English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 15 July 2016 — Some claim that “nothing ever happens in Cuba.” However, the signals we have been receiving of late indicate otherwise. The price increases at the produce markets since the last quarter of 2015, accompanied by periodic (and frequent) cycles of shortages of food and other basic items in … Continue reading “Cuba in Crisis: the Pressure is Building / Cubanet, Miriam Celaya”
14ymedio, Havana, 20 June – The city walls emulate the political billboards with regards to signs and slogans. However, the propaganda painted on the facades is frequent interrupted by a doorway, a window or a vent. Behind these changes to the exterior there is always the story of a divorce, or the birth of a … Continue reading “Necessity Doesn’t Understand Slogans / 14ymedio”
Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 2 June 2016 — The phrase uttered by Castro I a few years ago, when he confessed that no one knew how to build socialism, remains in the minds of many Cubans. Most of us, stunned and unbelieving, wondered back then what they had been doing for all previous decades, when … Continue reading “Legal Framework for the Enemy / Cubanet, Miriam Celaya”
Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 26 May 2016 — The Cuban Party-State-Government has just published a tabloid containing two of the root documents analyzed and approved during the VII Congress of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) last April, 2016. These are the Project for the Conceptualization for the Economic and Social Model of Socialist Development Project … Continue reading “The New Gospel, According to the General / Cubanet, Miriam Celaya”
Somos+, Jose Manuel Presol, 17 May 2016 — If there is something shameful in our republican history, it is the events of 1912. Nothing much is being said about it, not even in the government’s current propaganda. It is mentioned, articles and books are published about it, although it is not widely exposed. Relatively few … Continue reading “The War of the Blacks / Somos+”
14ymedio, Yosmany Mayeta Labrada, Havana, 30 April 2016 – Like an arbitrary lottery, Havanans dream of having a WiFi zone installed near their homes. These outdoor places to connect raise the price per square foot of real estate in the immediate vicinity and help local businesses flourish. Speculations about where the new wireless antennas will … Continue reading “Living Near A Wifi Area Is Like Winning The Lottery / 14ymedio, Yosmany Mayeta Labrada”
14ymedio, Pedro Campos, Havana, 23 April 2016 — Army General Raul Castro, newly re-elected first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), in his closing speech at the Party’s 7th Congress spoke of moving forward with our democratic, prosperous and sustainable socialism. It turns out that the adjective democratic has just been added to the socialism officially promoted in … Continue reading “Clothes Do Not Make the Man / 14ymedio, Pedro Campos”
Havana, Cuba, March 21, 2016 — On February 23, 2015 the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) announced that its VII Congress would take place in April 2016 and that the National Assembly of People’s Power would be asked to amend the electoral process and adopt a new law to … Continue reading “Three Key Proposals for Reforming the Cuban Electoral System / Laritza Diversent”
14ymedio, Luis Nieto, Montevideo, 3 March 2016 – On 21 January, the sociologist Lorena Freitez was appointed Minister of Urban Agriculture of Venezuela, replacing Emma Ortega, who had lasted only two weeks in office. The new minister launched an ambitious slogan: “Transforming consumer cities into productive cities.” Freitez’s reasoning is that if 84 percent of the Venezuelan population … Continue reading “Onions And Caviar, Is It The Beginning Of The End? / 14ymedio, Luis Nieto”
Miriam Celaya, Sin Evasion (Without Evasion), 15 February 2016 – This Sunday in February, Saint Valentine’s Day, my neighbor Miguelita was overjoyed, although it was not exactly because of it being day of love. He had just finished paying for his Haier refrigerator, made in China, that he had acquired almost a decade earlier by … Continue reading “The Fable of Miguelito and His "Haier" Chinese Refrigerator / Miriam Celaya”
14ymedio, 17 February 2016 — A modern José Martí has begun to appear on several walls of Havana. The graffiti arouses the curiosity of passers-by and worries the ruling orthodox do not know whether to interpret the representation as a tribute or disrespectful. The truth is that the national hero, with short sleeves and his hands in … Continue reading “A Modern José Martí / 14ymedio”
In the 1960s, close to 30,000 young men were detained in forced-labor camps. The mistreatments that took place in these camps, known as Military Units to Aid Production UMAP, in the name of “social hygiene,” testify to the homophobic component of the Cuban Revolution. Abel Sierra Madero, From Letras Libras, January 2016 — Between 1965 … Continue reading “Academies To Produce Macho-Men In Cuba / Abel Sierra Madero”
14ymedio, Mario J. Penton, Miami, 3 February 2016 — Miami Mayor Tomas Pedro Regalado (born Havana, 1947), says that his is not prepared to cope with the surge of Cuban rafters who come daily to the coast of Florida. He came to the United States as a teenager and was a journalist before winning election in 2009. … Continue reading “Tomas Regalado, “Washington Refuses To Recognize That There Is A Migration Crisis” / 14ymedio, Mario Penton”
Ivan Garcia, 13 January 2016 — There were more than seven thousand arrests of dissidents in 2015, with most detentions lasting several hours. Beatings, harassment, acts of repudiation and degrading treatment by police are common in Cuba. Political reforms are not part of General Raúl Castro’s agenda. Despite the repression in Havana there is one … Continue reading “Opposition Marchers Should Change Their Strategy / Ivan Garcia”
14ymedio, Havana, 24 December 2015 — If the reputation of a politician is measured by his or her presence in the media, we should say that José Ramón Machado Ventura has been the most visible picture of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) this year. Exercising his functions as the second secretary of the PCC, he has … Continue reading “Cuban Faces of 2015: Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, Second Secretary of the Communist Party / 14ymedio”
