English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
She said it with a tone somewhere between surprise and disappointment: “They don’t give a damn, Ernesto. How mistaken we exiles are.” And I nodded because I knew too well what she was talking about. For her, a woman from Santiago who hadn’t stepped foot on her native land since 1999, living in Miami and … Continue reading “The Winners’ Trophy / Ernesto Morales Licea”
It is less than three weeks until the First National Conference of the Communist Party of Cuba, and it seems that almost no one cares about what will happen there. Perhaps we haven’t lost the habit of events like these coming accompanied by billboards, posters, TV spots, heroic exploits of labor dedicated to them, and … Continue reading “And If Nothing Happens? / Reinaldo Escobar”
For any society, it will be frustrating if its history, instead of progressing forward, heads backwards by leaps and bounds. This is the case for Cuban society, whose situation with regards to freedom and rights is the same or worse than it was leading to the Ten Years’ War. In mid-nineteenth century Cuba, when the … Continue reading “Cuban History Marches Backward / Dimas Castellanos”
Writing on historical things, I dusted off the 19th Century in Cuba, and with it the related currents of annexation, reform, autonomy and independence. Elaborating on each of them, I came to some controversial conclusions, and going back in time, I carried them forward to our time, where some have become reality, although, in this … Continue reading “Independence: Panacea or Tragedy? / Fernando Dámaso”
The worst of the timid reforms of General Raul Castro is amnesia. In addition to the cynicism. All the prohibitions, whether it is sightseeing in your own country, having a cell phone, buying a car or now being able to sell, buy or exchange a home without the absurd regulations promulgated by the State, were … Continue reading “Cuba: You Can Buy A House / Iván García”
A collaboration with Rafael Leon Rodriguez, General Coordinator of the Cuban Democratic Project from the event “Cuba today, Cuba tomorrow” that took place Saturday, September 17 in Miami, FL. The latest measures adopted to make self-employment more flexible, after the publication by the Official Gazette of the extraordinary issues 28 and 29 last Friday September … Continue reading “The Cuba We Have and the One We Want / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado”
A collaboration with Rafael Leon Rodriguez, General Coordinator of the Cuban Democratic Project from the event “Cuba today, Cuba tomorrow” that took place Saturday, September 17 in Miami, FL. The latest measures adopted to make self-employment more flexible, after the publication by the Official Gazette of the extraordinary issues 28 and 29 last Friday September … Continue reading “The Cuba We Have and the One We Want”
The problem is the street. General Raúl Castro will not permit an Arab Spring in Cuba. He will do whatever needs doing to detain irate opponents. He wants to isolate the potential short-circuit that could turn into a street protest. The island is a petri dish for cultivation of popular anger. The logical erosion of … Continue reading “Cuban Secret Services: Sticks and White Glove / Iván García”
[This text is from the website Incredible Universe] Manuel Fernández reveals in Incredible Universe how, when he met the Cuban writer Angel Santiesteban, State Security recorded the conversation. A Spanish citizen, Fernández was the manager, at that time, of one of the hotels in Havana. A few days ago we talked to him about the … Continue reading “I Know the Writer Angel Santiesteban Whom Cuba Wants to Punish / Angel Santiesteban”
The accords of the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), along with those emanating from its five previous congresses, have demonstrated not only their inability to solve the serious problems of Cuban society, but also to enforce the approved guidelines. The separation of the functions of the Party from those of the … Continue reading “Father Varela, Man of the Present / Dimas Castellanos”
The Communist Party of Cuba works arduously to realize a full identity between its members and those of the government, and to guarantee that its politics are approved unanimously in the National Assembly, the body that represents and expresses the will of more than 11 million Cubans. The sixth Congress of the Communist Party of … Continue reading “Party Prepares Itself for Next Elections / Laritza Diversent”
In the first of the two annual sessions of the National Assembly, held in the final days of last July, the International Relations committee agreed to instruct its counterpart on Constitutional and Legal Matters, an aggravation of the measures contained in the No. 88. The Gag Law, as this statutory provision is known internationally, was … Continue reading “Cuba: The Gag Law / Laritza Diversent”
There are two laws in Cuba: the first, written in ink, the second in frustration and pain. The first, a symbolism that rests on sterile paper, in the Constitution and legal codes, which allegedly belong to all Cubans, without distinctions of any kind, and its romantic spirit, theoretically, we are all equal in powers and … Continue reading “Two Laws in Cuba / Jeovany J. Vega”
Under the title, “The place of citizenship, political participation and the Republic in Cuba,” the Padre Felix Varela Cultural Center was the scene, Saturday, July 2, of a lecture by a lawyer and university professor, Julio César Guanche. The institution, belonging to the Archdiocese of Havana, occupies the building which, until last January, was the … Continue reading “The Citizen, A Debt to Padre Varela / Dimas Castellanos”
(Article originally published in the digital magazine Convivencia, Issue No. 21) In just five years, Cubans have been witnessing an extremely aggravating process in the socioeconomic and political crisis, steeped in what constitutes an exceedingly complex national and international juncture. Though just a few years ago it would have been possible to alleviate the hardship … Continue reading “Cuba: Notes About Unity, Leadership One-Party System / Miriam Celaya”