English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
The mere fact of hearing it on television petrifies me, but listening to the president of my county has been illuminating, because in revolutionary Cuba there are issues so ethereal that they never find an appropriate occasion to be raised “procedurally,” taboos the single mention of which give one goosebumps, themes that cannot be approached … Continue reading “Updating Immigration Policy in Cuba / Jeovany J. Vega”
In the same days when Laura Pollán lay dying in intensive care, Cuban television rebroadcast a dogmatic serial where they insulted the leader of the Ladies in White. Among the most notable signs of the Cuban government’s pettiness is its failure to respect a political adversary, even when she is dying. A system that so … Continue reading “Laura is gone, Laura is no more / Yoani Sánchez”
The Archbishopric of Havana has issued a press release dated September 5th, 2011 which is, at the very least, surprising. I am not referring to the somewhat sallow terms describing the wave of repression unleashed with renewed vigor by government forces against various civil society groups. We know that this is the usual discourse of … Continue reading “Cuba: Did Anarchy Arrive? / Miriam Celaya”
What happens when the old art forms of attacking and killing become the norms of a country? What can we expect from oppressors and the oppressed if not the most acid fruit of human relations: violence? Belkis, wife of former political prisoner Jose Daniel Ferrer, had her arm cut open after she was attacked by … Continue reading “Agenda of the Political Police, Agenda of the State / Luis Felipe Rojas”
This article was written by Luis Felipe Rojas and published on the digital newspaper, Cubaencuentro. Little time has passed since the conclusion of the VI Cuban Communist Party Congress, and now very few have faith in those promises. In the spectrum known as Social Political, the government does nothing to truly set these reforms in … Continue reading “Cuba, the Same Ration of Hate / Luis Felipe Rojas”
Photo by Jose W. Camejo *This report was born here, where the accredited Cuban agencies never visit and where the orders of the General (‘the streets belonging to the revolutionaries‘) are upheld through beatings, detainments, and prison bars. With the political and economic crisis plaguing the country, the Cuban government has implemented new measures which … Continue reading “Synopsis of a Report Detailing the first Semester of 2011 in 5 Cuban Provinces / Luis Felipe Rojas”
Human Damage in an Environment of Punishment Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo Talking with Henry Constantin, expelled for life from the country’s universities. The worst of a prolonged war, is not the hunger of the siege, nor the exhaustion, nor the despair, nor the dead left in the dust of no man’s land. The atrocious, the … Continue reading “Constantin Answers in Diario de Cuba / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
What Jimmy Carter can’t change in Cuba Thirty years after he left the White House and nine years since his only previous visit to Cuba, Jimmy Carter arrived in Havana last week, wearing the white guayabera that would serve as his uniform during a three-day visit to our island. Watching on television, I recalled how … Continue reading “Yoani’s Op-Ed in the Washington Post / Yoani Sánchez”
In July of this year, a humble Cuban priest received a prize of international scope which, although it never appeared in the national press, became known to us with suspicious speed. Father José Conrado Rodríguez Alegría, pastor of the church “Saint Therese of the Child Jesus,” in Santiago de Cuba, was awarded the Prize of … Continue reading “Padre Jose Conrado: The Enormous Importance of Our Not Remaining Silent / Ernesto Morales Licea”
