English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
It was Saturday, November 27, and we left early for Guantánamo. At 12:40 pm we were at the control point known as Río Frío, a few kilometers from the city of Guaso. When the police stopped the vehicle we were riding in, they asked me urgently for my identity card, as well as that of … Continue reading “Detainee 1262: Cell 16 / Luis Felipe Rojas”
The US Coast Guard confirms that one of every three rafters who attempts to cross the shark-infested Florida Straits dies in the attempt. Official figures don’t exist. But in 50 years, as many as 10,000 Cubans could have disappeared in the turbulent tropical waters. Clandestine emigration is a deadly game of Russian Roulette. There is … Continue reading “Destination USA At Any Price / Iván García”
I KENT GET NO SATISFACTION Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo Sunday after Sunday the Kent dinosaurs occupy the stage of the National Theater, on one side of the deserted Plaza of the Revolution, in the already classic Cafe Cantante. Thirty Cuban pesos a person. The place is cheap. It’s dark and air-conditioned: two more reasons than … Continue reading “CRITIC OF THE PURE REPRESSION, ACCORDING TO KENTS / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
When Compay Segundo and Ibrahim Ferrer launched themselves at the world with Buena Vista Social Club, “And What Have You Done?” by Eusebio Delfín, it was already one of the favorite traditional ballads. It is among the top 100 best ballads of the twentieth century in Cuba. In Yucatán, Mexico, they know it by another … Continue reading “Eusebio Delfín, the Cuban Aristocrat Who Made Music / Iván García”
A sequence of roofs, avenues and narrow streets, reproduced with plastic and paint. A small scale city, locked in the Model of Havana room in the Miramar neighborhood. Yellow glasses let you travel, at a glance, along the streets, around the corners, up the little elevations and along the serpentine coast. The same magnifying lenses … Continue reading “Mustard Colored / Yoani Sánchez”
If Jose Maria Heredia (1803-1839) and José Martí (1853-1895) live on for their poetry of patriotic concerns, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda (Camaguey, 1814-Madrid, 1873) slipped into immortality for her lyrical, narrative and theatrical contributions. The three were a kind of tropical cyclone that converged on the tongue in the nineteenth century; though they didn’t coincide … Continue reading “La Avellaneda / Miguel Iturria Savón”
We were waiting for a ride on 23rd when Ernesto Morales’ cell phone rang. It was Yoani Sánchez, worried about him because he could have taken AeroCaribbean Flight No. 883. We were stunned for a few seconds and then Ernesto told me: “I was going to travel on that plane.” I felt helpless to express … Continue reading “Catastrophe / Claudia Cadelo”
During the time in which I lived in Madrid, a friend of mine from the Island came to visit. Unable to resist his curiosity, he immediately began to pry into my bookshelves (a habit I have to confess, I do not like). When he came across a shelf lined with cassettes, he smirked and in … Continue reading “Censorship: Are You There? (1) / Carlos Espinosa / Polemica, The 2007 Intellectual Debate”
We believe every human being in the world has the right to health, with no consideration of costs. Juan Juan: Solidarity Without Frontiers is a relatively young organization with very defined purposes. Somewhere I read, “Our membership is composed of doctors who have fled the Cuban communist government, and today live in the United States … Continue reading “Julio Cesar Alfonso, Executive Director and President of Solidarity Without Frontiers / Juan Juan Almeida”
PHOTOS: Orlando (Pardo) poster: Rolando (Pulido) CAN YOU HEAR THE DRUMS, FERNANDO? Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo This year, 2010, a lot of things will be defined in quasi-cultural Cuba. The fate of certain private art exhibition spaces, for example. The fate of certain digital publications cornered between permits and panics, for example. The fate of … Continue reading “THE RED RAGE RELOADED / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
NOT ONE MORE BLOCK LA PAJA RECOLD [Recording Studio] PRESENTS: COLLECTIVE EXPO Individual and collective pool service… Come without masturbating and with underwear… washed 1- heriberto manero / drunks 2- guillermo portieles / cops with walkie-talkies 3- ricardo orta / uncorker 4- claudio fuentes / el yogultsaldo de soyaldo satélites / untitled 5- luis trápaga … Continue reading “Collective Exposition at Gorki Águila’s House / Claudia Cadelo”
The question has been going around and around in my mind, with a subtle persistence, since I found our recently that for the eighth time in three years the Cuban government has denied Yoani Sanchez an exit permit. For those unaware of the Cuban reality, let me clarify: This country of ours demonstrates, today, one … Continue reading “Is Now The Time To Eliminate the Travel Permit? / Ernesto Morales Licea”
On one of those nights in Havana, when the sky is clear with a handful of stars as a witness, someone told me that the Castro brothers feel a particular hatred for three Cubans. The list, what a coincidence, three writers: Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Reinaldo Arenas and Zoé Valdés. The resentment was so great, this … Continue reading “Zoé Valdés, a Pen Like a Whip / Iván García”
Many people want to do something to help the bloggers directly. The most important thing is to read them, talk about them, comment on their blogs, share their blogs with others, keep them IN THE PUBLIC EYE, which is a shield that helps to protect them. If you want to help with a donation, one … Continue reading “Direct Help to Bloggers”
My friend Miguel left, tired of waiting for a sex change operation, and knowing full well that he was never going to get a better job. He left the red wig to a friend who worked in the same hospital and sold, illegally, the room he had in Luyanó. The day he asked permission to … Continue reading “Olivia / Yoani Sánchez”