English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Havana, 15 January 2015 — The new regulations on travel, insurance, the import of goods, remittances and telecommunications that the United States will put into effect with respect to Cuba as of Friday, have already provoked the first reactions on the Island. Although the evening news barely mentioned it at the end of the show, the … Continue reading “Cubans Euphoric Over the New Regulations / 14ymedio”
14YMEDIO, Madrid, 7 January 2015 — The three presumed perpetrators of the attack against the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo that claimed the lives of twelve people this Wednesday have already been identified, according to several French media outlets. The attack left at least 10 wounded and 12 dead, eight of whom were journalists. Among them … Continue reading “Twelve Dead in a Shooting at the Headquarters of the French Satirical Weekly ‘Charlie Hebdo’ / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Jorge Calaforra, Warsaw, 20 December 2014 – On 17 December 2014 at 12:01 Washington DC time, the President of the United States, Barack Obama, announced the United States’ new policy toward Cuba. It should be recalled that the president of the United States of America makes his decisions taking into account all the interests … Continue reading “Cuba and the United States: Regret the past or build the future? / 14ymedio, Jorge Calaforra”
Leaders of the opposition call Obama’s reconciliation with the Cuban government a “betrayal” during a press conference in Havana Cubanet, Ernesto García Díaz, Havana, 18 December 2014 — From the headquarters of the Estado de SATS project in Miramar, on Wednesday afternoon (12/17/14), Cuban opposition leaders held a press conference for national and international media, … Continue reading “We Shall Fight to the End for the Liberty of Cuba / Cubanet, Ernesto Garcia Diaz”
Our team had a conversation with the New York Times journalist who has authored the editorials about Cuba. 14ymedio, 1 December 2014 — Ernesto Londoño, who authored six editorials on Cuba published recently by the New York Times engaged in a friendly conversation on Saturday with a part of the 14ymedio team, in the hotel … Continue reading “Two hours with the New York Times’ Ernesto Londoño / 14ymedio”
It is a paradox that on Friday, November 7, the 151st anniversary of the death of a singer of innocence and virtue, the Matanzas poet Jose Jacinto Milanes, at the People’s Court of Cardenas in the same province of Matanzas on the same day two Cuban citizens are awaiting sentencing — Rolando Cruz (age 46) … Continue reading “Cuba: Access to WiFi or When Ingenuity is Penalized / Juan Juan Almeida”
Castroneirics: Is there Cuban literature after the Revolution? Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo This story started long before the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, on January 1st1959. In the beginning it was not the Word, but the War. And in the war Fidelity is the utmost value, its betrayal usually paid with death, whether civil or political, … Continue reading “Castroniria / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
The elderly are the big losers in the timid economic reforms of Cuba’s General-President. Thousands who once applauded Fidel Castro’s long speeches in the Plaza of the Revolution, or fought in the civil wars in Africa, today survive however they can. There they are. Selling newspapers, peanuts, or single cigarettes. Others have it worse. Senile … Continue reading “Old dissidents in Cuba: Between homelessness and forgetting / Ivan Garcia”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, 7 November 2014 – Of all the faces that circulate on the illegal information networks, there is a very serene and well-known one that has been with us for decades. This well-spoken man who never seems to get upset has received the worst insults in the official media and the stealthy applause … Continue reading ““We journalists are the witnesses to history” / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez”
Photo: martinoticas.com The physicist and nuclear energy specialist Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart* recently led an official Cuban delegation to Hong Kong, though the news happened, as we say, behind the scenes. Xinhua, Prensa Latina and other news agencies did not report it, perhaps because the visit was not important. Or perhaps it was because the eldest son … Continue reading “Chinese Businesses on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange? / Juan Juan Almeida”
14YMEDIO, Havana, October 9, 2014 – Sixteen dancers from the Cuban company Pro-Dance of Laura Alonso, daughter of Alicia Alonso, deserted during a tour in Mexico. Five of them are already in the United States, according to information on the television Telemundo 51 this Thursday. From Miami, Ricardo Gil, Yaimara Naranjo and Alfredo Espinosa, spoke … Continue reading “A group of 16 Cuban dancers defect while on tour in Mexico / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Ignacio Varona. Havana. 2 September 2014 — In a few bites he polishes off the second pizza of the day. That evening he’ll dine on “bread with something,” accompanied by a shake and a sweet. For years now he has trouble seeing his feet while standing. His stomach hangs over his extremities and other, … Continue reading “We’re Eating More, We’re Eating Worse / 14ymedio, Ignacio Varona”
“But Cubans are tired, Cubans want changes. More than ten years ago more than 25,000 Cubans supported a legal reform project. Called the Varela Project, it called for a plebiscite to ask the people, yes or no, did they want free elections. The Cuban Constitution establishes that if more than 10,000 people support a legal … Continue reading “Letter to Pope Francis from the Christian Liberation Movement Youth”
MIAMI, Florida. — In the North Cemetery of Woodlawn Park, in Miami, lie the remains of the former Cuban president Gerardo Machado y Morales (1871-1939), who was the politician who constructed the most works during the Republic, and also was the first who opposed the international influence of communism. To Machado, the new writing of … Continue reading “Gerardo Machado: Was He Really an Ass with Claws? / David Canela Pina”
By Ambrosio Fornet / See here for background information on this series of posts. 1 It seemed as if the nightmare was something from a remote past, but the truth is that when we awoke, the dinosaur was still there. We haven’t found out — and perhaps will never know — if the media folly was … Continue reading “The Five Grey Years: Revisiting the Term / Ambrosio Fornet”