Cuban State Responsible for Scarcity of Agricultural, Meat Products / Iván García

Serafín, 69, never had toys. For his 8th birthday the gifts from his father were a pick and hoe. He woke him at 5 AM and they went to work in a row of onions. He told him, “If you want your children and grandchildren to have toys, you will have to get it out … Continue reading “Cuban State Responsible for Scarcity of Agricultural, Meat Products / Iván García”

Mangos Every Summer / Yoani Sánchez

The branches bend under the weight and children throw stones and shake the limbs trying to knock down the fruit. It’s mango season. Like a cycle of life that transcends the crisis, the lack of vision, and the failed agricultural plans, the mangoes come again, the filipinos and bizcochuelos. We are at exactly the moment … Continue reading “Mangos Every Summer / Yoani Sánchez”

Investors’ Incentives… Cuban Style / Ernesto Morales Licea

My mother just closed the business that fed the better part of my family in Cuba over the last decade. The reason: the country’s new plan of economic recovery. A little over ten years ago, someone who shares my blood and who had an immense business vision, became a pioneer in a particular business: Renting … Continue reading “Investors’ Incentives… Cuban Style / Ernesto Morales Licea”

Bad Handwriting in La Joven Cuba (10) / Regina Coyula

The problem with Cuba For Robert Perales You shouldn’t worry too much about how people who probably are interested hypothetically speculate about the “problem of Cuba.” To cite global warming as a solution doesn’t turn out to be an irony you have taken very seriously. Of cyclones and an epidemic, though I don’t know the … Continue reading “Bad Handwriting in La Joven Cuba (10) / Regina Coyula”

The Era of Soy? / Reinaldo Escobar

“I know the naysayers are coming now to pour cold water on my illusions,” a neighbor parodied in a tango tempo, on hearing a Cuban television report revealing a plan to flood with soybeans what has been taken over by marabou weed, where sugar cane was once planted in the fertile lands of Ciego de … Continue reading “The Era of Soy? / Reinaldo Escobar”

I Dream of a Day Without Serpents / Francis Sánchez

Photos: Francis Sánchez. I have the excuse of two children so I can play outside. At home I say I’m going with them to please them and keep a close watch over them, the reality is that I escape, in this way, the tensions and the routine, or it might be, the idiotic world. Sometimes … Continue reading “I Dream of a Day Without Serpents / Francis Sánchez”

Everybody Happy / Francis Sánchez

Walking from the base camp Playa Inglés to the Ismaellillo Camp, on the south coast in Cienfuegos Province, took me about forty minutes. I stopped now and then to take a photo like a dream. There was no time to lose. I was overcome with the joy of a parent who sees that his son … Continue reading “Everybody Happy / Francis Sánchez”

Few Expectations / Fernando Dámaso

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”

Would Communism be Good for Cubans? / Iván García

In theory, to live under communism should be a nice little number for Cubans. As money doesn’t exist, you don’t have to pay bills for rent, electricity, water or the phone. If we had internet connections, they would be free, too. If you’re hungry, you go to the supermarket and fill a trolley with groceries. … Continue reading “Would Communism be Good for Cubans? / Iván García”

Yunia Continues Living on the Edge of Suicide / Iván García and Laritza Diversent

Yunia Palacios, 30, is a potential suicide. You can tell by looking at her. She and her three children live poorly and eat worse. She is a mulata Indian with mild mental retardation and an almost animal life. Her history is an ordeal. For the official media there are no people like Yunia. But there … Continue reading “Yunia Continues Living on the Edge of Suicide / Iván García and Laritza Diversent”

The Mandarins Come by Boat / Yoani Sánchez

It is a mesh bag, a reddish woven net with five mandarins inside. They’ve been carried here — from Europe — by a reader who discovered where I live thanks to the tracks left in the blog. After I brought him a glass of water, he took the citrus fruits out of his backpack — … Continue reading “The Mandarins Come by Boat / Yoani Sánchez”

Government Neglect of the Mentally Ill / Miguel Iturria Savón

Last Friday I ran into my friend Nora on a bus, she’s diabetic with a 9-year-old daughter and schizophrenic brother who is a patient in a Havana psychiatric hospital. They take good care of him, after he bounced back and forth between his father’s house and the Mazorra madhouse, during almost two decades of delusions, … Continue reading “Government Neglect of the Mentally Ill / Miguel Iturria Savón”

Che’s Grandchildren / Iván García

Forget the New Man Che Guevara dreamed of one day. We said goodbye long ago to that guy dressed in a uniform twelve hours a day and on the weekends we would prefer to read realistic Russian works like Volokolamsk Highway and How The Steel Was Tempered, before having a beer and listening to the … Continue reading “Che’s Grandchildren / Iván García”

Other Steps / Fernando Dámaso

1. When we speak of solving the economic problems that overwhelm us, the road ahead appears complex and intricate. It has grown too much invasive marabou weed over the years and clearing it is no easy task. The solution is not to open narrow paths that, ultimately, are difficult to navigate and close up again … Continue reading “Other Steps / Fernando Dámaso”

collaborations from VOCES 1… / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

PROSPERITY AND KINDNESS: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN of the Enlightenment Marti Mirta Suquet HAVING studied in Cuba, in this world of relative certainties they built for us during the eighties, and having subsequently completed a course at the University of Havana, many doors opened in advance. The fame of Cuban university graduates is … Continue reading “collaborations from VOCES 1… / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”