English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Havana, November 2, 2021 — Drought, the high costs of cultivation and diseases such as yellow dragon* are all contributing to the decline of citrus production in Jagüey Grande, a town in Matanzas province. “Two years from now, you might not find any here. If someone tells you otherwise, he’s lying,” a resident of … Continue reading “Cuban Homes Won’t See Limes for Awhile, Officials Warn”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Desde Aqui, Havana, 28 May 2020 — It was in the 1980s, durng one those trips to the provinces which I took as a journalist for the magazine Cuba International, accompanied by the Luis Manuel Fernández, better known as Pirole. In the midst of the boredom of those hotels with no diversions, … Continue reading “From ’Protoplin’ to Sugarcane Juice”
Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, West Pam Beach, 29 January 2020 – This is a textbook case: to question a myth is to unleash hysteria. And as it usually happens, the loudest blabbermouths tear off their hair and their clothes against those who dare refuse to follow the little troupe on duty. And in the cast of … Continue reading “When Myths Are Not Applauded / Miriam Celaya”
14ymedio, Havana, October 1, 2019 — The deterioration of homes, the increase in poverty, the lack of transport, and poor health were some of the daily problems most pointed out by Cubans who participated in the competition How to solve a problem in my neighborhood, organized by the Cuban Observatory of Conflicts (OCC) and the … Continue reading “"Learning to Demand Our Rights," the Message of a Competition in Cuba”
14ymedio, Havana, 2 May 2018 — Yoelvis Gattorno will be able to return to Cuba with his daughter Valeria as soon as she is discharged from Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital, after a judge from the Florida court granted him custody of the child on Tuesday, on verifying his paternity. However, it is possible that the case … Continue reading “Little Valeria Will Live With Her Father in Cuba or in the US”
14ymedio, 23 January 2018 — It’s two o’clock in the morning and on San Carlos Street in Cienfuegos all you can hear are the crickets. For Jesús, it’s a late night like any other. He retired from his job as a bus driver almost a decade ago, and at 75 he has enough energy to take … Continue reading “"I’ll Die As I Lived: Standing in Line"”
14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 1 February 2017 – The rapid aging of the population, joined with the reduction in available resources and the decline in the quality of teaching, are three of the features with which the economist Carmelo Mesa-Lago has characterized the situation of Cuba’s educational system. “In 2007, the government of Raul Castro … Continue reading “Statistics Reflect The Serious Crisis Of The Cuban Education System / 14ymedio, Mario Penton”
Angel Santiesteban, 7 January 2015 — To know that there is a Cuban who knew how to work against the dictatorship makes it easier to bear that the regime’s five spies are now back on Cuban soil. I rejoiced when it was revealed that this Cuban — responding not to the North American government but against the … Continue reading “Musings of a Blind Man (2) / Angel Santiesteban”
Havana, Cuba (CNN) — In the ’90s a certain joke became very popular in the streets and homes of Cuba. It began with Pepito — the mischievous boy of our national humor — and told how his teacher, brandishing a photo of the U.S. president, launches into a harsh diatribe against him. “The man you … Continue reading “Should the U.S. raise a fist or offer a hand to Cuba? / Yoani Sánchez”
“When I close the door, I never know whether I’m inside or outside.” (Judith Vázquez) I open the door. The unexpected and inexplicable (and as yet unexplained) return to TV of Jorge Papito Serguera, El Gordo Quesada and Luis Pavón Tamayo, a.k.a. (some say) Leopoldo Ávila, has awoken a logical agitation in Cuban intellectual circles, … Continue reading “My Point of View / Eliseo Alberto Diego – "Lichi" / POLEMICA: The 2007 Intellectual Debate”
