English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
On Saturday, organized by the Critical Observatory, a small but determined group of people gathered in Karl Marx Park in Havana to support the movement of the outraged in Europe. A couple of minutes shy of two p.m. they hung a cloth (a sheet?) That read “Down With All Capitalisms,” and another with the slogan: … Continue reading “15M in Havana / Reinaldo Escobar”
A common site in Cuba — keeping one of those old engines running. In Cuba, there are many things we take for granted and count on for ourselves and for the world as settled matters, normal in how they work, but in reality they are obsolete things, of poor quality and even dangerous or extremely … Continue reading “Cars, Costs and Benefits / Eliécer Ávila”
I will summarize my opinion on the posts referring to transportation in a single comment because in both posts I find the element of corruption. Of course there is corruption elsewhere, even more aggressive than in our country; the difference is that it is supposed that we work on “project” in which corruption has no … Continue reading “Bad Handwriting in La Joven Cuba (29) / Regina Coyula”
I look at the crust, I touch it, I smell it… I doubt … but I don’t have the temerity to eat it. I think about the mother of the baker and imagine her selling in a private restaurant on the corner the butter that is “left over” at the end of the shift; and … Continue reading “Of Bread and Other Demons / Jeovany Jimenez Vega”
After 6 in the evening, Carlos, 48, looks distractedly at his fold Seiko, and takes a swig from a large Corona beer. He’s dressed in light blue vented Bermudas, Nike shoes that cost $120, and a shirt with the face of Messi, the Argentine star of the Barcelona football team. Right now, from his iPhone, … Continue reading “Havana and its Small Businesses / Iván García”
After touring most of Europe, eleven countries in Africa, ten in Asia and traveling through America from New York to Buenos Aires, sisters Anna and Arancha, natives of Oviedo, Asturias, Spain, decided to land in Havana and come to know other places of the Caribbean’s largest island, where their grandparents came as immigrants and prospered … Continue reading “Views of the Island / Miguel Iturría Savón”
For Rogelio, 49, the need for housing is stronger than his fear of losing his life due to a collapse. Born in Guantanamo, and he has nine years in Havana. For twelve hours a day, he frantically pedals a rickshaw under a blazing sun. He lives in one of the more than 6 thousand tenements … Continue reading “Havana is Falling Down on Us / Iván García”
Seven almendrones, fifteen concrete benches, a video camera on every third pole and four policemen on every corner, waiting for the dozens of prospective immigrants who come from Monday to Friday to the triangular park at Calzada and K streets, Vedado, Havana. The now Parque de las Palomas (Park of the Doves), formerly the Park … Continue reading “The Park at Calzada and K / Miguel Iturria Savón”
In the city of Havana, Cuba, “Big Almond” (almendrón in Spanish) is the nickname given to the antique cars, most of them made in USA, from the decades of the forties and the fifties. With ingenious bodywork they are still running around the main streets and avenues, giving service as collective taxi cabs to citizens … Continue reading “”
Why is everyone so sad here? I promise to ask the poet, while at the Hanoi playground in an unnumbered area of Alamar: a once breathing tribute to the great defeat of Yankee imperialism in Asia, today bleak without benches but not without sweating drunks, shouting while they play chess or kiss mouth to toothless … Continue reading “A DAY OF JUAN CARLOS FLORES IN DIARIO DE CUBA… / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
THE WAKE OF THE POPULAR PIGEON Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo With no eyes (the preferred organs of sacred sacrifices). With a gag of a stick inserted in her beak (reminiscent metaphor to executions in Cuba). Crucified (historic prank that no beast except for man in a savage state would commit). Exposed on a street post … Continue reading “Pigeon Blisters / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
This sign caught my eye immediately, because it proudly decorated a splendid Cadillac minibus from 1947 that looked as brand-new as if it had just left the dealer’s showroom. There are several almendrones—those big cars that look like big almonds, all from before 1959—making their way back to the streets these days. A booming image … Continue reading “Cut it Out! The Animal is Here / Rebeca Monzo”
To go back to the Havana of 50 years ago, I haven’t used a time machine, rather a telephone directory from 1960 that a collector of magazines and old books sold me for 50 pesos (2 dollars). The first novelty was to find that the Spanish Embassy was on Oficios, a street less central than … Continue reading “A Glance at 1960 Havana / Iván García”
If, as the result of some wonderful spell, lots of Cubans on the island were able to (and wished to) participate with us in this blog, they would agree with me in that there is a phenomenon, as curious as it is widespread, that has been ordained as usual, at least in Havana: taxicabs are … Continue reading “The Rolling Confessional / Miriam Celaya”
ALMOST AS GREY AS THE WINTER SEA Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo When we were so so poor that even our language knew misery. Not only the anthology of English songs confused us (My Underpants Fell Down… a Micheal Jackson title seemed to say, Happy Willy… in exchange for I’ll Be Waiting by a foreigner, I … Continue reading “NOVEMBER 6: LITTLE GREY HOUSE / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”