English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Wendy Guerra, Habáname, 15 December 2014 — About three years ago, a young man – tall, blond and ungainly – would haul an enormous sack full of DVDs of pirated movies, music videos, TV shows and series. Today, this same young man – now more poised and better dressed – walks the streets of Miramar … Continue reading “Being in “The Packet” / Wendy Guerra”
14ymedio, Havana / Holguín, Lucía Oliveira and Miguel García, 3 March 2024 — Where before there were tables with screens and keyboards, now there are boxes of vegetable oil, piles of spaghetti packages and bags of powdered milk piled up. Two of the most important buildings of the Youth Computer and Electronics Club in Holguín … Continue reading “The Youth Club in Cuba Ends a Project That Was More About Politics Than About Computers”
14ymedio, Natalia Lopez Moya, Havana, 30 July 2023 — Inflation continues to take its toll on Cuban pocketbooks. In addition to increases in the cost of transportation and food, the fees families pay to watch foreign television programs via illegal satellite dishes are also going up, doubling in some Cuban neighborhoods to as much as … Continue reading “Prices for Illegal Satellite Dish Services in Cuba Skyrocket”
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 2 February 2023 — I have seen the documentary Nicaragua, patria libre para vivir [Nicaragua, a Free Homeland to Live In], three times, and all three times it has shaken me to the core. Its director, the Andalusian poet and philologist, Daniel Rodríguez Moya, says that you can be born … Continue reading “A Free Homeland to Live In”
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation Y, Havana, 24 September 2022 — As I adjust my helmet, he tells me that he is 29 years old and has an ulcer. I get on the back of the motorcycle and we head down Calle Reina heading to Carlos III. The Belascoaín traffic light forces us to a stop, … Continue reading “Cuba: The Sand Generation”
14ymedio, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Miami, 1 January 2022 — It is worth reviewing what happened in Cuba in the preceding months. Year after year, and we are already on our way to the 63rd anniversary, I have said we were near the end. I believed it, but it was not true. I thought that Fidel … Continue reading “Sixty-Three Anniversaries of the Cuban Revolution”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 24 September 2021 — For months, Yanet Fernández, who lives in the neighborhood of multi-family buildings in Havana’s Nuevo Vedado, has not started her day with kisses to her classroom friends and the rowdy conversation of the “gang” before the morning assembly. Since the capital’s schools closed last January, he has had … Continue reading “Cuban Teleclasses: A 20th Century Practice That Fails Among Today’s Students”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 10August 2021 — The illegal satellite dishes, used by Cubans to access television from Florida, are once again the target of censorship to prevent the dissemination of images of the protests of July 11 on the island. Although they have always been persecuted, in recent years the raids to detect … Continue reading “Cuba Increases Police Raids to Confiscate Satellite Dishes”
14ymedio, Havana | 24 January 2021 — A decade ago, alternative art in Cuba had a name, Omni Zona Franca, and its heart beat in the Alamar neighborhood in eastern Havana. David Escalona, who calls himself David D Omni, was part of that group of multifaceted artists – musicians, poets, graffiti artists and performers. After … Continue reading ““The Party Reigns in Cuba in the Style of the Medieval Church””
14ymedio, Bertha Karolina Guillén, Candelaria, December 28, 2020 — Jorge misses the days when he could meet his customers, shake their hands, share a coffee and venture off to explore Havana. Before the pandemic took his job as a private tour guide, this entrepreneur was part of a private network that is now trying to survive through creativity … Continue reading “Cubans Find Ways to Survive through Private Initiative”
14ymedio, Havana, 18 July 2020 — A few hours after the burial of the popular reggaetoner El Dany, hundreds of young people gathered on Saturday night on the corner of San José and San Francisco in the neighborhood of Cayo Hueso, Central Havana, to pay tribute to the musician, who died the previous morning. His songs … Continue reading “The Music of ‘El Dany’ Sounds in the Streets of Havana as a Farewell to the Reggaetoner”
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernández, Havana, May 19, 2020 — A lone motorcycle makes its way along Cerro Road in Havana. Behind the driver is a brightly colored box displaying the logo of a home delivery service, one of the few private businesses that seems to be thriving in a city paralyzed by COVID-19. Classified ad sites … Continue reading “In Cuba the Pandemic Spawns Home Delivery Businesses”
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernández, Havana, 7 May 2020 — When I was a child one of the smiles that populated my childhood was that of Sarita Reyes, one of the most popular Cuban actresses of the last century. Versatile, witty and with a touch of authority, her presentations on the program Behind the Facade were the first … Continue reading “Sarita Reyes: Goodbye to One of the Smiles on Cuban Television”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 20 April 2020 you’re — Time is deformed in quarantine. It seems like an eternity has passed since the first case of Covid-19 was reported in Cuba, and yet, it was just a few weeks ago that they announced on official television that three travelers had symptoms when they arrived on … Continue reading “Day 31 of the Covid-19 Emergency in Cuba: Guesser, Seer”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 30 March 2020 — Mondays are always complicated. But this one dawned calm, with the city in a rare silence although the chimney of the Ñico López refinery had one of the tallest columns of smoke I can remember. The sound of the birds filled the dawn in this neighborhood where the fury … Continue reading “Day 10 of the Covid-19 Emergency in Cuba”
