English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
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”
14ymedio, Yaiza Santos, Madrid, 8 March 2023 – Xavier Carbonell (born in Camajuaní, Villa Clara, Cuba in 1995) is spurred on by the desire to distance himself from the most common themes of other living Cuban writers (the pain of being exiled from a place, the misery of being in another place) and aims, above … Continue reading “Cuban Writer Xavier Carbonell Presents His Novel ‘Time’s Castaway’ in Madrid”
14ymedio, Havana, 1 January 2022 — The return of Detective Mario Conde, the adventures of Federico García Lorca in Havana and a fast-paced essay on the concentration camps on the Island marked the route of the Cuban book in 2022. 14ymedio proposes an account of the best titles from authors residing inside and outside the … Continue reading “2022, a Fertile Year Outside the Island for Books Linked to Cuba”
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”
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”
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”
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”
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”
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”
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”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 18 February 2017 — When one looks at that territory of Cuban literature inhabited by women, it is usually observed from the concept of gender. Among those who study the phenomenon with more intensity, and also with more courage, Ileana Álvarez stands out. She is a poet, essayist, author of a dozen books and … Continue reading “Ileana Álvarez, Wings Always Ready To Fly / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 23 November 2016 — The film Santa and Andrés will not be screened at the 38th edition of the Havana Film Festival, to be held between 8 and 18 December. Sources from the industry guild commented to 14ymedio that the exclusion of the independent film, directed by Carlos Lechuga, could be motivated by its theme, focusing … Continue reading “The Film ‘Santa and Andrés’ is Excluded From Havana Festival / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar”
Somos+, Victor Manuel Camposeco, 10 September 2016 — In April of 1960, from the official newspapers Hoy (Today) and Revolución along with the leftist organization FIDEL, the demands to take by force the three independent print media still standing seemed unstoppable. For months, the newsrooms of those newspapers had also been infiltrated by State agents. … Continue reading “Free Press: Knockout / Somos+”
Regina Anavy, Reykjavic, June 27, 2016 — Crossing paths with Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo in Reykjavic, Iceland, on June 27, 2016, I had the opportunity to have a conversation with him. Iceland And Future Plans Regina Anavy: I understand you are here on a special two-year grant from ICORN [International Cities of Refuge Network]. Orlando Luis … Continue reading “A Conversation with Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo / Regina Anavy”
14ymedio, Rosa Pascual, Madrid, 10 March 2016 — Moscow 1989. Mario, a Cuban journalist working in the press department of the secretariat of the Organization for International Economic Cooperation (OCEI) representing the island in the Soviet capital, attends, with his family, the premiere of the play The Master and Margarita, whose main female part is … Continue reading “‘Matryoshkas’ of Exile / 14ymedio, Rosa Pascual”
