English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, FERNANDO DAMASO, Havana, 22 January 2015 — Among so many crises that affect us, little is said about that related to institutions. In the Republican era, there existed institutions that, without being perfect, worked. If it had not been so, the country would not have developed in the way that it did. When the … Continue reading “Institutional Crisis / 14ymedio, Fernando Damaso”
Granting Visas to those younger than 18 years old during the School Year By Lic Dora Mesa Crespo* and Lic. Odalina Guerrero Lara* (Mesa Crespo is the Coordinator of the Cuban Association for the Development of Child Education (CADCE), an NGO.) (Guerrero Lara is an attorney with the NGO Cuban Legal Association) The obligation to … Continue reading “Granting the Cuban Child the Ability to Travel / Dora Leonor Mesa”
14ymedio, Victor Ariel Gonzalez, Havana, 6 December 2014 — Establishing the rules of a sport takes time. Let’s take for example baseball, one of the most complicated games that exists; one could ask where the rules for its practice come from, and why some are so convoluted. But when it comes to regulatory whim, let’s … Continue reading “Tricking Customs, Another National Sport / 14ymedio, Victor Ariel Gonzalez”
14ymedio, VÍCTOR ARIEL GONZÁLEZ, Havana. 24 November 2014 — From food to motorcycles, stuffed into plastic water tanks, Cubans use the most improbable ways to introduce products into their country. But it has nothing to do with drugs or weaponry, but basic necessities intended as much to satisfy consumer demand as to supply a retail … Continue reading “Customs, Another Point Against It / 14ymedio, Victor Ariel Gonzalez”
14ymedio, Victor Ariel González, Havana, 18 November 2014 — I have spent several days trying to digest the mass of information coming out of the first TEDxHavana, where I was present as just another spectator. However, no matter how much I ruminate on it, I just can’t seem to swallow it. So before it gets … Continue reading “What else can you expect from a TEDx in Havana? / 14ymedio, Victor Ariel Gonzalez”
Photos Rebeca After years without maintenance, abandoned to their fate and in a total state of disrepair, the authorities finally decided to “rescue” — the fashionable word — the building known as La Manzana de Gomez, a building finished by the Gomez Mena family in the year 1917, which occupies the space between Zuleata, San … Continue reading “A Simple Concern / Fernando Damaso”
An official with the Housing Institute denounces corruption and privileges, as well as reprisals taken against his family. 14ymedio, September 24, 2014 – Before leaving Cuba in October, 2013, the author of this accusation occupied an important post at the Housing Institute and, as a jurist, saw firsthand the intrigues perpetrated by high-level officers of … Continue reading ““J’Accuse” from a High Position / 14ymedio”
Photo: Rebeca In my far-off childhood, extracurricular organizations — whether public or private — were concerned principally with sponsoring weekend trips to interesting natural locations, cultural institutions or factories. The goal was to encourage our love of nature, expand our general knowledge, provide opportunities to attend age-appropriate entertainment events, enhance participation in sports, arrange excursions … Continue reading “Different Times / Fernando Damaso”
During the summer of 1994, death ruled with impunity in my country. During that period, Cuba, which had been a civilian graveyard for decades, more closely resembled the gallows. In the early hours of July 13, the whirlwind of violence to which the Cuban state was subjecting its citizens came to its criminal climax. The … Continue reading “Remembering the Tugboat Massacre of 1994 / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
The Castro regime is, above all, biopolitical. Power over the life and death of each one of the individuals, within and beyond the national frontiers of the wicked little island in the Caribbean Sea. The Castro regime is nothing if not necropolitical: death or the pardoning of life, at times with a legal view at … Continue reading “The Castro Regime Kills and Doesn’t Lie / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
HAVANA, Cuba – The echoes of the unfair audits of the Declarations of Personal Income haven’t even faded yet, nor have the prohibitions of the marketing of imported household objects and clothing, and government action again threatened to overshadow the horizon of self-employment. An extraordinary issue of the Official Gazette of the Republic of Cuba … Continue reading “Self-Employed: Don’t Cross the Line / Orlando Freire Santana”
HAVANA, Cuba, October, www.cubanet.org – Of the 6.5 million hectares of agricultural land is in Cuba, only 32 percent was cultivated in February 2008, when General Raul Castro assumed the presidency. There were 2 million acres covered with the invasive marabou weed or other weeds, and badly cared for. In other words, one third of … Continue reading “Agricultural Production Continues to Plummet / Osmar Laffita Rojas”
Lic. Rodrigo Chávez Rodríguez The great majority of Cuban families are not illiterate but they don’t know that there is a Family Code. They may also be oblivious to the fact that in the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba (which definitely needs to be changed) you will find in Chapter IV, Art. 35; The … Continue reading “About the Family / Cuban Law Association, Rodrigo Chavez Rodriguez”
Good evening: More than a decade ago Vaclav Havel’s book “The Power of the Powerless” fell into my hands for the first time. It came wrapped in a page of my country’s official newspaper, the Cuban Communist Party’s daily. Covering books was one of the many ways of hiding inconvenient texts forbidden by the government from … Continue reading “My Words at Forum 2000 / Yoani Sanchez”
The XCIII Plenary of the National Council of the Workers Central Union of Cuba (CTC) that recently met under the chairmanship of the Second Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), agreed to postpone the celebration of its XX Congress, create an Organizing Committee and appoint Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento to its leadership. The postponement … Continue reading “The Cuban Communist Party and the Workers Central Union / Dimas Castellanos”
