English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
I have discovered that the trembling of the shepherds is greater than that of the sheep. Preludes Claudia Cadelo, Havana, 25 February 2011 — There are two Cubas, one in which nothing ever happens, and another in revolt, boiling over, which never stops sending me signals of change. My life moves from one to the … Continue reading “The Trembling of the Shepherds / Claudia Cadelo (redux)”
14ymedio, 22 May 2015 — I am a Cuban of Spanish descent. I was born in Havana exactly fourteen years after Franco’s death, ten years after the Spanish Constitution of 1978 was ratified, and one year before the fall of the Berlin Wall. My grandparents, most of them from the Spain’s Galicia region, could be … Continue reading “Letter from a Cuban-Spaniard to Pablo Iglesias / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 4 May 2015 — The reunion of five friends on a roof terrace in Central Havana is the thread on which Return to Ithaca’s plot rests. Leonardo Padura wrote the screenplay and Laurent Cantet directed this French film about Cuban topics. The film is currently circulating underground among Havana moviegoers, preceded … Continue reading ““Return to Ithaca” or the Magic of Censorship / 14ymedio, Miriam Celaya”
Ivan Garcia, 29 April 2015 — The urology ward at Calixto Garcia Hospital is a bleak scene. Patients in soiled pajamas wander through the halls like zombies with serum on their hands, in search of a urologist, who hasn’t come through the intake room all morning. Ubaldo, sitting on a granite bench outside the room, … Continue reading “Cuba Needs More Doctors and Better Hospitals / Ivan Garcia”
Now that the beginning of the VII Summit of the Americas in Panama is upon us I think I understand why there are so many expectations. I studied in the former USSR and I know that many optimists are living in a sort of suspense similar to that of Moscow in 1985, when Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan … Continue reading “Cuba: Dreams and realities before and after the Summit of the Americas / Juan Juan Almeida”
They are referred to as old folks, half-timers and the pure. They are shipwreck victims of a capsized island. They cling to debris, trying to stay afloat. Cubanet, Camilo Ernesto Olivera Peidro, Havana, February 27, 2015 — Men and women in Cuba who have reached the age of forty are referred to as tembas (old folks), medios tiempos (half-timers) and los puros … Continue reading “Being Forty Years Old in Cuba / Cubanet, Camilo Ernesto Olivera”
Cubanet, Tania Díaz Castro, Havana, February 19, 2015 — Homosexuality has been around longer than humans have been walking upright. But Fidel Casto — working through State Security, an organization he founded and of which he has always been in charge — has done everything possible to banish it from Cuban soil. He once looked … Continue reading “Mariela Castro’s Eloquent Silence / Cubanet, Tania Diaz Castro”
YOANI SÁNCHEZ, 27 October 2014 – Some years ago I visited the studio of the painter Pedro Pablo Oliva. We had hardly seen each other on any previous occasion, but he led me into his studio and showed me a work to which he was giving the finishing touches. An enormous vertical canvas rose in front … Continue reading “The Utopias and Dissidences of Pedro Pablo Oliva / Yoani Sanchez, 14ymedio”
1994 was an amazing year. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the disappearance of the USSR had been the trigger for the beginning in Cuba of the “Special Period in Times of Peace,” an economic crisis which lasted for 25 years. We returned to a subsistence economy. The factories shut down as they had … Continue reading “The Day the People of Havana Protested in the Streets / Ivan Garcia”
Nuria retired last year and this month she traveled to Miami, where her sisters live. On returning to the Island she showed 14ymedio what she brought home in her suitcase. Let’s take a look at what she threw in her bags with brief comments from her about why she chose each product. Two bottle of … Continue reading “What Does a Cuban Bring Home in Her Suitcase? / 14ymedio”
1994 was an amazing year. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the disappearance of the USSR had been the trigger for the beginning in Cuba of the “Special Period in Times of Peace,” an economic crisis which lasted for 25 years. We returned to a subsistence economy. The factories shut down as they had … Continue reading “The Day the People of Havana Protested in the Streets / Ivan Garcia”
Artwork by Rebeca An article by a young Cuban journalist was just published in the so-called youth newspaper under the arresting title “The Happiest Children in the World.” In it she recalls her childhood of aged, half-bald dolls previously belonging to her older sisters, toys given to her by a neighbor after he was too old to … Continue reading “A Hilarious Conclusion / Fernando Damaso”
“The mobile phone you are calling is turned off or is out of the coverage area,” is the response Cuban mobile phone users commonly receive these days. As a result of the cellular blackout and lack of official information, rumors run rampant. All the blame has fallen on the Nauta email system, for taking over … Continue reading “The Collapse of ETECSA / Lourdes Gomez”
“If the media stops talking, let the streets talk” In one way or another, Cuba is taking note of the street protests occurring these days in Venezuela. The most nervous are the olive-green autocrats. According to a low-level party official, since the death of Hugo Chávez on 5 March 2013, the regime has had various … Continue reading “What Is Happening in Venezuela Worries Cuba / Ivan Garcia”
One way or another, the street protests taking place recently in Venezuela are being noticed in Cuba. The most nervous are the olive green autocrats. According to a low-ranking party official, since the death of Hugo Chavez, the regime has had several contingency plans in its drawer, in case the situation in Venezuela were not … Continue reading “Opposition Protests in Venezuela Worry Not A Few Ordinary Cubans / Ivan Garcia”
