English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
The corner of 23 and L is the center of Havana. It is always lively. At any hour. Together, as if they were shaking hands, we have the Habana Libre hotel, the Coppelia ice cream parlour and the Yara cinema. There are too many blown bulbs amongst the neon lights of the cinema billboard which barely manages to announce a British film, … Continue reading “Neither Strawberry Nor Chocolate”
Carrying out any sort of political analysis or political prediction in Cuba is almost like an Indiana Jones adventure. The media does anything it can to misinform. They barely extract any bit of information from those in power. There is no way of getting any official statistics or facts. When one is an independent journalist … Continue reading “What Will be the Next Move?”
While some prisoners of the Black Spring of 2003, like Pablo Pacheco and Adolfo Fernandez Sainz, have their optimism levels up in the clouds, there is much more caution amongst the feelings of the Ladies in White. In fact, there is much pessimism. The doctor Lidia Lima, wife of the prisoner of conscience Arnaldo Ramos … Continue reading “More Doubts than Optimism”
Note to readers of this blog: The text that follows is extensive. It is a reply to statements made in recent days by the BBC’s correspondent in Havana, Mr. Fernando Ravsberg, as part of statements he made in an interview with his fellow countryman, journalist Emiliano Cotelo, during Ravsberg’s recent stay in Madrid. The complexity … Continue reading “Open letter to the BBC of London / Miriam Celaya”
It seems like a kids’ game. Two sides. Good guys and bad guys. The Cuban government tries to make us look like a bunch of crooks, fools, delinquents, mercenaries, and traitors to the country. But life is much more complex. It has mixes. Nothing is black and white. A wrongful precedent is created when the … Continue reading “Delinquents and Loyalists”
It’s been a boomerang. Carlos and Ariel both are 41-years-old. They grew up with the idea that the United States was the worst of all countries. The dogs and white racists, dressed in their white hoods, were waiting around every corner to knife a defenseless Negro. The prisons were full of Latino immigrants and ethnic minorities. The American … Continue reading “Monologue of Two Balseros”
When Cubans find themselves struggling with personal problems they usually prefer to visit a babalao so that they could toss their shells instead of confessing to a priest in the church. Catholicism has the most followers on the island. But the beliefs brought over by former African slaves of the XVI and XVII centuries also … Continue reading “Meurice, Cuba’s most Beloved Priest”
The government of General Raul Castro is handling the Cuban situation with kid gloves, and a lot of discretion. The jubilation and cheap partying of revolutionary re-affirmation is pure distraction. The national economy is sinking without remedy. The prescription for alleviating the disaster appears most like the neo-liberal variety that is criticized with such passion by the … Continue reading “Raul Castro Handles the Situation with Tweezers”
Dania Virgen García is a journalist like Usaín Bolt is a cosmonaut. Her story is one of an imposter. Before the flood of material and political shortages that Cuba experiences, some citizens, spontaneously, feel deeply that the road of dissent is a good way of changing the state of affairs. Okay. It’s fair that all have … Continue reading “Banana Dissidence”
If we Cubans thought that our hardships and shortages of all kinds had hit bottom, forget it. It is the twentieth anniversary of the most severe and extensive economic crisis that the island suffered in all its history. Those were hard years. Very hard. It is still fresh in my memory. Blackouts of up to … Continue reading “The Special Period Returns”
Take note. More than 50 percent of the potable water that is distributed in the Cuban capital is lost to the poor state of the network of aqueducts and sewers. It is a drama. Also note that more than 100,000 Havana households do not have access to the precious liquid. Ask Jose Mesa, 49, what … Continue reading “Havana Water”
As a child I knew him in Havana. We lived in the neighborhood of El Pilar, Cerro. We were neighbors; he lived with his mother and brother on the first floor and I lived with my family on the second. Skinny and tall, he spent the day with a guitar, playing songs that he invented. That … Continue reading ““I will go to Cuba when I can do it as a free citizen””
The sun beats down hard on the grey and white building located on Aguila street at the corner of Dragones, next to Chinatown in Havana. On that piece of real estate which was long ago given up by the Cuban Telephone Company, are the offices of ETESCA, the Empresa Cubana de Telecomunicaciones (the Cuban Telecommunications Company). On his morning walk … Continue reading “An Act of Repudiation from Within”
They’re like pirates on the highway. And they act with total impunity. On the stretch between Kilometer 10 and the first ring of the National Autoroute, a road with 8 lanes, dark as a wolf’s mouth and where the poor condition of the pavement makes drivers reduce their speed, it’s the propitious moment for a new breed of … Continue reading “Highway Robbery”
Life for Juan Domeq, age 69, is a vicious cycle. He gets up every morning at 5:30 am and slowly hobbles to a newsstand to buy 50 issues of the newspaper Granma, and the same number of Juventud Rebelde. Domeq spends 20 pesos (less than US$1) for the hundred copies. If he can sell them … Continue reading “Stories of Ordinary People”
