English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Talking about Cuban doctors today brings to mind a new kind of slavery, of sad pieces used on a chessboard. Through misfortune, the doctor Oscar Elías Biscet — a free man in the damp shadow of his cell — is hardly alone. I believe that few professionals in the world face a situation more precarious … Continue reading “Reinventing Slavery / Ernesto Morales Licea”
Any nation whose history is full of acts of violence diminishes relevance to figures or events that are removed from this kind of acts. If violence is also promoted as the paradigm of behavior, the concept ends up entrenching so deeply in the conscience of society that it establishes a false identification between war and … Continue reading “Albear, a Patriot of Construction / Dimas Castellanos”
On Monday, January 31, the Havana Provincial Court imposed sentences of between 5 and 15 years imprisonment on the 13 people accused in the deaths, by starvation and cold, of 26 patients in the Psychiatric Hospital, located on the outskirts of the capital. The incident occurred in January 2010. The steepest penalty, 15 years, went … Continue reading “The Mazorra Case: Has the Curtain Come Down? / Laritza Diversent”
While the international press spreads the case of the American contractor Alan Gross, held prisoner on the island for supposed espionage, and lodged a year ago in a special room of a Havana military hospital, another US citizen survives in a wheelchair in the Combinado del Este prison in Havana. He is Chris Walter Johnson, … Continue reading “Trafficking or Theraputic Use? / Miguel Iturria Savón”
With great effort I’ve managed to read the eleven pages of “The Transformations Required in the Public Health System.” I have the impression that if we took out all the ideological apologies — such as, “the direction of our glorious Party,” or this one, “the immense historic responsibility we have for the future of the … Continue reading “What Changes? / Claudia Cadelo”
Miguel Galban speaks before the International Confederation Union. First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to all of you for allowing me this opportunity to be here with you today. I will briefly tell you about what happened to me in my country. My name is Miguel Galban Gutierrez, and I was … Continue reading “Galban: Testimony before the CSI (International Confederation Union) / Voices Behind The Bars”
One Anyone seeing all six-feet-eight of him go by, looking like a basketball forward, would never guess his true profession and what he cares about. Unless he puts on, obviously, the huge white coat he wears which marks him as a saver of lives. His name: Fernando Mederos. For a long time he’s been the … Continue reading “Who Said All Is Lost? / Ernesto Morales Licea”
We believe every human being in the world has the right to health, with no consideration of costs. Juan Juan: Solidarity Without Frontiers is a relatively young organization with very defined purposes. Somewhere I read, “Our membership is composed of doctors who have fled the Cuban communist government, and today live in the United States … Continue reading “Julio Cesar Alfonso, Executive Director and President of Solidarity Without Frontiers / Juan Juan Almeida”
“Ole,” they said in my childhood, is a word that has no explanation. With NO, it is the same. You go walking through the streets of God in this atheist city, at least officially, thirst grabs you and tightens your throat, and all you find, written with various materials in different ways, an infinity of … Continue reading “The Good Optimist / Fernando Dámaso”
Why is everyone so surprised to see photos of riot troops putting down a student protest in Jaguey Grande**? I saw riot troops, led my Military Counterintelligence in Camagüey. Their objective was to avoid the public joining the demonstrations of the Eastern Democratic Alliance, which took to the streets in solidarity with Reina Tamayo while … Continue reading “Riot Squads? … If There Are No Riots in Cuba… / Luis Felipe Rojas”
“You must turn in your passport!” So they told him on arriving in Caracas, to prevent him from making it to the border and deserting. In the same airport they read him the rules: “You cannot say that you are Cuban, you can’t walk down the street in your medical clothes, and it’s best to … Continue reading “Inside the Neighborhood, Outside the Heart / Yoani Sánchez”
The day that Juan Juan Almeida announced the start of his hunger strike was like reliving the nightmare we’d experienced with the long fast of Guillermo Fariñas. “This is the worst of all decisions,” we, his friends who love him, told him, sure that he would not withstand the rigors of starvation, nor that the … Continue reading “He Did It / Yoani Sánchez”
May the influenza not win over us! THE SOLUTION IS IN YOUR HANDS A message from the Cuban Public Health at the service… Photo: Orlando Luis When I was young, there was a very popular children’s song that made reference to a sick donkey whose ills always had a solution. “My donkey, my donkey, has … Continue reading “My Donkey, My Donkey… / Miriam Celaya”
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?”
Photo: Dagoberto Valdes, Juan Juan Almeida, Yoani Sanchez Yoani Sanchez: 1. You are an important public figure, especially because you are the son of one of the historic icons of the Cuban Revolution, the commander Juan Almeida Bosque. How have you dealt with these circumstances? Have you taken advantage of them? Have they become a … Continue reading “Interview with Juan Juan Almeida*”
