English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Havana, Cuba, December 27, www.cubanet.org – In Havana’s Central Railway Station, they were fumigating — against the Egyptian aedes mosquito — with passengers inside (children, pregnant women, old people), violating all health standards. And don’t mention freshening up. They charge a dollar to use the bathrooms. And even paying, the bathrooms do not have soap … Continue reading “Life and Death of Cuban Railways / Ernesto Garcia Diaz”
Havana, Cuba, October, www.cubanet.org — Without any doubt, the prosecutor at the oral hearing clung to the least of the supposed crimes, “Housebreaking and Injuries,” being proved by the very “witness” who lied. The farce of a trial was a settling of scores for Santiesteban because of his opposition to totalitarianism, and so he was … Continue reading ““I Am a Prisoner Because of a Tantrum by Raul Castro” / Juan Carlos Linares, Angel Santiesteban”
Ipatria, Alamar, a Vulture, the Night, and Me 1. There are exiles who bite and others like a consuming fire We met in the Martyrs of Alamar mortuary. Her father had died that afternoon, I’d come in to drink no less than ten coffees on the cheap. I needed them to ease my anxiety, ease … Continue reading “Chile and Death and Cuba and Love / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Art by El Sexto 1. They read rather decadent things: Little novels of characters who committed suicide just before the authors who wrote them, second-hand editions as useful as recycled paper, banned books, unpublished pamphlets, raw gems, and etceteras of this style. Of course, reading decadent things made them think that they lived in “an … Continue reading “Sunflower Fields Forever / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
HAVANA, Cuba, August, www.cubanet.org — Perhaps at the moment the reader reads this, it will have been twenty years since the beginning of the Special Period, the major event to befall Cuban history in the last century. It began in August of 1993 when the former secretary of the Council of Ministers, Carlos Lage, announced … Continue reading “The Ground Soy Generation Remembers / Frank Correa”
Our adolescence was fertilized with novels and TV series that marked our aesthetics and personalities. How many times did we read the novels, “Here the Sands are Cleaner,” “If I Die Tomorrow,” or the series “It Had to Be in Silence,” with most of us enjoying those fantasies of socialist heroes who, guided by Cuban … Continue reading “Facing State Counterintelligence Part 1 / Angel Santiesteban #Cuba”
The Registry Offices on my planet have become human concentrations or people’s saunas. The long lines overflow to the outside of the building, most of them ending on the street, sidewalks and curbs, where those who aspire to be assisted hang around, waiting for the hoped-for moment. At lunch time, the office is closed and … Continue reading “Any Old Registry Office / Rebeca Monzo”
As societies are complex systems of interrelated elements, when they face structural crises with harm to all their components, it’s impossible to remedy them with changes limited to one aspect of the system, as is the case with the economy; in its place there needs to be comprehensive approach. Among the elements whose influence is … Continue reading “Politics, The State, The Market and Civil Society / Dimas Castellanos”
