El Vedado: From Modernity to Brutality / Juan Antonio Madrazo Luna

HAVANA, Cuba, August, www.cubanet.org –The identity of El Vedado has been in jeopardy for a long time.  This neighborhood in the old Elegant Havana is no longer a museum of modern architecture.  Here Cuba entered modernity, which was always an accent of its identity.  It wasn’t just a neighborhood founded by families of the aristocracy, it was also a neighborhood of tourism and prosperity.

This neighborhood, which germinated from the forest, today has aged very badly. It is a scrap of city that is no longer prepared to handle hard hits, its views have been sacked, deteriorated and blurred, it stopped being an ostentatious site and today its facades are merely a game of appearance.

I remember the homeland of my childhood as a hospitable place, an ecological settlement in which the way of life breathed dignity.  Having been born in the Sagrado Corazon and being from El Vedado demanded an etiquette of distinction and elegance, even among the humblest.

Teresa, a woman from Guantanamo who was born in La Loma del Chivo, vowed, from very young, never to go back to her hometown: “I arrived in this neighborhood in 1962 –she testified–and I was dazzled by El Vedado, one could distinguish the personality this place held, it had its own glamor, it was a place where one breathed decency.  Back then, the beat of a drum, witchcraft and the sacrifices of animals under the ceiba tree was foreign to this place.  Today this identity has disappeared and a culture of flip flops and barracks has been superimposed.

With the new social contract pushed by the Revolutionary inquisition, the customs and culture of El Vedado, as a style of life for the elite of Havana, was amputated by decree and replaced by a culture of barbarity.

The Hotel Trotcha, the Govea and Alaska buildings, or the gardens of the Loynaz home, are some of the lost local patrimony.  The Alaska building, that could have been saved, was destroyed by dynamite, and today in its place is the park of the Provincial Communist Party Committee.  It’s possible that the same fate awaits the Medical Retreat building, located on N, between 23 and 25.  Cinematographic rooms, such as the Gris theater, and cultural plazas, such as the Casa de la Cultura Checa have been lost.

According to Hilda, a Havanan born in the neighborhood of Cayo Hueso, today many mansions in El Vedado are citadels: “I remember that here there weren’t many ancestral homes, among them were the home of the Chalas, now known as Blumer Caliente, and the Guillermina home, where the most troublesome family was that of Silvia, known as La Cochina, white with dark hair and eyes, who left the country in 1980.  Now there are other places , such as La Mierdita (The Little Shit), El Sopena, el Hormiguero (The Anthill) and the Pentagon.  Chivalry is over, as is good taste and the pride we once felt for this place.”

Areas linked to the echo of fine dining, such as the Varsovia, Sofia and El Jardin restaurants, as well as coffee shops, La Cocinita (The Little Kitchen), El Avioncito (The Little Plane), La Piragua (The Canoe), La Fuente (The Fountain) and Sol Mar (Sun Sea), no longer exist.  Other restaurants like Rancho Luna (Moon Ranch), Los Andes (The Andes), Vita Nova, El Cochinito (The Little Pig), Centro Vasco, Casa Potin, Las Bulerias, El Castillo de Jagua, (The Castle of Jagua), La Roca (The Rock), El Mandarin, Siete Mares (Seven Seas), where it is now very difficult to eat seafood and fish, or the pizzerias Cinecitta, Buona Sera and Milan.  They are all grey places, abandoned to their fates.

The few places with foreign currency have cancelled opportunities for free entertainment of the common people.  The Vedado Tennis, today the Jose Antonio Echevarria Social Circle, is a jungle in which the floating class free their repressions and lay out the trash talk.  The Club Sayonara is a sad warehouse of food administrated by the Provincial Management of Gastronomy of the People’s Power of the municipality.  The Escondite de Hernando and Club Oluku clubs disappeared and were transformed into a piloto* for the mass consumption of beer.  The feeling vanished from Pico Blanco.  The children’s hospital Pedro Borras, and the maternity ward, Clodomira Acosta, have been waiting to be demolished for more than 20 years.

While El Vedado continues to lose its role as the Garden neighborhood it once was, new places are being superimposed, as part of the emerging economy: Dulcilandia (Candyland), La Farandula (Showbiz)  and La Moraleja ((The Moral).  The walk along the Avenue of the Presidents is the sanctuary of the urban tribes (emos, rockers, preps and gangsters).  The culture of parks is also crumbling, the Victor Hugo (H and 21) or Medina and Menocal are now animal cemeteries, for the permanent offerings to the ceiba tree of the spirits.

A long time ago, El Vedado stopped being this elegant gentleman, an intellectual dressed in white with a blue cummerbund.  Of its traditions, which constituted their own culture, all that is left is the eroticism of La Rampa and the romanticism of the Malecón.

