English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
In Cuba the practice of wasting time is a daily phenomenon. It evaporates in conversations on the street corner, in workplaces, while waiting for buses, resolving bureaucratic problems, reading the newspaper Granma, looking for bargains in the farmers’ markets and “building socialism,” which is like a long road from one form of capitalism to another. … Continue reading “War-Time Opportunists / Pablo Pascual Mendez Pina”
Rafters – Picture from the Internet In numerous conversations with Cubans, émigrés as well as those “on the inside” (I share the experience of living every day under this Island’s sui generis [unique] conditions with the latter) surfaces a phrase, coined through several decades, whose credibility rests more on repetition by its own use and … Continue reading “The “Forbidden” and the “Mandatory” / Miriam Celaya”
In recent weeks Cuba’s official media has been trying to constantly bring the figure of Fidel Castro to the foreground. Again I hear “this idea was our commander-in-chief’s” or simply “our beloved commander-in-chief…” Recently to celebrate September 28th* the blocks were bedecked with posters of his figure. Like a multi-colored flag his face was repeated … Continue reading “28 September / Luzbely Escobar”
The López Serrano building, a work of Mira and Rosich, architectural jewel, constructed in 1932 and located at No. 108 13th between 11th, L and M in Vedado, has suffered a progressive deterioration for years, with the authorities doing absolutely nothing to stop it. Looking around its exterior is to discover doors closed and boarded … Continue reading “The Lopez Serrano / Fernando Damaso”
To the President of the Councils of State and Ministers of the Republic of Cuba, the words freedom, prosperity, love and family are plain and simple “persuasion” that, when it comes time for manipulation and pressure, have more of an effect than fear. He didn’t lie last Friday when, in feverish runaway of egotism and … Continue reading “The General Gains Time / Juan Juan Almeida”
HAVANA, Cuba, September, www.cubanet.org – In the same way that a blind woman with scales is an allegory of justice and a skeleton with a scythe is the allegory of death, the image that identifies the CDR should be the allegory of betrayal. The creation of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution in … Continue reading “CDR: Symbol of Snitching / Julio Cesar Alvarez”
Official secrecy and complicit silence The original sin of the “Cuban Revolution” in relation to prostitution lies not in the fact of its not being able to eradicate it, a clearly impossible task, but in denying its very existence. Such a denial doesn’t only retard the search for solutions for social problems — sexual slavery, … Continue reading “Between Neglect and Helplessness. Prostitution in Cuba, Part 3 / Miriam Celaya”
With satisfaction, I watched this week as a friend received an exquisitely wrapped gift. My friend took the package, looked at if for a moment, and tore the paper to take out the contents. Ripping wrapping paper is still a luxury, receiving a wrapped gift is a rare detail, receiving a gift…well, you can fill … Continue reading “Papers, Papers / Regina Coyula”
Poor little doll made of tinsel and wood, so battered across the long and narrow stretch of thousands and thousands of kilometers. Last night, I saw her in Lawton, and it was daunting. Because of her, and because of the bleak surroundings. A neighborhood polluted from the disposition of its inhabitants to the sky that … Continue reading “Who Are You, Little Virgin? / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
“Violence has reached critical levels in Cuba,” says activist Antonio Rodiles, and actress Ana Luisa Rubio, 62, just experienced it. The photo above is her face after a severe beating given to her by a group of supposed neighbors last Friday. “I am very sore, but mostly I’m very scared,” Rubio told Diario de Cuba … Continue reading “Actress Ana Luisa Rubio, Savagely Beaten by Alleged Neighbors”
CIENFUEGOS, Cuba, August, www.cubanet.org- As if it were serialized novel, the Public Prosecutions in the city of Cienfuegos just started what we could say is their third season, when on August 6 two citizens were processed and convicted in one of those covens — taking as its amphitheater the crowded Calzada de Dolores Avenue — … Continue reading “Public Trials, a Clear Message to Citizens / Alejandro Tur Valladares”
HAVANA, Cuba, July, www.cubanet.org. Cubans know that Fidel Castro’s government, since its inception, violated citizens’ right to privacy of. On September 28, 1960 he founded the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), an organization with fascist roots, whose program is “Everyone spies on each other.” I know — because I worked as a … Continue reading “CDR: The Number of Spies is Not Rationed / Tania Diaz Castro”
By Reinaldo Cosano. Havana, Cuba Posted in the blog of Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada The veil covering violent homophobic repression is slowly being drawn back, but the gulity aren’t asking for public pardon. It is hard to specify just how the virus of homophobic repression was incubated, sharp-eyed with the machismo of the days … Continue reading “Taken Out of the Closet, But No One Asks Forgiveness / Reinaldo Cosano”
Comments on the recent speech by General-President Raul Castro can be heard in a pharmacy line as well as in an almendrón.* People in general are pleased that the country’s top leadership is finally acknowledging the presence of the invasive social weed that until now seems to have been growing unnoticed. Cubans, with our ability to adapt … Continue reading “Why Not Just Dissolve the CDR? / Regina Coyula”
A group of Cuban-American congressional representatives has formally requested that Washington deny a visa to Fidel Castro’s heir, Antonio Castro Soto del Valle. Rather than being concerned about the son’s entry to the United States, the island’s government seems more focused on his father’s exit from this world. Yes, the father’s farewell. The former Commander-in-Chief’s curious … Continue reading “Everything Ready for Fidel Castro’s Funeral / Juan Juan Almeida”
