Parades and rights / Yoani Sanchez

Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 10 December 2014 — The carnival was planned for days, months. The background music would slogans and false joy. The venue, the same Havana corner where the Ladies in White were called to remember the International Day of Human Rights. Meanwhile, the “corps de ballet” would consist of workers and students – … Continue reading “Parades and rights / Yoani Sanchez”

Twenty activists arrested in central Havana / 14ymedio

TranslatingCuba.com note: Updates to this article made after what is translated below report more arrests, with more details from around the country.  14ymedio, Havana, 10 December 2014 — The central corner of 23 and L dawned on Wednesday amid expectation and the utmost vigilance. For days, the call of the Ladies in White to be … Continue reading “Twenty activists arrested in central Havana / 14ymedio”

What Was the Havana Metro? / 14ymedio, Victor Ariel Gonzalez

Conceived 30 years ago, it would have been the largest civil engineering project in Cuba, but it sank after Perestroika. 14ymedio, Victor Ariel Gonzalez, Havana | June 17, 2014 It’s morning rush hour at the Coppelia Ice Cream Parlor bus stop, a busy node in the city of Havana. Thousands of people rush to work, … Continue reading “What Was the Havana Metro? / 14ymedio, Victor Ariel Gonzalez”

The Havana That the Castros are Going to Leave Us / Ivan Garcia

Autocrats always want to transcend their own times. The Roman emperors, Hitler, Mussolini and the communist dictators Stalin, Honecker or Ceaucescu, bequeathed their own styles of architecture. In Rome they still retain coliseums and palaces. Mussolini left hundreds of works, constructed under the label of fascist rationalist architecture, rolled out in Italy at the end … Continue reading “The Havana That the Castros are Going to Leave Us / Ivan Garcia”

Jineteras [Hookers] in Cuban Pesos / Reinaldo Emilio Cosano

Havana, Cuba – The colonial authorities never imagined that the covered portals of the buildings and homes of Havana, a mandatory construction to protect pedestrians from the sun, rain and night dew would have another use, also very human. E.O.F., age 31, counts on the notoriety, although not exclusively, of the portals of Monte street. … Continue reading “Jineteras [Hookers] in Cuban Pesos / Reinaldo Emilio Cosano”

Brief chronology of a victory (Freeing Gorki “Last Time”) / Yoani Sanchez

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION How did it occur to us to go to a concert by Pablo Milanes to ask for the liberation of Gorki? That is something that has the trademark of the spontaneous and the haste of that which can not be postponed or thought better of. Ciro, Claudia and I talked about … Continue reading “Brief chronology of a victory (Freeing Gorki “Last Time”) / Yoani Sanchez”

More Than 300 Opponents Arested on International Human Rights Day

HAVANA, Dec. 11, 2013 , Let’s Talk Press / www.cubanet.org.- Repressive forces of Raul Castro’s military regime arrested several correspondents from the Hablemos (We Speak) Press Information Center  who were trying to take pictures of the repression against activists and opponents gathered on Tuesday, 10 December to conduct activities for the International Day of Human … Continue reading “More Than 300 Opponents Arested on International Human Rights Day”

Cuba Without Rights on Human Rights Day / Luis Felipe Rojas

The Cuban government has cracked down hard on dissidents who dared to go out on December 10th, the day when the world celebrated Human Rights Day, according to sources from the island who have posted on the social networks. In Baracoa, Jorge Feria Jardinez and Roneidis Leyva Salas, activists with the Eastern Democratic Alliance (ADO) … Continue reading “Cuba Without Rights on Human Rights Day / Luis Felipe Rojas”

The Deadly Boredom of Havana / Victor Ariel Gonzalez

HAVANA, Cuba, October, www.cubanet.org – While most young people have virtually no place to go, others go to clubs where the entry fee alone is more than the weekly wage of the average Cuban. The price, actually, is nothing special, but we know that in Cuba 5 CUC is a sum of money that few … Continue reading “The Deadly Boredom of Havana / Victor Ariel Gonzalez”

The Night of the Long Scissors / Camilo Ernesto Olivera

On 13 March 1963, during a commemoration on the steps of the University of Havana, Fidel Castro said: “For there walks a specimen, another byproduct we must fight (…), many of these lazy ‘hipsters,’ children of the bourgeois, walk around in their too-tight pants, some of them with a guitar thinking they’re Elvis Presley. And … Continue reading “The Night of the Long Scissors / Camilo Ernesto Olivera”

Taken Out of the Closet, But No One Asks Forgiveness / Reinaldo Cosano

By Reinaldo Cosano. Havana, Cuba Posted in the blog of Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada The veil covering violent homophobic repression is slowly being drawn back, but the gulity aren’t asking for public pardon. It is hard to specify just how the virus of homophobic repression was incubated, sharp-eyed with the machismo of the days … Continue reading “Taken Out of the Closet, But No One Asks Forgiveness / Reinaldo Cosano”

The Cuban Mega-Soap Opera / Fernando Damaso

Street Graffiti The mega-soap opera of the Five Spies, recycled as anti-terrorists and heroes, for years have occupied a lot of space in the national political programming. Structured for the seasons, in the best style of the soaps, they appear one after another, regardless of the actual audience. The main characters presented at the beginning … Continue reading “The Cuban Mega-Soap Opera / Fernando Damaso”

Really? Cubans Never Joke About the Revolution? / Yoani Sanchez

The year, 2050. The regime, still in power. The Coppelia ice cream stand, the most famous in Cuba, is in ruins, and tree roots have played havoc with the granite floor. Amid the rusty iron columns a couple of guys are trying to light a fire. They are rubbing two sticks together in the most … Continue reading “Really? Cubans Never Joke About the Revolution? / Yoani Sanchez”

Have We Become Accustomed To Dirt? / Yoani Sánchez

A teenager writes — with his index finger — the words “Wash me” in the dust on the window of the bus. A mother asks her son what the school bathroom is like and he confirms that “it stinks so much you can’t go in there.” A dentist eats a french fry in front of … Continue reading “Have We Become Accustomed To Dirt? / Yoani Sánchez”

Inspectors on the Attack / Anddy Sierra Alvarez

They added State inspectors for the licensing review of the taxi drivers on the Palma-Vedado route and they collect the inspected cars on L Street between 23rd and 21st alongside the ice cream parlor Coppelia. It was 10:00 PM on Saturday and the citizens who wanted to go home formed a big group of people … Continue reading “Inspectors on the Attack / Anddy Sierra Alvarez”