*Translator’s note: The name “piloto” comes from Plan Piloto (Pilot Plan) that began around 1969 after the regime expropriated all the remaining small businesses, including bars, in 1968. There was still a need to sell beer to people to keep them happy-ish, and the regime turned many of the bars and clubs into cheaper “beer halls” under the Plan Piloto.  Cubans started to call these establishments “pilotos” (singular: la piloto).  In short, a piloto is a trashy, dirty, state-owned beer hall. [The translator thanks one of our most faithful collaborator’s mother for this explanation.]

About the author

Juan Antonio Madrazo Luna: Civic Activist and leader of the Citizen’s Committee for Racial Integration (CIR).

He lives in the city of Havana.

From Cubanet

27 August 2013

Federation of Cuban Women: Reasons to Celebrate? / Yaremis Flores

HAVANA, Cuba, August, 2013 www.cubanet.org – At age 16, every girl who is part of an “integrated” and “revolutionary” family, automatically becomes a “federated” woman. Perhaps, like me, the only memory they retain of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) is when a neighbor came by the house to collect the dues.

On August 23rd, the only state organization that “defends” the human rights of women celebrated its 53rd anniversary. At the time, extensive articles in the official press accentuated stories about Heroines of Labor, including a female crane operator, among others.

They stuck to those cases of women who were able to overcome the barriers of sexism, but as usual this is a government strategy to hide those Cuban women who are victims of discrimination and of domestic and institutional violence.

Recently, Cuba was examined by the Committee against Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, for its acronym in English) and the FMC was challenged about the absence of complaints on this issue.

As noted by one of the experts, “the absence of complaints does not always mean the absence of problems; sometimes it’s because of fear and various other reasons that women do not get around to making the complaint.”

In fact, Cuban women do not recognize the House of Guidance to Woman and the Family, nor the FMC, as potential organizations to resolve their problems. This is demonstrated by the low numbers provided by the State regarding assistance to members of the Federation in cases of violence between 2006 to 2008.

Eloísa Ricardo, after a history of mistreatment and abuse by her former husband, a government official, looked in vain to the FMC. On the other hand, Mrs. Regla Bárbara complained to the Federation, and received a response letter sending the case to the Prosecutor’s office, which is standard practice.

The FMC reached this anniversary under the disappointed and concerned gaze of international bodies such as CEDAW, for failing for, so many years, in getting the  Parliament to pass a specific law protecting women.

By Yaremis Flores

August, 27, 2013

From Cubanet

Translated by: Tomás A.

Tomb Raiding and Wreath Robbing / Rebeca Monzo

The scandal of thefts in cemeteries continues, despite all the denunciations published inside and outside the island. Of course for many years here there was a silent complicity by the official press, the only one accredited in the country. But with the advent of technology and the access, although greatly restricted, to the social networks, this seems to have escaped the censors and now, from time to time, an occasional critical comment appears in local newspapers on this thorny subject.

No longer is it only the Colon Cemetery, perhaps the most looted simply because it has the most works of art of household value, but also Baptist, Chinese, and Jewish graveyards have recently been vandalized, by practitioners of African cults, who use bones of the dead (preferably unbaptized) as offerings for their “religious” practices, in the face of the unpunished and easy access to them.

Another phenomenon that occurred since the appearance of the two currencies — the current Cuban pesos (CUP), in which they pay you wages and pensions, and the strong pesos (CUC), in which you are forced to pay for almost everything — is the reappearance at burials of two types of wreaths: the poor ones, with sparse flowers, unattractive and mass-produced, with paper tape and letters in purple ink, offered for CUP, and occasionally in limited supply, depending on time and death; and the others, for “hard currency,” well-made with beautiful imported flowers, fabric ribbons for the dedication in gold letters, and in unlimited supply. As a result of this another type of theft began: that of wreaths.

It is sad to think about the people who have made a sacrifice offered to their deceased friend or family member of one of these beautiful wreaths acquired in hard currency which, just after the burial is concluded and the accompanying mourners dispersed, then disappears “as if by magic” and is offered, in CUC of course, by other unscrupulous mourners, or is simply dismantled to sell its flowers, to people who already have pre-established contacts to buy them.

This has led increasingly to seeing fewer floral offerings on the graves. This type of desecration also may occur at some of the monuments to heroes in the city, where foreign delegations deposit elegant wreaths, as recently occurred at the monument to Eloy Alfaro on the Avenue of the Presidents, between 15th and 17th in Vedado.

Until now, as far as I know, there is no effective measure for stopping this miserable and criminal practice. Nor do I know of anything having been returned to the owners, any of the sculptures or large bronze crucifixes stolen over the past twenty years. My family’s burial vault was plundered; I submitted the complaint, supported with before-and-after photos, over five years ago, yet the cemetery authorities have not given me any response.

It is shameful that these activities continue to occur in the 21st century, practices that seem better suited to the Middle Ages, and which are perpetrated in the face of the apparent apathy of the authorities, who have the obligation of ensuring the preservation of our historical and cultural heritage.

