English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Humberto Gonzales Otaño 56 years old, a jeweler in San Miguel, died violently on the morning of September 14, 2010. Two men entered his home while he and his wife slept. On 28 November the Court of Havana tried six “marginals” from Mantilla, one of the poorest neighborhoods of Havana, accused of organizing and executing … Continue reading “Guilty by Conviction / Laritza Diversent”
The First Conference of the Communist Party of Cuba passed, with neither pain nor glory for most Cuban citizens. As I had warned President Raul Castro, only matters of interest to the membership were addressed, scorning an interesting opportunity for those who truly would try turning the country into the right direction: that of freedom, … Continue reading “159th Birthday / Rafael León Rodríguez”
To go out into the street is to be constantly tripping on social indiscipline, vulgarity and obscenity. It is not a problem of a neighborhood or an age, or even of sexes, as it happens in Old Havana, Central Havana, Cerro, Vedado or El Nuevo Vedado, both children and youth, adults and even elderly , … Continue reading “Between Indiscipline, Rudeness and Obscenities / Fernando Dámaso”
On the 50th anniversary of the University Reform enacted in January 1962, the newspaper Granma published on Monday, January 9, 2012, an article entitled University and Society by Armando Hart Dávalos, in which he proposes that “after the triumph of the Revolution university reform was essential to realizing the final link between the university and … Continue reading “University Reform Without Autonomy / Dimas Castellano”
The Cuban government gave its first statement on the death of Wilmar Villar, on January 23rd. It was taken from the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The paper in question, Unico Diario, is the only daily newspaper. It is the official organ of propaganda, of the only party legally allowed on the island, this … Continue reading “The Government Editorial / Lilianne Ruíz”
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”
I can’t stand ideas. I aspire to a pure understanding of reality and of myself but I have to postpone it. I read in order to erase, in order to find within the forgotten. Or in the memory, which is the same. I get scared seeing myself in the street surrounded by people who cause … Continue reading “Ideology, Later Not Being / Lilianne Ruíz”
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”
In remembrance of Wilman Villar Mendoza The Cuban state talks nonsense with the traditional verbiage with which they usually justify their inexcusable acts and remain silent about the reasons and abuse that led to the death of Wilman Mendoza. The chess strategy that “the best defense is an offense” ends whatever possibility of dialogue with … Continue reading “Macho State / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado”
In remembrance of Wilman Villar Mendoza The Cuban state talks nonsense with the traditional verbiage with which they usually justify their inexcusable acts and remain silent about the reasons and abuse that led to the death of Wilman Mendoza. The chess strategy that “the best defense is an offense” ends whatever possibility of dialogue with … Continue reading “Macho State”
If the rumor about Cuban baseball is confirmed, I think the bad news for the national sport will exceed that having played a tournament in Rotterdam to forget, or that of having been deprived, for the umpteenth time in recent years, of an international title (this time, by Taipei of China). The threatening rumor is … Continue reading “The Passion Kills Us / Ernesto Morales Licea”
One gray afternoon, after working an intense 12 house in her office in Planalto, Brasilia, the Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, 63, took her laptop which she took everywhere, and confessed to the Newsweek reporter Marc Margolis, “When I was a little girl I wanted to be a firefighter or a ballerina, period.” It was not … Continue reading “Dilma Rousseff’s Trip to Cuba: A Return to the Past / Iván García”
Since the socialist camp fell, our politicians miss the Cold War and now should be celebrating the possible war between the dictators and the western democracies. They have worked for years with this objective. But they still talk on the radio about their ideological press releases, hypnotizing multitudes, that “the world cries out for peace.” … Continue reading “Hot War / Lilianne Ruíz”
Cuba, the little island difficult to locate in the Caribbean Sea and the big booty in the new world order. Often I hear that it is under siege by the voracious appetite of the empire, its eternal enemy. Other big powers in the great Europe also lurk for prey. A nice opening for a fiction … Continue reading “Resonance / Laritza Diversent”
If, at the moment she stepped foot on U.S. soil that June 9, 2011, someone had whispered in Reina Luisa Tamayo’s ear that barely seven months later, this January 31, 2011, she would be at the Versailles Restaurant not as a heroic mother, but as a woman in need of support and understanding; no longer … Continue reading “Reina Luisa’s Other Versailles / Ernesto Morales Licea”