English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Sunrise on 5th Avenue. The cars traveling fast and on the diplomatic license plates white letters stand out against a black background. The trees of the central promenade display their pruned leaves and the former Soviet embassy looks like an Excaliber stuck — without architectural pity — in Havana’s chest. It’s not hot yet, but … Continue reading “The Jogging Class / Yoani Sánchez”
The Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba demonstrates that the paralysis recedes. its place is taken by a new scenario wherein the subject that leads the changes is the same as the one that has held power over half a century. The Cuban government is both past and present, thought that tries to … Continue reading “The Guidelines Project: Simple Enunciations / Dimas Castellano”
When one reads Raul Castro’s speech at the closing of the First National Conference of the Cuban Communist Party, something catches the eye, and it is the repetition of an idea that disturbs anyone who knows even briefly Marti’s doctrine, an idea already expressed on other occasions, without any foundation: to try to attribute to … Continue reading “Marti and the Idea of A Single Party / Jeovany Jimenez Vega”
When I read the latest episode of Eduardo del Llano, with his movie “Vinci” not being admitted into the upcoming International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana, I can’t escape the memory of a charming passage in my short history as a television writer. It occurred to us, the producers of a television … Continue reading “"Vinci": Leonardo and Mick Jagger Against Intellectual Guajirismo / Ernesto Morales Licea”
I’m curious to know the great influences of the reggaetoner Osmani Garcia, “The Voice” at the top of the Cuban charts. Good friends should be there. Not every reggaetoner achieved the status of censored celebrity displayed today by Chupi Chupi, turned into an ugly duckling of the radio stations, but a white swan of popular … Continue reading “Guilty of Singing El Chupi Chupi / Ernesto Morales Licea”
Who could have told the patriarch Fidel Castro that in the autumn of his years he would find an ally to repeal the Cuban Adjustment Act, and not among his starched-brain little spokespeople in the leftist corners of the world, but among Miami’s ranks of the ultra-right-wing itself? If he had the strength for it, … Continue reading “Brain Adjustment Act / Ernesto Morales Licea”
Observing daily life in Cuba is becoming increasingly misleading. Under the supposed calm of a society where nothing seems to happen, the forces of different and often conflicting trends are moving. And these movements could potentially generate conflicts of different types and magnitudes. A brief and no doubt incomplete analysis reveals an undeniable reality: nothing … Continue reading “Disobedience / Miriam Celaya”
In Cuba, contrary to what one might think, even the beaches are places where the Cubans who live here can suffer. Ask the people of Santa Lucia beach in Camaguey. Recently, people from the government told them they would all have to leave. And still there are those who fantasize about the soft changes of … Continue reading “The Beaches Belong to the People (But the People Have an Owner) / Henry Constantín”
Among the writers neglected by Cuban publishers are famous novelists, poets and essayists of Eastern Europe who triumphed in Paris, London or New York, where they settled after bypassing the censorship and the subordination of the intellectual to power. Recently, we analyze the legacy of Romanian philosopher Emil Cioran, honored in 2011 for his centennial, … Continue reading “Czeslaw Milosz / Miguel Iturría Savón”
Political Participation of women and Psychology (Extract) J. Fransciso Morales* – Isabel Cuadrado** The distance that measures the expanding legislation to favor the political participation of women and the data that, again and again, speak about a permanent male domination of this field serves as a reminder of the struggles of women to achieve equality. … Continue reading “Women Leaders in Conditions of Failure / Dora Leonor Mesa”
It is my duty to refute the following public statements: “Cuba does not spare resources for Education” (Juventud Rebelde, August 26, 2011. Print Edition), “… is an education (Cuban) that has been developed in constant conflict with the aggressive policy of the United States …” (Juventud Rebelde, October 19, 2011. Print edition). I just want … Continue reading “Cuba Always Skimps on Resources for Education and Teachers / Dora Leonor Mesa”
Following the publication of the post “The Broken Showcase” in this blog, in which I noted several criticisms of the Cuban health system and the loss of professional ethics by not a few doctors, a reader was kind enough to send me the letter of a doctor with the surnames Alemán Matías, which circulated on … Continue reading “Cuba Medicine and an Offended Doctor / Miriam Celaya”
Do not be alarmed, my brother, it is not I who is asking for your help, but the Minister of Health. The powerful are accustomed to see that when someone is punished very hard, they are generally reduced to obedience, and so they don’t understand by what strange way this sometimes does not succeed. Just … Continue reading “S.O.S. / Jeovany J. Vega”
Photo: Peter Deel Some time ago, in the euphoria of Triumphalism, it was constantly declared that in Cuba the scourge of racism had been resolved, and it had been eliminated. It is true that, institutionally, in the current laws and decrees this is so, but the reality is quite the contrary. The phenomenon was such … Continue reading “Daily Racism / Fernando Dámaso”
FÜR ANTARES 2012 Not the twilight of the gods, dead long before the invention of cinema, but of a red star: in fact a red super-giant a thousand times bigger than the sun. With the definitive post-communist eclipse caused by a small unexpected planet in the historical feature that the director Lars von Trier has made … Continue reading “SEEING MELANCHOLIA IN HAVANA / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”