English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Photo: Víctor Manuel Domínguez For someone from Havana, the best thing is to walk the streets in spring. These March days, Jorge Olivera Castillo, 52, poet and journalist, is delighted by the green of the trees, the salty aroma, and the gentle sun. On any weekday morning, he traces his own journey. Aimlessly wandering through … Continue reading “Jorge Olivera: The History of the Cuban Dissidence is Long / Ivan Garcia”
Written by Juan Gonzalez Febles Cuba news, Lawton, Havana: The recently unmasked infiltrated State Security (DSE) agent, Raul Capote, is not a member of the Writers Club of Cuba. This was confirmed by former prisoner of conscience, a member of the Group of 75 and a writer and independent journalist Jorge Olivera Castillo who chairs … Continue reading “Jorge Olivera Castillo: State Security (DSE) Agent Raul Capote is NOT a Member of the Writers Club / Ángel Santiesteban”
Iván García, Havana, December 9th, 2019 — This interview is the fruit of much bargaining. In various profiles that Journal of The Americas aims to publish on independent Cuban journalists of different generations, the name Monica Baro is underlined in red. The plan was to open the season with an interview of the brilliant young … Continue reading “Monica Baro: "You Can’t Sacrifice Yourself for a Utopia" / Ivan Garcia”
14ymedio, Havana, October 23, 2019 — 24 hours after her arrest, the activist Nancy Alfaya remains in an unknown location, as reported to 14ymedio by the independent journalist Jorge Olivera, who was with her at the time of her arrest. “We left at 12:30 from our turn on the internet at the United States embassy. … Continue reading “Detention and "Forced Disappearance" of Activist Nancy Alfaya Reported”
Iván García, 9 May 2019 — Around the mid-1990s, the cohort of official reporters taking the leap into unrestricted journalism in Cuba had — besides experience and media training — the privilege of typewriters at their disposal. Those just starting out in the world’s best occupation were hand-writing their articles in school notebooks. Newbies would … Continue reading “Independent Journalism In Cuba: Flourishing But Underfunded / Ivan Garcia”
Iván García, 3 May 2017 — Let’s step back in time. One morning in 1985, Yndamiro Restano Díaz, a thirty-seven-year-old journalist with Radio Rebelde, took out an old Underwood and wrote a clandestine broadsheet entitled “Nueva Cuba.” After distributing the single-page, handmade newspaper up and down the street, one copy ended up pinned to a wall … Continue reading “Independent Journalism Seeks to Revive Press Freedom / Iván García”
Cubanet, Luis Cino Alvarez, 30 September 2016 — The most recent report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on the state of journalism in Cuba is, more than disappointing, worrisome. It is not that its authors are uninformed about the Cuban reality. Rather, they have manipulated the information at their disposal so as to … Continue reading “A Disappointing And Unfair Report / Cubanet, Luis Cino Alvarez”
Luis Felipe Rojas, 1 July 2016 — This Friday I was informed that Cuban writer, poet, novelist, and cultural advocate Poemario de Rafeal Vilches was denied a visa by the United States embassy in Havana. Vilches has become an problem for those who claim that things have changed in Cuba. He has been arrested, interrogated by … Continue reading “The United States Denies Visa For Poet Rafael Vilches / Luis Felipe Rojas”
Ivan Garcia, 3 May 2016 — One morning in 1996, the poet and journalist, Raúl Rivero, Director of the press agency Independent Cuba Press, called me at home in Víbora, to ask me to cover the trial of a dissident in a municipal court in Cerro. The reporter, Ariel de Castro Tapia, (presently living in … Continue reading “Cuban Alternative Journalism: Challenges and Commitments / Iván García”
Ivan Garcia, 17 April 2016 — A little bent and dressed in civilian clothes, with a dark blue suit, light blue shirt, no tie, gold metallic glasses, and a star on his bag, Raul Castro Ruz, 84, president hand-picked by his brother Fidel in 2006, among applause advanced to the dais in the corner of the … Continue reading “Raul Castro: More Boring and Conservative Than Ever / Iván García”
Iván García, 16 March 2106 — Around 12 midnight on Tuesday, 18 March 2003, I was en route to my apartment in the La Víbora neighborhood when, from the balcony, some incomprehensible signs coming from my mother set off the alarms. Those were hard years. My mother and I were contributing articles to the independent press … Continue reading “Cuba: From the Black Spring to a Rolling Stones Concert / Iván García”
Ivan Garcia, 24 February 2016 — Neither American economic power nor Barack Obama’s oratorical skills seem to be enough to satisfy exaggerated, unreasonable or personal demands from the diverse group of Obama fans who make up Cuban society. The national psyche is fixated on the underlying and widespread idea among Afro-Cubans that foreign money, investment … Continue reading “He is Obama, Not God / Iván García”
14ymedio, Havana, 22 February 2016 — Former prisoners of the Black Spring Martha Beatriz Roque and Arnaldo Lauzurique received from the authorities “a unique opportunity to travel,” Roque informed 14ymedio this Monday, adding that today she will begin the paperwork to apply for a new passport. On leaving the Immigration and Nationality Office, located at … Continue reading “Seven of Eleven Former Black Spring Prisoners Allowed to Travel for “Good Behavior” / 14ymedio”
Luis Felipe Rojas, 1 February 2016 — This list is not intended to be a “Top Ten,” as is so common on internet publications. The list of names that follows carries the history of the men and women who believe in words and images as a tool of liberation. The independent journalists that appear below … Continue reading “Twenty Independent Communicators to Consult in Cuba / Luis Felipe Rojas”
Ivan Garcia, 23 November 2015 — On these hot nights in Havana, when nostalgia, that silent thief that robs you of strength, strikes without warning, Raúl Rivero, the poet, sneaks through my window and offers me a workshop specifically on the latest news from modern journalism. The art of teaching still doesn’t accept journalistic lectures … Continue reading “Press Workshop with Raul Rivero / Ivan Garcia”
