English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Madrid, 17 January 2022 — The López-Peña sugar mill, in Báguanos, Holguín, should have produced 13,000 tons of sugar this February, but it only has 30% of the planned plan to date, according to Reina Salermo Escalona, director of provincial coordination of Azcuba in Holguín. The official attributes the delays, which are widespread in … Continue reading “Little Sugar Cane and Many ‘Adversities’ in the Holguin Harvest”
14ymedio, Havana, 12 January 2022 — The best example of the disaster in the economy of Ciego de Ávila is the sugar harvest, which did its part for what is already recognized as “the worst result in more than a century at the national level,” worst than the previous year. The provincial industry barely accomplished … Continue reading “Officialdom Publishes an ‘Inventory of Calamities’ in the Cuban Province of Ciego de Avila”
Ivan Garcia, 23 January 2017 — Miami Airport is almost a city. And the American Airlines’ departures area is a labyrinth, with dozens of corridors and passages. That’s why Noahn, an American living in Michigan, arrived five hours before his flight’s scheduled departure time to Varadero. He was travelling with his wife, his eight-month-old son … Continue reading “Undercover American Tourists in Cuba / Iván García”
Cubanet, Rafael Alcides, Havana, 13 May 2015 – Extremely worried, doctoral candidate in physics Antonio Rodiles and his wife the actress and political activist Ailer Gonzalez, in their home, related to me two events that I have prayed over, that those events that started with the blood of Moncada wouldn’t end up being a circular … Continue reading “The Harvest of the Sowing of Violence / Cubanet, Rafael Alcides”
Julio Columbié Batista is a young peasant from Batey Grúa Nueva in the town of Violeta, Ciego de Avila. This co-chairman of the Central Opposition Coalition in that province, director and founder of the Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Civic Resistance and Civil Disobedience Front, is one of the brave opponents devoted to the cause of … Continue reading “A Leader Anonymous But Real / Jorge Luis García Pérez Antunez”
Ivan García, 26 May 2023 — The National Highway running through Matanzas province divides Los Arabos municipality in two directions. On the left, a town of just over 23 thousand inhabitants, cracked streets, and wagons pulled by horses that in their tiresome trot leave their poop on the main road. On the right, a handful … Continue reading “Cooking Gas Is Also Lacking In Cuba”
14ymedio, Havana, January 9, 2021 — The Cuban authorities announced that this Saturday the definitive synchronization between the Ciro Redondo sugar mill and a nearby bioelectric plant concluded. This is the first experience on the Island in the generation of energy from sugarcane and marabou biomass, described by the official press, with its usual triumphalist … Continue reading “First bioelectric Plant in Cuba, with Common Technology in Latin America”
Cubanet, Ernesto Pérez Chang, Havana, 13 August 2020 — They invented the bici-agro in Ciego de Ávila, the local press announced, and the TV National News repeated it in spite of how ridiculous the news item was. In essence, the “great invention” is nothing more than an ordinary tricycle to market food on the streets, … Continue reading “From Ubre Blanca to the “Bici-agro”, the Absurd News of the Revolution / Ernesto Perez Chang”
Dimas Castellano, 25 May 2015 — The goal was to match the results obtained in 1912. Failure to meet this target is nothing new, nor are the reasons why. At the closing session of the XI Congress of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) on May 17, the second secretary of the Communist Party of … Continue reading “More But Still Falling Short / Dimas Castellano”
The current Cuban sugarcane harvest, which has been well underway, has set off an alarming buzzer. The workers have been on shift for periods of 12 hours or more, without voicing considerable protests, except in some cases when the administrations have once again appeased the nonconformists. In provinces such as Granma, Ciego de Avila, and … Continue reading “Cuban Unionism, a Shameful Pain / Luis Felipe Rojas”
“I know the naysayers are coming now to pour cold water on my illusions,” a neighbor parodied in a tango tempo, on hearing a Cuban television report revealing a plan to flood with soybeans what has been taken over by marabou weed, where sugar cane was once planted in the fertile lands of Ciego de … Continue reading “The Era of Soy? / Reinaldo Escobar”