English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Iván García, Desde La Habana, 10 August 2020 — Casa Bacardí is a venue annex just a stone’s throw from the University of Miami. One autumn morning in 2016 it became the setting for an event headlined by political analyst and writer Carlos Alberto Montaner, Agapito Rivera — who fought in the Escambray Mountains against … Continue reading “Cuban Emigrants Debate: Dialogue Or Confrontation?”
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, 15 April 2020 — I’ve been on WhatsApp for days with classmates from my time at the university. The pandemic has revitalized some friendships that, spread across various countries, help me to evoke school times, exchange family photos and project the future. Yesterday, another philologist — who also graduated in 2000 — asked me … Continue reading “Day 26 of the Covid-19 Crisis in Cuba: There is No Normality to Return To”
14ymedio, Havana | 17 October 2019 — She had already died many times on stage: nicely as Giselle; in the role of the swan of the lake; or stabbed like Carmen. But this time it has been the interpreter of these fatal characters, Alicia Alonso, who has disappeared from the stage of life. Born in Havana on 21 December 1920, she … Continue reading “The Final Death of Alicia Alonso”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 24 September 2019 — Carmelo Mesa-Lago is a known but enigmatic figure. An economist cited by both Tyrians and Trojans, with a father born in Guanabacoa and a mother from Regla, for decades we have seen him explain Cuba through his data and figures. Few know his informal, almost domestic side, in which … Continue reading “The Memoir of a Great Figure of the Cuban Exile”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 9 August 2019 — More than 20 years ago, when I was studying Philology at the University of Havana, a colleague did a study on the headlines of the official press. The young woman compared the verbs that headlined the national news with those used for international issues. The result was that most … Continue reading “The Evil of the Private Sector According to ‘Granma’”
Iván García, 5 March 2019 — Twenty-five years ago, Luis David Fuentes pedaled 17 kilometers a day on a rough Chinese bicycle through the dark and dilapidated Havana streets towards the CUJAE, today José Antonio Echevarría Technological University, located in Marianao, a municipality in the south of Havana, where he studied mechanical engineering. Those were the … Continue reading “From Engineer in Havana to Magazine Director in Kentucky / Ivan Garcia”
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernández, Havana, March 7, 2019 — After Sunday, February 24 and after finishing the constitutional referendum, everyday life seems to have entered a kind of impasse. On the walls, public stores, and billboards of the city, you can still see the signs asking you to vote Yes with which the government filled every … Continue reading “The Referendum Hangover”
Ivan Garcia, 7 February 2019 — John Bolton, Donald Trump’s National Security advisor, is asking autocrat Nicolas Maduro to renounce power in Miraflores and to enjoy a political retirement on a Caribbean beach. Otherwise, he forecasts a terrorist prison cell for him at the United States’ Guantanamo Naval Base, more than 1000 kilometers east of … Continue reading ““If Maduro Falls, in Cuba We’ll Return to the Special Period” / Ivan Garcia”
Iván García, 7 January 2019 — Although Magela and her boyfriend Damián were dressed in black to a salsa dance with Haila and Isaac Delgado, on January 1 at Red Square in La Víbora, south of Havana, they were unaware of the campaign that Cuban dissident activists are carrying out in social networks with the label … Continue reading “"Not One More": A Trending Topic, or One More Dissident Campaign? / Ivan Garcia”
14ymedio, Emilio Alberto Pérez Anchía, Santa Cruz de Tenerife | Recently I read in some outlet, that you, in your capacity as representative of the PP to the government, have presented a non-legislative motion (NLM) urging the Spanish government to take a stance before the exploitation of Cuban doctors in the More Doctors program in … Continue reading “Petition of a Cuban Doctor to the Popular Party of Spain”
Somos+, Richard Shirrman, 27 January 2019 — This January 26 we watched as thousands of Cuban citizens and lovers of liberty and democracy came together with one voice demanding our rights, it was more than one march or protest against that dictatorship that robs us all alike of our liberty, that subjugates, and that represses … Continue reading “When A People Unites, No Dictatorship Can Prevail / Somos+”
14ymedio, Ariel Hidalgo, Miami, 1 January 2019 — A group of men — not a generation, but the so-called “historical leadership” along with their hand-picked successors — is celebrating 60 years in power this week, without ever giving the Cuban people the right to choose another option. They celebrate it without any modesty, when they should … Continue reading “60 Years of Permanent War”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Bogota/Havana, 9 September 2018 — Beside me, a woman with two children sobs as she remembers her native Caracas. In the office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service of Bogotá, the Venezuelan accent is heard on all sides, a multitude of exiles who have come from the neighboring country with barely … Continue reading “The Stampede of Venezuelans Jeopardizes Latin America”
14ymedio, Justo Mora, Cienfuegos, August 30, 2018 — Pedro Albaladejo arrived in Juraguá 31 years ago. At that time he didn’t have as much gray hair as he does now, nor did he let his beard grow more than five days. He was a strong young man, with a tanned complexion, who at 35 made … Continue reading “"The Work of the Century" is Now a Ghost Town in Cienfuegos”
Cubanet, Luis Cino Alvarez, Havana, 20 June 2018 — The writer Rafael Alcides, who died in Havana on June 19 at the age of 85, had a warehouse of novels and unpublished poems in his home. It had been more than three decades since a book of his was published in his homeland. First it was because … Continue reading “Rafael Alcides: May He Rest In Peace / Luis Cino Alvarez”
