English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
It often happens to me with good books the same thing that happens with the best dreams: when they come to me, they are here to stay. Ernesto, a friend of a couple of friends, came from the warm city of Barcelona and brought this gift to my hands. It’s called The Unknown University, it’s … Continue reading “A Certain Bolaño / Luis Felipe Rojas”
Several friends who follow the blog have asked me why I haven’t commented on Fidel’s statements about the persecution of homosexuals in an interview with the director of the Mexican daily La Jornada. My casual access to the web makes commenting on any current them delayed. But three years ago I followed with great interest … Continue reading “Yesterday’s Homophobia / Regina Coyula”
How do I connect a mobile phone to Cuban Twitter? 1. First you must connect to the Internet and and get an account at http://www.twitter.com 2. Keep the user name and password you are given in a secure place. 3. Add to your mobile phone address book a new contact named Twitter with the number … Continue reading “Mobile-Activism 2 / Yoani Sánchez”
At age nine, a fall from a considerable height would give a resounding twist to his life. It would prevent him from ever walking again. He had to endure endless surgeries, which turned his adolescence into a cruel and painful time. Despite all this, perhaps the God whom he invokes so frequently rewarded him with … Continue reading “Practical Instructions for Creating an Enemy / Ernesto Morales Licea”
Photos/Luis Felipe Rojas A few days before the start of the new school year I was browsing my son Malcom’s school books and it seems to me he is going to have a heavy weight to struggle through. My wife and I bought colored jackets and cut our pieces of nylon to cover them, and … Continue reading “Doctrine, Cradle and Bread / Luis Felipe Rojas”
Excerpt from documentary by Fabian Archondo and the Foundation for New Latin American Cinema. My son is at that age where he could eat the columns of the house if we didn’t keep an eye on him. He opens and closes the refrigerator door, as if he believes that this appliance could produce — just … Continue reading “The Claria, From the Rivers to the Sewers / Yoani Sánchez”
Exclusive to the Huffington Post For a long time when I heard the word teacher, it brought to mind the word respect; it was one of those unconscious associations from which the psychoanalysts draw surprising conclusions. I associated the noun that indicated this profession with the names and faces of all those who taught me … Continue reading “Cuban Teachers Desert An Increasingly Despised Profession / Yoani Sánchez”
On Monday, September 13th, in an unusual statement issued by the Cuban Workers Organization (the CTC), it was announced that half a million Cubans will lose their jobs in the coming months. The amazing thing is not the wave of layoffs in itself, (for a while, it has been rumored that about one million in … Continue reading “Anti-Unionism: Another Revolutionary Feat / Miriam Celaya”
Recently the talk on my planet is the imminent dismissal of half a million workers who are on staff performing work which, in reality, could be done by half as many people. In the seventies, there was a large decrease in the staffing at some of the central agencies. At that time it was given … Continue reading “Giving the Wheel Another Turn / Rebeca Monzo”
RECENTLY I HAVE BEEN HOPING I might read my blog for the first time. Some friends have seen it and described it to me, and I feel the same pleasure as when they speak to me about my children. They suggested that I buy a card that would let me enter cyberspace from the services … Continue reading “Blogging Blind / Ángel Santiesteban”
Fidel Castro’s recent confession that the Cuban System doesn’t work, not even for us, and the unfortunate clarification that sought to amend the slip, have surprised and excited those addicted to the regime, its opponents, and neutral Cubanologists. The initial phrase, slipped into an interview with the journalist Jeffry Goldberg from The Atlantic magazine, came … Continue reading “The Naked King / Reinaldo Escobar”
Photo: Leandro Feal She has moved her son to three different schools. Between the “emerging teachers,” those who swear there are no Spanish words accented on the antepenultimate syllable (the word for which, in Spanish — sobreesdrújulas –is itself accented on the antepenultimate syllable), and the political propaganda, she couldn’t take it any more. The … Continue reading “Another School / Claudia Cadelo”
Early morning hours. Eight students from “Marta Abreu” Central University of Las Villas, passengers without tickets on a train. They are between cars, standing or crouching, shivering from the most intense cold in the world. In the door to the right, two cops: they don’t let them pass. At the door to the left, three … Continue reading “Gandhi Smiling in the Wee Hours / Henry Constantín”
Ever since Sebastián de Ocampo circumnavigated Cuba, between 1508 and 1509, the seduction of the then blue and clear waters of Havana Bay began. He named it Puerto Carenas* because he stopped here to repair some damage to his ship and to renew his fresh water reserves. Two small rivers flow into this bay. Ocampo … Continue reading “The Dying Bay / Miriam Celaya”
The line at a home-based private “pizza parlor” — takeaway only — in Havana. Exclusive to The Huffington Post. Under the strict canons of the socialist economy — planned, centralized and subsidized — self-employment has always been seen as an undesirable species of pest that periodically needs to be abated and occasionally even exterminated. One … Continue reading “Will a Half Million Laid Off Cubans Find Work in Private Enterprise? / Yoani Sánchez”
