English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Dear Forum participants of La Joven Cuba, dear Osmany, with regards to your disagreement with Eduardo del Llano. I try to go every week to your blog, read the posts, and sometimes I have the impression that we live in different places, so distant are our points of view. You start with an anecdote of … Continue reading “Bad Handwriting in La Joven Cuba (12) / Regina Coyula”
I was able to hear, via a radio show being transmitted from Miami, the reading of an article by a Cuban writer named Eduardo del Llano. It was a perfect sonata defending the right of Cuban workers and dissidents to strike. “Why not?”, asked del Llano. I was greatly impressed by the light and fresh … Continue reading “Dreamer and Disconnected / Luis Felipe Rojas”
When the 32nd edition of the Havana International New Latin American Film Festival opened, I commented on the event’s programme and the expectations by genres, nations and other details of interest, based on the preliminary information offered by the organizers. Now that the party is over, we need to recap the Cuban film industry, whose … Continue reading “The Cuban Films at the Festival / Miguel Iturria Savón”
Near but Distant: The Universe Next Door Yoss In 1998, during the only visit to Cuba by a pope, Juan Pablo II delivered the now famous phrase, Let the world open itself to Cuba, let Cuba open itself to the world. Leaving aside the multiple sociopolitical implications of the phrase to concentrate on its literary … Continue reading “Review in VOICES 1 / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Hi, Gustavo, I am grateful that you sent me the debate. I don’t know how to get involved in the analysis but I think that I need to. If you can, send this opinion to whoever you want. Although I have to confess that I find it difficult to express myself and to organise my … Continue reading “Messages from Belkis Vega / POLEMICA: The 2007 Intellectual Debate”
As always, a macabre joke summarizes a Cuban reality with unsurpassed accuracy: Three guests of different nationalities celebrate the courage of certain practices that take place in their countries. The Dutchman says: “Brave men that we are, we went in a group to find prostitutes, knowing that among them, it is almost certain that one … Continue reading “The Untouchables / Ernesto Morales Licea”
In an interview published on December 14, 2009 in El Mundo/América, Juan Juan Almeida García told me, “I don’t see the time when Raúl Castro will let me leave Cuba.” Finally, his wish was fulfilled. On Thursday, August 24, he arrived at the Miami airport, where his wife Consuelo and their daughter Indira were waiting … Continue reading “Juan Juan’s Time Arrived / Iván García”
I do not think there is a single Cuban who has not seen his face at some point, on the big screen or small, or in a theater. He is one of the most recognizable actors on the national scene. No doubt this is influenced by the not inconsiderable number of his films: 80 works, … Continue reading “Under the Skin of a Real Nicanor / Ernesto Morales Licea”
Since August 6, a bunch of copies of Voices Magazine have been circulating in Havana, presented by Yoani Sánchez at the headquarters of Cuba Bloggers Academy, an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to disseminating the technologies that are revolutionizing communications and encouraging citizen journalism on the island, which broke the information monopoly of the military government. … Continue reading “Voices Magazine / Miguel Iturria Savón”
Haroldo Dilla, Cuban historian and sociologist. Photograph from the internet. A few days ago, a friend of mine gave me an interesting opinion piece by Haroldo Dilla Alfonso, entitled “From Loyalty to Complicity.” I can’t tell the readers where it was published, because I don’t know, though it is dated Tuesday, September 14th, 2010, but … Continue reading “Intellectuals: Between Loyalty and Complicit Silence / Miriam Celaya”
14ymedio, Havana, 13 May 2022 — The record kept by the independent associations Cubalex and Justicia 11J shows that the appeals of those convicted for the July 11th (11J) protests of last year are barely serving to modify the sentences. According to the list, to date 40 people have received a response to the review … Continue reading “Appeals Do Not Reduce Sentences of Those Condemned for the July 11th (11J) Protests in Cuba”
14ymedio, Havana, 28 January 2022 — The Municipal Court of the Isle of Youth has acquitted three July11th (11J) protesters for whom the Prosecutor’s Office requested three years in prison for a crime of public disorder. They are Ramón Salazar Infante, president of the Pinero Autonomous Party (PAP), Martha de los Ángeles Pérez Acosta, head … Continue reading “The Acquittal of Three July 11th Protesters on the Isle of Youth Suggests a Shift in the Prosecutor’s Office”
14ymedio, Mario Penton, Havana/Miami, 11 January 2017 — While in the United States Rex Tillerson, Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, made it clear that human rights will be an important part of Washington’s policy toward Cuba, the island’s police forces carried out repressive actions in different parts of the country. “The increase in … Continue reading “Cuba’s New Minister of the Interior Inaugurates His Tenure With a Repressive Wave Across the Country / 14ymedio, Mario Penton”
14ymedio, Madrid, 4 January 2016 – Last year closed with a balance of almost 1,000 more arbitrary arrests than in 2015, according to data from the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights, based in Madrid, which on Wednesday issued its annual report on the situation on the island. In 2016, there was a total of 9,351 arbitrary … Continue reading “Arbitrary Arrests Rose And Repression Spread To Civil Society In 2016 / 14ymedio”
No blogger, no cry. Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo 1 In the beginning was the Blog. 2 But blogs were formless and empty. 3 Repression was all over the blogosphere. 4 And the citizens saw the blogs were good. 5 So that lacking other channels of expression, the Cuban civil society occupied blogosphere as a tool for … Continue reading “No blogger, no Obama / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
