English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Rafael’s childhood playing chess obligated me to wait at tournaments for long hours at a time for 9 and 11 rounds with other mothers who were also waiting for their sons. I made friends with a heterogeneous group of them, although we started to see less and less of each other as our kids grew … Continue reading “Friends / Regina Coyula”
It’s nighttime, the street light on the corner isn’t working, and no cars go down the street at this time. A bony and agile hand quickly pulls out a can of paint and sprays a signature on a wall, ending in a five-pointed star. In the morning curious neighbors will read the rubric, “El Sexto” … Continue reading “Cuban Graffiti Artist Demands Freedom With His Spray Can / Yoani Sánchez”
The teachers asked his students: What is the future tense of the verb “to protest”? Quick as a bunny, Pepito raised his hand and blurted, “‘Prison’! Professor.” So it is, here in my planet, for the last fifty-two years some of the verbs in our rich Spanish grammar, have just one conjugation. Just a few … Continue reading “The Future Tense of the Verb “To Protest” / Rebeca Monzo”
In the past few days, I wrote about architectural horrors, today I am going to dedicate this post to the aggressions committed against our monuments. Walking through the neighborhood of El Vedado, as always with my little camera in hand, I stopped to look at the little park that splits the road in two. There … Continue reading “Monumental Horrors / Rebeca Monzo”
“Three boys were stabbed in the Piragua* the other night,” “don’t go by Zapata and G where you might be assaulted,” “a former policeman killed a child for stealing mamoncillo fruit,” “don’t even think of going to Central Havana after ten.” These are some of the phrases that make up our own alternative red chronicle, … Continue reading “State of Fury / Yoani Sánchez”
Chapter 3: Dissident Muralist* The procedure was simple. Very simple. You looked for a piece of cardboard and painted it with a phrase against the Government. You hung it around your neck and went out into the street. Like in the reality shows where a naked man comes out into the light of day starkers, … Continue reading “Instructions for an Escape / Ernesto Morales Licea”
A little while ago I left my house and a neighbor in my sector (whom I shall call ‘X’) signaled me to come to the sidewalk in front. The attitude of her corporeal whisper intrigued me. I crossed the street to go meet her, looking all around, because her conspiratorial gestures put me on alert. … Continue reading “XY, Axis of Coordinates or Chromosomes of Survival / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado”
A little while ago I left my house and a neighbor in my sector (whom I shall call ‘X’) signaled me to come to the sidewalk in front. The attitude of her corporeal whisper intrigued me. I crossed the street to go meet her, looking all around, because her conspiratorial gestures put me on alert. … Continue reading “XY, Axis of Coordinates or Chromosomes of Survival”
In the neighborhood of Cayo Hueso, there are people who are viewed with disdain. Waldo is one such case, chief of surveillance for the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR). A neighborhood full of prostitutes and marginal people who live from what “falls off” the truck. Due to his intransigence and zeal to … Continue reading “Cuba: Poor but Content / Iván García”
I get up, got to the mirror to brush my teeth, and discover that my eyes are slanted. I can’t turn on the light because Rafa is sleeping; I prefer to think that I didn’t sleep well and that it’s because of the shadows in the room and I leave it. I turn on the … Continue reading “Pyongyang’s Plan / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado”
I get up, got to the mirror to brush my teeth, and discover that my eyes are slanted. I can’t turn on the light because Rafa is sleeping; I prefer to think that I didn’t sleep well and that it’s because of the shadows in the room and I leave it. I turn on the … Continue reading “Pyongyang’s Plan”
Jesus still believes that he should not have to pay off a debt for enjoying foreign television. The restless Jesus Martinez approaches and asks them if they can help him. He was staring all over the place with his thick glasses while he whispered something about his grandmother being at the verge of a depression … Continue reading “Watching Foreign TV: A Decade of Debt / Laritza Diversent”
When I started working at the independent press agency, Cuba Press, in December of 1995, internet sounded like a science fiction concept. Very few of us knew anything about it. In that highway of information we just saw a complicated trick of interconnections destined only for computer specialists. And according to what the government would … Continue reading ““The Internet is the brainchild of the CIA,” the Cuban government tells us / Iván García”
It’s been many years since I saw an Australian film whose title I chose for today’s post. It told of a romance between a white city girl, lost in the middle of the desert, and a young native. I don’t agree with how the story ended, but I haven’t forgotten the distress of those characters … Continue reading “A Meeting of Two Worlds / Reinaldo Escobar”
I met Pedro Cruz Mackenzie when we were both taking university prep classes. It was during those difficult years which came to be known as the Special Period. In between classes we would entertain ourselves by collecting oranges, bananas, and any other source of food we could get to ease that hunger which was so … Continue reading “A Freed Black Man / Luis Felipe Rojas”
