English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
I remember well the day of the Havana Biennial when Tania Bruguera, in her performance titled Tatlin’s Whisper, installed a pair of microphones so that anyone could enjoy one minute of freedom from the podium. Shortly afterward, this irreverent and universal artist went to Columbia and shocked everyone when — as a performance — she … Continue reading “Tania is so very Tania / Yoani Sánchez”
Goodbye to the Chinese model or that of Vietnam. Forget about copying Russia or Serbia. General Raul Castro, president of Cuba, is about to introduce one hundred percent home-grown changes. Those who dreamed of a market economy, please, back down to earth. Cuba’s move is “new and native” — in the words of the leaders. … Continue reading “Reforms to Raúl Castro / Iván García”
(Published Friday, 12 November 2010 in number 3 of the digital magazine Voices, on the site www.vocescubanas.com/voces) The Cuban crisis continues to become more profound. The ideological ties, created interests and the totalitarian vocation rise as an obstacle to the transformations that society requires; to it are added the incomprehension of the role of time … Continue reading “Property, A Fundamental Problem / Dimas Castellanos”
Introduction The exhaustion of the “model”, united with the interaction of a mixture of internal and external factors, has formed a box which — paraphrasing Lenin — is a result that those from below don’t want and those from above can’t follow indefinitely. In that context, the death of the political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo, … Continue reading “The Challenges of the New Cuban Scenario / Dimas Castellanos”
Mr. Josep Calvet: I have hesitated for some weeks to respond to comments that you have occasionally poured into our little forum, but recent events that will mark the fate of my country in a not-so-distant future, force me not only to answer, but also to do so publicly. My intention is, of course, to … Continue reading “Open Letter to a Confused Supporter / Miriam Celaya”
As if cutting a cake before it is even baked, our government has extended to 99 years the right of foreign investors to use our land. Pieces of this nation will pass into the hands of those who hold foreign passports; meanwhile local entrepreneurs are granted the use of agricultural land, in usufruct, for a … Continue reading “The Unbearable Roundness of A Golf Ball / Yoani Sánchez”
The article by Juan Varela Pérez, faulting the control and dedication in the sugar harvest, published in the daily Granma on May 5, 2010, is evidence that the critical condition of Cuban sugar production reflects the situation of agricultural production and the of the economy in general. Among other things Varela said that “the current … Continue reading “Sugar, Half a Century of Failures”