Translated by: Tomás A.

29 August 2013

Uninformed or Poor? / Yusimi Rodriguez Lopez

internet150813A couple days ago two neighbors were talking outside my house about the notice published in the newspaper Granma, official organ of the Communist Party. I don’t know what the news was, but one said to the other, “It came out in Granma, I read it,” as proof of veracity. The other responded, “I don’t believe what Granma says, I read the internet.”

A year ago it would have been difficult to hear a conversation like this between neighbors, I don’t think anyone would have talked out loud about the question of the credibility of the official national press. Nor do I know if my neighbor could connect to the internet a year ago, or just a few months ago, and by what route if he was able to do so.

Many Cubans connected before network access became widely available in a legal form for nationals. How? Some from their workplaces, legally and free, had access to the pages that the Government allowed. Others accessed from embassies, which is perfectly legal, but frowned upon by our authorities: many did not use this route for fear of stigma, for example that anyone could reproach them on seeing them enter the United States Interest Section.

Other compatriots accessed the internet “under the table.” Someone whispered to you “so and so has internet, but you can’t tell, it’s under the table.” Not the least bit strange in a country where illegality appears to be a prerequisite for things achieving the desired legal status. For example, people sold their homes and cars before it was legal to do so, not surprising in a country where you can go to jail for an illegality one day before it ceases to be one. This happened with holding currencies: one day made the difference between an “integrated and compliant citizen under the law” and a “criminal”; the next day the same difference was between “someone dying of hunger” and “a privileged citizen.”

Because in the end, it’s all about money. It’s money that makes the difference. We don’t want to have the right to enter the hotels in our own country, to travel, to buy a house or a car, unless we are high performance athletes and important cultural figures? Then there are our rights, let them. What’s stopping us? Money.

The Government seems to be so aware that we do not have money, that, according to the vox populi (which almost always is right), when a Cuban citizen living in Cuba has stayed at hotels with a regularity outside what is considered normal, their names are noted in a list and the government then comes around to ask how they can afford it. But this may be a rumor. Many good and bad things are attributed to our Government. Not all are true (bad or good).

The truth is that money now not only divides us into Cubans can stay in a hotel and those who can’t even dream of it; between Cubans who can dine at restaurants like Doña Eutimia, The Decameron or The Mimosa, and Cubans who can only afford a pizza for ten Cuban pesos (and barely that). Now money also divides us between Cubans who can access the Internet, and Cubans who never will nor care to, because first they need to think about eating. You can’t think about having information, unless you have a full stomach and more or less decent clothes to dress and clothe the family.

I guess that’s the difference between my two neighbors. One of them can afford to discard Granma in favor of the internet as an information source (I don’t know if he’s aware that not everything that is published on the Internet is reliable); the other goes along with the official national press that does not cost more than two Cuban pesos, even if you buy from resellers.

A year ago, I complained that Cubans only had access to official national information media, which contained information that the Party-Government’s interest in our consuming, processed in the way that the Party-Government’s interest wants us to have it. Now you can go into the rooms that have opened in the country, and pay for services to navigate the web (national and international) and email (national and international). It’s not news that one hour of internet costs 4.50 CUC, just over $ 5 US and just under half the monthly salary of a worker. The cheapest is the using national email only, 1.50 CUC. Well, you decide, you aren’t forced to access the internet.

I was told that these cyber rooms you could get access to the The Miami Herald, for instance, and it’s true. I was able to check a couple of weeks ago, when I decided to commit harakiri and create myself an internet account. The connection is fast, at least compared to what I knew, and yes, you can access any publication even if it criticizes the government. This is freedom of information, I thought. I can no longer talk about uninformed Cubans; there are simply poor Cubans.

To be informed costs, in Cuba and in the world. It’s only that we are entering the ring right now. In the world there are places where the information is free, and sites where you sign up to receive information, places where you read a piece of information, and pay for the rest, and places where you pay for quality information. Cubans are just entering the XXI century. What happens is that at this stage of the game, it still amazes us sometimes to discover that things are not as we were led to believe that they were; that in reality, we are not all equal, and in the future will be about the same.

That was my conclusion until I tried something as simple as accessing the blog Generation Y, by the blogger Yoani Sanchez, who, believe it or not, I had never read. I read a couple of her articles that were linked to or posted on other sites, but not her blog. The worst thing is that it took me a while to realize I could not access it. As I’m used to the internet being I slow, waited, waited and waited, watching the minutes that for me were money.

I tried the same with the blog Sin evasion, by Miriam Celaya, and that of Reinaldo Escobar. In all cases I access articles and interviews from elsewhere, but not their blogs. I repeated the operation with David Canela, a journalist at Cubanet. I couldn’t even read his articles. I also could not access the publication.

