English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Freedom costs dearly, and it is necessary either to resign yourself to live without it, or to decide to pay the price. José Martí I have always enjoyed running. It is the supreme moment where literary creation, personal desires and political struggle come together (yes, I definitely have to include this when I talk about … Continue reading “Marabana: Tribute to Laura Pollan / Angel Santiesteban”
It isn’t a title of a movie or a novel. It is a bar/restaurant/cafeteria, recently opened in the Nuevo Vedado neighborhood. They opened hardly 15 days ago and all day it is completely full. The hook? Their prices and the quality of their offerings. With this new example of private initiative, it is demonstrated that, … Continue reading “La Rosa Negra (The Black Rose) / Rebeca Monzo”
The Ministry of Interior Trade, part of the Central State Administration, is a purely socialist invention. It did not exist during the Republic. Created to control and distribute the misery, its physical inventory consisted of businesses, shops, warehouses, and other facilities that were seized or nationalized, before and during the infamous revolutionary offensive of the … Continue reading “Strange Leases / Fernando Dámaso”
… I should introduce to you the nation that lives here and lives in the diaspora; Cubans suffer, live and hope here and also suffer, live, and hope out there. We are a single people that, navigating the seas on logs, continues to look for unity… Mons. ++ Pedro Claro Meurice Estíu 24/1/98 (Words of welcome to … Continue reading “Rest in Peace Monsignor++Pedro Claro Meurice Estíu / Ricardo Medina”
If somehow I managed the unthinkable — five minutes with president Barack Obama — I think I would use the time to convey a clear message: “Do not veto the provision that restricts travel and remittances to Cuba, Mr. President.” I don’t know if I would say to him what I have to my friends … Continue reading “Welcome to the Past / Ernesto Morales Licea”
In the lower left corner of my screen I have the Windows Taskbar. When I click it suggests different shutdown options: Switch User Log Off Lock Restart Sleep Hibernate Ah, if it were only that easy! On the keyboard and over the mouse keys I have a monopoly on decisions, but in the realm of … Continue reading “The Options / Reinaldo Escobar”
The recent case of censure against a reggaeton and all the virulent editorial campaign against it –through the official press- bring once again to the spotlight the topic of the cultural revolutionary politics and the controlling function of institutions. The absence of rights touches everyone, not just from the standpoint of artistic phenomenon (let’s generously … Continue reading “Vulgarity as a Resource (II) / Miriam Celaya”
The International meeting held in Havana, Society and its Challenges of Corruption, caught my attention. In a society overwhelmed by disaster like ours, the Cuban delegation would have to expose a scenario of the failure of all the social theories upheld my Marxist ideology, that, setting aside Marti, could not be further from Marti-inspired ethics. … Continue reading “The Root of the Problem / Regina Coyula”
With just one click from his holy finger, he lit the most colossal Christmas tree in the holy world 220 kilometers from his holy dwelling. So says the Guinness Book of World Records: the tree rises 750 meters up the side of a mountain in Gubbio, Italty, and is a record And this tree was … Continue reading “Christmas 2.0 / Ernesto Morales Licea”
The phenomenon of the 2.0 “caught moved” the Cuban government and its think tanks. They reacted late although massively, when the image of life inside Cuba was not issued only by the official press the tourist brochures, but by citizens, either organized or as individuals, who filtered it through the mesh of the Internet to … Continue reading “The Taming of the Pony / Regina Coyula”
It causes chills to know that the historic leader of the Cuban revolution did research on different crops to improve nutrition for the Cuban people. I don’t want to be a harbinger of ill omen. But reviewing Castro’s “experiments” in 52 years of olive-green government, he didn’t come up with any that were successful. Let’s review the record. Let’s … Continue reading “Fidel Castro’s Experiments / Iván García”
What mystique surrounds “power” for tyrants, that the obsession of keeping it leads to sacrificing their people, their family and their own lives? They disguise their obstinacy with ideals, which require constant sacrifices, with those whom they have betrayed and they pursue no other real intention except continuing to “command” the nation. All dictators create … Continue reading “The Mathematics of Dictators / Angel Santiesteban”
That the first summit of the “Community of Latin American and Caribbean States,” the newly born CELAC, would be a quaint circus where some of the worst habits of our part of Latin America would be on display was well-known. We didn’t know the dimensions of the tent, the variety of numbers that its protagonists … Continue reading “The Circus is in Town! CELAC is Born / Ernesto Morales Licea”
Roberto Lopez arrived early at the Arrroyo Naranjo Property Registry. His plan was to divide his house. One part of the house was to be donated to his only granddaughter and the other was to be sold. He is 70 years old and he needs resources to live. He was number 10 in line that … Continue reading “Work in Progress / Laritza Diversent”
He’s brought Raul Castro an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the possible honesty of his words. In the handful of years during which he’s been the regent of this feudal family that is the whole Island, the younger of the Castros has never stopped repeating a maxim in his sharp voice and as if it were … Continue reading “The Rebellion of the Righteous / Ernesto Morales Licea”