English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Ivan Garcia, 6 February 2018 — A silent police patrol began to search passersby they considered suspicious. When they saw it, the illegal tomato sellers quickly hid their merchandise on the staircase of a building in Havana’s Vibora neighborhood at Acosta and Diez de Octubre. An old woman, a regular seller of the newspaper Granma … Continue reading “The Other Fidel Castro / Iván García”
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 2 February 2018 — The suicide of Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart on Thursday is added to a long list of figures linked to power in Cuba who have chosen to end their lives in the last six decades. The history of the Cuban Revolution cannot be told without including its deserters, its exiles … Continue reading ““There is No Room for Suicides in the Pantheon of the Fatherland””
14ymedio, Havana, 8 December 2017 — The essayist, literary critic, semiotician and translator, Desiderio Navarro, died Thursday in Havana, at 69 years of age as a result of cancer that, for the last year, had prevented him from appearing in public. Navarro, born in Camagüey in 1948, was a renowned polyglot and poet, as well … Continue reading “Desiderio Navarro Dies, the “Lone Ranger” of Cuban Semiotics”
14ymedio, Havana, 26 November 2017 — Cuban politician Armando Hart Dávalos died on Sunday afternoon in Havana at 87 years of age due to respiratory failure, according to the official press. The news was announced in the midst of the commemoration of the first anniversary of the death of Fidel Castro. Born on 13 June 1930, … Continue reading “Armando Hart Dávalos Dies, Most Loyal of All Fidelistas”
Tania Quintero and Iván García, Lucerne and Havana, 25 October 2016 — To all our friends: Thank you for the congratulatory emails to Ivan and me (Tania Quintera) for having been nominated by Reporters Without Borders for their Press Freedom Prize in the category of Citizen Journalists. Thanks also for the notices published in Diario de Cuba, Diario … Continue reading “Nominated for Reporters Without Borders Prize / Iván García, Tania Quintera”
Iván García, Havana, 10 August 2015 — The U.S. Embassy in Havana, the State Department, and the administration of Barack Obama, have intentionally mapped out a strategy to prevent independent Cuban journalists from covering the visit of John Kerry and the official reopening of the diplomatic headquarters on Friday, August 14. For the the four-day … Continue reading “U.S. Government Snubs the Independent Cuban Press / Ivan Garcia”
Representatives of civil society meeting in Madrid agree on a set of strategies for 2015 14ymedio, Madrid, 6 March 2015 — Cuban dissidents, gathered in Madrid on Thursday and Friday at the Transitions in Latin American Societies conference, have agreed on a set of actions for 2015.Their proposals include: Implement actions to maintain the demands … Continue reading “Cuban Opposition Prepares its Proposals for the Summit of the Americas / 14ymedio”
CULTURE-CUBA: Exorcising the Ghosts of the Past By Dalia Acosta HAVANA, 23 February 2007 (IPS) – The expansion of a debate among a group of intellectuals in Cuba that began as an e-mail discussion at the beginning of the year would seem to demonstrate the need to bury once and for all the cultural restrictions … Continue reading “Feb 2007 Article About the Intellectual Debate”
14YMEDIO, Havana, 28 July 2014 – Since July 23 Angel Santiesteban’s family has denounced his disappearance from the Lawton Prison Settlement. That day the prize-winning author was taken from the place where he was serving a five-year sentence for an alleged crime of violation of domicile and injury. Until this morning his whereabouts were unknown. This … Continue reading “Angel Santiesteban is Being Held at the Acosta and Diez de Octubre Police Station / 14ymedio”
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION How did it occur to us to go to a concert by Pablo Milanes to ask for the liberation of Gorki? That is something that has the trademark of the spontaneous and the haste of that which can not be postponed or thought better of. Ciro, Claudia and I talked about … Continue reading “Brief chronology of a victory (Freeing Gorki “Last Time”) / Yoani Sanchez”
Dear Friends and Comrades: Suddenly, more than thirty years after his dismissal, Luis Pavón, ex-president of the National Council of Culture during the euphemistically called “Five Grey Years,” reappeared in the public sphere on nothing more nor less than an entire programme on National Television dedicated to “his cultural impact on Cuban culture.” So, was … Continue reading “Messages of Desiderio Navarro / POLEMICA: The 2007 Intellectual Debate”
The Quixotic Soul of Rafael Alcides For Luis Rafael An emotional Havana evening, the kind which seals memory with a light of fire, I met the poet Rafael Alcides Pérez (Barrancas, 1933). Choosing to remain anonymous, as is his custom, he was in the audience which was attending the launch of my poem-book Colómbico, being … Continue reading “The Poet Rafael Alcides Dedicates his Presentation to the Unjustly Jailed Writer Angel Santiesteban”
HAVANA, Cuba, August, www.cubanet.org -The suicide of Haydee Santamaria Cuadrado continues to be a problem for Fidel Castro. The tragic event, which happened July 26, 1980, doesn’t appear in the 2007 chronology edited by the government. The official media almost never reviews the tragic incident. The so-called “Heroine of Moncada” not only choose this very … Continue reading “The Suicide of Haydee Santamaria / Tania Diaz Castro”
A few years ago, I published several posts calling on the conscience of the intellectuals who were working as State officials not to continue online auctions of Cuban cultural heritage with its diverse wealth. Among those I mentioned were the work of Cuban painter Servando Cabrera Moreno (1923 -1981), one of the great masters of … Continue reading “Prison Diary XXVIII. The Works of Servando Cabrera Declared National Patrimony Too Late / Angel Santiesteban”
One Year Later: Originally posted in January 2008 What pushed me to this adventure of writing a Blog was the bad taste left at the end of the controversy of the intellectuals in January 2007. On an afternoon like today, the 30th of January, we waited – a group of young people – to be … Continue reading “One Year Later / POLEMICA: The 2007 Intellectual Debate, Yoani Sanchez”