I asked the workers staff the cybercafes, if Generation Y, for example, was blocked. They didn’t know what Generation Y is, or who Yoani Sanchez is. No surprise, it happens to many people in Cuba. I explained, with some difficulty because I realized I do not know how to define Yoani: Dissident? Opposition?? Citizen? Highly embarrassing for the government? Finally I was told that such sites or blogs are blocked. Then I learned that the classified ad page Revolico is blocked too.

I could have saved money and time, if I had read the internet contract I signed: Article 9 of the generalities of the service states “ETECSA is exonerated from liability for the limited access to the content, accuracy, quality and accuracy of the information posted on sites …”

Now I’m not sure it is enough to have money. Things do not seem so simple. You can pay, but that does not guarantee that access to the information that interests you. You do not decide what information to consume. In the end will we be only poor? Or we also uninformed?

Yusimi Rodriguez Lopez

From Diario de Cuba

19 August 2013

My First Book in Exile / Luis Felipe Rojas

FEEDING THE FIGHTING DOG, new poems by Luis Felipe Rojas. Now for sale on Amazon.

Poster designed by Rolando Pulido (cover designed by Idabell Rosales).

Here is the link for my book, “Feeding the Fighting Dog,” published by NeoClub Press under the direction of Armando Añel and the talented hands of Idabell Rosales. This poster would not have been possible without the work of Rolando Pulido, under the original cover. My first book in the land of liberty. Thank you, everyone who has bought it, you have been very generous. In a couple of weeks we will be giving a public presentation, which will be dedicated to my brother in prison, Angel Santeisteban. What better homage could I make for a colleague who continues writing and doesn’t stop telling the truth, no matter where he is.

Translated by Regina Anavy

11 March 2013

Outstanding Child Baseball Player Marginalized Because he is the Son of Dissidents / Michel Iroy Rodriguez

niños-peloteros1-300x168HAVANA, Cuba, August 28, 2013, Michel Iroy Rodriguez / www.cubanet.org.- The ballplayer Jonathan Machado Tarrago, nicknamed Suzuki, age 14, who was stolen base leader in games held in Taipei, China in July 2011, will not be allowed to participate in the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada, as the son of a regime opponent. It is expected that he will also be suspended from the World Cup to be held in Mexico next year.

Yonatan Tarrago Machado was suspended from participating in games by State Security, because he is the son of Antonio Machado Ramirez, a political opponent of the regime.
His mother, Ana Maria Tarrago Ruiz, a resident of 80th Street between 49th and 51st, in the Havana municipality of Playa, says she feels hurt and that the measure is stupid. “They want to destroy the future of my son because of our political position,” she said.

Her son has played baseball since he was 5. When he was 8 he was eligible to play in the age 9-10 category, with a 300 batting average. He was batting above 300 in his first year in the age 11-12 category. The following year, when he joined the City of Havana team, he was already batting 489, but he was not allowed to be on the Cuba team. After several efforts by his coach, Jorge Mazorra, he joined the team to travel to Taipei, China, where he led with 13 stolen bases and a 615 average. Even then, his speed from home to first base of 7.7 seconds, and he had 22 hits and more than 24 stolen bases.

In 2012 he was again chosen by the Cuban baseball commissioner, who told his parents that due to his high performance in the leadoff spot he would be taken to the Pan American Games in 2015.

When Machado Tarrago was suspended from the Pan American Games, the teenager assigned to his place had much lower stats: 13 hits and 3 stolen bases.

“The Cuban government feels it has the power to destroy the future of any young person. It mistreats, humiliates and destroys whomever it pleases. It believes it is the owner of all Cubans, entitled to decide who will become something and who will not. And then they complain that young people want to leave Cuba. It’s not just because of economic problems that they go,” said Ana Maria Tarrago, the mother of this promising baseball player.

From Cubanet

29 August 2013

CUBACEL recharges: Why Isn’t It Allowed From Inside?

Double Recharge…Double happiness this summer from 30 July to 2 August… Gift of 30 text messages… Other surprises on these days.

For some time and with some regularity, many Cubans have received refills on our phones thanks to the generosity of friends and advocates who support us from the outside. Many others receive it by the kindness of family and friends living outside of Cuba

These refills, promoted by a subsidiary of ETECSA, CUBACEL, S.A, the telephone company responsible for cellular telephone service in Cuba, are announced through a message that appears on our phones with the following content: “CUBACEL Reports: PROMOTION . Recharge the balance from overseas from 20.00 CUC and get twice the amount recharged”, then it shows the beginning and ending dates of the promotion.

And this comment is stressed by the writer because I have always been shocked at the explicit declaration which, by all accounts, is discriminatory, harmful to Cubans living in Cuba and violates their rights to enjoy a service even if they have the ability to pay. I have asked several employees of the Príncipe branch on Carlos III Avenue, and their answers have been evasive, if not incriminating: “It’s management’s decision” “We only work with the public, we don’t make the rules” “Why are you asking me? you should be asking Raúl” I wish I could ask him, though that would be the least I would ask him.

