English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
While throughout many parts of the world many tributes were being held for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Cuba once again opted to go against it. They began on Thursday the 9th with beatings, mob acts, and harassment towards the Ladies in White, who were carrying out their usual march throughout the capital. All … Continue reading “Celebration and Condemnation/ Luis Felipe Rojas”
In many countries in Latin America they call a small child “guagua.” But I understand that in the Canaries, the same as on our planet (surely the term came with us from there), a guagua is a bus, with the characteristic that those here are always full of people. Today, Regina and I headed out … Continue reading ““Guaguariando” (Riding the bus) / Rebeca Monzo”
My name is Rick Schwag. I live in Vermont. And for people who doubt that, my telephone number is 802-626-5578 Three years ago, I was put in a Cuban detention center for 8 days, in the tourist prison behind the place where tourists renew their visas, at the corner of Factor y Final, in Havana. … Continue reading “My Heart and My Soul are in Santiago de Cuba / Juan Juan Almeida”
The money came in a white envelope, brought to the door by an agency — alternative and illegal — that distributes remittances. It was accompanied by a letter from the uncle who went to New Jersey thirty years ago and never returned. “Use it to celebrate Christmas,” he wrote, in his stylized handwriting, ending the … Continue reading “What to Buy? / Yoani Sánchez”
The draft guidelines for economic and social policy proposed by the Cuban communists declare that equal rights and opportunities exist for all citizens, not egalitarianism. But at no point do they give respect to the rights of Cubans. On the contrary, inherent in the “Update of the Socialist Economic Model” is the continuing discrimination against … Continue reading “Economic Guidelines Ignore Policies of Segregation on the Island / Laritza Diversent”
I still remember how at the height of the Special Period my house was deteriorating before our eyes. The walls were peeling, the lights gradually burned out, the wood of the doors and windows buckled, and in general everything became impoverished too fast for my child’s mind to fathom. At times I wondered why the … Continue reading “Placebos / Claudia Cadelo”
I remember the Isle of Pines, for years now renamed the Isle of Youth, as an exotic place that lived up to its name, in addition to cattle, citrus, huge melons, Japanese and American families and thousands of parrots. Also there was the Las Casas river, the ferry dock, Nueva Gerona and its free zone, … Continue reading “Few Expectations / Fernando Dámaso”
They called him Almodóvar. He idolized the director from La Mancha, of whom he claimed he was a distant relative. People didn’t take him seriously. He was as black as coal and as hefty as a circus elephant. He was 69 when his heart literally broke one afternoon, while drinking cheap liquor on the corner … Continue reading “He Left Without Meeting Almodóvar / Iván García”
One full page in the newspaper Granma of December 9: a transcript of the speech of Bruno Rodriguez on climate change and, on the front page, Raul Castro with the president of South Africa and Machado Ventura in Pinar del Río. Obviously, not a single word on the eve of Human Rights Day. A law … Continue reading “Going Begging / Claudia Cadelo”
To discuss the topic that want to devote this post to, I am forced to tell a bit of history. In 1984, I started to work in the Department of Archaeology of the then Institute of Social Sciences, (ICSO) of the Academy of Sciences, in the National Capitol. In those days, we were a large … Continue reading “Brief History of a Perverse Lunacy / Miriam Celaya”
Several weeks ago, in one of those tedious reflections they read on every newscast, I heard about Wikileaks. I know it seems incredible that a blogger, someone who uses the web as a means of expression, would not already know about this site with all the disclosures. But nothing is strange on this “island of … Continue reading “Wikileaks and Empty Archives / Yoani Sánchez”
A ringing youth protest took place in Villa Clara, about 180 miles from Havana. Around a thousand young men paid three pesos in national money to see the match between Barça and Real Madrid, in a movie theater beneath the Hotel Santa Clara. Instead of the transmission of the classic Spanish league, they showed a … Continue reading “Cuba, Soccer, Protests, Recklessness / Iván García”
There is no doubt the dissidence on the island is looking for a space. The document: A Future for Cuba. Issued on December 2, it is counter-proposals to the government’s measures — a balanced document that fits this time in Cuba — from a group of ten people, among them the economist Martha Beatriz Roque … Continue reading “The Time of the Cuban Opposition / Iván García”
I am not going to tell anyone the news about Wikileaks, I’m sure my readers know a lot more about it than we do in Cuba; I do want to comment on the repercussions of the Wikileaks revelations in my media. They have even dedicated a Roundtable TV show to it. And it could be … Continue reading “Wikileaks on my Island / Regina Coyula”
He studied medicine, put on the white coat, entered a hospital to work in a specialty, and blindly believed in the maxims of Hippocrates. At first, imbued with a fascination for cells, muscles and tendons, he barely noticed that his colleagues walked in mended shoes, and that he himself did not earn enough to feed … Continue reading “Disqualified to Speak / Yoani Sánchez”
