English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Alamar – a pile of concrete blocks without order or agreement – is in this case the work, the artistic object, the clay and the wall on which one has molded and daubed. The artists can be you, me, or anyone else, although for the moment we are going to call them Juan Carlos, Amaury, … Continue reading “Pushing the Limits: Yoani Sanchez Interviews OMNI ZONA FRANCA”
The scenario is different. The visitor also. When the Polish Pope, John Paul II, Karol Wojtyla, visited Cuba in 1998 he found Monsignor Pedro Claro Meurice Estiu as archbishop in Santiago de Cuba, and in him, the loudest Cuban voice rose among those who had such a possibility. The Pope’s “Let Cuba open itself to … Continue reading “Another Pope, Another Cuba, Another Church / Mario Barroso”
The wife and son of Hector Riscart, El Ñaño from Fresa Chocolate on Vimeo. ZURAIMA’s Cell phone (Hector’s wife): 52519247 The trial is tomorrow, April 13th; we beg the international media to be there and document this political crusade against the Rastafarian movement in Cuba. Please don’t let Hector’s children grow up without him. The … Continue reading “‘El Ñaño’ of Cuba: One Less Rastifarian Priest / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
I arrived at the Matanzas prison known as ‘Aguica’ on April 29th. I was kept there in solitary confinement for 17 months. The Head of Penitentiaries applied a special regiment on us: family visits were only allowed every 3 months and could only last 2 hours, they only allowed 2 relatives and their underage children, … Continue reading “Writing What my Conscience Dictates (II and Final) / Pablo Pacheco”
In Cuba, there have been few priests who have bended their knees on the ground with the poor and persecuted, like Oscar Arnulfo Romero, the Salvadoran Archbishop assassinated in 1980. Or the Peruvian, Brazilian, Colombian and Spanish Jesuits who, in 1972, founded the Theology of Liberation. This defense of the most underprivileged and those repressed … Continue reading “Cuba, the Catholic Hierarchy and Power / Iván García”
When Granma and the National Televised News publicized on Thursday, February 23rd the previous day’s meeting between hierarchies of Cuban religious denominations and fraternal organizations with representatives of the Cuban regime, many were alarmed to discover the existing communion between religious and political leaders. Such agreement places both on the same playing field. Esteban Lazo, a … Continue reading “It’s Good for Them to Know They Are United /Mario Barroso”
Let’s talk about Steve Jobs, Freedom, and how an official from Cuban Intelligence can’t turn off an iPod. Like the Cuban language itself (impossible), like the poverty into which the imagination here has fallen, like the remains of the island culture (fortunately now Balkanized without origins or teleologies of chastity), like our insulting ignorance of … Continue reading “I WAS IMPRISONED, COMPAÑEROS / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Recently Rafe, my husband went to renew his identity card. He had to do because it was expired and he needed to renew it for some other paperwork he was immersed in. He went to the office in charge of this function, patiently waited his turn in the fifty-year-old system of lines, handed over the … Continue reading “Modeling a Farce / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado”
Recently Rafe, my husband went to renew his identity card. He had to do because it was expired and he needed to renew it for some other paperwork he was immersed in. He went to the office in charge of this function, patiently waited his turn in the fifty-year-old system of lines, handed over the … Continue reading “Modeling a Farce”
In 2003, what was I doing? Now I can’t remember exactly. None of those tried in summary trials in the Black Spring of 2003, they charged, according to prosecutors’ intentions, with 20 years or life imprisonment, had committed any crime. They were made prisoners for exercising their right to try to change this state of … Continue reading “Voices Behind the Bars / Lilianne Ruíz”
They often made and received calls using their cell phones Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo Finally the miracle had happened. The prose of war of decades and decades of totalitarianism media emerges now from the mouth of the Catholic Church, formerly irreconcilable enemy of Godless societies. The press release from Orlando Marquez, director of the Archdiocese … Continue reading “La Caridad Church Assaulted Between Priests and Police / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Protests in La Iglesia de la Caridad. By: Mario Hechavarria Driggs Members of the Republican Party of Cuba (PRC) and the November 30 Movement, remain entrenched from the afternoon of Tuesday 13, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity, located in the Havana municipality of Centro Habana. The opponents demand an end to repression … Continue reading “Opponents occupy a church in Havana; the church hierarchy calls the protest “vindictive and inappropriate” / Mario Hechavarria Driggs”
More than two decades after the postmortem repair of the literary legacy of Virgilio Piñera (Cardenas-Havana, August 4, 1912 – October 18, 1979), most people who speak of the author have barely read his stories, poems, essays, dramas and tragedies. What are they talking about then? His homosexuality and aspects of his personality such as … Continue reading “Theatrical Virgilio / Miguel Iturria Savón”
On the evening of Saturday, February 4, at the headquarters of the State of Sats audiovisual project (number 4606 1st Street between 46 and 60, Miramar, Havana), the Country of Pixels Exhibition was held, promoted via the Internet since early 2011 by Cuban Voices blogger platform. “Thank you for everything, we can’t remain indifferent before … Continue reading “Country of Pixels / Miguel Iturria Savón”
Eliot Ness and his group in Chicago in the 30’s were called ’The Untouchables’. They fought head on rampant corruption in the Windy City, and through legal chicanery of tax evasion led gangster Al Capone to prison. That group of Chicago has a female version in Cuba. Her name is Gladys Maria Bejerano Portela. She … Continue reading “Gladys Bejerano’ Cuba’s “Iron Lady” / Iván García”
