English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Ivan Garcia, 28 April 2016 — What do the autocratic Castro brothers, the solemn Vatican, Islamic fundamentalists and the madhouse that is North Korea have in common? The answer is simple: devotion to dogma, lack of transparency and unchecked caste-based power. In theory communism should be music to the ears of a laborer who works … Continue reading “The Enemies of Modern Democracy / Iván García”
Photo taken from the internet Open letter to John Kerry: “Isn’t it time for all Cuban voices to be heard?” Published Thursday, August 13, 2015. On Friday August 14, 2015, Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Cuba to strengthen the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries. He is the first U.S. Secretary … Continue reading “Reporters Without Borders to John Kerry: Isn’t it time for all Cuban voices to be heard? / Angel Santiesteban”
Cubanet, Alberto Mendez Castello, Las Tunas, 21 August 2015 — “The crime of theft and slaughter of cattle continues at high levels in Puerto Padre,” the official press reported in July. The prosecutor Jose Luis Pupo Rueda said in an interview broadcast on the radio that, beyond the lack of control of the cattle and … Continue reading “The Cost of a Steak in Cuba / Cubanet, Alberto Mendez”
In Cuba there are two ship sinkings that captured public opinion. One of them (1994), the ferryboat 13 de Marzo, was presented in 1996 to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (1,2,3). The other occurred years earlier (1980), known in the press as the Slaughter of Rio Canimar (4,5,6), which merits investigation by the Cuban … Continue reading “A Good Place for Killing Children and Living Peacefully / Dora Leonor Mesa”
Cubanet.org, Camilo Ernesto Olivera Peidro, 18 June 2015 – An old man is going out of his house in the little village named Henequen Viejo, near the Port of Mariel. Everyone there knows him as Alfonso. In reality, his name is Idelfonso Estevez. At first glance he seems like an old man like so many … Continue reading “Professionals of ‘Snitching’ / Cubanet, Camilo Ernesto Olivera”
In tribute to El Caso de Sandra (The Sandra Case) by Luis Manuel García Méndez 14ymedio, Lilianne Ruiz, Havana, 30 January 2015 — A farmer wakes up before dawn to brand with a burning iron the last cow he has left. It’s a ritual of pain and possession. A tourist brands a young person in … Continue reading “The ‘Sandor Case’ / 14ymedio, Lilianne Ruiz”
In Cuba, most news reaches us via Miami. Look, given such limited access to the internet where one official hour puts us back a whopping 4.50 convertible pesos (i.e., the equivalent of one week’s pay for a laborer), people resort to foreign short wave radio or whatever illegal cable connection the neighbor down the street … Continue reading “Obama – Raul Handshake Overlooked On The Island / Ivan Garcia”
Osvaldo Rodríguez Díaz Guided by low-flying vultures, three young men, who moments before had been cutting wood on the mountain in order to build a fence, found the remains of a cow, which 24 hours earlier had been stolen and killed by unknown rustlers. Though they could smell the odor of meat exposed for a … Continue reading “Ignorance Hurts / Cuban Law Association, Osvaldo Rodriguez Diaz”
HAVANA, Cuba, August, www.cubanet.org — Perhaps at the moment the reader reads this, it will have been twenty years since the beginning of the Special Period, the major event to befall Cuban history in the last century. It began in August of 1993 when the former secretary of the Council of Ministers, Carlos Lage, announced … Continue reading “The Ground Soy Generation Remembers / Frank Correa”
I scan the shelves, dusting off my memory for books over these last decades, in search of the titles that I must keep, at all costs, from the fire of oblivion. It’s not an easy task. Every author, every text chosen… is an act of betrayal toward the rest. Making a list of the essential … Continue reading “Choosing a Book, or the Reader’s Betrayal / Yoani Sanchez”
by Veizánt Boloy The laws are used by some citizens today like waste paper. If we take as an example the acts of repudiation — where citizens gather and scream at and even physically attack their fellow citizens or their homes — surely they would change their minds. To those who by Law are allowed … Continue reading “Disgraceful / Cuban Law Association – Veizánt Boloy”