English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
The following letter was written in 2007 by Winnie Biscet, daughter of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet. My Father, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet was born on July 20, 1961 in Havana, Cuba. My father is Founder and President of Lawton Foundation. This organization is considered illegal by the Cuban government. My father, Oscar is a Cuban … Continue reading “Unjust Imprisonment / Oscar Elías Biscet”
Youtube video-Cuba, Hospitals (Hijas de Galicia, Luyano) Armando, 71, was admitted at “Miguel Enriquez” Hospital, in the Havana’s suburb of Luyano, for what was supposed to be a low risk surgery in one leg. Armando, who is diabetic, was hoping to leave the operating room with no complications and say goodbye to his daughter with a … Continue reading “Cuban Health Care is in a Coma / Iván García”
On the morning of Wednesday, July 7th of this year 2010, I received a peculiar visitor in my house: actually, I received him on the porch. I invited him to sit down, next to me, on the small bench that delimits my home’s garden. The living room in the house, the interior of my living … Continue reading “With a Homeland, but Without a Master / Ernesto Morales Licea”
My uncle Fernando Pérez-Puelles is 99, and save for some thick-lens glasses because he doesn’t want to have cataract surgery, he is divine, with a vitriolic personality but a great nostalgia for Cuba. Fernando has lived in Miami since 1961 and yesterday he called on the phone, very excited; a little cryptically, he said he … Continue reading “Excitement / Regina Coyula”
Without wielding any of the thousand of lethal objects that embellish our museums, Gullermo Fariñas finished extinguishing the scent of jail from a hundred or so brothers. And he gave hope to thousands of others. This July 26th, while the country wore a mask of red and black slogans to conceal the national apathy, and … Continue reading “The Final Earthquake / Henry Constantín”
A MAGAZINE OF CEMENT PAPER Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo (more photos later in BORING HOME UTOPICS) A free magazine can be invented over the dusty cartridge of an empty cement sack, opened. In fact, freedom can be just that: a recycled powder, a remnant, with the rhetoric of its aired texts, without more design than … Continue reading “P350 AND LET’S GO…! / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
CUBA: DR. OSCAR E. BISCET CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER AND PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE January 2010 “I say to my brothers in exile, the international community and the Cuban people that I feel kidnapped only for defending the right to life and the right of all Cubans to live in freedom. REMEMBER I WILL NEVER BETRAY A … Continue reading “Oscar Elías Biscet”
[Translator’s note: This post apparently got posted in the original missing the beginning… whether it starts in the middle of a sentence, a paragraph, we don’t know, as we haven’t been able to get in touch with Henry. If he adds the rest, we’ll add it here… but given internet access in Cuba… or lack … Continue reading “Hatuey* in Flames… / Henry Constantín”
From the silence, the impunity, and with the same contempt for the activists who promote human rights in Cuba, the political police triggered the arrests and threats in Havana and other cities in the country, between July 10 and August 12, which coincides with the resumption of activities by ex-president Fidel Castro and the official … Continue reading “Repression as Signs of Identity / Miguel Iturría Savón”
Right now, Teófilio Roberto López, age 66, is out of his mind. He ambles like a lunatic doing the paso doble along the edges of his farm, located a stone’s throw from the National Highway. Lopez is on the razor’s edge. All of his possessions, erected with sacrifice and with the help of his eight … Continue reading “Waiting to be Evicted by Force / Iván García”
Fidel Castro could convert his name into a registered brand like Adidas, Nike, or Coca-Cola. After death, perhaps his image will have more appeal than the Argentinian soldier Che Guevara. The anti-globalization advocates will repeat his phrases with his image tattooed on their biceps, while they launch criticisms towards some capitalist bank. Specialists in advertising … Continue reading “The Power of a Symbol”
I don’t want to fall into that old people’s habit neatly summarized in the phrase, “I told you so,” when something happens someone already warned you about: Not content with having wasted the opportunity on July 26, Raul Castro again fell short in his speech to the Parliament. The announcement regarding the broadening of self-employment … Continue reading “I Told You So! / Reinaldo Escobar”
In all of the overflowing liturgical calendar of the Cuban Revolution, for half a century the 26th of July has been the quintessential date. More important even than January 1 (the day of the triumph of Castro’s rebels and the establishment of a revolution doomed to failure), the commemoration of the assault on the Moncada … Continue reading “Cuba: Two Governments? / Miriam Celaya”
Cuba is excluded from YouTube’s digital world map. What happens behind the closed doors of this paleopolitical Internet Island is of no concern to YouTube and, in consequence, nor to the audiovisual eyes of the world. The clever papal slogan from the past century and millennium resonates now like a coarse cathedral comedy script: “Let … Continue reading “YOU TOO, YOUTUBE…?”
Those who expected some clues about the needed economic and political reforms that the island is crying out for were left disappointed. General Raul Castro sent them a message: you will have to wait. Castro II did not even speak at a ceremony held in the province of Villa Clara, 180 miles from Havana, to … Continue reading “The Castros, Each One on His Own Side”