That is, it’s not just about the real and true fact that CUBACEL and ETECSA take it upon themselves to arbitrarily interrupt at will telephone communication of those pesky customers who don’t have, according to the system’s standards, the “correct” political leaning, thus, ETECSA violates the contract’s conditions, but, in addition, it voids everyone’s rights, including those of people who are obedient or quiet, who don’t bother with political matters.

In short, I would like to know what this policy is about. It is exclusionary for Cubans residing here, whose money seems to be of absolutely no value for this telephone company managed by – how well we know it — the Ministry of the Armed Forces, that is to say, Castro II.

So I appeal to the imagination, information or wisdom of readers to help me understand what, needless to say, the employees of the Cuban revolutionary telephone company will never explain. How is it “politically” possible that a Cuban who has 20.00 CUC to recharge his cellular phone will be unable to benefit from his own country’s company promotion? Could it have anything to do with the criminal imperialist blockade? Could it be that the evil “Big, Bad Wolf” and other stateless Cubans can’t prevent us from having émigrés recharge our mobile phones and yet have the power to influence media policy dictated by the no less big, bad Cuban dictatorship?

No doubt, the communications issue is extremely delicate for the aging olive-green cupola. It isn’t merely about the undeniably most expensive cellular telephone service in the world, but, in addition, the only one that discriminates against its clients for the simple geographically tragic fate of living inside CUBACEL territory.

Translated by Norma Whiting

2 August 2013

The Arcos Building is Falling to Pieces / Camilo Ernesto Olivera Peidro

edificiosPhotos by Camilo Ernesto Olivera Peidro

HAVANA, Cuba , August, www.cubanet.org – The Arcos building is in the block formed by
F and E, between 19 and 21 in Vedado. Everyone in Havana knows this unusual building built in the 1930s in the middle of one of the deepest ravines in Vedado.

It’s bad state of repair presents a serious danger to the many families living there, and the tourists who visit it as an example of rare architecture.

One of the neighbors, who asked not to be named, said that they have exhausted all possible official channels for requesting the reconstruction of the old building.

“This building has 71 apartments and is built in an ancient ravine in Vedado that we Havanans call ‘the hole.’ The Department of Multi-Unit Housing promises, the Plaza municipal government promises, the provincial government promises, they ensnare you and do nothing. Everyone is brazen, sh..politicians.”

The facts bear out this neighbor. For a long time now the structure of this property has been suffering as a result of the passage of time, lack of maintenance and neglect of the authorities.

The atypical characteristics of this building require specialized reconstructive procedures. Partial collapses have occurred, for example in the passageway that accesses the apartments from the entrance on 19th Street.

At present, the staircase leading to 19th is virtually collapsed. This staircase, and a long exterior passageway in the form of a balcony, connect 21st Street with 19th Street.

The route allowed pedestrians to avoid the obstacle of the deep and long ravine that cuts across F street in that area. The neighbors decided to avoid greater evils by blocking the way and placing signs warning of the danger.

You can see that the stair supports are broken, weakening it. From another angle, coming from 19th, the principal column that supports the stairs is extremely damaged.

Also the base and the support columns of the building all require attention. A photo accompanying this note is in eloquent in itself. It shows a sign painted by the neighbors which states : “We need help (now), responsibility and the promises to be met. We hope not to face the displeasure of putting ourselves dead.” (sic)

27 August 2013

From Cubanet

 

We aren’t the kind of people they are trying to make us out to be / Ernesto Santana Zaldivar, Antonio Rodiles

Antonio Rodiles. Photo: Ernesto Santana Zaldívar

HAVANA, Cuba, August, www.cubanet.org- The organizers of Estado de SATS have worked very hard and the result is that, three years after its inception, in July 2010 in Casa Gaia, this civic project is a fundamental component in the network of organizations that, from civil society and with great variety in points of view, fight to promote changes to democratize our country. Because of this it has also been repressed by the political police and accused of everything the authorities usually accuse those who propose a solution to the crisis. Estado de SATS takes as a fundamental cause that there is no dispute between Cuba and the United States, but rather the dictatorial practices of the Cuban government against its own people.

Hence in the last year, they have focused most of their efforts to disseminate and gather support for the Citizens’ Demand for Another Cuba which, as we know, demands that the Cuban government ratify the UN Covenants on Human Rights. In that work, the project has engaged with many important civil society groups for the sake of a purpose that supersedes political interests, and focuses on citizens and their basic needs.

In recent days, we were able to talk with Antonio Rodiles about the prospects of the project, three years since its inception. The director of Estado de SATS said “Our main goal now is to achieve much more drawing power. Hopefully State Security will stop bothering us,” he said, although he recognized that “at this time there really is something less than harassment of the work we are doing.”

