English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Freedom Tower, Miami Years ago, when I left Cuba for the first time, I was in a train leaving from the city of Berlin heading north. A Berlin already reunified but preserving fragments of the ugly scar, that wall that had divided a nation. In the compartment of that train, while thinking about my father … Continue reading “Cubans, period”
This week the first Cubans who applied when the Cuban government’s “new migratory policy” went into effect should be getting their passports. We will begin to understand the true possibilities on learning which passports are issued and which denied. And we will see the new selection criteria. Although one step has been eliminated, the “white … Continue reading “Of Passports, Emigration, Permits and Chimeras / Roberto Madrigal”
From the early hours of Sunday large groups of people were already visible at the Department of Immigration and Aliens (DIE) in the city of Havana. A few hours before the Migratory Reform announced last October was to go into effect, Cubans vacillated between hope and uncertainty with respect to the new law. Decree-Law No. … Continue reading “Long Lines Formed Before Dawn on Monday at Cuba’s Passport Offices / Yoani Sanchez #Cuba”
General Raul Castro’s new migratory regulations have aroused enthusiasm in many Cubans. Like the gold rush in the nineteenth century. Or the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. We agree: migratory reform will not bring democracy, political tolerance and respect for human rights. Things will remain the same in Cuba. More or less. The … Continue reading “Waiting for January 14 / Ivan Garcia #Cuba”
The stew was cooked on firewood collected by some neighbors, the flags hung in the middle of the block and the shouts of Viva! went on past midnight. A ritual repeated with more or less enthusiasm every September 27 throughout the Island. The eve of the 52nd anniversary of the founding of the Committees for … Continue reading “CDR: Citizen Representation or Political Control? / Yoani Sanchez”
She’s 49 with skin tanned by the sun, she’s called Penny Palfrey and this weekend she tried to swim the roughly 103 miles between Cuba and the United States. She left Havana at 7:00 in the morning on Friday and by 9:00 AM on Saturday she had covered close to half the distance, about 50 … Continue reading “Swim Stroke Diplomacy: Penny Palfrey Tried to Swim from Havana to Key West / Yoani Sánchez”
The Interests Section of Cuba in Washington D.C. has called the first National Meeting of Cuban Residents in the United States of America for April 28, which will involve a representation of Cubans who are “linked to their country in a respectful manner, aware of the urgency to defend its sovereignty and national identity.” This … Continue reading “Opening to the Diaspora / Dimas Castellanos”
The contractions of the womb “favored” María del Carmen Peña with her birth on January 1, 1959, the same day the guerrillas led by Fidel Castro came to power. I met her in seventh grade and we studied together through the tenth. Her classmates and teachers knew that every year all those born on that … Continue reading “From My Archive / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado”
The contractions of the womb “favored” María del Carmen Peña with her birth on January 1, 1959, the same day the guerrillas led by Fidel Castro came to power. I met her in seventh grade and we studied together through the tenth. Her classmates and teachers knew that every year all those born on that … Continue reading “From My Archive”
The neverending story brings back bad omens. An official note from the Ministry of Interior – issued through the newspaper Granma on Friday – brings up again the perpetual drama of the rafters. This time 18 people were rescued off the coast of Palmarejo in the municipality of Santa Cruz del Norte, in the western … Continue reading “Rafters: A Neverending Story? / Jeovany J. Vega”
For fifty years the Cuban government, scripted by Fidel Castro, has decided to convert Cubans into heroes or traitors, according to its own convenience. All those who left during the Mariel Boatlift were “scum and worms,” notwithstanding that they had committed no crimes or were doctors or engineers. When General Del Pino took a small … Continue reading “In Cuba You’re an Agent or a Criminal / Angel Santiesteban”
What Jimmy Carter can’t change in Cuba Thirty years after he left the White House and nine years since his only previous visit to Cuba, Jimmy Carter arrived in Havana last week, wearing the white guayabera that would serve as his uniform during a three-day visit to our island. Watching on television, I recalled how … Continue reading “Yoani’s Op-Ed in the Washington Post / Yoani Sánchez”
JJ – Zenaida Gonzalez Cuétara is a Cuban worker, proud of her origin. She was of those people who, on a not too hot day in 1980, decided to take refuge in guarded premises of the Embassy of Peru. ZG – I lived at O’Reilly and Aguiar, Centro Habana, until April 5, 1980 when I … Continue reading “The Peruvian Embassy 1980 / Juan Juan Almeida”
Recently, a friend and regular reader of our blog made a comment about a very controversial post in which he argued that the Mariel migration was triggered by the fact that “two Cubans launched a bus against an embassy in Havana.” In effect, that action was the public and visible event, but in any case, … Continue reading “Short Trip Down Memory Lane / Miriam Celaya”
1 – Yesenia Álvarez, young intelligent, successful….strange combination. Tell me about yourself, this organization over which you preside, your professional and family education, and when and why you had this passion for Cuba. If in our countries we let our talents flourish in freedom we would not talk about a strange combination. I am sure … Continue reading “A Story from Peru / Juan Juan Almeida”
