English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Walking from the base camp Playa Inglés to the Ismaellillo Camp, on the south coast in Cienfuegos Province, took me about forty minutes. I stopped now and then to take a photo like a dream. There was no time to lose. I was overcome with the joy of a parent who sees that his son … Continue reading “Everybody Happy / Francis Sánchez”
I remember the Isle of Pines, for years now renamed the Isle of Youth, as an exotic place that lived up to its name, in addition to cattle, citrus, huge melons, Japanese and American families and thousands of parrots. Also there was the Las Casas river, the ferry dock, Nueva Gerona and its free zone, … Continue reading “Few Expectations / Fernando Dámaso”
In theory, to live under communism should be a nice little number for Cubans. As money doesn’t exist, you don’t have to pay bills for rent, electricity, water or the phone. If we had internet connections, they would be free, too. If you’re hungry, you go to the supermarket and fill a trolley with groceries. … Continue reading “Would Communism be Good for Cubans? / Iván García”
It is a mesh bag, a reddish woven net with five mandarins inside. They’ve been carried here — from Europe — by a reader who discovered where I live thanks to the tracks left in the blog. After I brought him a glass of water, he took the citrus fruits out of his backpack — … Continue reading “The Mandarins Come by Boat / Yoani Sánchez”
Last Friday I ran into my friend Nora on a bus, she’s diabetic with a 9-year-old daughter and schizophrenic brother who is a patient in a Havana psychiatric hospital. They take good care of him, after he bounced back and forth between his father’s house and the Mazorra madhouse, during almost two decades of delusions, … Continue reading “Government Neglect of the Mentally Ill / Miguel Iturria Savón”
Forget the New Man Che Guevara dreamed of one day. We said goodbye long ago to that guy dressed in a uniform twelve hours a day and on the weekends we would prefer to read realistic Russian works like Volokolamsk Highway and How The Steel Was Tempered, before having a beer and listening to the … Continue reading “Che’s Grandchildren / Iván García”
1. When we speak of solving the economic problems that overwhelm us, the road ahead appears complex and intricate. It has grown too much invasive marabou weed over the years and clearing it is no easy task. The solution is not to open narrow paths that, ultimately, are difficult to navigate and close up again … Continue reading “Other Steps / Fernando Dámaso”
PROSPERITY AND KINDNESS: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN of the Enlightenment Marti Mirta Suquet HAVING studied in Cuba, in this world of relative certainties they built for us during the eighties, and having subsequently completed a course at the University of Havana, many doors opened in advance. The fame of Cuban university graduates is … Continue reading “collaborations from VOCES 1… / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
By Jesuhadín Pérez. Things are going badly for Cuba. People lose freedom while trying to get it, and starve to death when asking for justice. Those in power have no ears to listen to the solutions to people’s problems, solutions that would jeopardize historical powers. This is the contradiction between form and substance. In other … Continue reading “If We Want Everything To Stay the Same, Everything Must Change”
The article by Juan Varela Pérez, faulting the control and dedication in the sugar harvest, published in the daily Granma on May 5, 2010, is evidence that the critical condition of Cuban sugar production reflects the situation of agricultural production and the of the economy in general. Among other things Varela said that “the current … Continue reading “Sugar, Half a Century of Failures”
El Calvario (Calvary) is a dusty and steep village, with many half-paved streets. It is located south of Havana, in the municipality of Arroyo Naranjo, the poorest and the one with the greatest number of imprisoned men in the entire city. It was once a major town. When it was founded in 1753 by a … Continue reading “A Calvary of Problems”
14ymedio, Havana, July 27, 2025 — In a country where a trip to the farmers market is a game of Russian roulette, a place with more emotion than food, where the price board is often left blank, a phenomenon that defies Cuban logic has emerged: a state-run produce market with stable supplies, no middle-men and … Continue reading “The Well-Kept Secret of Ciego de Avila’s La Cuba, a Successful State-Owned Business”
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 28 December 2023 — Endogamy is the practice of marrying in closed groups, between individuals of common ancestry. Reproduction between parents who are closely related greatly increases the chances that the offspring will be affected by recessive traits or genetic impairments. One of the most notorious cases was King Charles … Continue reading “The Ideological Endogamy of the Cuban Regime”
14ymedio, Havana, 8 May 2023 — Cuba has managed to position itself as one of the suppliers of charcoal to Europe, which, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saw its main supplier seriously affected. The official press Granma announced with great fanfare over the weekend the first shipment from the state company Granmax to the … Continue reading “The Export of Charcoal to Europe, a Minor Joy for Cuban Foreign Trade”
14ymedio, Mercedes García, Sancti Spíritus , 23 February 2022 — A report published by 14ymedio last January has led the military authorities of Sancti Spíritus to review the working conditions of dozens of prisoners who make and carry marabou charcoal. The inmates work for the state-owned Various Production Company (Provari), which does not pay them a penny, but has … Continue reading “The Conditions of Prisoners Working in Charcoal Improve as a Result of a Report by ’14ymedio’”