The idea, according Rodiles, is to try to reach many more sectors and to be a place that helps articulate civil society, and above all,”to be able to expand and work on all the plans we have: holding exhibitions, film screenings, panels, debates, literary cafes. All we can do to articulate civil society and grow like any normal country.”

Although it seems like a very easy program to carry out, the reality suggests otherwise. The proof is in the recent past and if recently the political police haven’t harassed as many activities, it has been in part because they have not been as intense as around a year ago, when the Citizen Demand was launched. “Evidently,” observes Rodiles, “we know that everything is not as we would like, but well, I  think it’s important to accept the challenge and work focused on everything we have proposed, despite the obstacles.”

Some people have commented that, lately, they have been showing college students videos about civil society activists, including Estado de SATS, where it’s presented through the usual procedures, with a negative image. On this subject Antonio Rodiles says, “The same as always. That’s part of what the system can’t quit doing.”

But, he says, he would like to know exactly what they’re putting out there so he’ll be able to make statements about it. “Unfortunately,” he says , “there is a group of people who have always been characterized by trying to devalue and personally offend any opponent, anyone who thinks differently from the official line.”

In events such as this he sees a disturbing characteristic. “I think this shows the low level of those who have organized it ,” he says, “because they are not able to enter into any discussion of ideas or plans . It is a manipulation, but in any event, thank God, the new technologies allow us to show who we are,” he says, convincingly.

Well, ironically and contrary to the intentions of those who orchestrate this slanderous propaganda, the results could be otherwise. “In a way, this type of action helps disseminate our work. When people look for our CDs, our work, and they see them, then they realize perfectly well that we are not the kind of people they are trying to make us out to be,” he concludes.

He’s probably right. In addition, the days are long gone when some opponents thought Estado de Sats was a project of the “opposition light” and it has gained respect and collaboration, including that of almost all of the most important  political opponents, as well as countless artists and intellectuals.

As the director of this project, what lies ahead is a major challenge. Perhaps the hardest path, with all the cultural activities and the panels put on, but especially with the commitment to strengthen the Citizen Demand for Another Cuba and the continuation of this work, in cooperation with other civil organizations, he tries to contribute, gradually, to the extent possible but always with sights set still higher, for a positive change in the country.

A few months ago, Antonio Rodlies and Ailer González — his domestic partner and main collaborator — were in Miami and there at Cuba 8 and at Miami Dade College, they organized panels and concerts of Estado de SATS, besides promoting the Citizen Demand, which has managed to strengthen the support of Cubans from the outside, but inside Cuba there has not been remarkable progress of the campaign in recent months.

According to Rodiles itself, the term “Estado de SATS” (State of Sats) is a phrase used in the theater to represent the moment when all the energy is concentrated to begin the action, or when an athlete is at the precise moment before the starting gun. It is the concentration required to later explode. Hopefully, after three years of hard and complex work, this project is mature and ready to take off, against all obstacles, as the crucible where the forces of the emerging civil society are articulated.

Call for Estado de SATS : First International Meeting on Human Rights and UN Covenants

The independent Estado de SATS project invites artists, intellectuals, activists and human rights defenders to participate in the First International Meeting on Human Rights and the UN Covenants as part of the Campaign for Another Cuba and the 65th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Estado de SATS has worked for the past three years in the creation and growth of a public space where different perspectives on reality and the future of our nation can be openly discussed and planned.

Since August of 2012, together with various groups and activists committed to the social situation of our nation, we started the Campaign for another Cuba. This initiative has been involving a growing number of Cubans on and off the island in a civic demand that the Cuban government ratify and implement the United Nation Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Covenant  Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

In a time when Cuban civil society is growing the direct exchange with different actors within and outside the island is essential. Holding of this meeting will allow an approach from the perspective of art and thought to a subject as vital as human rights. Activists, artists, intellectuals and professionals, Cubans and the international community, will spend two days sharing views and experiences, in a country where such guarantees and rights are not part of the everyday reality.

The inaugural meeting will be on December 10, 2013 and during the event there will be thematic panels, audiovisual displays, an exhibition with the theme: Art and Human Rights (painting , graphics , photography, installations), performances and a closing concert .

For more information the interested can communicate to this email address: estadodesats@gmail.com.

About the author

Ernesto Santana Zaldívar, born in Puerto Padre, Las Tunas, 1958. Graduate of the Enrique José Varona Pedagogical Institute in Spanish and Literature. He has been a radio writer for Radio Progreso, Radio Metropolitana and Radio Arte. He is a member of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba. Awards won: Mentions in the genre of story in the David contest of 1977 and Trece de Marzo, 1979; prizes in Pinos Nuevos, 1995, Sed de Belleza, 1996 (both in the genre of story) Dador, 1998, (novel project) and Alejo Carpentier, 2002 (novel), the Franz Kafka Prize, 2010, for his novel The Carnival and the Dead.

