English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
A Spanish friend of mine who has come twice to Cuba told me that she read the official press while in the airport, and according to that paper it makes it seem as if, despite all the problems, deficiencies, and tensions she witnessed when she met with a wide range of people, there are no … Continue reading “Governmental Glaucoma / Miguel Iturría Savón”
Photo: Pedro Arguelles Moran This past July 10 I chose not to travel to Spain because I do not wish to abandon my country — I am Cuban, and very proud of it. I was born here, as were my sisters, relatives, parents, and my paternal grandparents. My maternal grandparents were not born here, they … Continue reading “Here I Am / Voices Behind The Bars, Pedro Argüelles Morán”
Gerardo, a 52-year-old economist, does not think himself as either a bore or a zombie. However, his wife thinks he is a first-class lunatic. “He has spent his vacation months with a pair of binoculars looking out to Havana bay while taking note of all the ships that enter through this area on his notebook,” … Continue reading “Summer Vacations, Always Looking to the Sea / Iván García”
Anabel, 23, unemployed, with the roof of her house full of holes through which water pours on days of heavy rain, eats hot food once a day, and ‘the future’ is a bad word. She is short of many things. But she has a brand new phone. Cell phones are fashionable on the island. Especially … Continue reading “Cell Phones in Cuba, on the Crest of the Wave / Iván García”
Photo: Claudio Fuentes Madan There is another Cuba glued to the asphalt, anonymous, dynamic, talkative and entrepreneurial. Three hours in a botero — an informal private car for hire — on the highway from Havana to Santa Clara can transmit more information than a whole year of watching the national news on TV: prices in … Continue reading “A Day in Santa Clara / Claudia Cadelo”
God created the world in six days, on the 7th, he tweeted. Last month, Yoani Sanchez, the creator of Generation Y, invited some of her friends to contribute to the diffusion of micro-blogging through the group known as “The First Tweet-up on the Island.” In regards to such a meeting, I asked when and where. … Continue reading “Twitterers in Cuba? / Miguel Iturria Savón”
Months ago I dreamt I lost a tooth. That tiny one on the side that’s been with me for more than thirty years. An incisor that has never moved and that I should care for, knowing it can’t be replaced. If my grandmother were alive she would have interpreted these dream experiences as “an omen … Continue reading “Losing a Tooth, Winning a Number / Yoani Sánchez”
Omar, the lens for the word (Photo: Luis Felipe Rojas) When I heard of him he was already serving a 27-year sentence in the Cuban prisons. He was “the photographer of dissent” whose images spoke on behalf of that emaciated part of Cuba, which they have tried to sell us like a souvenir. From Omar … Continue reading “Omar, The Image First, The Words Later”
Amidst Cuban flags, famous boleros, and white flowers, thousands of exiles and hundreds of Latin Americans bid farewell to Olga Guillot on Monday, July 12th. On Friday Guillot checked in to the Mount Sinai Hospital in Miami, that city where she lived in and occasionally performed ever since the 60’s, although Venezuela and Mexico were … Continue reading “The Queen of Bolero/Miguel Iturria Savon”
Voces Tras Las Rejas was begun by Pablo Pacheco, one of the prisoners of conscience from the Black Spring of 2003. It is a collection of thoughts and first-hand experiences of various political prisoners that reside behind bars in Cuban jails. Getting their voices out of their cells and into this blog is made possible … Continue reading “Voices Behind The Bars”
Translating Cuba is a compilation of translations of Cuban bloggers, independent journalists and human rights activists, primarily writing from the island. The authors included here share a number of characteristics. They: Write from the island of Cuba.* Are independent, that is they are not paid by the Cuban government. Write under their own names. Their … Continue reading “About This Project”
Intramuros is the blog of the digital magazine Convivencia, from Pinar del Río, Cuba. The editorial below, which appears in English translation on the magazine’s site, describes the mission of Convivencia. CLICK IMAGE FOR BLOG IN ENGLISH “Convivencia”: First Anniversary. On the threshold after half a century December 10th 2008. We are on the threshold … Continue reading “Intramuros”
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”
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”
I don’t know what lesson to draw from this boring celebration of the 57th anniversary of the attack on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes military bases, an action which is considered something of a Genesis for neohistorians. Beginning at midnight, in the first moment of July 26, I was very surprised they didn’t … Continue reading “Sui Generis”