English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Iván García, 19 July 2016 — At the traffic signal on Infanta and Carlos III, in the heart of Havana, Guenady takes advantage of the red light to thirstily take a swig out of a half-liter of ice water that he keeps at one side of his driver’s seat. Perhaps the cold water helps to … Continue reading “The Cuban Government Wants to Regulate Prices for Collective Taxis / Iván García”
Iván García, 23 July 2016 — It was announced on Friday, July 8 that Cuba had experienced an economic recession in the first half of this year and that there would be cutbacks in fuel consumption. If the country had a stock exchange or a convertible national currency, their fall would have been dramatic. It was … Continue reading “A Lighter Version of Cuba’s Special Period / Iván García”
Joel, a fifty-five-year-old engineer, remembers the summer of 1994 when, after finishing his day job, he came home to roast two or three pounds of peanuts. After packaging them in paper cones fashioned from the pages of school textbooks, he went out to sell them on the street and make a little extra money. As … Continue reading “Is This the Second Phase of Cuba’s Special Period? / Iván García”
14ymedio, Ricardo Fernandez, Pinar del Rio — The Cuban farmer has only two problems in being productive: the invasive marabou weed and everything else. When Raul Castro promoted a plan to lease idle land to the farmers and invited them to make it productive using oxen, he overlooked the fact that these parcels, in many … Continue reading “Marabou and the Government: Making the Life of the Cuban Farmer an Ordeal / 14ymedio, Ricardo Fernandez”
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 4 July 2016 – Along with high temperatures, summer has begun in Cuba with cuts in electricity consumption in state facilities, a gasoline shortage in the capital’s gas stations, and a fear of the return of the Special Period. According to sources consulted by 14ymedio, authorities have informed Communist Party militants … Continue reading “Fear Grows of a Possible Return to the Special Period / 14ymedio, Zunilda Mata”
14ymedio, San Antonio de Cabezas, Matanzas, 12 June 2016 — A few hours after celebrating 194 years since the founding of the town of San Antonio de Cabezas, its inhabitants marked two weeks without a water supply. The turbine that caters to this community, located in the Matanza town of Union de Reyes, suffered a break … Continue reading “Lack of Water is Triggering Unrest Among the People of San Antonio de Cabezas / 14ymedio”
Ivan Garcia, 27 May 2016 — As of three weeks ago there have been power cuts of up to three hours in different parts of Havana. Sometimes longer. “Friday, April 29 in Altahabana (a neighbourhood in the southeast of the city), the power was cut off from eleven at night until four-thirty in the morning. … Continue reading “Cuba: The Return of the Power Cuts / Ivan Garcia”
14ymedio, Havana, 23 January 2016 – In the nineties nearly three million bicycles were distributed in Cuba, imported mainly from China. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the economic crisis suffered by Cuban society had a very negative impact on oil supplies and passenger transportation. The streets filled with cyclists, with bike-only paths, and … Continue reading “The Powerful Bicycle / 14ymedio”
14ymedio, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 12 November 2015 — Value judgement comments are very often made abroad about what – more or less – some have taken to calling “an internal dissidence crisis in Cuba,” implying an epitaph, and with premature and unjustified gloating, when we consider that frustration and dissatisfaction – the primeval basis on … Continue reading “Double-bladed Scissors / 14ymedio, Miriam Celaya”
Iván García, 12 November 2015 — Liudmila and Sheila are prostitutes and they don’t know about business or cutting-edge technology. But a colleague sent them a text message telling them, “Come here, the yumas (foreigners) are wild.” They put on stunning high heels, tight clothing and perfume with an anesthetizing fragrance. Their plan was simple: to … Continue reading “The Havana Fair: Hookers, Heat and Beer / Ivan Garcia”
Juan Juan Almeida, 26 October 2015 — Before the Special Period, the financial capacity of the country had already been reduced to a minimum, so reforms were being instituted that supposedly would “help” the nation cope with the economic contingencies of the time. And when the situation reached that almost invisible point at which point … Continue reading “The GAE, a Lie Transformed into Reality / Juan Juan Almeida”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 8 October 2015 — Many unanswered questions, inaccuracies and poorly sustained theories have characterized the political process that began in Cuba in January 1959. Perhaps with the objective to remedy such lacks, the First International Symposium on the Cuba Revolution: Genesis and Historic Development, in which its organizers propose “to analyze … Continue reading “Questions to a Symposium / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar”
Ivan Garcia, 19 September 2015 — Right at noon on Thursday, September 17, two enormous Soviet-era KP3 trucks filled with trash were rumbling along Tenth of October Avenue towards the garbage dump on 100th Street in eastern Havana, escorted by a bulldozer and a police motorcycle. Orestes, a community worker, has labored for twelve hours every … Continue reading “Will the Pope Swallow the Castros’ Bait? / Ivan Garcia”
14ymedio, Jose Gabriel Barrenchea, Holguin, 15 August 2015 — For many, Fidel Castro has been “a light in the street and darkness at home.”* Although I don’t believe that either outside or inside Cuba’s borders this gentleman has illuminated a new path for humanity, I have to admit there is some truth in such a … Continue reading “Fidel Castro’s Legacy for Cuba / 14ymedio, Jose Gabriel Barrenechea”
Cuban Apartheid, suffered by families who abandoned their homes and went to Havana in search of a new life Cubanet.org, Reinaldo Emilio Cosano Alen, Havana, 15 May 2015 – Rodolfo Castro, from Santiago de Cuba, met with three other young men detained at the Guanabo police station east of Havana. Driven to the Central Train … Continue reading “Deportees in Their Own Country / Cubanet, Reinaldo Cosano”