English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
When I began working in Cuban television, in the second half of the eighties of the past century, the first person they introduced me to was Lilo Vilaplana. He was already a star Assistant Director and they assigned him to teach me, in practice, his expertise. We immediately became good friends, and friendship flowered as … Continue reading “Lilo, An Artist Who Fed Himself From Misery / Angel Santiesteban”
Movie Magic Finally, by means of my son’s cell phone, in his visit to me in past days where they keep me locked up, I could appreciate the short film, “Death of the cat,” from the Cuban director Lilo Vilaplana, living for more than a decade in Colombia, the place where he took — in … Continue reading “Cuban Talent Bound for the Cannes International Film Festival / Angel Santiesteban”
Oh Jesus, our only consolation in times of sorrow, our only consolation sustain us in the immense vacuum that…! Today I woke up praying, asking for the rest of the fast-paced, almost dead, but still alive Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Callejas. Parasite with a beautiful face and expensive clothes, recently promoted to general. He knows full … Continue reading “The Recently Elected General Rodriguez Lopez-Callejas Hides Behind the Press and His Oldest Son / Juan Juan Almeida”
Many of you remember what happened in our country in the summer of 1989*. I’m referring to those trials that popular wits baptized, for the range of events and actors, “Tropicana show under the stars, first and second parts.” During those dark and sordid events, in certain circles of power a refrain that marked my … Continue reading “Changes In Cuba, I’ll Believe It When I See It / Juan Juan Almeida”
February 6 marked the 81st anniversary of the birth of one of the most emblematic figures of the Cuban Revolution. A personality who, simply by mentioning his name, arouses passions, conflicting opinions and some unknowns; I am referring to the man with the open smile, Camilo Cienfuegos. Undoubtedly charismatic and popular, the strange conditions of … Continue reading “The Unruly Ghosts of Camilo and Arnoldo / Juan Juan Almeida”
For the last thirty years Cuba has been a big market for foreign soap operas and mini-series. When state television decided in the 1980s to broadcast the Brazilian telenovela, Isaura the Slave, it ignited a great national passion for melodramas. During evening hours Brazilian telenovelas, almost all produced by Globo TV, alternate with melodramas produced … Continue reading “Series on Pablo Escobar a Hit in Cuba / Iván García”
Subtitled video of the trial in the Ochoa case. My mother, devoted to Fidel, sat in front of the television. A few days later her two daughters understood that a transcendental and irreversible change had come over that compulsive thirty-something. A former militant in the Young Communist Union, she had suffered a degree of ideological … Continue reading “The Day My Mother Lost Her Faith in Fidel and the Revolution / Yoani Sánchez”
Since the end of the week we Cubans have met an old soldier whom very few of us would have recognized in the street, who was never in the limelight, whose voice is unremembered, even in a speech. The Minister of the Armed Forces, Julio Casas Regueiro, was never a public figure, perhaps a few … Continue reading “A Large Funeral / Regina Coyula”
The vividly colored tetra packs with fruit juices and the striking “Tropical Island” logo have returned to the market. They disappeared for several months, while the Rio Zaza Food Company–which produced them–was paralyzed between the auditors and an exhaustive police investigation. Max Marambio, its principal partner, escaped from Cuba just in time, leaving a pending … Continue reading “Marambio, the Fugitive Favored Son / Yoani Sánchez”
I recently heard Carlos Alberto Montaner in a presentation on art and literature in exile which I had the good fortune to attend. According to Montaner, one of the points on which the Cuban regime undoubtedly has been shrewd, is the negative connotation they have managed to associate with the terms “anti-Castro” in global eyes, … Continue reading “Cuba Yes, Dictators No / Ernesto Morales Licea”
“The Arms of Yesterday” is the title of the book of memoirs by the Chilean businessman Max Marambio, 63. In his presentation during the 2008 Havana Book Fair, Marambio said, “In Cuban I found my model of society.” Two years after its launch, I wonder if Marambio will the same after the Cuban Ministry of … Continue reading “What Happened with Fidel Castro’s Protegé? / Laritza Diversent”
On December 31, precisely at midnight, a waterfall poured from every balcony of my Yugoslav-style building. Cubans keep the tradition of throwing a bucket of water at year’s end to clean all the bad brought by previous months and to spiritually “clean” the January about to begin. This year there were infinite reasons to throw … Continue reading “The Buried Revolution / Yoani Sánchez”
That one will not return Yoani Sánchez I CAN STILL remember my mother’s sighs in front of the television, during those boring eighties, while Fidel Castro gave one of his marathonian speeches. He was the dreamy stud of many Cuban women who—from seeing him so much—could anticipate what he would say, they knew each of … Continue reading “TAKEN FROM VOCES 1 / Yoani Sánchez / Posted by Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
If Chilean businessman Joel Max Marambio Rodríguez does not appear before the Inspector from the Ministry of Interior, Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Miguel Estrada Portales, this 23rd of August (the deadline specified in an indictment), the criminal proceedings initiated against him could proceed to a final judgment of guilt. Max Marambio was summoned and interrogated on … Continue reading “From Revolutionary Friend to Foe / Laritza Diversent”
In the poor, out-of-the-way neighborhood of La Chirusa, in the city of Santa Clara of Villa Clara Province, about 185 miles east of Havana, Guillermo Fariñas Hernandez, 48 years of age, is quite a character. When a stranger, asking for directions, asks where Guillermo Fariñas lives, all of the neighbors widen their eyes and don’t … Continue reading “Fariñas, Ready to Die, Like Zapata”
