English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 24 January 2017 — The hectically busy residents of the areas bordering Havana’s Malecón, on Tuesday, tried to repair the damages left by seawater flooding over the seawall the previous day. The strong northwestern winds associated with an extensive extratropical low pressure over the state of South Carolina have submerged the dreams … Continue reading “Taking Stock of the Flood Damage in Havana / 14ymedio”
This list of most-read articles presents an interesting window into 2016-in-Review, at least in the eyes of 14ymedio‘s readers. Fidel Castro Sent My Father to the Firing Squad; I Do Not Regret the Tyrant’s Death / Ileana de la Guardia Read it Here The Ancient Dictator Died Long Ago / Miriam Celaya Read it Here Away From … Continue reading “14ymedio’s Most Read Stories of 2016”
14ymedio, Havana, 13 October 2016 – The Cuban independent press has been marked by two opposing phenomena: censorship and growth, according to the report on Cuba published by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) on Thursday. The document prepared for the association made up of representatives from more than 1,300 publications of the Americas by Yoani Sanchez in her … Continue reading “Cuban Independent Press Grows Despite Censorship / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Pedro Campos, Havana, 23 August 2016 – Self-employed Cubans are tossed out of places where they’ve contracted with the State to work, without consideration of the consequences for them and violating what is established in their “contracts.” Recently this happened in Pinar del Rio, according to various reports, thanks to the redevelopment of the … Continue reading “‘Coffee, Three Cents’ / 14ymedio, Pedro Campos”
Ivan Garcia, 3 May 2016 — One morning in 1996, the poet and journalist, Raúl Rivero, Director of the press agency Independent Cuba Press, called me at home in Víbora, to ask me to cover the trial of a dissident in a municipal court in Cerro. The reporter, Ariel de Castro Tapia, (presently living in … Continue reading “Cuban Alternative Journalism: Challenges and Commitments / Iván García”
14ymedio, Abel Fernandez and Mario Penton, Miami, 29 April 2016 — By 2025, the Cuban population will be reduced to 10 million. The dramatic demographic change on the island—from 11 million to 10 million inhabitants—is propelled by the low rates of fertility and birth, and an elevated emigration, a group of experts recently explained at Florida … Continue reading “Cuba Will Lose One Million People In Next Decade / 14ymedio, Abel Fernandez, Mario Penton”
Luis Felipe Rojas, 1 February 2016 — This list is not intended to be a “Top Ten,” as is so common on internet publications. The list of names that follows carries the history of the men and women who believe in words and images as a tool of liberation. The independent journalists that appear below … Continue reading “Twenty Independent Communicators to Consult in Cuba / Luis Felipe Rojas”
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 18 January 2016 – From the bar home, from home to the bar, so passes the life of Fico, a Havanan of 65 who has struggled for more than two decades against alcoholism. His situation is frequently repeated in a society where more than 45% of those over age 15 drink … Continue reading “Young People In Cuba Start Drinking Earlier / 14ymedio, Zunilda Mata”
The latest: the government’s reaction In the midst of the Assembly of the G-20 (as a group of twenty film directors call themselves), while the filmmakers debated the need for the approval of a Film Act and continued to denounce the hairy hand of censorship with Abel Prieto as its visible creator, as recently happened … Continue reading “More Counterrevolutionary (?) Artists Speak Up For Their Freedom (II) / Angel Santiesteban”
14ymedio, Havana, 10 December 2015 – State Security agents who introduced themselves as members of counterintelligence are outside 14ymedio’s newsroom right now to keep our reporters from covering the events of Human Rights Day, celebrated this Thursday. Several neighbors sounded the alert when, from the early hours of the morning, they saw two men sitting … Continue reading “State Security is Outside 14ymedio’s Newsroom / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Havana, 1 December 2105 — The Embassy of Ecuador began granting visas to Cubans who have been waiting outside its embassy in Havana since Friday. On Monday morning the first visa still had not been printed and the desperation over the lack of information was generating a certain chaos. It was not until the evening … Continue reading “Ecuador Begins to Deliver Visas to Cubans Gathered Outside its Embassy / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Orlando Palma, Havana, 23 October 2015 — The National Funeral Home, nine at night. In one of the rooms only one person is found. A woman is rocking in the chair furthest from the coffin. She’s filing her nails. “Who was the deceased?” asks someone from the doorway. “I don’t know; I’m here waiting … Continue reading “Any Day Is A Bad Day To Die Alone / 14ymedio, Orlando Palma”
14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 3 October 2015 — Halfway between analysis and opinion, and not having responded clearly to his own initial question, journalist Carlos M. Álvarez recently addressed a controversial issue: the transition in Cuba, or to put it more accurately, as posed by the title of his work: Can a transition in Cuba … Continue reading “Transition in Cuba: Real or Imagined? / 14ymedio, Miriam Celaya”
Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, 17 September 2015 — With the publication of the Official Gazette No. 31, there have been many published opinions about the pardons granted to 3,522 prisoners in anticipation of the visit of Pope Francis. Most of the criticism has focused on the fact that the beneficiaries include no one sentenced for political reasons. However, … Continue reading “Generation Y Behind Bars / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 14 September 2015 — A Cuba of different points of view and clashing passions is what the Bishop of Rome will find when he begins, in a few days, his visit to the island. A country that wants to enter the future, but that remains clamped in place by a political … Continue reading “Don’t Get Too Close, Brother Francis / 14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez”
