English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 7 February 2024 — No one is stupider than the idiot who thinks he is an intellectual, myself included. When I started becoming politically active, I arrogantly believed that, where others had failed, I would succeed. I thought that the higher the collective IQ a movement had, the better its … Continue reading “Our Intellectual Stupidity”
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 14 December 2023 — Two speeches, completely opposed, have marked these days of the film festival in Havana. On the one hand, we have the inaugural words of Alexis Triana, the appointed official at the head of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC). On the other, those … Continue reading “Fire in the Forge”
14ymedio, Havana, 20 October 2023 — Cuba’s officialdom celebrates the Day of Cuban Culture by declaring the existence of a new enemy: the “cultural colonization” promoted by micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The oxygen that the “new economic actors” have given to the sector contrasts with the situation that – not without reluctance – … Continue reading “In Cuba, Official Culture Loses Ground in the Face of Dynamic Private Offerings”
EFE (via 14ymedio), Juan Carlos Espinosa, Havana, August 2, 2023 — The unauthorized broadcast of the documentary La Habana de Fito, by director Juan Pin Vilar (Havana, 1963), in a Cuban state television program this June it has raised a storm inside and outside Cuba and provoked a closing of ranks of filmmakers against the Ministry of … Continue reading “Juan Pin: ‘The Fact That There Are No Tomatoes in Cuba Has Nothing To Do With the Blockade’”
14ymedio, Havana, 4 August 2023 — The Cuban Conflict Observatory (OCC) registered a total of 589 protests on the island in July. The figure, which represents an increase of 124% compared to the same month of the previous year, exceeded by 175 incidents than those counted in June of 2022. Except for the months of October … Continue reading “NGO Reports that July 2023 is the Month with the Second Most Protests in Cuba Since July 2021”
14ymedio, Abel Sierra Madero, New York | August 28, 2018 — For the past few years the Cuban regime has been producing some sudden changes meant to guarantee the continuity of the system and to erase the past. I called this process of “gatopardism” (a political strategy of changing things so that everything remains the … Continue reading “From State Homophobia to Marriage Equality in Cuba”
Screen capture — A Cuban filmmaker with the black tape of censorship literally covering his mouth. Ángel Santiesteban-Prats, Havana, 21 December 2015 — In order to complete my personal impression about the G-20* assembly in the Fresa y Chocolate Cultural Film Center this past November 28, I must recognize the solidarity and support of the … Continue reading “More “Counterrevolutionary” Artists Speak Out For Their Freedom (Part 3) / Angel Santiesteban”
Angel Santiesteban “on probation,” Havana, 5 December 2015 — On Saturday, November 28th, there was a meeting at the “Fresa y Chocolate” center in Havana, of the Assembly of the G-20 as they have been called, this group of twenty directors of the seventh art — which has the desire and the priority that the dictatorship accept, … Continue reading “More Counterrevolutionary (?) Artists Speak up for Their Freedoms (Part I) / Angel Santiesteban”
The latest: the government’s reaction In the midst of the Assembly of the G-20 (as a group of twenty film directors call themselves), while the filmmakers debated the need for the approval of a Film Act and continued to denounce the hairy hand of censorship with Abel Prieto as its visible creator, as recently happened … Continue reading “More Counterrevolutionary (?) Artists Speak Up For Their Freedom (II) / Angel Santiesteban”
In Cuba we barely acknowledge the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, on October 12, 1492, and his arrival on our shores on the 24th, as if the conquest and colonization by Spain were an outstanding bill and not an event from the past of historical and cultural significance. Officially, National Culture Day celebrates the … Continue reading “For a Culture Without Custodians / Miguel Iturria Savón”
Click image to be taken to video on Youtube On July 20th, political prisoner of conscience Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet González will turn 49 years of age. On that day we wanted to publish a text remembering him. Because Biscet and his wife Elsa Morejon also lived in the Lawton neighbrohood, one of the highest … Continue reading “Oscar Elías Biscet, Resident of Lawton”
