English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Editor’s note This is going to be a long but necessary post. From the La Lima prison, where he currently finds himself serving a five-year imprisonment which the government imposed in a rigged trial in order to condemn him for a common crime that he did not commit, we have received these responses by the … Continue reading “Angel Santiesteban: To Proven Innocence, Manifest Disloyalty”
Last Friday, May 17, I was led to the punishment cell. In the morning I was visited by the prison director, Lieutenant Colonel Villarrueta Reinaldo Vargas, Chief Interior, Major Erasmus, and First Lieutenant, serving as Duty Officer. They took me out of the cell and I was told that my belongings would be searched. What … Continue reading “Prison Diary XXI: I Accuse: If something happens to me it is NOT an accident / Angel Santiesteban”
Some friends have asked me not to continue responding to the letters and posts of those who have sought a few minutes of fame at my expense, which, for the most part, are blogs that join the fray publicly for the first time despite the efforts put into them; others, are read only by the … Continue reading “Prison Diary VI. The Inside View of the Trial / Angel Santiesteban”
By Leopoldo Luis I wrote cultural notes for the e-zine cultural weekly Esquife. They were extremely simple texts, barely forty lines, for which I was paid, I swear — forty pesos in national currency (around 15 cents U.S.); that is agro-pesos, CUP (since the Cuban Convertible Currency continues to be very national too). Then someone … Continue reading “Angel Santiesteban: The Round of Silence / Angel Santiesteban”
Felix Luis Veira: “I believe what Santiesteban says, not what a dictatorship says or might say, a dictatorship that maintains silence on this sentence before the residents in Cuba.” One of the most outstanding storytellers in the literature of the Island in recent times has been sentenced to five years in prison. By Felix Luis … Continue reading “The Crime of Angel Santiesteban / Angel Santiesteban #Cuba”
Our adolescence was fertilized with novels and TV series that marked our aesthetics and personalities. How many times did we read the novels, “Here the Sands are Cleaner,” “If I Die Tomorrow,” or the series “It Had to Be in Silence,” with most of us enjoying those fantasies of socialist heroes who, guided by Cuban … Continue reading “Facing State Counterintelligence Part 1 / Angel Santiesteban #Cuba”
“I’m happy, I’m doing my duty.” #OlaRepresiva #FreeRodiles Interview filmed by Claudio Fuentes Madan My name is Angel Santiesteban Prats, I’m a writer and Cuban blogger, government opponent. It was really sad what happened there, the whole world has seen the terrible video, where unfortunately we show what happens in Cuba every day. Thank God … Continue reading “Testimony of Angel Santiesteban after the events on Thursday, November 8, 2012 / Angel Santiesteban”
Freedom costs dearly, and it is necessary either to resign yourself to live without it, or to decide to pay the price. José Martí I have always enjoyed running. It is the supreme moment where literary creation, personal desires and political struggle come together (yes, I definitely have to include this when I talk about … Continue reading “Marabana: Tribute to Laura Pollan / Angel Santiesteban”
We were a generation they blindfolded at birth, telling us how we must think and postpone our dreams because, they told us, the light was blinding. Our mothers put up with injustice out of fear and to protect us because they knew that the worst was yet to come. Then, at first, by necessity or … Continue reading “Declaration of Principles: We Who Are Born With No Horizon / Angel Santiesteban”
The rancor of the Totalitarian State is lethal. It’s an eternal persecution. An entire devastating structure capable of slowly annihilating you. With persistence they’re where you least imagine them, until you receive your share of venom. A deadly snake who waits for the moment to bite. And there is always a moment. The attack came … Continue reading “The Failed Attempts to Make Me an “Agent” – Angel Santiesteban”
For some time I’ve wanted to talk about the media series on the Cuban “agents”, a completely carnivalesque show where they invent records with long years of service, unfortunately I was damned surprised to recognize the two of them. I recognized him from being part of a fraternal organization to which I belonged for twenty-four … Continue reading “Collera and Capote, Second Rate Agents / Angel Santiesteban”
The online news source did not reveal the identity of any of those affected “to avoid further reprisals” 14ymedio, Havana, 4 October 2024 — A group of journalists and Cubanet collaborators has suffered “threats, intimidation, arrests and confiscation of work assets and money in recent days.” This was announced by the online news source in … Continue reading “‘Cubanet’ Denounces a ‘Wave of Harassment’ Against Its Collaborators by the Cuban Regime”
Ángel Santiesteban, Manuel Cuesta Morúa, and Gorki Águila have in common that they dissent from the Cuban regime. The first was tried in a court so lacking in due process guarantees that he was declared by his attorney to be in a state of defenselessness, based on Cuban law. The witnesses for his defense, who … Continue reading “The Trials / Lilianne Ruiz”
