English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
After reading an article, “Not Very Anomalous Anomalies,” published in Granma on November 7 and written by journalist Pedro de la Hoz about Halloween, cheerleading and those little stars-and-stripes flags, I couldn’t wait to get to my laptop to respond and refresh Mr. de la Hoz’s memory. First of all, it should be pointed out that … Continue reading “Where Is the Anomaly? / Rebeca Monzo”
Photo: martinoticas.com The physicist and nuclear energy specialist Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart* recently led an official Cuban delegation to Hong Kong, though the news happened, as we say, behind the scenes. Xinhua, Prensa Latina and other news agencies did not report it, perhaps because the visit was not important. Or perhaps it was because the eldest son … Continue reading “Chinese Businesses on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange? / Juan Juan Almeida”
An official with the Housing Institute denounces corruption and privileges, as well as reprisals taken against his family. 14ymedio, September 24, 2014 – Before leaving Cuba in October, 2013, the author of this accusation occupied an important post at the Housing Institute and, as a jurist, saw firsthand the intrigues perpetrated by high-level officers of … Continue reading ““J’Accuse” from a High Position / 14ymedio”
Young Oscar Casanella is threatened in the public roadway by “factors” of the revolution. State Security wants him fired from his work. HAVANA, Cuba. — Someone must have heard the telephone conversations of Oscar Casanella. Those days he was organizing a party with his friends to welcome back Ciro, the guitarist for the punk rock … Continue reading “They Direct the Machinery of Harassment Against a Cancer Researcher / Lilianne Ruiz”
One of the central figures of the Cuban opposition, who participated in the revolution before its ultimate victory but ended up being sentenced to 20 years in Castro’s prisons, was the independent economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, who died in Madrid. He recounts his life and ideas in this interview. Born in Cienfuegos on November 29, … Continue reading ““I Always Did What My Conscience Dictated” / Dimas Castellano, Oscar Espinosa Chepe”
Interview with Manuel Cuesta Morúa from Constitutional Consensus Options under discussion: Change the 1940 Constitution, the 1976 update or create a new constitution The Project involves most of the relevant organizations from the civic and political community, inside and outside Cuba Reinaldo Escobar, Havana | May 23, 2014 Question. What is the objective of the … Continue reading “A Preview of the Next Cuba / 14ymedio, Manuel Cuesta Morua, Reinaldo Escobar”
When a government’s financial figures are in the red, everything takes on new urgency. By now the formulas to address the problem are well-known. Often new tax measures are imposed while bloated public spending is slashed. But if the goal is to attract American dollars, euros or other forms of hard currency, then any reforms … Continue reading “Cuba Opens the Gates to Foreign Capital / Ivan Garcia”
Cubanet, 19 March 2014 –A son-in-law of Cuban leader Raul Castro, in charge of the military businesses that dominate the economy on the island, has risen to general, according to a report today in the south Florida’s El Nuevo Herald. Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Callejas, barely over 50, who for a long time has been identified … Continue reading “Raul Castro’s Son-in-Law Rises to General”
1. March 12, 1965, an open letter by Ernesto Guevara to his friend Carlos Quijano is published in the Uruguayan weekly Marcha. The text, “Socialism and the New Man in Cuba,” is perhaps Guevara’s most significant theoretical writing, and at the same time an emphatic declaration of the regime’s objectives emanating from the Cuban Revolution, then … Continue reading “The Amazing Resistance of Reinaldo Arenas / Rafael Lemus”
Approximately four years into the process of the reinstatement of private labor in Cuba, official data acknowledges the existence of over 400,000 “self-employed” throughout the country, representing a percentage of workers that pay taxes to the State, a force to be reckoned with, given their great tax contribution to the State and the jobs they … Continue reading “Tax Culture in Totalitarianism / Miriam Celaya”
On 13 March 1968, on the steps of the University of Havana, Fidel Castro delivered a speech where he announced the so-called “Revolutionary Offensive” stage, a speech that we consider — from the ideological point of view — as the most important among his countless speeches. In retrospect, that date represented the final lift-off of … Continue reading “The Day Fidel Castro Eliminated Private Businesses / Baldomero Vasquez Soto”
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION How did it occur to us to go to a concert by Pablo Milanes to ask for the liberation of Gorki? That is something that has the trademark of the spontaneous and the haste of that which can not be postponed or thought better of. Ciro, Claudia and I talked about … Continue reading “Brief chronology of a victory (Freeing Gorki “Last Time”) / Yoani Sanchez”
A crowd was waiting outside the mansion in Vedado with a statue of Abraham Lincoln in the garden. The language school opened its doors to new registrations and in the days that followed tested the attitudes of those interested. Everyone waited nervously, thinking that they would be evaluated on a pronunciation here… a mastery of … Continue reading “What’s-his-name? / Yoani Sanchez”
The first time Juan Carlos saw a Christmas tree, he was 43-years-old and working as a bricklayer inside the house of a top counterintelligence officer. “That was 19 years ago. Those were the harsh years of the so-called Special Period. People had nothing to eat. Avocado was a luxury and a pound of rice was … Continue reading “When Cuba Had No Christmas / Ivan Garcia”
