English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
With the word one can create. I’ve always liked that idea. If not now, then tomorrow. When the words have left only the ashes and letting go of them like the smoke of incense, they will change us. The ashes of Laura Pollán should have brought me her perfume. Laura means Freedom. I once read … Continue reading “Laura / Lilianne Ruíz”
More than one year ago, the daily newspaper El Mundo asked me to chronicle the Ladies in White. With their street protests, the women headed by Laura Pollán, gladiolas in hand, were cornering the regime. In February 2010, after a hunger strike of 86 days, the political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo died. Each week, the … Continue reading “How Can the Persecutors of Laura Pollán Sleep Peacefully? / Iván García”
Laura leaves us. This time she has undertaken the longest of all walks: that of eternity. A lot of walking had to be done by this courageous Cuban woman who at the start, without political leaders in government to offer protection – just the contrary, without an army or firearms to defend her, with only … Continue reading “Laura and Courage in White / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado”
Laura leaves us. This time she has undertaken the longest of all walks: that of eternity. A lot of walking had to be done by this courageous Cuban woman who at the start, without political leaders in government to offer protection – just the contrary, without an army or firearms to defend her, with only … Continue reading “Laura and Courage in White”
Yoani Sanchez’s message saying that Laura Pollan, the leader of the Ladies in White, had died, saddened me. I had hoped she would recover from her serious illness, but it didn’t happen. From the time she entered the hospital, State Security tried to keep her away from her friends, sympathizers and family. They also wanted … Continue reading “Laura / Anddy Sierra Alvarez”
It couldn’t be true that Laura had died. It was Friday and had gotten dark earlier, perhaps because lately the rain in Havana hasn’t let up, when I got that fatal message from Yoani on my cellphone: “Laura Pollán has just died.” My first thought was it couldn’t be true. Shortly after some friends called … Continue reading “Laura, the Rebellion of the Gladioli / Miriam Celaya”
I crossed a dark and empty city after a stubborn drizzle. I crossed the city well after midnight, determined to arrive at the wake during the two hours conceded by the government to say goodbye to Laura Pollán. I sang the national anthem there and controlled my emotions during the enormous silence that followed the … Continue reading “Laura and the Mob / Regina Coyula”
On Sunday, October 2 at about eight in the evening, I visited the home of Laura Pollán and Héctor Maceda. I intended to film a short interview with both. Half an hour earlier, Maceda had confirmed with me that it would be possible, but when I arrived at 963 Neptuno Street on the heart of … Continue reading “What I have left of Laura / Reinaldo Escobar”
In the same days when Laura Pollán lay dying in intensive care, Cuban television rebroadcast a dogmatic serial where they insulted the leader of the Ladies in White. Among the most notable signs of the Cuban government’s pettiness is its failure to respect a political adversary, even when she is dying. A system that so … Continue reading “Laura is gone, Laura is no more / Yoani Sánchez”
Cubanet, Luis Cino, Havana, 27 March 2024 — More than a few Cubans in exile are skeptical about the scope and effectiveness of the current protests by the Cuban population. They belittle them, arguing (in agreement with the official narrative) that the demonstrations are only about food and electricity, and that to calm them down will … Continue reading “Popular Protests Have the Cuban Regime Backed Into a Corner / Cubanet”
14ymedio, Havana, 20 March 2024 — After several days of rumors that led to fears for the life of José Daniel Ferrer, his daughter was finally able to visit him this Tuesday in the Mar Verde prison, in Santiago de Cuba, where she confirmed that he is still alive. The situation in which he finds himself, … Continue reading “The Cuban Opposition Warns of a Risk to Ferrer’s Life, As Happened With Alexei Navalny”
EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 23 February 2023 — The mother of Orlando Zapata Tamayo — a Cuban prisoner of conscience who died in 2010 while on a hunger strike to demand more human conditions of imprisonment — demanded ’justice’ for her son this Thursday, 13 years after his death. “Thirteen years later, we are fighting … Continue reading “Remembering the Cuban Dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Who Died on a Hunger Strike in Prison”
14ymedio, Havana, 21 of January, 2020 – The Lady in White Xiomara Cruz Miranda arrived in Miami on an American Airlines flight from Havana on Tuesday, to be treated for a disease she contracted in prison in the middle of last year without receiving effective medical care. Her relatives have reported constant irregularities in her … Continue reading “Xiomara Cruz Miranda Left Havana To Get Medical Attention In Miami”
EFE via 14ymedio, Havana, 27 August 2018 – The Cuban dissident movement Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) denounced on Monday the “harassment” by authorities and the temporary detention of 23 of its members in Havana and the western province of Matanzas, after attending Sunday Mass in different churches or upon leaving their homes. In … Continue reading “Dissident Group Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) Denounces 23 Arrests this Sunday in Cuba”
Cubanet, Enrique Díaz Rodríguez, Havana, 19 February 2018 – Nearly eight years after the physical disappearance of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, nineteen human rights activists staged a march in Havana streets in remembrance of the Cuban opposition martyr. The group of activists, made up of women dressed in white and members of the Orlando Zapata Tamayo … Continue reading “Opposition March in Havana in Remembrance of Orlando Zapata Tamayo”
