English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Photos by Rebeca It is right and necessary to fight against urban planning and other crimes, and to try to create a bit of order in society after so many years of barbarities. It seems as if the attention is focused on citizens who built precarious garages in the common areas of multifamily buildings, closed … Continue reading “Urban Planning Crimes: Who Started Them? / Fernando Dámaso”
According to the latest official figures, the 2011-2012 sugar harvest (still unfinished) will amount to only 1.4 million tons, similar to that of the year 1895 in the 19th century, when the War of Independence against Spanish rule began. It doesn’t seem like 117 years have passed! In other economic lines the failures, like the … Continue reading “From Failure to Failure / Fernando Dámaso”
The 2011-2012 sugar harvest carries the same difficulties as those of the past two decades. Although this time enough cane has been planted to fulfill the production plan and from the start of the contest they could count on almost all of the resources planned for, the problems were repeated from previous harvests. The 2011-2012 … Continue reading “Is the Cuban Sugar Industry Facing Extinction? / Dimas Castellanos”
By Antonio G. Rodiles, Julio Alega, Manuel Cuesta, Wilfredo Vallín Introduction The centralized and planned economy is closely linked to state ownership. For a process of economic decentralization to be successful, there must be a parallel process of decentralizing property. The Cuban government has undertaken timid reforms with the objective of restarting the economy without … Continue reading “Property Liberalization and Recovery of Idle Lands and Dilapidated Properties: A Necessary Step for Initiating a Recovery Process / Estado de Sats”
The cellphone rang nervously and I jumped in my chair. It had been more than a week since the telephone service was virtually cut off and suddenly that little gadget with its keys and screen gave a sign of life. “Camila Vallejo will be in Havana tomorrow,” a voice on the other end said and … Continue reading “The Cuba Camila Vallejo Didn’t Want to See / Yoani Sánchez”
The term “national security” is fashionable in the world: in Mexico violence is an issue of national security; in Columbia it’s the narco-guerrillas; in the U.S. it’s illegal immigration. But here, not to be left out, we talk about it too. Issues of national security are important for countries, and so their governments dedicate preferential … Continue reading “One More Wildcard / Fernando Dámaso”
To Peralo relating to Pain and Frustration… Your photographs are very powerful. Very. I am going to make sure that they are real and correspond to the bombing of Libya. The reply gave the impression I wonder why that dystopian ex-leader who is Gaddafi didn’t stop of avoid the massacre and continue hiding in some … Continue reading “Bad Handwriting in La Joven Cuba (17) / Regina Coyula”
There are pathetic and laughable reports, which seem to be the result of manipulation and the desire to perpetuate at all costs by certain figures of the state, without looking at their reflection in the mirror. This is the case of Fidel Castro being in the Guinness Book of World Records for being “the person … Continue reading “Die Hard / Miguel Iturria Savon”
Those of us Habaneros who were already adults in the 90’s witnessed the dismantling of the so-called “hostels” or INIT shelters, which — for the younger readers — were something like the tropical version of a cheap motel in which, for a small fee, couples who had no other adequate space rented a room for … Continue reading “The Housing Problem: the System’s Autotrophic Phase / Miriam Celaya”
Serafín, 69, never had toys. For his 8th birthday the gifts from his father were a pick and hoe. He woke him at 5 AM and they went to work in a row of onions. He told him, “If you want your children and grandchildren to have toys, you will have to get it out … Continue reading “Cuban State Responsible for Scarcity of Agricultural, Meat Products / Iván García”
The branches bend under the weight and children throw stones and shake the limbs trying to knock down the fruit. It’s mango season. Like a cycle of life that transcends the crisis, the lack of vision, and the failed agricultural plans, the mangoes come again, the filipinos and bizcochuelos. We are at exactly the moment … Continue reading “Mangos Every Summer / Yoani Sánchez”
My mother just closed the business that fed the better part of my family in Cuba over the last decade. The reason: the country’s new plan of economic recovery. A little over ten years ago, someone who shares my blood and who had an immense business vision, became a pioneer in a particular business: Renting … Continue reading “Investors’ Incentives… Cuban Style / Ernesto Morales Licea”
The problem with Cuba For Robert Perales You shouldn’t worry too much about how people who probably are interested hypothetically speculate about the “problem of Cuba.” To cite global warming as a solution doesn’t turn out to be an irony you have taken very seriously. Of cyclones and an epidemic, though I don’t know the … Continue reading “Bad Handwriting in La Joven Cuba (10) / Regina Coyula”
“I know the naysayers are coming now to pour cold water on my illusions,” a neighbor parodied in a tango tempo, on hearing a Cuban television report revealing a plan to flood with soybeans what has been taken over by marabou weed, where sugar cane was once planted in the fertile lands of Ciego de … Continue reading “The Era of Soy? / Reinaldo Escobar”
Photos: Francis Sánchez. I have the excuse of two children so I can play outside. At home I say I’m going with them to please them and keep a close watch over them, the reality is that I escape, in this way, the tensions and the routine, or it might be, the idiotic world. Sometimes … Continue reading “I Dream of a Day Without Serpents / Francis Sánchez”