From Cubanet

23 August 2013

Communication: As of today, Angel Santiesteban has served 6 months in prison, incommunicado

Today, August 28, marks six months since Angel was unjustly imprisoned by the Castro dictatorship, after their having invented crimes he did not commit, making use of his former wife and the mother of his son to perform a show trial in which they were unable to prove absolutely any of these alleged crimes for the simple reason that he did not commit them. His sentence was based on the testimony of a handwriting expert who alleged that the “accused” was guilty of the crimes charged because he wrote in large and slanted print.

After the verdict which sentenced him to five years in prison, we have made public by various means what should have been sounding alarms in all the governments of the region that call themselves democratic and defenders of human rights, and Angel is deprived of his freedom and has been transferred arbitrarily between various prisons of the island, from which he has continued to report abuses and violations of civil and political rights that are committed in Cuba, especially now with the prison population.

The last transfer, carried out illegally even by Cuba’s own laws, occurred on the  August. It was the surprise they had prepared for his birthday.

For five days he had literally disappeared, held incommunicado in an unknown location. Currently we only know it is in a site that has no name, a place that deals with the constructions of the Ministry of Interior and in which there are only twenty-two prisoners, including Angel. We also know that there are no visits allowed there, nor phone calls, because prisoners are entitled to a monthly pass to visit relatives.

All this we know from Angel himself who has managed to filter out a note, which I have posted on the blog. Officially the family has been informed of nothing regarding the transfer or the current status of Angel.

But, as we suspected would happen, they said that as Angel is not working, he has no right to the pass his companions were given on August 23. They have said that in his case they will alternate visits with passes, neither of which have happened, not even when they said they would award it, between August 2 up to today, the 28th, he is literally incommunicado, deprived of any right to receive news of his family, to be able to see them and set his mind at rest that they are in good condition, especially his children who both suffer from the lack of their dad.

We do not know what the political police is up to now that, as we have shown, they concocted the criminalization of Angel to convict him like a common criminal. On July 4 they visited him in the 1580 prison and tried to persuade him to abandon his political position and to record a video promising to cease his opposition in exchange for his freedom. When he refused, he was urged to avail himself of his diplomatic “friends” to grant him a visa to leave the country, to which he also refused.

These two proposals are a clear assumption by the government that Angel is not a common criminal, but a political prisoner. So far there is no record of violent attackers of homes who have been tempted to renounce their political positions in exchange for their release. But Cuba and its dictatorship never cease to amaze for their crass use of the obvious and ingenuous,which makes us wonder if they are fools, or they think we are as foolish as the rest.

The truth is that almost after Angel received the “generous” proposal from the political police, they have moved him in this way not only illegal, but extremely suspiciously, and we know they have something up their sleeve.

The Application for Review of Judgment has been submitted and there is no response from what calls itself Justice in Cuba. But as we expect nothing of a Regime in which justice is a subsidiary of political power, from outside we have not stopped for a moment to move through all possible channels, and international demands in favor of Angel ’s innocence are underway.

The eyes of the world are on Cuba and the dictator. The demands on behalf of Angel are traveling far, and the case of Angel too. We recall that a few months ago we pointed out that the political police hitman known as Camilo threatened to kill him, chased him through the streets of Havana and even maneuvered against Angel’s car to the point that there was almost an accident. There will be no possible and credible accident with Angel. We won’t fall for that while they keep attacking, harassing, repudiating, reprimanding the people who have decided to say, “Enough already!” Spanish Justice is investigating the murders of Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero.

Every day, like wildfire, are published new assassination attempts against so many opponents, but the cowardice and desire for evil have no limits, to the point that they have dared to attack the daughter of Berta Soler, to attack Iris Tamara Perez Aguilera, wife of the well-known opponent Jorge Luis García Pérez — Antúnez — and against Rigorberto Rodríguez from the Christian Liberation Movement, which are the last three cases, reported this week.

We call upon Raul Castro Ruz to respect the rights of Angel Santiesteban Prats, to immediately release him while the review of his trial proceeds, which, if there is true justice in Cuba, will end with him acquitted. We also demand an end to this shameful situation of isolation and incommunicado in which they are keeping him. His voice will not be silenced because his blog will continue to speak for him, restoring the space for free expression that they have stolen from him.

Everything that can happen to Angel Santiesteban is Raul Castro Ruz’s sole and absolute responsibility.

The Editor

Photo: Angel being threatened by State Security Agent Camilo

agente-camilo-amenaza-a-santiesteban
28 August 2013

Alvarez Guedes and exile: A story told through giggles / Albert Sergio Laguna (from the blog of Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada)

By: Albert Sergio Laguna

Before starting my post graduate program on Cuban popular culture, I believed that the members of my family were the most funny and original people on the planet.  This opinion lasted until I heard of Guillermo Alvarez Guedes, I sat down with his 32 albums and I bottled myself up in the enviable task of starting down the road of his work.  It didn’t take long for me to notice the inarguable truth: everyone in my family had been stealing Alvarez Guedas’s jokes for years.

