English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
The eminent Cuban essayist and educator Enrique José Varona, Secretary of Public Education during the U.S. occupation government (1899-1902), said: “The job of the teacher is to teach people how to work with their hands, with their eyes, with their ears, and then, with their thoughts” The aphorism remains relevant after half a century of … Continue reading “Caged Educators / Miguel Iturria Savón”
People on the street in Cuba look sideways at the recent reforms designed for the impoverished national economy. Few are counting on these changes put forward by president Raúl Castro. They don’t believe they will make the country function more efficiently. They know what a group of Cubans think. In a survey of 48 persons … Continue reading “Economic Reforms: More Questions than Answers / Iván García”
BLOG MANAGER’S NOTE: Don’t miss this post over at the English version of “Pedazos de la Isla.” Miguel Galban Gutierrez is one of the prisoners of the Black Spring of 2003, recently exiled to Spain. Here’s a teaser and a link: Independent journalist, independent union worker, and mechanical engineer, Miguel Galban Gutierrez is a dignified … Continue reading ““The Sacrifice to Obtain Freedom Comes with a Very High Price” / Miguel Galban Gutierrez”
According to the Small Larousse Illustrated Dictionary: A a deer is a ruminant mammal of the cervidae family equipped with shovel-shaped horns. In the Pocket Guide for Nature Lovers Jeanette Harris says: Deer 86-110 cm. height at the withers. Tail with black tip, which contrasts with the surrounding white spot, which also has the black … Continue reading “The Importance of Having a White Deer / Fernando Dámaso”
I remember well the day of the Havana Biennial when Tania Bruguera, in her performance titled Tatlin’s Whisper, installed a pair of microphones so that anyone could enjoy one minute of freedom from the podium. Shortly afterward, this irreverent and universal artist went to Columbia and shocked everyone when — as a performance — she … Continue reading “Tania is so very Tania / Yoani Sánchez”
The newspaper Granma has called the meetings of country’s social sectors, to define what the economic model should be in future, an unprecedented and improbable event in the contemporary world. The Newspaper is devoted to making us feel that we live on another different planet. It is sometimes hard to understand Cuban socialists’ form of … Continue reading “Cuban Society Seems to be a Theatrical One-Act Farce / Laritza Diversent”
My dog Falcor, or rather my son Anibal’s dog, died in the early morning hours of the tenth or eleventh of August. On the 31st he would have been 18 years old, a really long life for a canine. His body was buried in the patio of the Ayestarán house, along with those of other … Continue reading “Falcor / Fernando Dámaso”
I still remember my first encounter with Lezama. In 1973, a bookshelf in my first office called my attention (another bookshelf, not one I already I mentioned) packed with a single book. The same book from the collection Cuban Letters filled three shelves. In the time I worked there, no one took a single one … Continue reading “Lezama’s Hundredth Birthday / Regina Coyula”
The exile to Spain of fifty Cuban former political prisoners and their families has been a well organized maneuver, calculated and premeditated by the dictatorship in Havana. It is difficult to know when they started making plans for this operation, but I imagine it had its roots in the death of political prisoner Orlando Zapata … Continue reading “Premeditated Revenge / Pablo Pacheco”
When driving a vehicle you should look ahead, but also use the rearview and side mirrors. This prevents accidents. It is the same when it comes to finding possible solutions to problems: we must look to the front (the new), but also take into account what is behind (the past) and what happens to our … Continue reading ““Driving” Lesson / Fernando Dámaso”
The bus was traveling at a moderate speed on orders from the Cuban political police. The driver had taken maximum precautions because any slip could derail the operation. Fifteen of us political prisoners of conscience, from the group of 75, traveled on the bus, along with thirty military and medical personnel. In front of us, … Continue reading “First Day in Agüica / Pablo Pacheco”
There is too much perversion in the world. It is a feature of serial murderers, pedophiles and sexual deviants. Or of the ETA (Basque) terrorists and those irrational people who crashed two planes into the Twin Towers in New York on September 11. But there are — and there have been — sinister governments. In … Continue reading “The Sinister Ones / Iván García”
A recent revelation from Wikileaks has exposed conversations among diplomats accredited to Cuba in which they made gloomy predictions about the future of the Island, particularly because of the expected economic setbacks. These speculations are not new; I dare say they are cyclical in nature and never correct in their conclusions, although they start from … Continue reading “Ability to Sacrifice, Inability to Judge / Reinaldo Escobar”
A victim of power, violence, social injustices and racism during the Little War of August of 1906 — generated by the conflict among the political elite of the age with the goal of the presidential reelection of Tomás Estrada Palma — Army General & Liberator Quintín Banderas Betancourt, a black freeman who gave 30 years … Continue reading “Quintín Banderas and the Little War of August / Dimas Castellanos”
When Raúl Castro assumed the presidency in 2008, it was rumored among the population that the general carried a fistful of changes up his sleeve. The most desirable, the elimination of entrance and exit permits for traveling to and from the country. Cubans on the island already saw themselves getting passports and boarding planes to … Continue reading “We Were Few and Grandma Gave Birth / Iván García”