English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
HAVANA, Cuba , August, www.cubanet.org – Every Cuban must have heard countless times a compilation of phrases that try to encompass all the Island’s popular wisdom: “don’t bother”, “you’re not going to solve anything”, “what the heck, you are not going to change anything”, “don’t look for trouble” , or this next one, which is … Continue reading “Shoal Philosophy / Miriam Celaya”
Photo: Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo Owing to the lack of statistics and figures, independent Cuban reporters have to reinvent certain rules when providing information. We don’t have access to government press conferences and no minister gives interviews or comments. Nor can we rival the foreign agencies accredited in Havana. Not having technology, 24-hour internet access, … Continue reading “CUBA Journalism in the street / Ivan Garcia”
It looked like a small suitcase, with rounded corners and a detachable horn on the lid. That turntable was an object of worship for my father and an alternative to the boring programming on radio and TV in the eighties. The needle followed the small grooves in the vinyl and the melody filled the little … Continue reading “Meme and My Father’s Turntable / Yoani Sanchez #Cuba”
Four decades after taking power through revolution in 1959, the factors which made totalitarianism in Cuba possible have reached their limit. The populist measures imposed during the first years after the revolution were accompanied by the dismantling of civil society and a process of government takeover which began with foreign-owned companies and did not end … Continue reading “An Assessment of the Cuban Government’s Management Over the Last Six Years / Dimas Castellano”
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”
Fidel Castro’s latest “Reflections” columns, published in the Cuban press, have left many readers inside and outside the Island in a mild state of shock. Without exceeding a hundred words, the ex-president’s most recent texts seem to be infected with the brief style of the Twitter social network. An undoubtedly great contrast, if we compare … Continue reading “Fidel Castro Infected With the Brevity of Twitter / 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”
THE SWEET NAME OF THE DEAD MARÍA For MT and MJ Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo In the nineties, there were the great gay birds and they respected her mystical magical aura, as if she were a diva on Cuban television, a marionette of Marie Antoinette. They even went to her mansion in El Vedado to … Continue reading “DULCE MARÍA LOYNAZ 1997-2012* / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
April calls to mind some historic events of diverse nature, which have intertwined Cuba and the United States of American since their beginnings. It was in that month, but in 1528, that Don Panfilo de Narvaez saild from the big island with 300 men with the intention of conquering and colonizing Florida. And on April … Continue reading “The Crisis / Rafael Leon Rodriguez”
In any journey you make in our cities and towns, if you’re approaching the so-called “third age,” you will be impressed by the large number of gates and fences around houses, factories and shops. Whether you like it or not, you will remember the old days, when all the spaces were open and were cared … Continue reading “A National Pandemic / Fernando Dámaso”
A terrible phrase summarizes the maxim: “Within you, a voice exclaims: ‘My God!’. But its time to work. Deal with the rest later.” The phrase is from Kevin Carter, author of one of the most famous and controversial photographs in the history of the genre: that in which a vulture stalks the agony of one … Continue reading “Guilty of Spreading the Word / Ernesto Morales Licea”
by Pablo Pacheco Avila After meeting with the Amnesty International UK group in London, I went with Sue Bingham and Yaniset Zapata Grenot to Sonning Common, Reading, where both these women reside. Yaniset served as an interpreter and added the Cuban “touch” with her sense of humor. In the evening I met Graham, Sue’s husband. … Continue reading “Chronicle of my Trip to London (Pt. II) / Pablo Pacheco”
“He who does not know is the same as he who does not see,” affirms Teofilo Roberto Lopez Licor, victim of an arbitrary government scam. Today, after he and his family were stripped of all their goods, he learned that he should not ever trust in the benevolence of the law, much less if it … Continue reading “The Law and the Trap / Laritza Diversent”
[vimeo 18402387] HOWLABANA (Allen Ginsberg howls back in La Habana) Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo [Performed in La Madriguera (Finca de Los Molinos), at 9 PM in Friday 18 September 2009, as a part of the poetry reading of Mundo Beatnik/Hippie.] I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging … Continue reading “UNLIMITED READINGS / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Minister of Finances and Prices In July 2009, The Minister of Finances and Prices, a member of the Council of Ministers, ordered the confiscation of property obtained by Teófilo Roberto, the father of Antonio Roberto, during the period from 1998 to 2008. The action was taken under the authority of Decree-Law 149 (“Regarding the seizure … Continue reading “Minister Places Citizen in Indefensible Position / Laritza Diversent”