English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 20 January 2017 — Cuba sent two containers with 40 tons of charcoal to the United States in the first export of a product of the Caribbean island to the US in more than half a century. This is the first shipment of charcoal made under the purchase agreement signed earlier … Continue reading “Cuba Makes Its First Export To The US In Half A Century / EFE, 14ymedio”
ABC International, Miriam Leiva, 26 November 2016 — Fidel Castro left Cuba in disastrous economic conditions after exerting absolute power for more than 47 years. His brother received a country “on the precipice” on 31 July 2006. Raul Castro has had to eliminate the “genial” initiatives of the comandante en jefe, without repudiating them, presenting … Continue reading “The Socioeconomic Legacy Of Fidel Castro / Miriam Leiva”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 22 November 2016 – In the next 40 days, before the end of the year, the Cuban Communist Party must hold its second Central Committee Plenum and approve the final version of the documents issued by their most recent congress. It is expected that there will also be a meeting of … Continue reading “Clean Sweep and Old Promises / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar”
Ivan Garcia, 19 August 2016 — On a cloudy afternoon in early July, I went with my daughter to the reservation office in the basement of the Habana Libre hotel, to reserve for mid-August five nights in a hotel in Cayo Coco, in the north of Ciego Avila province, some 360 miles from the capital. … Continue reading “Five Nights in Cuba’s Tourist Apartheid / Iván García”
14ymedio, Juan Carlos Fernandez, Pinar del Rio, 14 January 2016 – The earth and the man who works it end up resembling each other. The skin becomes rough and dark like freshly plowed earth, and the face is lined with furrows where seeds could be planted. So it is with Juan José Muñoz, who at … Continue reading “Land Leases, a “Half-ownership” / 14ymedio, Juan Carlos Fernandez”
14ymedio, Pedro Campos, Havana, 1 January 2015 – December 29 was the National Assembly of People’s Power last day of work in its final session of 2015. Cuban State television highlighted two moments: the speech of a delegate, supported by president Raul Castro, blaming intermediaries for the high prices of farm products, and another from … Continue reading “Cuban TV Highlights National Assembly Attacks on the Self-employed / 14ymedio, Pedro Campos”
14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, 31 December 2015 – Tiny and tasty, they seem to look at us from the plate and mock the work it takes to get them. Beans are not only a part of our traditional cuisine, they constitute an effective indicator to calculate the cost of living in Cuba. The price … Continue reading “Beans, ah, the beans! / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez”
Iván García, 26 February 2015 — José lives with his wife and five kids, crammed into a nine by twelve foot space with a wooden platform, in a shack in Santos Suárez, a slum south of Havana. The tenement is a precarious spot where the electric cables hang from the roof, water runs down the narrow … Continue reading “With Raul Castro, Are the Poor Poorer? / Ivan Garcia”
Photos by Rebeca Some years ago Alejo Carpentier wrote a column which he called “Havana, A City of Columns.” The proliferation of colonnades along our major streets once caught the attention of anyone who visited the city, though they seem perfectly normal to those of us living here. They protected us from the scorching sun … Continue reading “From Columns to Bars / Fernando Damaso”
For Saul prison is like his second home. He celebrated his 63rd birthday behind bars, fabricating cement and gravel blocks for a Cuban state enterprise called Provari, which makes everything from bricks, tiles and mattresses to insecticides and sells them for hard currency. Saul knows the island’s penitentiary map like few do. Since 19 years … Continue reading “Of Jails In Cuba / Ivan Garcia”
Every now and then the Cuban Authorities mount the spectacle of ’external subversion’ against the regime. As if it were a ’blue plate special’ it’s seasoned with a press statement from a second or third rate official, articles on the subject from some government journalists, a session on the Roundtable TV Show with energetic participants, an … Continue reading “A Badly Garnished Dish / Fernando Damaso”
Nuevitas is my third and last stop on this whirlwind of a trip. The Santiago/Nuevitas journey takes eight hours, two of them in the 16-kilometer stretch between Manatí and Camalote. My trip is the next to last before this itinerary is suspended, pending the repair of the roadway. A passenger who appears to be a … Continue reading “Postcard from a Journey (3) / Regina Coyula”
In Havana, the good medical specialists always have at hand two kinds of treatment for their patients. “If it is a person with family abroad or of high purchasing power, I propose that he go to the international pharmacy to buy the medications in foreign currency because they are of higher quality and more effective. … Continue reading “Cuba: The Tricks of the Embargo / Ivan Garcia”
Yoani Sanchez, HAVANA | 20 June 2014 – Livio went on a trip and left his friends in charge of the most precious thing in his life. It wasn’t a child, or a pet, or even one of those home appliances so idolized in Cuba. The “apple of his eye” was a marijuana bush, grown, … Continue reading “Ah “Maria”! / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez”
Photo by Rebeca If, in Cuba, you are one of those who has the bad luck of needing to engage in any legal process, as simple as you can imagine, prepare yourself to navigate Niagara Falls on a bicycle. The official in question, and even more so if it’s an attorney or notary, after you … Continue reading “Paperwork / Fernando Damaso”
