English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Rafael León Rodríguez, General Coordinator of the Cuban Democratic Project, Havana, 7 February 2019 1.- Last year, after the appointment of Miguel Díaz Canel as president of the Republic of Cuba by the highest leadership of the Cuban regime, new expectations emerged, both inside and outside the country, about the possibility of starting a process … Continue reading “February Declaration / Rafael León Rodríguez”
Iván García, 14 January 2019 — “That cold morning of February 15, 1976,” recalls Sergio, a retired worker, “I was one of the first to vote in the referendum that was held to ratify the drafts of the Constitution and the Law of Constitutional Passage. I believed blindly in Fidel Castro and neither I nor … Continue reading “I’M VOTING NO, a Campaign Attempting to Make History in Cuba / Ivan Garcia”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, January 17, 2019 — In a country with a high number of emigrants who have a vital influence in the support of their families on the Island, it’s inevitable to ask if Cubans who live or are temporarily abroad will have the right to vote in the February 24 referendum, a … Continue reading “Tens Of Thousands Of Cubans Abroad Don’t Know If They Will Be Able To Vote”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Desde Aqui, Havana, 25 December 2018 — With the blessing of the docile Cuban parliament, the question that will appear on the February 24th referendum ballot will be the following: Do you ratify the new Constitution of the Republic? From the strictly legal point of view, the choice of the verb “ratify” is … Continue reading “The Semantic Trap is in the Question”
14ymedio, Abel Sierra Madero, New York | August 28, 2018 — For the past few years the Cuban regime has been producing some sudden changes meant to guarantee the continuity of the system and to erase the past. I called this process of “gatopardism” (a political strategy of changing things so that everything remains the … Continue reading “From State Homophobia to Marriage Equality in Cuba”
If the republic doesn’t open its arms to everyone and move forward with everyone, the republic dies. José Martí Somos+,Lcdo. Adalberto R Mesa Duarte, 22 August 2018 — I believe that if the Cuban people felt consciously free to express what they have kept in for sixty years, Raúl Castro and his “Always Unanimous National Assembly” … Continue reading “Manipulation and Shamelessness in the Decline of a Dying Man / Somos+”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 22 July 2018 — The classic definition that socialism is a transition stage towards communism has historically generated theoretical debates and has been the watershed between the political movements located on the left of the ideological spectrum. It has also prompted flashes of humor, such as the statement: “The worst thing about … Continue reading “There Will Be No Transition in Cuba… Not Even of Communism”
14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, 6 July 2018 — Five evangelical denominations in Cuba issued a public statement against equal marriage. The document states that “gender ideology” has nothing to do with Cuban culture “or with the historical leaders of the Revolution.” The Evangelical League of Cuba, the Baptist Conventions of the West and East, as well as … Continue reading “Several Evangelical Churches Appeal to Cuban Government and the Revolution to Block Equal Marriage”
14ymedio, Mario J. Pentón, 19 April 2018 — In the city with the largest Cuban population after Havana, the appointment last Thursday of Miguel Díaz-Canel as president of Cuba took no one by surprise. As the only candidate for president just the day before, the 58-year-old electrical engineer is hardly unknown in Miami. “I don’t care … Continue reading “Diaz-Canel’s Arrival Generates Much Skepticism and a Bit of Hope in Miami”
14ymedio, Mario J. Pentón/Reporting Team, Miami, 17 April 2018 — On the last day of July 2006 Cuba’s prime time news program broke with its usual monotony. Carlos Valenciaga, Fidel Castro’s chief of staff, announced to Cuba and the world that the hitherto invincible Commander-in-Chief had temporarily ceded power, after suffering intestinal bleeding. Raúl Castro, his younger brother, took … Continue reading “What Has and Has Not Changed in Cuba Since Raul Casto Came to Power”
Ivan Garcia, 1 February 2018 — “What concerns me most right now is to finish building the room for my eldest daughter who plans to give birth to a girl at the end of February,” confesses Eduardo, the warehouse manager of a bakery west of Havana, as drives along in his uncomfortable and tiny Fiat made … Continue reading “Elections and the Future Cuban Government / Iván García”
14ymedio, Mario Penton, Miami, January 3, 2018 — An immense grasslands with tones of yellow and green extends up to the horizon, and Miami’s skyscrapers can be glimpsed in the distance, like blue boulders. Far from the metropolis, where more than six million people live, one of the largest and most famous wetlands of the … Continue reading “The Everglades: An Endangered Garden on the Doorstep of Miami”
14ymedio, Generation Y, (Politicaexterior.com), Yoani Sanchez, 9 January 2017 — “Six decades are a lifetime,” says Facundo, a Cuban retiree who sells the official press in Old Havana to supplement his low pension. Born shortly before Fidel Castro came to power, the man is suspicious of the appointment of a new president next April. “That’s going to … Continue reading “The Departure Of Raúl Castro, The End Of An Era”
Ivan Garcia, 12 December 2017 — On 28 January 1976 in Havana, Ricardo Bofull founded the Cuban Committee For Human Rights, along with Edmigio López and Marta Frayde. Forty-one years later, the independent journalist Tania Díaz Castro, in her house in Havana’s Jaimanitas neighborhood, west of the capital, surrounded by dogs and books, recalls that era. “I … Continue reading “Cuba: ’The Human Rights People’ / Iván García”
14ymedio, Havana, 21 December 2017 — In a last minute turn of events, the Cuban Parliament extended Raul Castro’s current mandate for two months, a decision that extends his presidency beyond February 2018, when he was expected to leave power. The “serious effects of Hurricane Irma across the entire national territory,” has been used to … Continue reading “Raul Castro Extends His Presidency Beyond February 2018”
