English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 1 February 2018 — “Señora, can you help me get a recharge?” asks the little voice of a girl clutching a pair of convertible pesos in her hands. The customer goes to Telecommunications Company of Cuba (ETECSA) to fulfill the request and the girl, thanks to the women’s help, is happy to chat … Continue reading “Minors Fly Solo on the Social Networks”
14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 30 January 2018 — Last December 21st, when general-president Raúl Castro announced the extension of his term for 55 days longer than expected, few believed in the silly pretext for such a decision: the damages caused by the passage of Hurricane Irma and the calendar for nominating municipal delegates. One of … Continue reading “Raúl Castro is Leaving Without Solving Anything”
Alejandro González Acosta, 1 December 2017, Mexico City — Lichi[1] told me that the last time he was in Cuba[2], he went to visit a G-2 colonel at home, the brother of a famous Cuban historian who was Lichi’s good friend in Mexico. Between drinks and confidences, Lichi asked him: “Come on, man, just between us: … Continue reading “The Euphemism that Looks After Me / Alejandro González Acosta”
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 18 December 2017 — Hanging from the young woman’s bag, the small speaker radiates a trap song throughout the bus, making the trip between La Víbora and Vedado into a fun disco or an acoustic martyrdom. In Cuba, where the penal code is so strict, the lax treatment that the authorities maintain toward environmental sound pollution … Continue reading “Music for Everyone All the Time”
Ivan Garcia, 22 December 2017 — You sense it, the penetrating smell of dead pigs, opened in the middle and showing their viscera, as soon as you enter the state-owned smoked meat production center in the municipality Diez de Octubre, south of Havana. Four people with green surgeon hats and high rubber boots sort the pigs. Some … Continue reading “Christmas and New Year’s in Cuba / Iván García”
Wednesday, 10 October 2017 Ángel Santiesteban Havana, Cuba. Your Holiness: Now that your name is no longer so popular on the Island of Cuba, I have decided to write you these lines. I suspect that this decline in your prestige has to do with the scant companionship you have provided us, as well as with … Continue reading “Open Letter to Pope Francis / Ángel Santiesteban”
14ymedio, Ricardo Fernandez, 4 December 2017 — Five days after an ammonia leak that kept some people in the city of Camagüey in suspense, the neighbors of the Coppelia ice cream factory fear that the consequences of the spill will be more serious than what has been announced, and they are reproaching the authorities for not … Continue reading “In Camaguey Coppelia’s Neighbors Live with Ammonia Leaks”
14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 22 November 2017 — A huge metal cap measuring five feet long and 20 inches high, weighing 66 pounds, is the latest fetish born of the yearning of a certain regional leftist sector to honor Fidel Castro, the favorite demiurge of vernacular socialism, on the first anniversary of his death. The … Continue reading “In Search of a Tropical William Tell”
The severe shortness of medications in Cuba, far from getting fixed, threatens to become an “irreversible” malignancy. Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 15 November 2017 — The pharmacy, in the middle of Avenida de Carlos III in the Cuban capital, was crowded with people. The line extended outside the premises and formed a human conglomerate in … Continue reading “Cuba: Without Medicines and Without “Kindness””
14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 27 October 2017 — “The Catholic Church in Cuba has a future of hope because despite the forces that have wanted to sow hatred in the Cuban nation, love has always triumphed.” This was the central message of Father José Conrado Rodríguez, presbyter of the church of San Francisco de Paula in … Continue reading ““This Soul of a Wounded People is The Worst Thing That Castroism Has Left Us””
14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 12 October 2017 — Russia is again aiding Cuba and, as with the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s, the aid comes in the form of oil. Moscow is trying to compensate for the collapse of Venezuelan shipments, but part of the bill comes from Caracas, says Jorge Piñón, director of … Continue reading “Venezuela Finances Russian Oil Coming To Cuba”
Ivan Garcia, 22 September 2017 — In that bit of Havana between Calle Línea and Avenida del Malecón, people are still taking out mattresses, clothes, furniture, and other things damaged by the sea which was driven inland by the powerful Hurricane Irma two weeks ago, and leaving them to air in the sun. In any park, … Continue reading “What if Hurricane María had gone through Cuba? / Iván García”
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana/Cienfuegos, 12 September 2017 — The air smells of damp and feces. Using a shovel without a handle, Óscar Rodríguez’s family is shoveling the mud out of all the corners of their house on Gervasio Street, a few yards from Havana’s Malecon, an area recently flooded by Hurricane Irma. Everyone is working on … Continue reading “Cuba After the Hurricane: The Drowning of San Leopoldo”
14ymedio, Ricardo Fernandez, Camaguey, 11 September 2017 – Yosvani has been in a long line for an hour outside the polyclinic, though he is not sick or injured. Hurricane Irma left him with no electricity and he is anxious to recharge his cell phone battery to try to communicate with his friends and family and to … Continue reading “Charging Cell Phones Becomes the Obsession of Thousands of Camagüeyans Without Electricity”
Primavera Digital, Eduardo Martínez Rodríguez, Havana, 31 July 2017 — In the 1960s and even the 70s, the legitimacy of the system–despite its continuous economic fiascos and failure to achieve an adequate and genuinely Cuban social system–was acceptable for the hopeful lower classes, while the middle and upper classes were fleeing to Miami. Fifty-eight years … Continue reading “How Does the Cuban Survive? / Eduardo Martínez”
