English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
MAY DAY – Even Karl Marx would be surprised at the only parade of slave workers HAVANA, Cuba – All the official media is in a raging fanfare summoning to “the united people’s great mobilization which will take place in squares and avenues” this May 1st. Cymbals and trumpets are pleased with the wild benefits achieved … Continue reading “There’s Nothing to Celebrate / Miriam Celaya”
When a government’s financial figures are in the red, everything takes on new urgency. By now the formulas to address the problem are well-known. Often new tax measures are imposed while bloated public spending is slashed. But if the goal is to attract American dollars, euros or other forms of hard currency, then any reforms … Continue reading “Cuba Opens the Gates to Foreign Capital / Ivan Garcia”
HAVANA Cuba – Imagining a Cuban nutritionist in a health centre is like flying a kite without air. Given the general scarcities, these specialists in healthy eating, in their efforts to propose adequate diets to patients with obesity, high cholesterol or diabetes, have to act as circus magicians. How can anybody guide you on what … Continue reading “The Difficult Task of Eating Lunch and Dinner / Leon Padron Azcuy”
PUERTO PADRE, Cuba, October, www.cubanet.org – “Milk production is in serious trouble here,” said the first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Communist Party in Las Tunas, Ariel Santana Santiesteban, in a meeting last month with farmers in this town. The cows do not produce as much milk as need, because of poor management, … Continue reading “Price Prohibitive Dairy Products / Alberto Mendez Castello”
SANTA CLARA, Cuba, October 9, 2013, Yoel Espinosa Medrano / www.cubanet.org.- Blackouts of up to ten hours a day have been seriously affecting residents in the province of Villa Clara for several weeks now. Electricity is the main choice for cooking. Last week in Santa Clara about 200 people in the Condado neighborhood went out … Continue reading “Blackouts Wreak Havoc in Villa Clara / Yoel Espinosa Medrano”
HAVANA, Cuba, October www.cubanet.org — It is called the Bad Neighborhood of the Bright Light, a hamlet situated to the west of Santa Fe in Havana province. Its residents, almost all black and mixed (emigrants from areas to the east), say that in the beginning, more than twenty years ago, the houses on the edge … Continue reading “The Bad Neighborhood of the Bright Light / Tania Diaz Castro”
My neighbors think exactly the same way as many in the opposition. They are as unhappy with the government of the Castro brothers as any dissident. Many a night I have to listen to loud complaints and criticisms leveled against the regime of General Raúl Castro. The causes for this disgust are numerous. They vary from the … Continue reading “Why Isn’t the Dissident Movement Relevant to the Average Cuban”
Six years after the Proclamation in which Fidel Castro delegated almost all power to his brother, and four years after Raul Castro officially took the reins of government, almost all optimism about the possible beginning stages of transformations to advance the economy in Cuba have faded. Much less can there be any illusions regarding freedoms … Continue reading “The General, ‘Reforms’ and the Myth of the Renewal of the ‘Model’ / Miriam Celaya”
A few days agoI was chatting with a group of friends, all of whom were concerned about the shortages in the state-run hard currency stores and the growth of thebolsa negra*—“the black bag,” also known as the “black market” or “underground market.” This exchange of opinions proved interesting. First of all, the shortage is a … Continue reading “The Bolsa Negra / Fernando Damaso”
Six years. So much and so little has happened. Of the seven names mentioned in that “Proclamation of the Commander in Chief to the People of Cuba” only three remain unharmed. As if the text was not only news of Fidel Castro’s illness but also a curse that would fall on those mentioned. José Ramón … Continue reading “The Deadly Proclamation / Yoani Sánchez”
“Old Woman Cooking Eggs” is the title of this painting by Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), oil on canvas painted in Seville in 1618. This scene reminded me, 394 years later and thousands of miles away from the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, where it is hung, of the precarious and colorless life of … Continue reading “Velazquez and the Stations of the Cross for a Cuban Family / Iván García”
The problem is the street. General Raúl Castro will not permit an Arab Spring in Cuba. He will do whatever needs doing to detain irate opponents. He wants to isolate the potential short-circuit that could turn into a street protest. The island is a petri dish for cultivation of popular anger. The logical erosion of … Continue reading “Cuban Secret Services: Sticks and White Glove / Iván García”
It’s a war of power against power. On one side, General Raúl Castro manages military counter-intelligence, pulls the strings in the major economic sectors of the nation and has consolidated his cabinet with loyalists as bullet proof as atomic bombs. But behind the scenes, his adversaries look at him sideways. They are high-flying bureaucrats, local … Continue reading “The Real Enemies of Raul Castro’s Reforms / Iván García”
People on the street in Cuba look sideways at the recent reforms designed for the impoverished national economy. Few are counting on these changes put forward by president Raúl Castro. They don’t believe they will make the country function more efficiently. They know what a group of Cubans think. In a survey of 48 persons … Continue reading “Economic Reforms: More Questions than Answers / Iván García”
THAT MORNING MY mother didn’t threaten me with if I left my breakfast I wouldn’t go to Salvador’s study to see him paint. Those words were enough to accept any of her commandments. Salvador had become used to my presence. I understood not to bother him. From a corner, I watched his ritual of preparing … Continue reading “The Color of Life / Ángel Santiesteban”
