English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Nelson García, Havana, 28 August 2023 — Oscar sleeps “with one eye open and the other closed” in case the roof ends up collapsing on this 67-year-old Havana resident and his family in the middle of the night. The retiree, who lives at the corner of Perseverancia (Perserverance) and San Lazaro streets in Central … Continue reading “San Lazaro and Perseverance Streets, Another Bombed-Out Corner of Havana”
14ymedio, Havana, 27 July 2023 — The Olympic pool in Gibara, Holguín, has long since left its golden years behind as a training center for Cuban athletes who competed in international events. The lack of maintenance and the passage of two hurricanes have left the facilities in such a state that even the official press … Continue reading “The Pool Where Cuban Olympic Swimmers Trained Is Now a Garbage Dump”
Ivan Garcia, 3 January 2018 — There is no better country in which to find a surrealist atmosphere than Cuba. In October of 2017, when the hurricane winds of Irma ruined whatever was in their way, a photo that went around the world explained the political nonsense and citizens’ indifference. The waters of the Atlantic Ocean jumped … Continue reading “Cuba 2018: Neo-Castroism and an Economy in Hibernation / Ivan Garcia”
Iván García,22 May 2018 — Forty-eight hours after the tragic plane crash, the area where the Boeing 727-200 went down — the airliner had been leased by Cubana de Aviación from the Mexican company Global Air — is still cordoned off with yellow ribbon as dozens of crime scene specialists and civil aeronautics experts are … Continue reading “Accounts of the Aerial Disaster in Havana / Ivan Garcia”
14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 10 October 2017 — In a simple note consisting only of four paragraphs, the official Cuban press reported yesterday a fact as unexpected as it was unusual: this Tuesday, coinciding with the 149th anniversary of the beginning of the War of Independence, “the political act and military ceremony of the burial … Continue reading “Revolutionary Desecration”
14ymedio, Havana, 12 January 2017 — Police maintained a strong operation Thursday around the headquarters of the 1010 Academy in the neighborhood of Cerro, in Havana. Activists Joanna Columbié and Georlis Olazabal were arrested while trying to access the site to participate in a conference on constitutional law, said Eliécer Ávila, president of the independent Somos+ … Continue reading “Cuban Police Detain Activists For Second Consecutive Day / 14ymedio”
Ivan Garcia, 11 July 2015 — On a leaden afternoon in 1960 that portended rain, René, 79 years old, recalls how a half-dozen militia members encased in wide uniforms and bearing Belgian weapons appeared at his uncle’s house in the peaceful neighborhood of La Víbora to certify the confiscation of his properties. “My family owned a milk … Continue reading “Cuba: Wipe the Slate Clean and Start Over, or Form a Truth Commission?”
HAVANA, Cuba , September www.cubanet.org – I don’t remember the first time I heard or read his name, but it must have been in the mid-90s on Radio Marti, which at that time, despite the strong obstruction of its signal, I could still listen to. I do know that by the end of that decade … Continue reading “The Great Chronicler of the Cuban Economic Disaster / Ernesto Santana Zaldivar”
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”