English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
On Monday, January 31, the Havana Provincial Court imposed sentences of between 5 and 15 years imprisonment on the 13 people accused in the deaths, by starvation and cold, of 26 patients in the Psychiatric Hospital, located on the outskirts of the capital. The incident occurred in January 2010. The steepest penalty, 15 years, went … Continue reading “The Mazorra Case: Has the Curtain Come Down? / Laritza Diversent”
“History is lived forward, but to understand it we must look back.” Kierkegaard The interaction between the lack of administrative capacity, economic inefficiency, hopelessness, widespread corruption and the massive exodus, have made the current crisis in Cuba the deepest of its history. The combination of these factors, sufficient to break any human group that aspires … Continue reading “Seeing the Past From the Viewpoint of the Present / Dimas Castellanos”
According to the January 6 edition of the newspaper Granma, “Updating the Cuban economic model demands concrete actions from the police to ensure the safety of families and order in society.” The Ministry of Interior made this known during the celebration of the 52nd anniversary of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR). Apparently the Cuban authorities … Continue reading “The Government Demands More Rigorous Police Work / Laritza Diversent”
Since the last week of December, the Cuban news media turned the propaganda time chart on the 52nd anniversary of the Revolution, whose reviled founders stayed in power and in the disgust of the population, submerged in silence and the routine of a half-century of slogans and promises. There was a Revolution but at these … Continue reading “A Tarnished Revolution / Miguel Iturria Savón”
While the international press spreads the case of the American contractor Alan Gross, held prisoner on the island for supposed espionage, and lodged a year ago in a special room of a Havana military hospital, another US citizen survives in a wheelchair in the Combinado del Este prison in Havana. He is Chris Walter Johnson, … Continue reading “Trafficking or Theraputic Use? / Miguel Iturria Savón”
When the high creole hierarchy enjoyed the arrival of the 51st anniversary of the insurrection which elevated them to power on 1 January 1959, a violent cold front was ravaging the west of the country. In Mazorra, a psychiatric hospital located on the highway that leads to the principal airport, a major scandal was uncorking … Continue reading “In 2010, Bad News Abounded in Cuba / Iván García”
Recording of Pedro’s phone call dictating this blog post. Once again, the totalitarian Castro regime has not kept its promises- because lies, demagogy, populism, hypocrisy, and cynicism all compose its very essence and nature. Recently, the regime’s Minister of Exterior Lies declared, somewhere in New York at the United Nations, that the members of the … Continue reading “Arguelles: “The Habit of Lying” / Voices Behind The Bars”
I do not think there is a single Cuban who has not seen his face at some point, on the big screen or small, or in a theater. He is one of the most recognizable actors on the national scene. No doubt this is influenced by the not inconsiderable number of his films: 80 works, … Continue reading “Under the Skin of a Real Nicanor / Ernesto Morales Licea”
A source that I’m not authorized to quote assures me that, on October 30, 2010, the privilege of the SEPSA agency will be withdrawn, by virtue of which the “blue” custodians – so nicknamed because of the color of their uniforms – have been paid a “stimulus” of 48 CUC a month (1,152 in the … Continue reading “Who Are The Debtors? / Miriam Celaya”
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”
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”