English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Absurd and suspicious. No matter what the News says. He was a man threatened with death. The News emphasized the years of experience of the experts who established the responsibility for the accident, and I think they belong to the same Ministry where the order came from to threaten Oswaldo Payá and his family. Not … Continue reading “The Death of Oswaldo Payá / Lilianne Ruíz”
World: Death on the island The death of Oswaldo Paya in Cuba has impacted the dissidence and sowed suspicion. This is the story and tribute from a Cuban writer and photographer from the ranks of the opposition. By Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, from Havana 26/07/2012 Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas (1952-2012) has died like they kill the … Continue reading “Payá Yes, Bishops No / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
At five in the afternoon on July 22, the death of opposition leader and founder of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) Oswaldo Payá was confirmed. The news started as a rumor that spread during the early hours of Sunday afternoon. Known nationally and internationally for organizing and carrying out the Varela Project, his death at … Continue reading “Cuban Opposition Leader Oswaldo Payá Dies in Car Crash / Yoani Sánchez”
Citizen Demand for Another Cuba As Cubans, legitimate children of this land and an essential part of our nation, we feel a deep sorrow at the prolonged crisis that we are experiencing and the demonstrated inability of the current government to make fundamental changes. This obliges us, from civil society, to seek and demand our … Continue reading “Citizen Demand for Another Cuba – 536 Signatures and Counting”
By Alberto Méndez Castelló Some days ago, some 400 employees of the General Prosecutor Office of the Republic across the country signed a code of ethics. The notice was published on the front page of the daily Rebel Youth on Saturday, June 9th, under the title “Ethics Are Our Prosecutor”. According to the article, the … Continue reading “Prosecutorial Ethics / Cuban Law Association, Alberto Méndez Castelló”
By: Yoaxis Marcheco Suárez I don’t know what is happening with some people and institutions in the world, I think that they suffer from some sort of lethargy that doesn’t allow them to perceive Cuban reality, or they are simply content with what the antidemocratic government of the country informs and draws for them. The … Continue reading “Liberties in Cuba? / Yoaxis Marcheco Suárez”
By Atty. Rodrigo Chavez Rodriguez Prison is not the only captivity of an existence. An unhappy multitude marches dragging the misery of its moral life, chained to its ignorance and defenselessness. Prisoners without hope and without solace: slaves without redemption and without relief, traveling on this boat of society lacking faith, orphans of will, with … Continue reading “No to the Life Sentence of Citizen Rights / Cuban Law Association”
In the early years of the Revolution, the state shook the tree, as they used to say back then, but it left some rotten fruits that have germinated and that today defecate on its face. In the last two decades, there has been a mind set shift in a negative way. Profit, individualism, selfishness, along … Continue reading “Structure of Class and Power / Mackandal – Manuel Aguirre Lavarrere”
A classic play of the Spanish theater, written by Lope de Vega in 1610, tells how an entire people kills a tyrannical and despotic commander. In the town of Fuenteovejuna the people come together to end the abuse of power exercised by one man. The neighbors agree to lynch the feudal lord who, from the … Continue reading “Fuenteovejuna / Yoani Sánchez”
Citizen Demand for Another Cuba As Cubans, legitimate children of this land and an essential part of our nation, we feel a deep sorrow at the prolonged crisis that we are experiencing and the demonstrated inability of the current government to make fundamental changes. This obliges us, from civil society, to seek and demand our … Continue reading “For Another Cuba – Citizen Demand for Another Cuba”
With the title “The Land Belongs to Those Who Work It,” the newspaper Granma published an editorial on May 17, in commemoration of “Peasant’s Day” from which I have selected three points that invite reflection. One: The Agrarian Reform was a basic need for economic liftoff. An affirmation that I share, since the concentration of … Continue reading “Why Doesn’t the Land Belong to Those Who Work It? / Dimas Castellanos”
One hundred and ten years since that May 20th, 1902, it appears that the Republic is only a beautiful woman of proud bearing, covered by a Greek tunic, with long curly hair and wearing a Phrygian cap and a bright red single star. Or maybe some Cubans here think that the Republic is a huge … Continue reading “Apropos a Dream Called Republic / Miriam Celaya”
In Cuba, the news aired by international agencies, is not directly disclosed to the public in its original form, but passed through a, ideological sterilization process, where it is stripped of everything that the authorities consider harmful or counterproductive. They don’t think of what they do as limiting information, but rather as caring for the … Continue reading “International Editing / Fernando Dámaso”
To whom it may concern: I, Hector Riscart Mustelier, declare in writing what really happened on Wednesday, November 16, 2011. We left the “National Cabaret” where we were working — the Herencia group — a reggae band of which I am the director. We were Adrian (props), Daniel (drummer), Zenén (sound engineer) and myself; we … Continue reading “The Trial is Today, April 13. Solidarity with Zuraima, Wife of the Rastifarian Priest Imprisoned in Cuba: +53-52519247 / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Reggaeton: a love story; Better bayuti[1] than dictatuti In real time, it’s illegible but the Cuban press has come to be very creative if it is read with a five year lag time, “chabacaneria”[2], luxury, lechery, lamentation, vice, consumption of toxicity, banality, corny-ness, trinket shops, flamboyant attires, cheesy bargains, and an ecetera half ethical and … Continue reading “A 2nd Colloquium on Reggaeton and Problematic Social Situations in Cuba / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”