My story is not unique, and it shouldn’t be.  I have heard his jokes time and again over the informal network in which they travel–from person to person and increasingly over email and sites like YouTube.

It was precisely by means of informal networks that Alvarez Guedes had the opportunity to cross borders with his sense of humor.  His discs are considered contraband, clandestinely brought into Cuba and enjoyed by Cubans who elude the restrictions of the government for the chance to have a good guffaw.  His work also crossed generational borders.  From the news of his death, commentaries from Cuban Americans abound in remembrance of his albums as a species of comedic soundtrack of their childhood.

One of the most common forms of remembering Alvarez Guedes has been to tell his jokes.  While many of them are “eternal,” that is to say, they maintain their comic effect far beyond their original representation, this romantic strategy of remembering doesn’t completely enclose the complex relation between the spectacle of Alvarez Guedes and the social context in which he acted.  What can some of his famous spectacles on the story of his exile?

Miami, hasn’t always been a place that welcomed immigrants from Latin America. In the 60s and 70s many in Miami felt certain resentment toward the newly arrived from Cuba, they put up signs “no Cubans allowed.”  Tensions became even more serious in 1980, when because of the Mariel exodus this antagonistic feeling grew on a local and national level.  Apart from the negative coverage on the part of the press, this was the period which gave rise to the English Only movement, with the purpose of creating an anti-bilingual referendum which was passed in November of 1980, became law, changed the bi-cultural policy and bilingualism established in Dade County since the beginning of the 70s.

Some of Alvarez Guedes’s jokes, such as the Clase de idioma Cubano, and his most successful album, How to Defend Yourself from the Cubans (1982), still make us laugh today at how they suggest the idea of a class where they teach bad words to an imaginary audience of North Americans.  It is is precisely in this tour that they talk about the aforementioned difficulties faced by the exiled community in which Alvarez Guedes acted as a typical guy, a spokesperson for exile, resisting the so called cultural integration and at the same time driven by his own cultural identity. To subject Cubans to trail in a jury of public opinion, Alvarez Guedes mobilized the joking to invert the existing power dynamics in Miami.

In many of his jokes on language, the Northamericans observed from outside, in the role of foreigners.  In How to Defend Yourself from the Cubans, Alvarez Guedes acted primarily with a slight English accent, demonstrating the culture shock of the cultures in two languages and joking also with the locals.  In representing his mastery of English and invoking the familiar codes of joking, Alvarez Guedes makes a defiant declaration against the models of North American integration and at the same time emphasizes the vitality of the community of exiles.

Humor has been a mode to narrate and analyze the political reality that the Cuban community has faced since the colonial era into the present.  The legacy of Alvarez Guedes will always be the jokes that have been enjoyed and will be enjoyed by so many generations both on and off the Island. Guedes was not a political commentator, but his humor frequently told popular stories such as compatriots navigating the lived reality of exile, a reality outfitted with the political charge that inevitably was brought up from the conditions of the expatriated.

Taken from Diario de Cuba.

10 August 2013

Discipline vs. Survival / Reinaldo Escobar

No littering

The theme of social indiscipline occupied an important space on the national television news this morning. Music played too loud, trash thrown off balconies, graffiti on public walls, the rubble in the middle of the street, and many more examples from daily life, especially in the country’s capital. We learned that there are “Operations Groups” dedicated to detecting and punishing such irregularities.

Many of these indisciplines, dare I say most, are the reflection of a combination of two elements: on the one hand the lack of conditions to make things as they should be, and on the other the lack of civic education that leads citizens to behave in an uncivilized way. I have seen some tourists (obviously foreigners) walk for blocks and blocks carrying the little paper wrappings from peanuts, while local pedestrians happily throw them anywhere at all. Neither ever found a bin to dispose of their trash. And some residents, when they’re forced to solve their problem of access to the sewer, have had no choice but to cut into the street, thus creating a new pothole in the city.

In fact, one could say that “nothing justifies” the commission of an indiscipline that affects the community, but the truth is that many of them have at least one explanation. And, indeed, there is an overarching general explanation related to this “acimarronada“* conduct of thousands of Cubans every day, and it is the lack of resources available to address our problems, coupled with little ability to participate in the decisions that affect society as a whole.

As always, duties and rights must go together. When the State only seems interested in citizens fulfilling their duties, it entrenches them in their rights and they ignore all the rules. Such a situation is a breeding ground for other excesses, unjustifiable and difficult to explain.

*Translator’s note: “Acimarronada” comes from word cimarrones, runaway slaves. It refers to the way Cubans pretend to do and think one thing, but in reality are always thinking of fleeing.

27 August 2013