English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Jeovany Jimenez Vega, 5 May 2023 — How was it possible, after the worst plane crash in our recent history, [Cubana de Aviación Flight 972 crashed in May 2018 at Santiago de las Vegas with loss of 112 lives], after the fatal collapse of the balconies that took the lives of three girls in a … Continue reading “Cuba: You Must Be Having a Laugh Diaz-Canel… / Jeovany Jimenez Vega”
14ymedio, Xavier Carbonell, Salamanca, 9 April 2023 – The apathy of Cuban intellectuals after the death of Jorge Edwards contributed to the fact that the regime’s censorship managed to render him invisible. The machinery of the Cuban press lives by a certain law of fiction, and that fiction selects, redacts, patches over and twists the … Continue reading “Jorge Edwards in Cuba: A Spy in the Land of Slogans”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 14 November 2021 — The playwright Yunior García Aguilera could not carry out his plan to walk dressed in white with a rose in his hand at 3 o’clock in the afternoon down 23rd Street in El Vedado to the Malecón in Havana. Police and State Security agents and members of the … Continue reading “Cuba: A Violent Crowd Surrounds Yunior Garcia’s House and Threatens the Foreign Press”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 6 October 2021 — Something that I have never managed to do is pronounce two words at the same time. This “deficiency” has led me to understand how difficult it is to state two ideas simultaneously in a grammatical sentence. In this arduous struggle of half a century, I have also learned that … Continue reading “The Space and Time of Words”
PRESS RELEASE 4.21.2021 PADILLA’S SHADOW Commemorative Act in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Poet’s Confession A virtual performance that will be streamed on the internet and social media (Available now) (In Spanish with English subtitles) On April 27, 2021, a choral reading of Cuban poet Heberto Padilla’s legendary confession will be streamed … Continue reading “Padilla’s Shadow: Commemorative Act in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Cuban Poet’s Confession”
14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Havana, 25 February 25, 2020 — At first light you could see the tired yawning faces of the people who had come to form a queue. The start of the sale of used cars for foreign currency has attracted more curious people than purchasers to the shop on 20th Street, between 1st … Continue reading “Only in Cuba is the Sale of Used Cars News”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, February 25, 2020 — The cliché has been coined that in that process called the Cuban Revolution, the first 30 years were those of the greatest ideological intolerance. The firing squads, the Military Units to Aid Production (UMAP) [agricultural forced labor camps for gays, religious and non-conformists], the obligatory atheism, the Revolutionary … Continue reading “The Ideological Weaknesses of the Cuban Communist Party”
Fernando Damaso, 16 December 2018 — Decree 349, which concerns regulations governing the broadcast, exhibition and promotion of artistic products, has created much concern among creators. The problem is not about “the enemies” making propaganda against it, but rather the real danger that the decree represents. The danger consists in that, under its shelter, the … Continue reading “A Decree That’s Not All It’s Cracked Up To Be / Fernando Damaso”
14ymedio, Mario J. Pentón/Reporting Team, Miami, 17 April 2018 — On the last day of July 2006 Cuba’s prime time news program broke with its usual monotony. Carlos Valenciaga, Fidel Castro’s chief of staff, announced to Cuba and the world that the hitherto invincible Commander-in-Chief had temporarily ceded power, after suffering intestinal bleeding. Raúl Castro, his younger brother, took … Continue reading “What Has and Has Not Changed in Cuba Since Raul Casto Came to Power”
14ymedio, Ricardo Fernandez, 4 December 2017 — Five days after an ammonia leak that kept some people in the city of Camagüey in suspense, the neighbors of the Coppelia ice cream factory fear that the consequences of the spill will be more serious than what has been announced, and they are reproaching the authorities for not … Continue reading “In Camaguey Coppelia’s Neighbors Live with Ammonia Leaks”
Ivan Garcia,25 September 2017 — If you want to go to the house of the 58-year-old dissident lawyer, Julio Ferrer Tamayo, the busy Esquina de Tejas, which is ten minutes by car from central Havana, can do as a reference point. Four important city streets meet at the famous corner; Monte, Infanta, Calzadas de Cerro, … Continue reading “Interview with Julio Ferrer Tamayo, Independent Cuban Lawyer / Iván García”
14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 3 August 2017 — Fewer than 42,000 Cubans have emigrated since 2013 according to official statistics published in Havana. However, US officials say they have welcomed more than 141,528 Cubans during the same period. The enormous discrepancy between these data is explained by the lack of transparency of the Cuban Government, which conceals … Continue reading “Cuban Government Obscures the Figures to Hide the Magnitude of Emigration”
Iván García, 17 May 2017 — In front of an old mansion on 17th Street in Vedado that now serves as the headquarters of the Union of Writers and Artists, there is a poster showing hundreds of men dressed in battle fatigues and lined up in military formation. A resounding verdict in two rows of … Continue reading “Cuba: More Castroism but Without the Castros / Iván García”
Iván García, 11 May 2017 — Scarcely a block away from the majestic Grand Hotel Manzana Kempinski, whose inauguration is expected next June 2nd, next to the Payret cinema, a state-owned cafeteria sells an acidic and insipid hamburger with bread for the equivalent of 50 centavos. Workers in the neighbourhood and beggars who survive on asking … Continue reading “Cuba: Forbidden Fruit / Iván García”
Vicente Botín, Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy (ASCE), The Hilton Miami Downtown Hotel, 29 July 2016. Once upon a time… A female cat fell in love with a handsome young man and prayed to the goddess Aphrodite to turn her into a woman. The goddess, pitying the cat’s yearning, … Continue reading “Cuba: Tallies and Tales of the Reforms / Vicente Botín”