English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Havana, 3 May 2017 – The independent activist Lia Villares finally traveled to the United States on Wednesday, as confirmed to 14ymedio by the dissident musician Gorki Aguila. On Tuesday, Villares was not able to board her flight to the US, after being detained by the police on her way to the airport. The activist … Continue reading “Lia Villares Finally Makes it to the United States”
Statement from Miguel Coyula and Lynn Cruz 15 April 2017, 8:00 PM, Havana: Cuban State Security and Police blocked the street leading to the Gallery El Circulo in Havana in order to prevent the audience from attending the screening of Miguel Coyula’s independent film Nadie, which depicts the story of the Cuban Revolution through the … Continue reading “Cuban State Security and Police Prevent Screening of Independent Film in Havana”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 23 November 2016 — The film Santa and Andrés will not be screened at the 38th edition of the Havana Film Festival, to be held between 8 and 18 December. Sources from the industry guild commented to 14ymedio that the exclusion of the independent film, directed by Carlos Lechuga, could be motivated by its theme, focusing … Continue reading “The Film ‘Santa and Andrés’ is Excluded From Havana Festival / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 6 June 2016 — Cuban filmmaker Miguel Coyula participated in the New Media Film Festival of Los Angeles with the seventh chapter of his series Rafael Alcides. The short film was part of a more than two-hour interview with with the well-known poet and writer, addressing topics such as art, beauty and Cuba past … Continue reading “Rafael Alcides Close Up / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar”
Fernando Damaso, 2 December 2015 — Once again we residents of Nuevo Vedado have had to suffer the incompetence and irresponsibility of the “Tree Destruction Brigade” from the Electric Company. Without the least knowledge of what it means, they “prune” them, leaving just a trunk with two or three branches that look more like arms … Continue reading “A Deplorable Example / Fernando Damaso”
14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 31 July 2015 — Shy, but with a quick wit and a direct expression, the filmmaker Miguel Coyula (b. Havana 1977) opens the door the room where he works and lets 14ymedio into this creative space in a Vedado apartment. The director of Memories of Underdevelopment is craftsman of the cinema: … Continue reading ““I want more movies and fewer laws” / 14ymedio, Luz Escobar”
Cubanet, Rafael Alcides, Havana, 10 March 2015 — Let’s call him Hermes. Everything he says is said in private. I will not reveal his identity but, given the positions he has held, it is worth listening to what he has to say. We all know these are confusing times, but imagine how much more confusing … Continue reading “What if Fidel Were to Survive Raul? / Cubanet, Rafael Alcides”
THE COPY-PASTE OF REVOLUTIOPHRENIA Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo Before Facebook, I met Eliécer Jiménez only once, in an alternative cultural debate in Camagüey, three years ago. He was somewhat shy, but resolute in his urge to be creative in cinematographic terms. No money, no contacts, no political pedigree. A dreamer in a province that looked … Continue reading “Entropy of Eliecer Jimenez at Brown University / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Castroneirics: Is there Cuban literature after the Revolution? Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo This story started long before the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, on January 1st1959. In the beginning it was not the Word, but the War. And in the war Fidelity is the utmost value, its betrayal usually paid with death, whether civil or political, … Continue reading “Castroniria / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Now, as the 2013 Art Deco Congress is being held in our country, and invitees and delegates attend its conferences, an average of three residential structures a day collapse in the capital. The influence of Art Deco, which dates to the 1920s and 1930s, was strongly felt throughout the world in the decorative arts, painting, … Continue reading “Art Deco, Art-kitsch-tecture and Collapsed Buildings / Rebeca Monzo”
Yesterday I attended an interesting lecture by the architect Miguel Coyula, on the history and current state of the buildings in the city of Havana and its continuing deterioration. It was held in the old Provincial College of Architects of Havana, today transformed into the Union of Architects and Engineers of Cuba, and the attendees … Continue reading “Something Different — A Lecture on Havana’s Buildings and the State of the City / Fernando Damaso #Cuba”
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 28 September 2022 — I was finally able to see The Padilla Case, Pavel Giroud’s film that brings to light a disconcerting, devastating historical archive. The original material remained hidden in the vaults of the Castro regime for half a century, until now. And it’s urgent that we look back … Continue reading “The Padilla case, or the ‘Generous’ Terror of the Cuban Revolution”
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 25 May 2022 — On June 22, 1990, before the United Nations, Nelson Mandela firmly demanded that the sanctions against Pretoria be maintained. The African leader wondered what mistake had been made to allow a country with apartheid to be seated after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the … Continue reading “Cuba’s Machiavellian Use of Migration”
14ymedio, Havana, 22 July 2021 — Cuban filmmaker Fernando Pérez said that to overcome the crisis in Cuba that led to the July 11 protests a “new political language” needs to be built without violence and without the dark “acts of repudiation,” he stressed in an interview with AFP news agency. The multi-awarded director, winner … Continue reading “Cuba Needs a New Political Language, Says Filmmaker Fernando Perez”
Yoani Sanchez, New York Times, Havana, 13 January 2019 — A young man posts images of a flood in Centro Habana on social networks. From the internet come complaints from neighbors who are clamoring for an official response and for repairs to the sewer network. Sixty years after the triumph of the Revolution, Cubans are prohibited from … Continue reading “The Revolution Does Not Want To Be Tweeted”
