English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
The Casa de las Cadenas, in Guanabacoa, could collapse on several families. It has withstood hurricanes, but now needs help. HAVANA, Cuba. – The walls have stood for nearly 270 years. But the degree of deterioration in the old house is worrying. Wood and tile ceilings on the second floor have been collapsing, not only … Continue reading “18th Century Mansion – Forgotten but Not Gone / Camilo Ernesto Olivera Peidro”
In a statement issued on Tuesday, February 11th, Rogelio Sierra Diaz, Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, reported that the Council of Foreign Ministers of the European Union (EU) had authorized the European Commission and the EU’s senior representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Catherine Ashton, to begin negotiations on a political dialogue and cooperation agreement with … Continue reading “Cuba and the European Union: A Change of Tone and a New Dynamic / Dimas Castellano”
PUERTO PADRE, Cuba, November, www.cubanet.org — The latest collapse in this city, that of the carpenter’s shop El Nivel, and the next that presumably will occur, that of the Plaza Hotel, make the residents of Puerto Padre ask themselves: How long will this town destroy itself without the government doing anything to stop it? Of … Continue reading “Danger, collapse! / Alberto Mendez Castello”
Six months ago I took an American photographer to meet to the former model and ex-ballerina Luz Maria Collazo. She had served as an interpreter with two other important Cuban ex-models and that would be our last evening of work. She was the main target of his lens and his interest, but when he saw … Continue reading “The Best Art School in the World / Yusimi Rodriguez Lopez”
Photo: “Self-Portrait of exile. Nostalgia machine.” It is exactly one year ago to the day that I left Cuba to enter the other Cuba. They gave me a kick, manu militari, and so I came to fall on this side of the lost country. Miami gave me the opportunity to speak in the tongue of … Continue reading “One Year Outside Cuba, Within The Country / Luis Felipe Rojas”
From 1962-1970 the suicide rate on the island ranged between 10.5 and 12.6 per 100,000 inhabitants. Back in the 80s, the rate of self-destruction among Cubans exceeded 21 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants. According to the PanAmerican Health Organization, Cuba has the highest suicide rate in the hemisphere, with 18.1 per 100,000 population, followed by Uruguay … Continue reading “Suicide in Cuba: A Drama Without Repercussions”
HAVANA, Cuba , September www.cubanet.org – I don’t remember the first time I heard or read his name, but it must have been in the mid-90s on Radio Marti, which at that time, despite the strong obstruction of its signal, I could still listen to. I do know that by the end of that decade … Continue reading “The Great Chronicler of the Cuban Economic Disaster / Ernesto Santana Zaldivar”
Carrying sacks of sugar – Taken from the Repeating Islands Blog In 23 years, Cuba has gone from being one of the world’s sugar refining nations to importing the sweet grass for the consumption of the tourist sector. If in 1990, in the dawning of that silent war that was the “Special Period,” 8.2 million tons … Continue reading “Cuba: The Bitterness of its Sugar / Ivan Garcia”
Artwork by El Sexto Nights in Old Havana are always loud. Each carrier rocket shakes the old rocks of the almost sunken buildings. The canals with black waters, which run across the archaic streets, light up with the gleam of oxygen and hydrogen in combustion. The water, mixed with petroleum from the old Soviet cargo … Continue reading “Unfinished Business / Erick Mota”
Fidel Castro and Cecilia Sanchez It is said that in his childhood he liked listening to news on the radio about the Spanish Civil War alongside the family cook. At the height of WWII he sent a letter to Franklin Delano Roosevelt letting him know that in an area near his house there were enormous … Continue reading “A Survivor Named Fidel Castro / Ivan Garcia”
HAVANA, Cuba, July 26, 2013, www.cubanet.org.- Like every five years, the most important celebration of the revolutionary calendar, the assault on the Guillermón Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba on 26 July 1953, returned to the most Caribbean of our cities. The protocols and extreme security measures that accompany Raul Castro Ruz looked ridiculous in … Continue reading “Santiago on July 26: The Santiaguans Have Nothing to Celebrate / Aleaga Pesant”
Santiago de Cuba suffered a heart attack last year. The family conceals her dark circles, puts on makeup, and dyes her hair, but can’t control her chronic hypertension. All this to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the assault on the Moncada Barracks. With the characteristic superstition of the materialists in government, the celebration of this … Continue reading “Santiago de Cuba: Prognosis Guarded / Regina Coyula”
From World Affairs By Antonio Rodiles Five years ago, hopes were high among Cuba watchers when Raúl Castro officially succeeded Fidel. There was particularly intense speculation about who would be named the next first vice president of the Council of State. Bets focused on two candidates: Carlos Lage Dávila, a bureaucrat in his late fifties, … Continue reading “Change by Attrition: The Revolution Dies Hard / Antonio Rodiles”
Where are the documentaries about the Bahamian concentration camps where there are school-age children and women with their lips sewn shut? It has been a few weeks since South Florida’s media and social networks have been denouncing the systematic abuses to which refugees from Cuba and other nations are subjected in the Bahamas. The trigger … Continue reading “Categories of Human Beings / Rosa Maria Paya”
The French General Charles de Gaulle used to say that when two people or two countries associated with each other, one always tries to have the upper hand. Cuba, which because of its geographical situation is considered the Key of America, after 54 years of the exclusive mandate of the Castro brothers still has pretensions … Continue reading “Fidel Castro, Mentor to Chavez / Ivan Garcia”
