English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Iván García, 16 April 2018 — By all accounts it is like a bad divorce. No one remembers the exact moment when things went from applause for every revolutionary project, no matter how ludicrous it might have seemed, to a torrent of unfulfilled promises and hollow rhetoric. Martí Noticias wanted to solicit opinions on Cuba’s … Continue reading “The Castro Regime, an Aged Boxer Who Won’t Leave the Ring / Iván García”
Iván García, 7 April 2018 — “I was born during the Special Period, in 1990. Twenty years later, my parents told me the truth: my birth brought them to tears,” says Ricardo, today a university graduate. I can understand that. In my house, too, we went through difficult times when my sister gave birth during … Continue reading “Concerning When We Ate Cats in Cuba / Iván García”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 4 April 2018 — Two more activists were victims of restrictive measures that prevented them from leaving Cuba on Wednesday. They are the playwright Adonis Milan and the musician Gorki Águila, both of whom have been invited to attend the Forum of Civil Society and Social Actors that will be held in Lima, … Continue reading “Cuba Prevents Activists From Traveling to Lima Summit”
Iván García, 29 March 2018 — As the cruise ship sits docked at port, two ragged old men lie drunk on top of the seawall. An almost motionless gray-haired man tries to catch fish in the fetid waters of the bay. Around him, several stray dogs fight for the leftovers of a fried chicken that … Continue reading “Cuba Milks the Tourists / Ivan Garcia”
14ymedio, Havana, 22 March 2018 — On Tuesday, the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) showed its willingness to put limits on the freedom of creation by confirming that the film I Want to Make a Movie would not be allowed to participate in the Special Presentation section of the Young Filmmaker’s Exhibition, because one of its … Continue reading “Cuban Film Institute Limits Creation of Works "Disrespectful" to Jose Marti”
14ymedio, Havana, 23 March 2018 — One hundred Venezuelan journalists released a manifesto on Friday demanding freedom of expression and supporting independent journalism in Cuba to mark the 15th anniversary of the 2003 Black Spring. “Three decades later, within Cuba, the right to express oneself freely and the exercise of independent journalism are crimes,” the … Continue reading “One Hundred Venezuelan Journalists Demand Freedom Of Expression In Cuba”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 14 March 2018 — The film “I Want to Make a Movie,” by filmmaker Yimit Ramírez, was excluded from the Special Presentation section of the Young Filmmaker’s Exhibition by officials of the Cuban Institute of Art and Film Industry (ICAIC), who said that the dialog during a scene of his trial was … Continue reading “Film Considered Disrespectful of Jose Marti Rejected By Cuban Film Institute”
Ivan Garcia, 19 March 2018 — On a mid-February day in 2003, a month before the repressive wave against the Cuban dissidence, sometime after 9:00 in the morning it took me almost an hour to board Route 100 bus, which at that time started its route at the corner of Diez de October and O’Farrill, in … Continue reading “How I Remember Cuba’s 2003 Black Spring / Iván García”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 12 March 1018 — Far from the vaunted diversity and plurality of which the Government boasts, the composition of the National Assembly of Cuba reveals that more than 95% of the deputies who will take office on April 19 will be active in the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) or in the Young … Continue reading “All Power to the Militancy”
14ymedio, Maite Rico, Madrid, February 26, 2018 — Mario Vargas Llosa, who was born in 1936 in Areuquipa, Peru, is in full form. Combative, ebullient, brimming with laughter, the Nobel laureate travels widely and operates on a variety of intellectual fronts, crafting fiction and scrutinizing facts. In a recently published essay, “The Call of the … Continue reading “Vargas Llosa: ‘No Moderately Sane Person Would Want a System Like Cuba’s for Their Country’”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, 5 March 2018 –The first time I heard a vegan explain to a Cuban why he did not eat meat, the interaction could not have been more absurd. Although the tourist insisted on the negative effects of certain foods, my compatriot did not understand the rejection of what he considered a longed for … Continue reading “Red Meat and Social Networks”
14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 1 March 2018 — The Cuban official press recently published an extensive article, authored by journalist Lázaro Barredo, addressing the issue of corruption on the Island, its dissimilar forms, its spread, the depth it has reached – affecting even high public institutions, State Administrative Positions and officials of different levels of … Continue reading “Political Power is Responsible for the Widespread Corruption”
14ymedio, Manuel Díaz Martínez, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 21 January 2018 — Betania Publishers, in print and digital editions, has released the book La familia Loynaz y Cuba, by Luis García de la Torre, with a prologue by the Cuban essayist and professor Alejandro González Acosta, who is living in Mexico. In this book we … Continue reading “The Loynaz Family and Cuba”
14ymedio, Havana, 19 February 2018 — Daniel Llorente, the “man with the flag,” was denied visits this Sunday at the Havana Psychiatric Hospital, because he is being punished for protesting with a sign in the hospital courtyard, his son confirmed to 14ymedio. At the entrance to the Comandante Doctor Eduardo Bernabé Ordaz Ducungede Psychiatric Hospital, … Continue reading “Daniel Llorente Exchanges US flag For Poster Against “Raúl Castro Dictatorship””
Ivan Garcia, 6 February 2018 — A silent police patrol began to search passersby they considered suspicious. When they saw it, the illegal tomato sellers quickly hid their merchandise on the staircase of a building in Havana’s Vibora neighborhood at Acosta and Diez de Octubre. An old woman, a regular seller of the newspaper Granma … Continue reading “The Other Fidel Castro / Iván García”
