English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
“Fly without fear” series, by Luis Felipe Rojas It was the Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges who said “To organize libraries is to silently practice the art of critique.” In the past few months I have also dedicated myself to organizing ’my library,’ but backwards, the library of books which I maybe had one day, … Continue reading “The Hungers That Kill Me / Luis Felipe Rojas”
HAVANA, Cuba, July 29, 2013, David Canela / www.cubanet.org.-The civic project Estado de SATS this Saturday celebrated its three years of existence with a children’s party. About 10:30 in the morning Rodiles’ house was full. At the party two clowns performed, exciting the children with games, dances, songs and puppets. Children’s music videos were also … Continue reading “Estado de SATS Celebrates Three Years / David Canela”
By Reinaldo Cosano. Havana, Cuba Posted in the blog of Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada The veil covering violent homophobic repression is slowly being drawn back, but the gulity aren’t asking for public pardon. It is hard to specify just how the virus of homophobic repression was incubated, sharp-eyed with the machismo of the days … Continue reading “Taken Out of the Closet, But No One Asks Forgiveness / Reinaldo Cosano”
From Sampsonia Way Magazine. Since the end of the 1980s, Ángel Santiesteban has been known as one of the most brilliant writers of his generation. In this position he touches upon subjects that are pretty uncomfortable for Cuban political culture: The island’s military interference in Angola and Ethiopia, the genocide of people fleeing towards liberty … Continue reading “The Son that Nobody Wanted / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
I found myself, like most of the time, writing on my bed when I heard the call, “Political, Political”; and they came to me in haste. Outside, they told me, there was a man who sewed his mouth shut with wire, come. Really, to think about the scene makes me bitter. “I’m not a maxillofacial … Continue reading “Prison Diary XX. With his mouth sewn shut and smeared with excrement, a young man demands his rights”
And my poor blog had almost no spring. Angel Santiesteban, the cry of the last post I was able publish back in March, he is still in prison, and injustice is still have a party. To think that some people look and me and accuse me in Cuba of privileged access to the Internet. And … Continue reading “April Left and May Arrived / Mario LLeonart”
Ángel Santiesteban Claudia Cadelo Dimas Castellanos Ernesto Morales Licea Eugenio Leal Fernando Dámaso Guillermo “Coco” Fariñas Iván García Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antúnez” Laritza Diversent Luis Felipe Rojas Miriam Celaya Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo Regina Coyula Reinaldo Escobar Voices Behind The Bars Yamil Dominguez Yoani Sánchez
A couple of weeks ago my friend, the poet Rafael Alcides, published a text… as a way to air the case of Ángel Santiesteban Prats. I responded to him immediately, “You are wrong, Master…” Alcides sent me this text that I want to share with you about the opportunistic response of eight Cuban writers, affiliated … Continue reading “To Redress a Wrong / Luis Felipe Rojas”
I believe I have successfully crossed the threshold of the 21st Century, a century that I prefer to believe more inclusive, comprehensive, and cohesive. After having been educated in certain social and ideological intolerance, I’ve gotten past them. My lesbian friends — they aren’t my friends so I can be “tuned in” — rather because … Continue reading “The Violence that Touches Us / Regina Coyula”
Among the somewhat reasonable excitement over the traveling out of Cuba of some of the most glamorous of the dissidents like Yoani Sanchez, Rosa Maria Paya, and Eliecer Avila, extremely alarming things are happening. Two independent reporters arrested (they released Cedeño but Calixto Roman continues to be locked up). Angel Santiesteban gets of every morning … Continue reading “Bad — Very Bad — News / Luis Felipe Rojas”
It is January 28, Monday, I get a call from Yoani earlier than usual, it was 7:55 am when she told me we should go by Rodiles’ house; she always thanks me as if my work were a favor and not an obligation, I was ready and found myself behind the wheel, at 8:07 I … Continue reading “Dust Thou Art and Unto Dust Thou Will Return. Until then, Manolo Rodiles. / Agustin Lopez”
Five years after Cuba’s representative signed the United Nations Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the situation with regards to fundamental rights in Cuba remains precarious. The violation of fundamental rights is not only a part of the repressive apparatus of the State, but our national legislation itself … Continue reading “The United Nations Covenants, Five Years Later / For Another Cuba, Estado de SATS”
“We are also concerned about the fate of the writer Angel Santiesteban-Prats,sentenced to five years in prison on December 8, 2012, officially for “housebreaking and injuries” after a process in which the charges were fabricated and witnesses bought. “An intellectual recognized in Cuban society, who has received several awards, the only thing Angel Santiesteban-Prats did … Continue reading “Not All Is Lost / Luis Felipe Rojas”
Although I have not written anything for quite a few days, a thousand ideas are turning over in my head that I cannot seem to organize enough to put down in black and white. As usual, events on my planet are annoying and even painful, and although far from the theatre where they are taking … Continue reading “Days of Silence / Rebeca Monzo”
The case of the arbitrary arrest of Sonia Garro and her husband Ramon Alejandro is confusing for several reasons. That she belongs to the well-known group the Ladies in White and he to an independent Afro-Cuban organization, highlights lack of tactics or support (or both) by our internal dissent. Recognized international institutions have raised the … Continue reading “Forgotten: Black and Dissident”