English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
The Cuban Ministry of Education prohibits teachers’ use of any punishment, whether verbal or physical, on students of all levels of education. However, although the official media do not report it, through word of mouth from independent journalists, alarming cases of school violence have come to light. In almost all cases they appear to involve … Continue reading “Another Cuban Evil: School Violence / Iván García”
Photo: Claudio Fuentes Madan One of the new self-employment “activities” approved by the Cuban government is the controversial “recyclers-sellers of raw materials.” This toughest “private enterprise” encompasses Havana’s beggers who survive on collecting what the rest of the society throws out. Several years ago Claudio Fuentes Madan was making a series of paintings using the … Continue reading “Recycling / Claudia Cadelo”
This evening, I wanted to buy cakes from the man who hawks his goods in front of my house. I can’t remember the conversation verbatim, but this is the essence of it. He built a house of masonry with a roof of light materials in Marianao, behind the Military Technical Institute. In 2004, coming back … Continue reading “Bitter Cakes / Regina Coyula”
-Painting by Lori Mcnamara December 16th 2006 could have been a day just like any other in detachment No. 1 of the Sancti Spiritus provincial prison. But that day we awoke, in addition to a requisition, with the news that Javier had just injected petroleum in his legs with the aim to have them amputated … Continue reading “Escape to Eternity / Voices Behind The Bars / Omar Ruiz Hernandez”
The sun beats down hard on the grey and white building located on Aguila street at the corner of Dragones, next to Chinatown in Havana. On that piece of real estate which was long ago given up by the Cuban Telephone Company, are the offices of ETESCA, the Empresa Cubana de Telecomunicaciones (the Cuban Telecommunications Company). On his morning walk … Continue reading “An Act of Repudiation from Within”
He doesn’t look quite the same as English footballer David Beckham, or the Spanish actor Antonio Banderas. He’s Cuban, his name is Carlos and he was born 24 years ago in a village in the middle of the Venezulea sugar-growing region, in the province of Ciego de Avila, about 375 miles from Havana. He likes … Continue reading “Armani, Take Note”
In the city of Havana, the number of mentally ill street people in their filthy and ragged clothing increases on a daily basis. The number of beggars is also going up — you can find them in just about any doorway lying on cardboard asking for change with their lost looks. And on any corner there are street vendors selling peanuts, cheap things, loose … Continue reading “Beggars and Mentally Ill Havanans”
She walks towards the exit of the neighborhood. Although it makes her late she doesn’t hurry, the years have given her patience. She enjoys the feeling of relief it gives her to leave the apartment. And she enjoys it more because she knows it won’t last long. Her apartment is a box divided into four … Continue reading “The Life of Sisyphus – Part 5”
The guardian angel of today is Abilio Estévez. Playwright, storyteller and poet, well-known and a winner of literary awards, this Cuban who lives in Barcelona has published mid-year the novel The Sleeping Navigator, the final part of a trilogy that examines three tragic moments of a family and a city. A family that tries, without … Continue reading “Nothing makes us different”
(Text written on June 7, and for reasons you can imagine published today. This clarification is to connect it chronologically with respect to the news published in the newspaper Granma on June 10 about sanctions for illegal solid waste collectors, that is so-called “divers”.) Slowly, imperceptibly, the dumpster has become part of my life. (Before … Continue reading “The dumpster and me”
I have vague memories of the articles about Glasnost in those incredible Sputnik magazines, before it was banned by the government in August 1989. With this act of censorship against those they considered the “murderers” of socialism, began, for me, the last chapter in the saga of the Cuban government, which began with a wandering … Continue reading “Memories of glasnost via Sputnik”