“History is lived forward, but to understand it we must look back.” Kierkegaard The interaction between the lack of administrative capacity, economic inefficiency, hopelessness, widespread corruption and the massive exodus, have made the current crisis in Cuba the deepest of its history. The combination of these factors, sufficient to break any human group that aspires … Continue reading “Seeing the Past From the Viewpoint of the Present / Dimas Castellanos”
“Only the opposition should fear the full exercise of freedom” — José Martí The frugal presence of a billboard on Miami’s 8th Street in defense of The Cuban Five shattered my optimism with respect to the tolerance level of the extremist groups in exile. But intolerance reigns on both sides of the Florida Straits. The … Continue reading “Shared Defects / Regina Coyula”
HOWLABANA (Allen Ginsberg howls back in La Habana) Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo [Performed in La Madriguera (Finca de Los Molinos), at 9 PM in Friday 18 September 2009, as a part of the poetry reading of Mundo Beatnik/Hippie.] I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through … Continue reading “UNLIMITED READINGS / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
JJ You are a well-known singer, graduate of the National School of Art Instructors in Cuba. Nominated for and winner of several major awards, without a doubt you have achieved something enviable. Tell me about your home, in Santa Clara. AG I am what you see, I was born in a small village on the … Continue reading “Brother, you only have one life, to live it with fear, what sense is there in that? – Rafter. Amaury Gutierrez / Juan Juan Almeida”
The following is a testimony from Abel Lopez Perez who, a few days before the 3rd of December, was transferred from the Provincial Prison of Guantanamo (in his native city and where he served a political prison sentence) to the horrid dungeons of a prison in Camaguey, where Orlando Zapata was also taken. In that … Continue reading “Abel Remembers the Last Days of Zapata in a Prison of Camaguey / Luis Felipe Rojas”
When Compay Segundo and Ibrahim Ferrer launched themselves at the world with Buena Vista Social Club, “And What Have You Done?” by Eusebio Delfín, it was already one of the favorite traditional ballads. It is among the top 100 best ballads of the twentieth century in Cuba. In Yucatán, Mexico, they know it by another … Continue reading “Eusebio Delfín, the Cuban Aristocrat Who Made Music / Iván García”
One Anyone seeing all six-feet-eight of him go by, looking like a basketball forward, would never guess his true profession and what he cares about. Unless he puts on, obviously, the huge white coat he wears which marks him as a saver of lives. His name: Fernando Mederos. For a long time he’s been the … Continue reading “Who Said All Is Lost? / Ernesto Morales Licea”
The Limits of Immobility By Dimas Castellanos The multiple factors that made possible the paralysis of our history in recent decades, while interacting on a different stage, have placed the limits of immobility on the daily agenda. The attempts to convert citizens by the masses, to ignore the vital function of rights and liberties, and to … Continue reading “Essay from Voices 1 by Dimas Castellanos / Posted in: Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
A suspicious incident has provided me with writing material this time. As a sample of a rare will for controversy and democratic confrontation, the site Kaos en la Red, which promotes itself as the champion of intellectual reflection, has just censured a post originally published on this blog, which some reader decided to post on … Continue reading “My Friend The Enemy / Ernesto Morales Licea”
The Cuban government, shackled by a chain of failures after seven long years of inflexibility, decided to begin releasing political prisoners jailed in the spring of 2003, in order to change its image abroad, to seek aid, and to proceed with a reform called “update the model.” This shift underscores the failure of inflexibility and … Continue reading “The Teachings of Chibás”
Ángel Santiesteban Havana 1966. Graduate of Dirección de Cine, resides in Havana, Cuba. In 1989 he won a mention in the Juan Rulfo contest, held by Radio France International, and the story was published in Le Monde Diplomatique, in Letras Cubanas, and in the Mexican magazine El Cuento. In 1995, he won the National Award … Continue reading “Ángel Santiesteban”
Nobody disputes the fact that baseball is the island’s passion. It is the only spectacle that is capable of filling entire stadiums to the point of bursting. During these days, in a Spring that caresses us already, the framboyan trees begin to release their red flowers, as if they were being guided by an invisible … Continue reading “Cuba, Passion for Some Good Football”
Ángel Santiesteban Havana 1966. Graduate of Dirección de Cine, resides in Havana, Cuba. In 1989 he won a mention in the Juan Rulfo contest, held by Radio France International, and the story was published in Le Monde Diplomatique, in Letras Cubanas, and in the Mexican magazine El Cuento. In 1995, he won the National Award … Continue reading “Ángel Santiesteban – Bio”
At times I have recurring dreams. One of them is a nightmare. There’s a loud knock at the door, and when I open it a couple of huge burly guys lift me up and without even touching down on the stairway, they throw me into the backseat of a Russian-made Lada 2107. They put a … Continue reading “D-Day”
