to the emergency room at Miguel Enriquez Hospital, in the Luyano neighborhood in south Havana, where their mother was admitted to intermediate … Continue reading “Cuba and Its Perennial Shortages / Iván García”
