English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Iván García, 5 December 2019 — For three days now there is no running drinkable water. If you want to purchase a pack of cigarettes or medication at the drugstore after 8pm, you must walk more than a kilometer. It is common for men to urinate in the public right-of-way and for people to dump … Continue reading “Two Havanas Within a Single City / Ivan Garcia”
Cubanet, Luis Cino Álvarez, Havana, 11 March 2019 — Oftentimes while traveling in other countries, independent journalists are challenged for, as some say, being “hyper-critical” and “lacking objectivity.” Thus, their dispatches are received with doubts and skepticism. But it turns out that the detractors of Cuban independent journalism do not harbor good intentions. Among those … Continue reading “Why Do Independent Journalists Matter? / Cubanet, Luis Cino”
14ymedio, Havana, 11 June 2018 – The Hannah Arendt Institute of Artivism (Instar) has launched the first independent fund for the creation of audiovisuals in Cuba. The call for project proposals has been posted on the project’s online site, created by the artist Tania Bruguera, and is open from June 8 to September 8, 2018. Instar … Continue reading “Instar Launches First Independent Fund For Audiovisual Creation In Cuba”
“Following Orders” Note: Our apologies that this audio file is not subtitled in English 14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 24 April 2018 — The director of the Actuar agency, Jorge Luis Frías Armenteros, acknowledged that irregularities were committed by excluding the actress Lynn Cruz from the catalog of that state entity. Today the actress has posted on the … Continue reading “’Actuar’ Offers Lynn Cruz a New Contract, Only to Fire Her the Following Month”
Wendy Guerra, Havana, 9 January 2016 (from El Nuevo Herald) – It wasn’t hard to know the number of my friends who, during their childhoods, remained with their parents in special situations, parents who needed to hide who they were to survive in a country that, based on accusations, ceased to be one, but turned … Continue reading “Naming the Wounds / Wendy Guerra”
14ymedio, Enrique Colina, 30 October 2015 – The artistic censorship practiced in Cuba during these 56 years, against works and creators, from a culture in favor of a supposed defense of the Revolution, has paradoxically resulted in a backlash against the political prestige of the Revolutionary Process, the same one that encouraged and developed from … Continue reading “On Censorship And Its Demons / 14ymedio, Enrique Colina”
“What right does anyone have to rule over everyone’s thoughts?” The question, deeply subversive towards the Cuban reality, is at the heart of the open letter that artist Juan Carlos Cremata recently sent to an unknown Culture officer by the name of Andy Arencibia Concepción after a commission of the National Council of Theatre Arts … Continue reading “Cremata Expresses an Artist’s Bellyful Against Cultural Repression / 14ymedio, Miriam Celaya”
The Democracy Bridge Program of the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL) and internal dissidents activists have organized the Second Democratic Forum on International Relations and Human Rights, which they are planning to coincide in Havana with the Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). The Summit … Continue reading “Activists and CADAL Prepare a Forum Parallel to the CELAC Summit in Havana”
Citizen Demand for Another Cuba As Cubans, legitimate children of this land and an essential part of our nation, we feel a deep sorrow at the prolonged crisis that we are experiencing and the demonstrated inability of the current government to make fundamental changes. This obliges us, from civil society, to seek and demand our … Continue reading “Citizen Demand for Another Cuba – 536 Signatures and Counting”
Citizen Demand for Another Cuba As Cubans, legitimate children of this land and an essential part of our nation, we feel a deep sorrow at the prolonged crisis that we are experiencing and the demonstrated inability of the current government to make fundamental changes. This obliges us, from civil society, to seek and demand our … Continue reading “For Another Cuba – Citizen Demand for Another Cuba”
“It is always good to be, even in serious cases, as least hypocritical as possible.” April started off with good news for Havana’s lovers of the seventh art. I refer to the exhibit in the Charles Chaplin cinema of Martí: the Eye of the Canary, a fictionalized feature-length film, passionate and emotional, that successfully explores … Continue reading “Martí: The Eye of the Canary, a paean to dignity / Dimas Castellanos”
Several friends who follow the blog have asked me why I haven’t commented on Fidel’s statements about the persecution of homosexuals in an interview with the director of the Mexican daily La Jornada. My casual access to the web makes commenting on any current them delayed. But three years ago I followed with great interest … Continue reading “Yesterday’s Homophobia / Regina Coyula”
After a mass at her shrine by the Bishop of Santiago de Cuba, the Virgin of Charity of Cobre began on 8 August a pilgrimage across the country, with a message of dialogue and reconciliation, which will run until 10 December 2011. The precession, commemorating the 400th anniversary of her appearance in Cuban water, coincides … Continue reading “The Virgin of Charity of Cobre / Dimas Castellanos”