English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, Spain, 18 December 2022 – If oblivion had a physical form, or a symbol, it would be that of a faded photograph. From an original shaky camera shot, or just from the degrading of the resulting photographic paper print itself, a photo that has lost its sharpness doesn’t tell us very … Continue reading “A Country Ill from Chronic Laughter”
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 14 November 2022 — A campaign promoted by activists of the Cuban Feminists’ Network platform will start this Monday on social networks in order to raise awareness of the “urgency” of having a Comprehensive Gender Law on the Island. “We do not want more gender violence,” they said this Sunday … Continue reading “Cuban Feminists Promote a Campaign for a Comprehensive Gender Law on the Island”
14ymedio, Juan Izquierdo/Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 6 November 2022 – Street Artists, fortune tellers, beggars, Tarot readers, palm readers, wizards, promise-keepers, pickpockets. Old Havana is constantly in turmoil and those who live there have to earn a crust by any means possible. Skill, cunning and a ’creole’ type of flair are, in the midst of … Continue reading “Victor, the Puppeteer who Raises a Smile on the Faces of Cubans in the Midst of Poverty”
14ymedio, Havana, 22 September 2022 — The Cuban government has called on the population to vote yes in the referendum on the Family Code held this Sunday. Far from the monolithic opinion that has been imposed in the official discourse — and maybe in private — voting is like a Russian doll for those who … Continue reading “Cuba: Are You Voting on the Family Code?”
14ymedio, Madrid, 13 September 2022 — On Monday, Cuban prime minister Manuel Marrero opened the XII Varadero International Gourmet Festival, whose goal is to encourage foreign investment in the food service sector. “Our Creole cuisine is one of our great strengths, a true gastronomy, which we have learned to fuse with our cocktail traditions. These … Continue reading “Food Imports for Cubans, Creole Cuisine for Tourists”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez and Juan Izquierdo, Havana, 24 August 2022 — From the balcony, Yudineya watched dozens of bread and cookie sellers pass by every day in her neighborhood of Los Sitios in Havana, but for weeks they have practically disappeared. The shortage of wheat flour has hit private bakeries hard and has also … Continue reading “After Milk and Beef, Bread Disappears from the Cuban Table”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 20 August 2022 — I walk up and down Obispo, the main street in the historic center of Old Havana that has been, for decades, a commercial and tourist artery of unparalleled importance on the Island. Now, the main hotels located on that street are closed and without visitors, a … Continue reading “A Nostalgic Tour of the Closed Hotels in a Havana Without Tourists”
14ymedio, Havana, Juan Izquierdo, 17 August 2022 — Like a young fortune teller or a sorcerer out of A Thousand and One Nights, in Omar’s memory are rites, spells, stories and words, mixed in ancient languages. Talkative, with toasted skin and wide-open eyes, he lives among books and sacred objects of the the Regla of … Continue reading “Faced with the Difficulties of Life, Santeria Spreads in Cuba”
14ymedio, Havana, 17 May 2022 — The latest confirmed femicide on the Island, the eleventh so far in 2022, shows unusual cruelty. As denounced on Monday by the Red Femenina de Cuba [Cuban Women’s Network] the young Yusleidy Aguilera Fernández, 21 years old and with two small children, was viciously stabbed to death and had her … Continue reading “Stabbed and Mutilated, the Latest Femicide in Cuba”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 14 January 2021 — “There’s taro, there’s taro!” an informal vendor insistently proclaimed this Thursday at the San Rafael street market in Central Havana. The announcement quickly raised spirits among customers in the crowded surroundings. In recent months, it is difficult to find in recent months the tuber that is … Continue reading “If Taro is So Expensive in Cuba its ‘Murillo’s Fault,’ Say the Vendors”
14ymedio, Havana, 19 November 2021 — The draft of the new Cuban Family Code, in its 23rd version, has eliminated the exception that authorized the marriage of adolescents between 16 and 18 years of age. “We celebrate the end of Child Marriage in Cuba, an achievement of independent feminist activism,” claims the platform #YoSíTeCreo (I … Continue reading “Cuba’s New Family Code Eliminates Child Marriage”
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 4 November 2021 — Havana does not have money for recycling. The capital’s Raw Materials Recovery company asserts that the cash has not been deposited in the bank and that it cannot pay the recyclers, who day by day roam the streets in search, mainly, of plastic, aluminum, iron, cardboard … Continue reading “Cuban State Suspends Payments to Hundreds of Recyclers of Cans and Bottles”
14ymedio, Alberto Hernández, Santiago de Cuba, 7 November 2021 — Like thousands of families on the outskirts of Santiago de Cuba, Eugenio lives in a settlement that has no electricity, water or sewage services. The houses, located behind the Micro 9 buildings in the José Martí district, are made of scraps of wood with pieces … Continue reading “Without Electricity and Without Water: Thousands of Families in a Santiago de Cuba Shantytown Live This Way”
14ymedio, Havana, 4 January 2021 — The governor of Havana approved an increase from 200% to 350% in the prices paid to agricultural producers but promised not to “raise the prices of retail sales (…) in most products, in order to protect to the population.” The resolution, which has come into force with the new … Continue reading “The Official Story, Live: Triple Payments to Producers Without Raising Prices on Consumers”
14ymedo, Bertha K. Guillén, Soroa, 25 April 2020 — Until recently, the highway to Soroa, in the province of Artemisa, was a continuous coming and going of vehicles loaded with tourists. The travelers supported the economy of most of the families in the area, but after the closure of the borders because of Covid-19, the locals are … Continue reading “Without Tourists and With Businesses Closed, Soroa is Sunk in Crisis”
