English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Jose Lezama Lima (1910-1976) is not gone. This is the feeling you get when you visit the museum of the master of Cuban prose in Trocadero street, in central Havana. You don’t need to be supernatural to sense the weary, asthmatic breathing of the fat Lezama while you pass through the halls of this house, … Continue reading “100 Years of the Fat One of Trocadero / Iván García”
One full page in the newspaper Granma of December 9: a transcript of the speech of Bruno Rodriguez on climate change and, on the front page, Raul Castro with the president of South Africa and Machado Ventura in Pinar del Río. Obviously, not a single word on the eve of Human Rights Day. A law … Continue reading “Going Begging / Claudia Cadelo”
“It is always good to be, even in serious cases, as least hypocritical as possible.” April started off with good news for Havana’s lovers of the seventh art. I refer to the exhibit in the Charles Chaplin cinema of Martí: the Eye of the Canary, a fictionalized feature-length film, passionate and emotional, that successfully explores … Continue reading “Martí: The Eye of the Canary, a paean to dignity / Dimas Castellanos”
Introduction The exhaustion of the “model”, united with the interaction of a mixture of internal and external factors, has formed a box which — paraphrasing Lenin — is a result that those from below don’t want and those from above can’t follow indefinitely. In that context, the death of the political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo, … Continue reading “The Challenges of the New Cuban Scenario / Dimas Castellanos”
Please help spread the word — forward the email below to friends and family, and post this link on Facebook. Dear Friends, Tomorrow, Iran could execute Sakineh Ashtiani. Our global outcry stopped her unjust stoning sentence in July. Now we have 24 hours to save her life. Iran’s allies and key UN powers are our … Continue reading “STOP THE PAID ASSASINS OF SAKINEH ASHTIANI / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
One of the merits which I believe can be attributed to the government of Raul Castro, since he took office on the island in 2008, is his obvious concern for the national economic condition. Being conservative, I believe that in just two years the Army General has publicly shown far more interest and willingness to … Continue reading “In Dante’s Ninth Circle / Ernesto Morales Licea”
2010 — Mario Vargas Llosa, Peru 2009 — Herta Mueller, Romania and Germany 2008 — Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, France and Mauritius 2007 — Doris Lessing, United Kingdom 2006 — Orhan Pamuk, Turkey 2005 — Harold Pinter, United Kingdom 2004 — Elfriede Jelinek, Austria 2003 — J. M. Coetzee, South Africa 2002 — Imre Kertesz, … Continue reading “AND WHAT ABOUT MY CUBA…? / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Many people want to do something to help the bloggers directly. The most important thing is to read them, talk about them, comment on their blogs, share their blogs with others, keep them IN THE PUBLIC EYE, which is a shield that helps to protect them. If you want to help with a donation, one … Continue reading “Direct Help to Bloggers”
Voces Tras Las Rejas was begun by Pablo Pacheco, one of the prisoners of conscience from the Black Spring of 2003. It is a collection of thoughts and first-hand experiences of various political prisoners that reside behind bars in Cuban jails. Getting their voices out of their cells and into this blog is made possible … Continue reading “Voices Behind The Bars”
To speak of liberation — in this case of the release of prisoners — through a third-party also has advantages. Mainly because neither the Catholic Church in Cuba nor the representative of the Spanish state have the power to say anything about the legal means for implementing it. Analyzing the current situation, the criminal responsibility … Continue reading “Liberation or Exile? (II)”
A press release from the Archdiocese of Havana on July 8 announced the release, over the course of three to four months, of 52 of the 75 political prisoners convicted in summary trials in April, 2003. Twenty-three had already been released on medical parole. The releases were the result of an unprecedented dialogue between President … Continue reading “Liberation or Forced Exile?”
Recently the Archbishop of Havana announced the release of 52 political prisoners over the course of three to four months. A rather strange act, this being a secular state. In turn, Miguel Angel Moratinos, Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, told reporters that those released will travel to his country, and once they are out of … Continue reading “Too Much Uncertainty to Claim Victory”
Cubans are outcasts in their own land. Both those who reside in the country, as well as those living abroad. The latter are doubly discriminated against. They cannot invest in the economy because they are citizens of the State, yet when they return to the country they are treated as foreigners. Law No. 77, “On … Continue reading “Cuba and Its System of Exclusion (II)”
At the intersection of Acosta Avenue and Calzada 10th of October, around 11 pm, a police van detained a group of people who carried bookbags or handbags. Inside the vehicle there were seven young black men who were detained and handcuffed. With blank stares, they clearly questioned the motives for their detentions. Lieutenant Delfin Carneado … Continue reading “Being Black in Cuba”
I saw it today. It is in black and white, has little yellow spots on it, and smells like cockroach. I recovered a photo from my adolescence, frozen in time and already in Sepia color. It is a portrait of 11 young men, joyful under the effects of the poor man’s drink, alcohol mixed with … Continue reading “The Chronicles of a Deceived Generation”
