English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Divinations Note: This work was originally written for and published in Voices magazine #5, in January, 2011. I want to start with a statement of principle absolutely rigorous and rigorously true: I respect the religious beliefs of all people anywhere in the world. The second statement I will make is as vertical and solid as … Continue reading “Of Oracles and Soothsayers: Cuba, Predictions and Realities / Miriam Celaya”
In Cuba, all he has are a sixth grade education and his sixty years of age. Blas Fortún is one of those rare human beings. If a mission is necessary to the East of Cuba, it is Blas Fortún who offers to go. If something has to be taken to a prisoner, you don’t have … Continue reading “Blas Fortún Martínez: The Best Cuban Opposition Activist (My Personal Opinion) / Antunez”
Left behind was the romantic stage, when a notable majority of leftist intellectuals pinned their hopes on the Revolutionary hurricane of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. A Cuba that clouded the reason of heavyweights in the world of letters such as Jean Paul Sartre, Julio Cortázar and José Saramago has lost its steam. The “snob … Continue reading “The Cuban Revolution No Longer Enchants / Iván García”
When the high creole hierarchy enjoyed the arrival of the 51st anniversary of the insurrection which elevated them to power on 1 January 1959, a violent cold front was ravaging the west of the country. In Mazorra, a psychiatric hospital located on the highway that leads to the principal airport, a major scandal was uncorking … Continue reading “In 2010, Bad News Abounded in Cuba / Iván García”
Jose Lezama Lima (1910-1976) is not gone. This is the feeling you get when you visit the museum of the master of Cuban prose in Trocadero street, in central Havana. You don’t need to be supernatural to sense the weary, asthmatic breathing of the fat Lezama while you pass through the halls of this house, … Continue reading “100 Years of the Fat One of Trocadero / Iván García”
The media have been reporting the alarming growth of the cholera epidemic that is spreading through Haiti. It began soon after hurricane Thomas hit that very poorest of nations. Each new piece of information tells us of a constant progression in the number of infected and who dead are from the disease, and already cases … Continue reading “Haiti: The Two Epidemics / Miriam Celaya”
Fidel Castro is back with the force of a tropical hurricane. Active as in his best days and apocalyptic as ever. He looks good physically. But his predictions of nuclear holocaust and that we earthlings have been the puppets of a global club of the rich and powerful who run governments at will, makes one … Continue reading “Estulin, Castro’s New Ally / Iván García”
Last night, while waiting for the meteorologist who provides the weather on the National Television News, I heard the Appeal of General Castro to the people of Cuba to join the analysis of the Social and Economic Guidelines to be adopted at April 2011 Communist Party Congress. I had forgotten about the One Party and … Continue reading “Perhaps the Beginning of the End? / Miguel Iturria Savón”
The “blockade,” as the Cuban government calls it, is real. It’s a trade embargo by the United States declared in 1960 and implemented rigorously since 1962. It caused the machinery from American to become scrap metal. Later, the damages were minor. The former Soviet Union connected a pipeline and oil and rubles flowed from Moscow … Continue reading “The Real Embargo / Iván García”
A zinc roof tile flies off, performing an incredible choreography in the air before falling onto the roof of another building. The winds of the tropical storm Paula tore off branches, caused 22 buildings to collapse in Havana, and left us without power for more than a day. On an island accustomed to the passage … Continue reading “A Speech and a Cyclone / Yoani Sánchez”
In my judgment, few issues of the Cuban reality are more complex to objectively analyze than the controversial economic, financial and trade blockade-embargo which, since 1962, the United States has maintained against the Island’s government. While there are topics that we can dissect almost surgically, separating their components with pinpoint precision, on this topic there … Continue reading “Blockade vs. Embargo: Reason Hijacked / Ernesto Morales Licea”
That one will not return Yoani Sánchez I CAN STILL remember my mother’s sighs in front of the television, during those boring eighties, while Fidel Castro gave one of his marathonian speeches. He was the dreamy stud of many Cuban women who—from seeing him so much—could anticipate what he would say, they knew each of … Continue reading “TAKEN FROM VOCES 1 / Yoani Sánchez / Posted by Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Of all the independent journalists and bloggers, perhaps there are no more than 150 across the entire island. Yet many of us should polish our style. Sometimes we think well, but rhyme poorly. On occasion, the words drown us. And the majority lack resources to engage in active journalism or maintain a blog on the … Continue reading “The Power of Small Things / Iván García”
The bearded Castro is a loose cannon. He always has been. His behavior is unpredictable. Foreseeing his next move on the political chessboard is unimaginable even for people with the abilities of Nostradamus. But something on the Cuban scene smells like it’s burning. There is a sort of forced cohabitation. Two-headed power. His brother, General … Continue reading “Fidel Castro Counterattacks”
Fifty years ago, on May 10, 1960, the Matamoros Trio, headed by Siro Rodriguez, Rafael Cueto, and Miguel Matamoros, performed in public for the last time. They bid their farewells on the program called Partagas Thursdays, one of the most popular Cuban TV shows at the time. According to the Colombian investigator, Walter G. Magaña, … Continue reading “What they Don’t Tell Us about the Matamoros Trio”