English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernández, Havana, 13 May 2020 — “Without the ration card they won’t give me the card,” Osmany laments outside a store on Calle Neptuno, in Central Havana. This 39-year-old electrician, originally from the province of Guantánamo, has no legal residence in the capital and, with the coronavirus crisis, he can no longer buy in state … Continue reading “Two Cans of Sardines in Exchange for Use of the Covid-19 Card”
Iván García, 5 December 2019 — For three days now there is no running drinkable water. If you want to purchase a pack of cigarettes or medication at the drugstore after 8pm, you must walk more than a kilometer. It is common for men to urinate in the public right-of-way and for people to dump … Continue reading “Two Havanas Within a Single City / Ivan Garcia”
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, November 24, 2019 — One of the products most sought-after by the throngs of people inundating the Cuatro Caminos Market has been the tomato, an essential ingredient in many recipes. With supplies scarce and prices for the product high, prepackaged tomato concentrate is the only option for customers who want to … Continue reading “Tomato Production in Cuba Tanks and Prices Soar”
Ivan Garcia, 4 June 2018 — When it started raining on May 2, Eliseo and his wife had already covered the leaks in the roof of tiles with silicone, wooden planks and pieces of plastic. On the deck, outside, they sprayed waterproof paint and reinforced the iron beams on the roof that run through the house, so … Continue reading “May Rains Brought More “Drama” to Cubans / Ivan Garcia”
She said it with a tone somewhere between surprise and disappointment: “They don’t give a damn, Ernesto. How mistaken we exiles are.” And I nodded because I knew too well what she was talking about. For her, a woman from Santiago who hadn’t stepped foot on her native land since 1999, living in Miami and … Continue reading “The Winners’ Trophy / Ernesto Morales Licea”
14ymedio, Madrid, November 13, 2023 — The official press echoed this Sunday the announcement of the opening of a Russian products store in Havana, a project between the RusMarket brand and the state-owned Cimex that had already been advanced eight months ago but now has a tentative date: March 2024. At that time, Evguéni Meytes, … Continue reading “The Opening of a Russian Store in Havana in 2024 Is Confirmed Without Clarifying What Currency Is Needed: Cuban Pesos or Foreign Currency”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez/Olea Gallardo, Havana, 16 January 2023 — A few years ago, through one of those entertaining TED conferences that spread like wildfire on social networks, Barry Schwartz popularized the expression “the paradox of choice” which can be summed up as follows: choosing between too many options produces paralysis and dissatisfaction, which can … Continue reading “A Depressed Employee Among Empty Shelves, a Reflection of Cuba’s Misfortune”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 15 December 2022 — Throwing a bucket of water off the balcony, burning a doll or painting the house are some of the traditions that Cubans turn to every December so that, when January arrives, the problems of the previous year don’t pass to the new one. It is a … Continue reading “A Foreign Currency Store for Mexican Paint Supplies, ‘Proudly Cuban,’ Opens in Havana”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 14 September 2022 — Forty people and forty identity cards, not one more. The crisis in the markets has made the leap to state cafeterias, and even in the cafeteria of the popular Plaza Carlos III, in Central Havana, it’s already impossible to sit normally and eat a quarter of … Continue reading “In Plaza Carlos III, an Identity Card is Required to Buy a Quarter of Fried Chicken”
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 22 September 2021 — “Before there was a store called Mi Bici, that was by the train terminal. I used to buy some pieces there, when it was there,” says Elizabeth. At age 56, this woman from Havana, a resident of the Plaza municipality, has been pedaling around the city … Continue reading “The Price of Biking in Cuba is Rising”
14ymedio, Havana, 10 June 2020 — The Cuban Government has surrendered to the evidence of the failure of its virtual stores and has ordered their temporary and staggered closure in order to restructure the sales. “Despite the different measures taken to meet customer requests, we recognize that we have not achieved the expected result and … Continue reading “Cimex Closes All Its Virtual Stores In Cuba Due To "Customer Dissatisfaction"”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 27 April 2020 — Life does not stop. We may be in a health emergency or quarantine, but children continue to be born, couples separate and the pipes break. We know about this last thing in our house, where we spent several days trying to repair a leak that made our already complicated … Continue reading “Day 33 to 38 of the Covid-19 Emergency in Cuba: There is Always an Eye That Sees You”
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 3 March 2020 — “The owner went out from this morning to try to get beer and has not returned,” explains the employee of a small restaurant on Tulipán Street, in Havana, to a customer who has come eagerly hoping for a Buccaneer or a Crystal. “There is no store in … Continue reading “The Shortage of Beer Harms Small Businesses in Havana”
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 3 January 2018 — The controversy broke out after the publication of the 2018 Letter of the Year. The series of predictions — provided every January by the priests of the Yoruba religion — has raised a cloud of criticism expressed in calls to “not conspire” and to respect authority, something that … Continue reading “’Letter of the Year’ Sets Off Controversy Among Cuba’s Babalaos”
14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 4 January 2016 — I was ten years old when Fidel Castro launched the economic battle he called the “Rectification of errors and negative tendencies.” The Maximum Leader’s rage fell, at that time, on private farmers and on the intermediaries who marketed their products. Cuatro Caminos Plaza in Havana, … Continue reading “The Deadly Kiss of Price Controls / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez”
