English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Knowing how to say no when the opportunity presents itself, no matter the surprise, the gain, or the subsequent costs of the negative, is what differentiates us from prostitutes. My rejection of the regime came to me from an early age, I knew it was the wrong road and that with the Communist System the … Continue reading “Testimony: The Failed Attempts to Make Me an Agent – I / Angel Santiesteban”
Rebellious Hash (recipe) Ingredients: 1 roll of Our Delight minced turkey, 16 ounces, from Wichita, USA 1 box of 1-1/2 ounces of Sierra Harvest Raisins, USA One large onion from the expensive farmers market because in the cheap one they almost never have it. 2 cloves of garlic. 1 green pepper. 2 Tablespoons of sunflower … Continue reading “Breaking the Blockade / Rebeca Monzo”
When it comes time for sex, black Cuban women don’t feel discriminated against. Rather used. Roxana, 36, an architect, endures with Asian patience the sexual harassment from her white bosses, the gross come-ons, and the outright proposals to go to bed for 20 dollars. What I have to put up with is incredible. From one … Continue reading “Racism a la Cuban(a)* / Iván García”
With regards to the new amendment presented in the U.S. Congress to restrict travel and remittances to Cuba. We lived in a dark time in 1992 and this daughter of a train engineer with no train had decided to drop out of high school. I got up early and told my mother. Hands on my … Continue reading “My Reasons for the Bridge / Yoani Sánchez”
What I always admired about the United State policies is their pragmatism. It has an unmistakable capacity to dump in the trash can the strategies that don’t work. And to overcome the errors. But regarding the Cuban embargo, the Americans show a notable stupidity. Let’s see it from its supporters’ angle. Its advocates think that if … Continue reading “Who Benefits From the Cuban Embargo? / Iván García”
With its rustic figures of wood with a vertical tube going through it that no longer makes it go up and down, the little horses of Mónaco, en La Víbora, are the rusty gallop of boredom, the wheel of poverty in turns of hopelessness. With faces unexpressive of emotion, we purchased the rides for our … Continue reading “The Country Carousel / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado”
With its rustic figures of wood with a vertical tube going through it that no longer makes it go up and down, the little horses of Mónaco, en La Víbora, are the rusty gallop of boredom, the wheel of poverty in turns of hopelessness. With faces unexpressive of emotion, we purchased the rides for our toddlers … Continue reading “The Country Carousel”
For the doubters, they lost their bets. I continue blogging, continue tweeting, even though I almost never tweet, because to say something in 140 characters I have to wait to connect to the Internet, then I post and it’s more clear. Let me tell you. On my return and after successful combat against sewage, like … Continue reading “… as I was saying… / Regina Coyula”
True to my iconoclastic anti-traditionalist spirit, I deliberately ignored a date: the first year of this blog. It happened last Saturday. On July 9, 2010, I inaugurated this space with Prologue to The Little Brother, which was more an avalanche than a prologue: it was the first handful of snow I launched to roll, convinced … Continue reading “Pillar of Salt / Ernesto Morales Licea”
On June 21st the offices of the National Institute of Housing in Las Tunas issued an ultimatum to evict from their home the daughter and grandchildren of the deceased Gustavo Valeriano Sanchez Urquiza, a fighter who participated in the guerrilla warfare fought by the Rebel Army in the oriental zone. The Provincial Directory of Housing … Continue reading “A Nightmare in Las Tunas / Laritza Diversent”
On this Sunday morning, I savor a good cup of coffee given to me by good friends who have offered me a safe place to stay while my wife informs me that police officials are looking for me back in San German. I will share some opinions with you all about how the history of … Continue reading “Time to Drink Coffee? / Luis Felipe Rojas”
REFLECTIONS, WAVES, INTERFACES Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo Like at the border, in vintage films. The guard asks us for our documents as is routine and we follow the rules, but something doesn’t work. Everything confuses us, even the language. And we know it in advance. Instinct or intuition. We drown at the last minute. We … Continue reading “SMALL TALK / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Circulating in the media these days is a United Nations report on Latin American women. In it concerns are expressed about domestic violence, equality with regards to work opportunities, and the liberation of the gender. To my way of thinking, little has been achieved in this regard in my country since the forties, when Cuban … Continue reading “Liberated Women / Rebeca Monzo”
When I say metaphorically to my friends that my mouth is dry, they think that probably I have diabetes – because of my weight gain since I quit smoking – or a thirst to drink the vital liquid. They don’t understand that fifty-two years of the same party (the only one legally approved) ruling Cuba … Continue reading “Choking it Down / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado”
When I say metaphorically to my friends that my mouth is dry, they think that probably I have diabetes – because of my weight gain since I quit smoking – or a thirst to drink the vital liquid. They don’t understand that fifty-two years of the same party (the only one legally approved) ruling Cuba … Continue reading “Choking it Down”