English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Luz Escobar/Mario Penton, Havana/Miami, 25 March 2017 – Maria, 59, has a daughter in Miami she hasn’t seen for six years. Her visa applications have been denied three times and she promised herself that she would never “step foot in” the US consulate in Havana again. Cuba is the country with the most denials … Continue reading “Cuba Holds World Record For Visa Applications Rejected By The United States”
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 23 March 2017 — The mobile telephone market is changing at a speed that leaves little time to get used to new models. In Cuba, this dynamism is mostly seen in the informal networks, where the Chinese brand dominates because of its low prices and the preference it receives from the … Continue reading “Chinese Company Huawei Dominates Cuban Cellphone Market”
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 21 March 2017 — Cubans know a lot about adulterations. For decades they have grappled with the “diversion of resources” [i.e. stealing] from state stores and the practice of state employees acquiring products elsewhere at low prices, bringing them into the stores and selling them at high prices and keeping the profit … Continue reading “Doubtful Meat From Brazil Continues To Be Sold In Cuba / 14ymedio, Zunilda Mata”
EFE (via 14ymedio), Lorena Canto, Havana, 5 March 2017 — A hundred days after his death and although Cuba has limited by law the use of his name and image, the figure of Fidel Castro is more present than ever on the island, where the fervor towards the former president is beginning to take on messianic proportions … Continue reading “Official Fervor Towards Fidel Castro Contrasts With the Indifference of Young People / EFE-14ymedio, Lorena Canto”
Cubanet, Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello, Havana, 14 February 2017 – The story I want to relate has two parts, one is true and the other is fiction. The real one is an event I was involved in at the Carlos III market while in line to buy yogurt, one of the products in shortest supply in … Continue reading “The Two Marielas / Cubanet, Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello”
EFE (Via 14ymedio), Havana, 9 February 2017 — In Cuba, take-away pizza is eaten on piece of paper, people go to the market with their own bags, and rum bottles are reincarnated as sauce containers. It is not that the country has an admirable environmental awareness, but that there is a perpetual lack of packaging … Continue reading “Lack Of Packaging And Containers Reinforces Ingenuity Of Cuba’s Recyclers / EFE, 14ymedio”
Luz Escobar, Havana, 11 February 2017 – Sexists, hard and streetsmart, such are the lyrics of most reggaeton songs that are heard everywhere. Topics that speak about jealousy and rivalries, but that can also convey very different messages. Under the name La Unión (the Union), a group of young artists spread the Christian faith to … Continue reading “Faith Arrives to the Rhythm of Reggaeton / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar”
Ivan Garcia, 27 January 2017 — As soon as the sun warms this frigid tropical autumn, Cordoba Park, located at San Miguel, Revolucion, Lagueruela and Gelanert, in the Havana neighborhood of La Vibora, resembles a picnic and leisure area. Young people sit on the lawn and some families spread large towels as if they were at … Continue reading “Cordoba Park: Internet, History and Business / Iván García”
Juan Juan Almeida, 24 January 2017 — Hours after the Obama administration said good-bye to what was the “wet foot/dry foot” policy, in Cuba the recently named Minister of the Interior, the new man in charge of guarding the secrets and security of the State, Julio Cesar Gandrilla Bermejo, orders a braking, a review and … Continue reading “Gandrilla Launches His Mandate at MINIT With New Orders / Juan Juan Almeida”
14ymedio, Pablo de Llano, Miami, 22 January 2017 — Minutes after the announcement of the death of Fidel Castro, last November 25, Danilo Maldonado Machado passed by his mother’s house and knocked on the window of her room. Maria Victoria Machado opened and her son asked: “Mom, are you afraid?” She, who had heard the news, told … Continue reading “The Punk Who Didn’t Cry For Fidel / 14ymedio, Pablo De LLano”
Video of the disappeared rafters building the raft 14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 19 January 2017 — A picture of the Virgin of Regla, the identity cards of two brothers and a mummified corpse of a Cuban moored alongside the remains of a raft is the only evidence that remained of the six men who escaped from … Continue reading “The Mummified Corpse Of A Rafter, Witness Of The Migratory Drama / 14ymedio, Mario Penton”
Note: This post was published the day before Obama announced the end of the “wet foot-dry foot” policy. Ivan Garcia, 12 January 2017 — Seated in front of a computer and surrounded by wooden shelves filled with DVDs pirated from US channels, Marcos, who earned a degree in biology three years ago, has half a … Continue reading “Cubans on the Island are Concerned Trump Will Appeal Cuban Adjustment Act / Iván García”
14ymedio, Havana, 8 January 2017 — Faithful, hard-line and knowledgeable of the ultimate secrets of dissidents and ministers, Carlos Fernandez Gondín made his mark on the Ministry of Interior (MININT), the most feared Cuban institution. But shortly after taking over the portfolio in 2015, life played a bad trick on him and he had a stroke, … Continue reading “Time Takes Another Life In Cuban Politics / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 3 January 2017 – This week Luisa Camejo’s biggest headache will be getting the rebar she’s lacking. For months she’s been piling up stacks of cement, bricks and other materials to build an improvised room in the Cerro district of Havana. If she’s lucky she’ll soon finish her house built with … Continue reading “Housing Construction In Cuba Remains Very Slow / 14ymedio, Zunilda Mata”
Iván García, 13 December 2016 — The heat returned to the city along with the Reggaeton, the bustle and the alcohol. There’s nothing that bothers Danay, 26 years old, more than the drops of sweat running down her cheeks, mixed with the unbearable smell of kerosene of the old cars used as taxis in Havana, … Continue reading “So Did Havana Go Back To Laughing, Singing, Dancing? / Iván García”
