English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
At dawn last Monday, across 23rd street, between 10 and 12, Vedado, a lady very thin, poorly dressed, half blind and with a cane, begged me to lead her to the next block, that is to the corner of 12 and 21, where she had coffee every morning because she has no kitchen in the … Continue reading “Paupers / Miguel Iturria Savón”
Ladies in White and of Iron… "The Streets Belong to the Nation" The divorce between the management of information and the Cuban reality is repeatedly striking, at least in the official press, a specialist in softening the country’s situation, exalting the allies of the regime, disparaging perceived enemies internal and external, repeating the hallelujahs of … Continue reading “For breaking the silence they called her "hard line" / Miguel Iturria Savón”
Daniel, 39, made a trip of 6,000 kilometers from Spain, to hacerse santo’* in Havana. He bought a low fare ticket from Iberia and brought in his wallet his savings from ten years as a computer programmer. It all started one night when he was reunited with a childhood friend. Things were going well with … Continue reading ““To make a saint”: A prosperous business in Cuba / Iván García”
More than one year ago, the daily newspaper El Mundo asked me to chronicle the Ladies in White. With their street protests, the women headed by Laura Pollán, gladiolas in hand, were cornering the regime. In February 2010, after a hunger strike of 86 days, the political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo died. Each week, the … Continue reading “How Can the Persecutors of Laura Pollán Sleep Peacefully? / Iván García”
Some people have been scandalized by the confirmation of a single Party, reconfirmed during the 1st Conference of the Cuban Communist Party. I would like to remind them that in addition to a single Party we also have: Only one Union of Journalists Only one Union of Writers and Artists Only one Association of Farmers … Continue reading “Extended Unity / Reinaldo Escobar”
On the 50th anniversary of the University Reform enacted in January 1962, the newspaper Granma published on Monday, January 9, 2012, an article entitled University and Society by Armando Hart Dávalos, in which he proposes that “after the triumph of the Revolution university reform was essential to realizing the final link between the university and … Continue reading “University Reform Without Autonomy / Dimas Castellano”
In early November Cubans on the island and in exile and discussed the pros and cons of Decree 288 which amends the General Housing Act 1988, which prevented the sale of real estate, stripped homeowners who left the country of their property, and made it difficult to transfer their houses through dozens of rules and … Continue reading “New Cracks in the Wall / Miguel Iturria Savon / Miguel Iturría Savón”
The pronouncement of the Cuban Workers Center (CTC), regarding the measures taken by the Government to deflate workforces and to bring about greater self-employment, published in the Journal of Communist Party on September 13, 2010, is a good reason to discuss the dependence of the Cuban labor union movement with respect to the State. According … Continue reading “Independent Unions Versus Updating the Model / Dimas Castellano”
I was surprised when I compared myself to Teresa, one of the characters from Milan Kundera’s book ‘La Insoportable Levedad del Ser’ (The Unbearable Lightness of Being). In one of the scenes in the book Teresa takes some photos of the tanks in the Russian invasion of Prague to Switzerland and, instead of accepting them, … Continue reading “The Incomprehensible Bastion of Faith in a Social Project / Dora Leonor Mesa”
This article was written by Luis Felipe Rojas for ‘Diario de Cuba‘. It has been re-posted on this blog: In regards to the year which has just begun, it is evident that the directions of the Cuban government are like forked transit lines. With more desires to give orders to its members than to implement … Continue reading “The Paths of the General / Luis Felipe Rojas”
Proyecto Demócrata Cubano (“Cuban Democratic Project”) is an opposition association in Cuba that was founded in 1996 and is a member of the Organización Demócrata Cristiana de América (“Christian Democrat Organization of the Americas”), ODCA, since 1998. Now that the Cuban government brought back the fashion of permits for nationals to erect their own micro … Continue reading “License for Another Kind of Enterprise / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado”
Proyecto Demócrata Cubano (“Cuban Democratic Project”) is an opposition association in Cuba that was founded in 1996 and is a member of the Organización Demócrata Cristiana de América (“Christian Democrat Organization of the Americas”), ODCA, since 1998. Now that the Cuban government brought back the fashion of permits for nationals to erect their own micro … Continue reading “License for Another Kind of Enterprise”
From the Washington Post Eight years ago, Laura Pollan was a schoolteacher living with her husband, Hector Maseda, the leader of the outlawed Cuban Liberal Party. Despite the vicissitudes of living in a country where association is penalized, the family tried to live a normal life in their small house on Neptune Street in Havana. … Continue reading “The legacy of Laura Pollan, Cuba’s Lady in White / Yoani Sánchez”
(Article originally published in the digital magazine Convivencia, Issue No. 21) In just five years, Cubans have been witnessing an extremely aggravating process in the socioeconomic and political crisis, steeped in what constitutes an exceedingly complex national and international juncture. Though just a few years ago it would have been possible to alleviate the hardship … Continue reading “Cuba: Notes About Unity, Leadership One-Party System / Miriam Celaya”
(Published Friday May 27, 2011 on the site: http:www.vocescubanas.com) The common characteristics that identify the human race also have important differences that cannot be ignored. The social character–the most defining and essential peculiarity of man–manifests itself in the diversity of associations that he creates for collaboration, promotion and the defense of his interests; reality that … Continue reading “Cuba: the Illogic of the Single Party / Dimas Castellanos”
