English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
When it comes time for sex, black Cuban women don’t feel discriminated against. Rather used. Roxana, 36, an architect, endures with Asian patience the sexual harassment from her white bosses, the gross come-ons, and the outright proposals to go to bed for 20 dollars. What I have to put up with is incredible. From one … Continue reading “Racism a la Cuban(a)* / Iván García”
What I always admired about the United State policies is their pragmatism. It has an unmistakable capacity to dump in the trash can the strategies that don’t work. And to overcome the errors. But regarding the Cuban embargo, the Americans show a notable stupidity. Let’s see it from its supporters’ angle. Its advocates think that if … Continue reading “Who Benefits From the Cuban Embargo? / Iván García”
On this Sunday morning, I savor a good cup of coffee given to me by good friends who have offered me a safe place to stay while my wife informs me that police officials are looking for me back in San German. I will share some opinions with you all about how the history of … Continue reading “Time to Drink Coffee? / Luis Felipe Rojas”
Ciro Diaz, 33, guitar player for the group Porno for Ricardo and musical producer, had all the ingredients to be a jet setter of the Revolution. He was born and raised in the heart of a family who listened to Fidel Castro’s long speeches and went to the Revolutionary celebrations cyclically generated by the olive … Continue reading “Ciro Diaz, Guitar Player for Porno Para Ricardo / Iván García”
In the struggle for land ownership and against eviction in Cuba, many farmers and farm workers lost their lives. Among them is Niceto Perez, who was killed May 17, 1946. In tribute to him and the rest of the martyrs of the field that day, the Law of Agrarian Reform was promulgated in 1959 and … Continue reading “The Agrarian Problem / Dimas Castellanos”
Cuban civil society is looking forward to what will happen in July when the network structure of the island is connected to to the fiber optic cable that came in early February to Cuba from Venezuela. The event, which will multiply by 3,000 the speed of data transmission, also helped the government admit its fear … Continue reading “The Internet is a Question Mark in Cuba / Laritza Diversent”
The predictions for the development of internet in Cuba added to the darkness, after the coming of the fiber optic cable to Cuba collided with the political interests of the Communist government which, in the last decade, developed a legal and technological infrastructure, to control the flow of information to and from the island, via … Continue reading “The Uncertain Future of the Internet / Laritza Diversent”
In 2003, the excessive sentences which he and his brother, Luis Enrique, were condemned to served was shocking news among the youth of the time. Shortly after being arrested, one could already sense his bravery in confronting the regime and not remaining silent before so many injustices. He carried out various hunger strikes and headed … Continue reading “Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia: Another Lion from the East / Luis Felipe Rojas”
For Rosi of Cuba…she knows. It was Sunday, and amid the suffocating heat and the sluggishness of the truck which was taking me from Santiago de Cuba to Las Tunas, I chose to instead get off at Bayamo, that symbolic land full of rebellion and patriotism bequeathed to us by our ancestors. I gulped down … Continue reading “Yoandris Gutierrez Vargas: “Walking Through the Labyrinths of Hell” / Luis Felipe Rojas”
The trial for the deaths at the Psychiatric Hospital seemed like a bad theater set painted by the official press, which tried to adorn that which we all know with legal technicalities: The setback of public health, the weakness of the judicial system, and the hypocrisy of the communications media. The daily paper, Granma, omitted … Continue reading “The Curtain is Drawn, Matter Concluded / Laritza Diversent”
You already see hundreds of stalls selling CDs and videos. Good-natured, calm señoras who offer a wide range of religious articles and, in any Havana doorway, from one day to the next, a snack bar with fast food emerges. When in October 2010 they authorized the expansion of self-employment, people took their time. There were … Continue reading “Private Businesses and Suspicions Flourish in Cuba / Iván García”
Photos: Francis Sánchez My watch was still running slow, probably because I needed to change the battery, so I went looking for a watchmakers when, about to turn a corner, I noticed that I was passing in front of a sort of bunkhouse, tenement block or similar poor dwelling. I remembered that there, years ago, … Continue reading “Lead Us Not Into Temptation / Francis Sánchez”
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”
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”
Photos / Luis Felipe Rojas The Alianza Democrática Oriental (Eastern Democratic Alliance) energetically condemns the imminent arrests under a prosecution devoid of legal guarantees of five brave activists from Eastern Cuba. Néstor and Rolando Rodríguez Lobaina, Enyor Díaz Allen, Francisco Luis Manzanet Ortíz and Roberto González Pelegrín received non-written communication, that is, only verbally from the secret police, that … Continue reading “The Double Standard Policy, a Daily Routine / Luis Felipe Rojas”