English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION How did it occur to us to go to a concert by Pablo Milanes to ask for the liberation of Gorki? That is something that has the trademark of the spontaneous and the haste of that which can not be postponed or thought better of. Ciro, Claudia and I talked about … Continue reading “Brief chronology of a victory (Freeing Gorki “Last Time”) / Yoani Sanchez”
[The following is from Stanford University, originally in English] November 1, 2013 – Program on Liberation Technology In the News Cuban blogger uses technology to break information blockade By Sarina A. Beges On October 28, Cuban blogger and dissident Yoani Sánchez addressed a crowd of over 100 during a special event hosted by the Program … Continue reading “Yoani Sanchez at Stanford University”
For over a decade, the Cuban government refused to allow one of the world’s best known bloggers, Yoani Sánchez, to travel abroad. When Havana finally loosened travel restrictions for Cuban citizens, Sánchez was one of the first to take advantage of the change, embarking on an 80-day 10-nation tour. One of the countries she visited … Continue reading “Radio Netherlands: Controversial Cuban Blogger Answers Tough Questions / Yoani Sanchez”
Photos: Francis Sanchez I went shopping in search of a hoe. Perhaps it was suddenly suggested to me by the partisan propaganda which always lays a guilt trip on the will of the majority — yeah, the runaway slaves who can’t be allowed to govern themselves — while the saving ideas inevitably fall from above, … Continue reading “Hoes / Francis Sánchez”
[In this part of an unedited interview, which I don’t know when it will be published, I respond to the question: “Ciego de Ávila: Love or scorn?”] I have tried to invent the province lovingly, although for that I had to give a primary form to that love without obligation until it was more or … Continue reading “Huge Hell Whether it Works or Not (For the Poetry of the ’90s) / Francis Sánchez”
Interview of Salvador Bueno (fragment*) I met him in 1998. That year, on October 12, he received the “José Vasconcelos” prize in a ceremony at the National Hotel in Havana. The gold medal, conferred by the Hispanic Affirmation Front (HAF) to intellectuals of the Castillian language for lifetime achievement, had already gone to figures of … Continue reading “Salvador, a Seat Occupied in Cuban Literature / Francis Sánchez”
Photo: Francis Sánchez One day I discovered that my wife accused me of attempted murder. She based her accusation on a poem she had found among my unpublished scribbles, where I addressed the dream of a just death that could follow a liberating shot. Carrying forward the tragic event, with the right that attends every … Continue reading “Domestic Violence / Francis Sánchez”
What confusion. Pablo Milanes, the mythical founder of the Movement for the Nueva Trova (1972), began the second part of his nationwide tour “For Cuba” in the center of the island, only about ten minutes on a bike from my home. They premiered, even a rebuilt stage for large events on a track between insulated … Continue reading “What Confusion. What Joy. What Pain. / Francis Sánchez”
A friend tells me that when she feels overwhelmed by daily life she goes to Old Havana. She grabs her purse and heads off to some of the restored streets that recall Barcelona, where she has two sons who emigrated a decade ago. “I gaze at the bell towers and mansions to make myself believe … Continue reading “The Lesser Basilica / Yoani Sánchez”
Long ago I read that the acid test of a poet was to write a sonnet. The straitjacket of meter and cadence of its composition drew out the worst and best of whomever had already tried their hand in battle with assonant rhymes. I confess that with my irreverent seventeen years it seemed that those … Continue reading “A Manual or a Sonnet? / Yoani Sánchez”
14ymedio, Havana, 16 August 2018 — Two weeks ago, Ileana Álvarez and her husband Francis Sánchez went into exile in Spain. Both are known for their prolific work as poets, writers and essayists. They decided to leave the country, along with their youngest son, due to the “pressures and threats” to which they were subjected by the authorities. … Continue reading “"Resisting For the Sake of Resisting Makes No Sense"”
Yoe Suarez, Havana, 13 May 2018 — The signature of Bogota’s Transmilenio bus rapid transit system is not the swirl of humans that fills it during peak hours. Nor even the damp cyborg voice that announces the next station. The system’s signatures, at least in recent years, are the Venezuelans who take the risk, despite the … Continue reading “Venezuelans in Bogota / Yoe Suarez”
14ymedio, Havana, 3 May 2018 — An editorial published this Wednesday in the independent magazine Alas Tensas denounces the sequence of attacks by State Security on members of its editorial team in recent months. Pressures that seek to make the “self-proclaimed feminist media disappear.” We have been subjected to “systematic harassment and attacks over the last two months,” says the … Continue reading “"We Have Committed the ’Sin’ of Showing That in Cuba There Are Also Women Who are Killed by Sexist Violence"”
Alas Tensas, Editorial, 2 May 2018 – Those of us publishing the feminist magazine Alas Tensas have been subject to systematic harassment and attacks over the last two months. No doubt they want or need our independent and self-proclaimed feminist media to disappear. As the British feminist Mary Beard says in her essay The Public … Continue reading “Why Do They Want to Cut Our Wings? / Alas Tensas”
14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 15 October 2017 — It was April 2007 and a time of dark days. The most stagnant part of the Catholic Church intervened in the magazine Vitral (Stained Glass Window), shifting it away from its marked social mission. In the face of the hijacking, the editors jumped ship and months later … Continue reading “Cuba’s ‘Convivencia’ Project Celebrates Its First Decade”
