English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Five years after the Cuban government signed the UN covenants, what is the situation of civil and political rights and of economic social and cultural rights in Cuba? How is the campaign For Another Cuba growing, and what has been the government response? What are the realistic expectations for change in the short and medium … Continue reading “Panel: The Covenants, Five Years Later”
When, three years ago, Octavio, 52, asked a relative in Miami for a loan of $ 8,000 for the purpose of opening a ’paladar’ (private restaurant) in the Havana neighborhood of La Vibora, he was sure that his business would prosper. Not so. In this false Cuban winter, he still owes $8,000 to his relative. … Continue reading “Of Utopian Socialism and Savage Capitalism / Ivan Garcia”
My travels to Najasa — southeast of Camaguey — were marked by my first impressions on arriving. The first time, I was amazed at the hills with cliffs that followed the highway from Cuatro Caminos — the sunny capital — to Manolin, as if the truck had come from Camaguey to bring the mountains of … Continue reading “Najasa Votes Against Itself / Henry Constantin”
Lacking McDonald’s, Burger King or Kentucky Fried Chicken, fast food par excellence in 21st Century Cuba is fried foods and croquettes made from unknown ingredients. All over Havana there are thousands of cars fitted out with rustic kitchen, dedicated to frying and selling fried food and croquettes by weight. There are those like Ignacio who … Continue reading “Cuban Fast Food / Ivan Garcia #Cuba”
By Veizant Boloy At the end of September, Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, received Bruno Rodriguez Parilla, Cuban Foreign Minister, at U.N. headquarters in New York, according to a report in the national press. This recalls 28 February 2008, when Felipe Perez Roque, the former foreign minister, shook hands with Ban Ki-Moon, … Continue reading “And the Ratification of the Covenants? / Veizant Boloy #Cuba”
More than 40 children with their parents met on the eve of January 6th at the headquarters of the Ladies in White, at 962 Neptune Street, to celebrate the traditional “Day of the Three Kings.” Bertha Soler, leader of the Movement, began the event remembering Laura Pollan, who from 2004 celebrate this day especially dedicated … Continue reading “Three Kings Day with the Ladies in White / Lilianne Ruiz #Cuba”
Let’s take a look at government predictions. According to state technocrats, Cuba’s GDP will grow 3.7% in 2013. Spokesmen for General Raul Castro claim that, in spite of an economic crisis affecting half the world, social services will remain at 2012 levels. The “good news” keeps on coming from the Palace of the Revolution. The … Continue reading “Cuba 2013; A Cautious Forecast / Ivan Garcia #Cuba”
HAVANA — Just outside the Virgin of Regla temple, here in Havana, a fortune-teller throws shells for passersby in exchange for money. Every day she gets the same questions: Will they find love? Will they be able to buy a home? Will they be able to travel in the near future? And above all, when … Continue reading “Midnight in Havana: Will the Cuban government fall in 2013? /Yoani Sanchez #Cuba”
In spite of the decay and the grime, it is still a vain city. A varied architecture, rows of archways and tall columns topped with plaster figures. Neighborhoods with their own flavor.Atarés, El Pilar, Carraguao, La Víbora, Lawton, Sevillano, Mantilla, Párraga, Buena Vista, Pogolotti, San Leopoldo, Colón, Cayo Hueso, El Vedado o Miramar. Each with … Continue reading “Havana, A Unique Metropolis / Ivan Garcia #Cuba”
Four decades after taking power through revolution in 1959, the factors which made totalitarianism in Cuba possible have reached their limit. The populist measures imposed during the first years after the revolution were accompanied by the dismantling of civil society and a process of government takeover which began with foreign-owned companies and did not end … Continue reading “An Assessment of the Cuban Government’s Management Over the Last Six Years / Dimas Castellano”
Sometime after eleven at night, Alfredo, 66 years old, plants his folding chair and small plastic table at October 10 and Acosta streets. On this centrally located Havana corner he sells freshly brewed coffee. He has a large clientele. Nighttime entertainers, drivers from a nearby taxi stand, nightwatchmen, tranvestite prostitutes from the area and policemen … Continue reading “Private Retail Proliferates in Havana / Ivan Garcia”
We are on the eve of new elections in Cuba. And I am reminded that the first law issued in Sierra Maestra during the anti-Batista insurrection before the elections scheduled in 1958, was a death penalty law. It was designed to punish with death those who took part in the elections. It also punished those … Continue reading “There are no free elections without free people, free citizens, free men and free women / Oswaldo Paya”
Thanks to a hundred dollars from some relatives in Miami, the Calderón family knew they could eat well for four days. And Oneida, the seventy-one year old homemaker in charge of feeding the seven members of her family—five adults and two kids—could take a little break from the long lines and having to go to … Continue reading “Eating, A Big Problem in Cuba / Ivan Garcia”
Monday, September 17th marked the first week of a hunger strike carried out by the well-known economist and opposition figure Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello, 67 years old, “to demand the freedom of political prisoner Jorge Vázquez Chaviano and an attempt to force the government of Raúl Castro to comply with mediocre current legislation”, she tells … Continue reading “The Cuban Regime’s Destructive Acts Against the Dissidence Have Come to Seem Normal to the World / Ivan Garcia”
By: Ignacio Estrada Cepero, Independent Journalist. [Note from Translating Cuba: The strike discussed here was successful and is now over… our apologies for not translating this article sooner.] Havana, Cuba: In a press conference the leading dissident Lic. Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello explained her decision to begin a hunger strike on last Monday, September 10th. … Continue reading “Chain Hunger Strike Begins in Havana In Support Of Jorge Vazquez Chaviano’s Release / Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada”
