English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Photo: Claudio Fuentes Madan The line for the bus at Coppelia is a special place, one of the corners so eloquent that if it disappeared one day Havana wouldn’t be the same. Yesterday at ten at night I was waiting for my P4 bus when a woman standing next to me with her daughter commented … Continue reading “Subtleties of the Jaw / Claudia Cadelo”
Photo: Claudio Fuentes Madan He arrived at G on Friday to join the crowd of other young people watching the wee hours of the night pass waiting for better times. For some inexplicable reason the police would only allow them “to be” on one of the two sidewalks of 23rd and having made an appointment … Continue reading “Earning a Living / Claudia Cadelo”
Reina Luisa Tamayo and her daughter. Photo by: Claudio Fuentes Madan There are things I’ve thrown in the trunk of the “incomprehensible.” I would say I won, they defeated me, I couldn’t bear it, they beat me. I refuse to exhaust my brain one more instant in trying to find some logic, some, even minimal, … Continue reading “Inconceivable / Claudia Cadelo”
Photo: Claudio Fuentes Madan With a rope and a piece of wood, three children were preparing a torture trap for a lizard. One of them held onto the victim which, with eyes wide and body rigid, awaited his martyrdom without much hope of survival. At that moment I passed by and intervened, as is normal, … Continue reading “Mommy, what is “good”? / Claudia Cadelo”
Photo: Claudio Fuentes Madan There is another Cuba glued to the asphalt, anonymous, dynamic, talkative and entrepreneurial. Three hours in a botero — an informal private car for hire — on the highway from Havana to Santa Clara can transmit more information than a whole year of watching the national news on TV: prices in … Continue reading “A Day in Santa Clara / Claudia Cadelo”
Photo: Claudio Fuentes Madan The Cuban family is fractured, not only by national separations as a result of emigration, but also by political conflicts between the family members in the country. The other day I was invited to dinner at my friend’s house and by the end of the gathering I was depressed by the … Continue reading “Dinner Among Strangers”
How Did I Get Here? Photo: Claudio Fuentes Madan I was born in 1983, and was a happy child living in the socialist paradise until I was six, when the disintegration of the Soviet Union showed me that I had been raised in an atmosphere of privilege. Economic necessity, however, did not make my parents … Continue reading “Claudia Cadelo”
Photo: Claudio Fuentes Madan Practical woman that I am, I thought I would take advantage of my trip to Santa Clara to buy, along the highway, products which, in the capital, are hard to get or very expensive. From when I was little I remember the peasants by the road side selling what they themselves … Continue reading “Sad Highways”
Photo: Claudio Fuentes Madan I’m going to take a few days off, I will still post but not as often. I need to rest a little, my body and mind are begging me. But don’t worry, I’m fine.
Somos+, 20 October 2015 — They have released Danilo Maldonado, better known as El Sexto (The Sixth). We are happy for the participation of all the activists and people who continued to press for his freedom before this injustice, in spite of the long wait. A special thanks to all our members and sympathizers who … Continue reading “El Sexto Talks With Somos+ After His Release / Somos+”
From Cubanet We received a note dated and signed today, 3 August, from the attorney Amelia R. Rodríguez Cala, who represents the writer Ángel Santiesteban. She asks us to divulge: “I have learned that Angel Lázaro Santiesteban Prats, whom I represent, has been moved to a prison where the sanction imposed by another will be … Continue reading “Angel Santiesteban Transferred, Whereabouts Unknown”
Link to Facebook Here Declaration No. 2, 11 November 2012 On Wednesday, November 7, a group of citizens was arrested outside the so-called Section 21 of State Security, at 31st Avenue and 110th Street, in the municipality of Marianao. The group of about ten people was there to inquire about the legal status and whereabouts … Continue reading “LIBERTAD! FREEDOM! / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”