Search results for: José Lezama Lima,

Thoughts on Fidel’s “Words to the Intellectuals” and other texts / POLEMICA: The 2007 Intellectual Debate

– From Josefina de Diego – I confess that I didn’t remember the full text known as “Words to the Intellectuals,” delivered by Fidel Castro on June 30, 1961, at the National Library to a group of intellectuals. I think that, like many people, the only thing I remembered from the text was his famous … Continue reading “Thoughts on Fidel’s “Words to the Intellectuals” and other texts / POLEMICA: The 2007 Intellectual Debate”

SOLIDARITY WITH TOMAS PIARD / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

The Cuban filmmaker Tomás Piard now faces ideological pressure in his work for having interviewed me in his most recent documentary “TROCADERO 162, LOWER,” filmed last November for UNEAC, its producer. The debut of the film planned for 19 December 2010 (the 100th birthday of the Cuban writer José Lezama Lima, the subject of the … Continue reading “SOLIDARITY WITH TOMAS PIARD / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”

In 2010, Bad News Abounded in Cuba / Iván García

When the high creole hierarchy enjoyed the arrival of the 51st anniversary of the insurrection which elevated them to power on 1 January 1959, a violent cold front was ravaging the west of the country. In Mazorra, a psychiatric hospital located on the highway that leads to the principal airport, a major scandal was uncorking … Continue reading “In 2010, Bad News Abounded in Cuba / Iván García”

A Poet of “Sumptuous Sensuality” / Miguel Iturria Savón

Like Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda (Camaguey, 1814-Madrid, 1873), the great poet, essayist and journalist Gaston Baquero Díaz (Banes, Holguin, 1918 – Madrid, 1997) moved between Cuba and Spain, where he went in March 1959, when the revolution toppled the social pyramid to which his talent had elevated him, despite poverty and racial prejudice. Unlike Madam … Continue reading “A Poet of “Sumptuous Sensuality” / Miguel Iturria Savón”

An Invitation to the Pictoral Universe of I. Miranda

For a decade critics have been talking about the poetic, Baroque, telluric and zoomorphic painter Ibrahim Miranda Ramos (Pinar del Rio, 1969), who presents his swarm of metaphors in UNEAC’s Manuela Villa gallery, where he invites us to unravel his allegories on Cuba and the world through the prints of his series Punishment, Bondage and … Continue reading “An Invitation to the Pictoral Universe of I. Miranda”

Authors Blessed and Authors Proscribed

Friday, July 2, while waiting at the Cinemateca to see the French film Rapt (Kidnapping), I was surprised by the commotion of chairs, books and the songs of Joan Manuel Serrat on the Spanish poet Miguel Hernandez, a recurrent figure in Cuban publishing houses, which they were celebrating on another Book Night at 31 points … Continue reading “Authors Blessed and Authors Proscribed”

Eternal Summer, Eternal Hell

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 27 August 2023 – It’s been a good year for Reinaldo Arenas. A few moths after re-publishing Antes que anochezca [Before Night Falls], Tusquets rescued El mundo alucinante [Hallucinations] and its to be hoped that more of his titles return to the bookshops during the celebrations for 80 years since his birth. … Continue reading “Eternal Summer, Eternal Hell”

Cuba is Worth Less Every Day and the New Generations Will Inherit an Exhausted Country

14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 27 December 2022 — Reading economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe in an article published in 2003, a few weeks after his inclusion among the Black Spring prisoners, I learned and understood the importance of the concept of “decapitalization of the material base” in the Cuban economy, especially with regard to the absence … Continue reading “Cuba is Worth Less Every Day and the New Generations Will Inherit an Exhausted Country”

‘There is Only One Person Responsible: Fidel Castro,’ Reinaldo Arenas Wrote on December 7

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 7 December 2022 — On 7 December 1990, 32 years ago, Reinaldo Arenas committed suicide “without first having to go through the insult of old age.” He himself recounts that, when they told him that he would soon die of AIDS, he went to his apartment and made a wish, half … Continue reading “‘There is Only One Person Responsible: Fidel Castro,’ Reinaldo Arenas Wrote on December 7”

Garcia Lorca in Cuba: Diary of a Resurrection

14ymedio, Manuel Llorente, Madrid, 14 October 2022 — Federico García Lorca’s first adventure in the Americas could not have been more beneficial for him. The young man who, with a broken heart, embarked for the United States in 1929, bore no resemblance to the man who returned to Cádiz on 30 June 1930 aboard the … Continue reading “Garcia Lorca in Cuba: Diary of a Resurrection”

Cuba: The Last Place for Home

14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 25 September 2022 — Although we are wandering creatures, we are always looking for a home. For no one is a house enough; we must affirm our domain with small ornaments, paintings, touches, ashtrays, scratches on the wall, even breaks. That’s why hotels — no matter how luxurious they are — … Continue reading “Cuba: The Last Place for Home”

The Faces of the 45 Victims of the Gas Explosion in Havana’s Saratoga Hotel

14ymedio, Havana, 12 May 2022 — On Thursday the rescue services found the body of the last person listed as missing since the explosion, last Friday, in the Saratoga Hotel, bringing the death toll to 45. The fatalities are more than a number. However, little is known of their personal histories. With the support of social … Continue reading “The Faces of the 45 Victims of the Gas Explosion in Havana’s Saratoga Hotel”

Cuban Intellectual Ambrosio Fornet, Who Baptized the’Five Gray Years’, Dies

14ymedio, Havana, 5 April 2022 — The Cuban film writer and screenwriter Ambrosio Fornet Frutos died this Tuesday at the age of 90, the Casa de las Américas reported on its social networks. “His work constitutes a fundamental part of the nation’s culture, which he always defended,” the institution wrote, recalling that the intellectual was “one of its … Continue reading “Cuban Intellectual Ambrosio Fornet, Who Baptized the’Five Gray Years’, Dies”

Giving Voice to the ‘Self-Criticism’ of Cuban Poet Heberto Padilla, 50 Years Later

EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 27 April 2021 — The well-known public confession of the Cuban poet Heberto Padilla (1932-2000), which shocked the literary world 50 years ago because it was a manipulation of Castroism, has been staged in a new choral reading, with English subtitles. [See English transcript here.] About twenty Cuban artists and intellectuals read … Continue reading “Giving Voice to the ‘Self-Criticism’ of Cuban Poet Heberto Padilla, 50 Years Later”

Cuba Denies Entry to Cuban Poet Jorge Luis Arcos / 14yMedio

14ymedio, Havana, 16 July 2019 — Cuban authorities denied entry to Cuba to the poet and essayist Jorge Luis Arcos. The academic was not allowed to board a flight in Santiago de Chile because airline employees informed him that he could not enter the island, according to a press release from the Betania publishing house. … Continue reading “Cuba Denies Entry to Cuban Poet Jorge Luis Arcos / 14yMedio”