English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
What mystique surrounds “power” for tyrants, that the obsession of keeping it leads to sacrificing their people, their family and their own lives? They disguise their obstinacy with ideals, which require constant sacrifices, with those whom they have betrayed and they pursue no other real intention except continuing to “command” the nation. All dictators create … Continue reading “The Mathematics of Dictators / Angel Santiesteban”
From Havana, Cuba, where he lives and is subjected to systematic police and legal abuse by the island’s military regime, because of his determination to be a free writer, especially in his blog “The Children Nobody Wanted,” Angel Santiesteban answered, bravely it must be said, the following interview questions from Armando de Armas for Marti … Continue reading “Santiesteban, Padura, Milanes and the Repression of Intellectuals in Cuba / Angel Santiesteban”
Reading Carlos Alberto Montaner’s book, Conversation at the funeral of the Comandante. What will happen after the death of Fidel Castro?, from the first pages I could recognize a reality that was predicted by the author several years before it happened. Who could have predicted that Carlos Lage — the “majordomo” of the Palace who, … Continue reading “The Fate of the Cuban Taliban / Angel Santiesteban”
It’s been a few days since I got to chat with a Uruguayan man who announced to me “I hate Fidel.” And, after we exchanged a few lines, he informed me: “I won’t got to Cuba until the era of the Castros and their communism is over.” I assured him that he would lose the … Continue reading “The Machine of Time / Angel Santiesteban”
And now, what do we do?… What right do we have to continue breathing, treading on this Island that she so defended in the face of insults, threats and beatings?… I know that “to die for the Motherland is to live”*, so why are so few interested in living and prefer to live in silence, … Continue reading “Laura Pollán Has Died / Angel Santiesteban”
How can an admired writer be turned into an alleged and persecuted anti-social? How can one pass from being a creator of stories, a prize-winner, read, respected, cited, to become part of the social evils which, according to the all-powerful authority, it is necessary to mercilessly eradicate? The answer is very simple: Live in Cuba. … Continue reading “The Blessed Who Mourn Like Ángel Santiesteban / Ernesto Morales Licea”
The writer and journalist Amir Valle, in a still unpublished interview, asks me the following question. And what about the powerful Cuban culture that has been developing for five decades already in exile, in many parts of the world? How do you think it can contribute, from the outside, to the need for a social … Continue reading “The Artist Behind the Barricades / Angel Santiesteban”
Photo of a fragment of a document from the file of Ángel Santiesteban-Prats where you can read at the end in a handwritten note: “Case of interest to the Minister.” Refers to General Colome Ibarra. Cuba’s totalitarian regime treats Defense Attorneys as unwelcome to those who have no choice but to endure them for sake … Continue reading “New Accusation of Assault / Angel Santiesteban”
A group of civil rights activists gather every Tuesday and Thursday between 6:00 and 8:00 PM in the park at 31st and 41st, at the corner of the “League against Blindness” hospital, very much in tune with the function of activists to tear off the Cubans’ blindfold and teach them to overcome their fear. To … Continue reading “Citizen Evening: First Free Territory of Cuba / Angel Santiesteban”
[This text is from the website Incredible Universe] Manuel Fernández reveals in Incredible Universe how, when he met the Cuban writer Angel Santiesteban, State Security recorded the conversation. A Spanish citizen, Fernández was the manager, at that time, of one of the hotels in Havana. A few days ago we talked to him about the … Continue reading “I Know the Writer Angel Santiesteban Whom Cuba Wants to Punish / Angel Santiesteban”
On reading, this last August 17, the Declaration of Principles: We Who Are Born With No Horizon, written by the narrator Angel Santiesteban, we understand the uncertainty of the intellectual set upon with absurd allegations concocted by a devastating judicial machinery, incapable of understanding that criminalizing dissent and annulling the freedom of expression threatens human … Continue reading “SOS for Ángel Santiesteban / Miguel Iturria Savón”
I know that logically I don’t have to respond to the mostly anonymous commentators in Internet forums. But this time I’ve decided for forget protocol to respond here because so much raving frightens me. I don’t deny the education that I received, but I most thank my mother, who often skipped breakfast so that her … Continue reading “Answer to Innocence / Angel Santiesteban”
We were a generation they blindfolded at birth, telling us how we must think and postpone our dreams because, they told us, the light was blinding. Our mothers put up with injustice out of fear and to protect us because they knew that the worst was yet to come. Then, at first, by necessity or … Continue reading “Declaration of Principles: We Who Are Born With No Horizon / Angel Santiesteban”
So Orlando Zapata gave himself up with the only weapon he had. Guillermo Fariñas then went to the edge of the abyss, from where it is assumed there is no return, but his spiritual energy carried him and brought him back; besides, the fight is not over, that was only one chapter. Both Zapata and … Continue reading “Cuba, We Who Are About to Die Salute You / Angel Santiesteban”
I’ve prepared myself to do without my “lawyer.” She, like the rest of the attorneys attached to the system, can’t do anything that isn’t convenient for the Prosecutor, who is the representative of the State. Justice in my country doesn’t have its hands tied, for a long time they’ve been cut off. The scales of … Continue reading “The Failed Attempts to Make me an “Agent” – VI / Angel Santiesteban”
