English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Ivan Garcia, 4 July 2016 — Mayara finished ninth grade with excellent grades and the next school term she will start high school. She is thinking about going to university and getting a degree in civil engineering or architecture. Until then, she is spending her holidays scrubbing dishes, cleaning house and helping her mother wash fifteen … Continue reading “Affordable Vacations in Cuba / Iván García”
Ivan Garcia, 13 July 2016 — The bearded Castro — famous for his long speeches, sponsorship of guerrilla groups in Latin America and Africa, and utopian promises — retired for health reasons after forty-seven years in power. But like a disembodied ghost, he is apt to reappear at any moment in Cubans’ lives. “A few … Continue reading “Fidel Castro, All Over the Place / Iván García”
City of Havana – One of the New7Wonder Cities of the World. Ivan Garcia, 6 June 2016 — From Miraflores, south of Havana, Sergio comes twice a week with his wheelbarrow to the dump on Calle 100 in Marianao to pick up old junk that he later sells for a few pesos in a traveling … Continue reading “Havanans Comment on "The Wonder" of Their City / Iván García”
Ivan Garcia, 19 May 2016 — The raindrops tinkle on the zinc roof of a greasy hut used to store sacks of fertilizer, agricultural tools, and the various ancient contraptions that are always be a nuisance to keep in the house. Osvaldo, the sixty-five-year-old owner of a farm southeast of Havana, calmly takes a drag … Continue reading “Why Cuban Agriculture Is Inefficient / Iván García”
Ivan Garcia, 9 April 2016 — Quiet has returned to the streets of Carraguao, a neighborhood in the suburb of Cerro. There are no more patrol cars, no local police or beefy foreigners who look like U.S Secret Service agents walking around and checking everything out. But two days after it took place, Berta — … Continue reading “The Obama Revolution and the Average Cuban / Iván García”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, 5 April 2016 – The name of Cuba has not appeared among the so-called Panama Papers, but the official press is displaying caution over leaked documents that reveal fortunes hidden by politicians, athletes and entertainment figures. The national media has mentioned those touched by the scandal, such as Argentina’s president Mauricio Macro, … Continue reading “Cuba’s Official Press Treads Carefully With Panama Papers / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 22 January 2016 – There are no colors. Only gray and white, with some ocher tones provided by the dry gardens, planted for opening day. In this hostile landscape in the Havana municipality of Cotorro, 19 buildings were made up of petrocasas (“oil-houses’). A dream of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez that is … Continue reading “The ‘Oil-Houses’ Are Falling Apart / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar”
14ymedio, Havana, 27 December 2015 – Announcing a performance in the Plaza of the Revolution tossed the artist Tania Bruguera into the middle of a hurricane of repression and solidarity. The reprise of Tatlin’s Whisper, this time under the title #YoTambienExijo (I Also Demand), would have brought microphones to the emblematic locale for those who wanted … Continue reading “Cuban Faces of 2015: Tania Bruguera, Artist / 14ymedio”
Ivan Garcia, 19 November 2015 — One hour before noon, the bus stops on Calzada 10 de Octubre are flooded with irritated people who want to transfer to other neighborhoods in the capital. Hundreds of old cars reconverted into collective taxis full of passengers roll in the direction of Vedado or Centro Habana. The autumn heat … Continue reading “The Shipwreck of Havana / Ivan Garcia”
Today we publish the first part of the testimony of a Cuban who has made the dangerous trip from Guatemala to the United States 14ymedio, Mario J. Penton Martinez, Guatamalan/Mexican Border, 13 November 2015 – I live proud of being Cuban. I always have been. Cuba evokes the warmth of a mother’s lap, the tenderness of … Continue reading “Chronicle of a ‘Rafter’ on Foot (Part 1 of 3) / 14ymedio, Mario Penton Martinez”
14ymedio, Manuel Pereira, Mexico City, 8 November 2015 — Since the second half of the twentieth century we Cubans have been the Jews of the Caribbean, and the Malecon is our Wailing Wall. Among other topics, the immigration issue figures in the meeting between Raul Castro and Pena Nieto in Merida, Yucatan. The two countries are united … Continue reading “The Crossing Of The Desert / 14ymedio, Manuel Pereira”
14ymedio, Rene Gomez Manzano, Havana, 24 October 2015 — Thanks to the US Embassy in Havana, which provides press briefings with national and international news to us Cubans who navigate in their internet rooms, last Monday, October 19, I learned about a new information organ. Periodismo de Barrio (Neighborhood Journalism) is the name by which … Continue reading “Neighborhood Journalism in Cuba / 14ymedio, Rene Gomez Manzano”
Diario de Cuba, Laritza Diversent, Havana, 31 July 2015 —In Cuba there is a myth that says that there is no racism here because “all the races and cultures melded together forever in a happy synthesis.” Nonetheless, in reality, invisibility is on the rise, and a concept of “racial democracies” is maintained. The invisibility of … Continue reading “Black Woman: Double or Triple Discrimination? / Diario de Cuba, Laritza Diversent”
Ivan Garcia, 11 July 2015 — On a leaden afternoon in 1960 that portended rain, René, 79 years old, recalls how a half-dozen militia members encased in wide uniforms and bearing Belgian weapons appeared at his uncle’s house in the peaceful neighborhood of La Víbora to certify the confiscation of his properties. “My family owned a milk … Continue reading “Cuba: Wipe the Slate Clean and Start Over, or Form a Truth Commission?”
1898: the United States declares war on Spain after accusing it of the sinking of the battleship “Maine” in Havana harbor. The United States wins and Spain has to give up Cuba. 1901: On June 12, the United States imposes the Platt Amendment which will be incorporated into the first Constitution of Cuba and limits the sovereignty … Continue reading “A Century Of Tumultuous Relations / 14ymedio”
