English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Jeovany Jimenez Vega, 9 May 2015 — What would I say to Pope Francis if I could speak with him minutes before his meeting with Raúl Castro?* If Jesus came into the world to save the impure, to sit also at the table of the Pharisees (those with souls most contaminated by the splinter of evil), what … Continue reading “My Minutes With the Pope / Jeovany Jimenez Vega”
Announcements made by United States President Barack Obama and his administration have sparked an intense controversy about the Cuban conflict. Many opponents and civil society activists, within the island and in exile, have lamented, especially, the lack of transparency and the unilateral and unconditional nature of the new measures. It is indisputable and indispensable that … Continue reading “Forum for Rights and Freedoms / Estado de Sats (see endnote)”
14YMEDIO, Havana/November 19, 2014 The Spanish political magazine Esglobal has included four Cubans in its list of 50 most influential Latin American intellectuals of 2014 published this Wednesday: historian and essayist Rafael Rojas, economist Carmelo Mesa-Lago, professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh, blogger and manager of 14ymedio Yoani Sanchez, and the writer Leonardo Padura. … Continue reading “Four Cubans Among the 50 Most Influential Latin-American Intellectuals of 2014 / 14ymedio”
The Contradictions of Cuba’s Foreign Minister By Haroldo Dilla Alfonso. A translation by The Havana Times, of an article originally appearing in Cubaencuentro. The United Nations has once again gone through the motions of condemning the blockade/embargo imposed on Cuba by the United States. Though this gesture is very ineffective, I am happy it was … Continue reading “The Contradictions of Cuba’s Foreign Minister / Haroldo Dilla Alfonso”
Interview by Emilio Sanchez Cartas – from Los Andes Internacionales The restless, multifaceted Pardo Lazo graduated in biochemistry from the University of Havana, but left the field after 10 years. Since then he has been working as a photographer and writer. Pardo, who published several books in Cuba, is currently one of the leading independent … Continue reading “Orlando Luis Pardo : “I was afraid when I had no voice, when I started talking, I lost the fear.””
By Karel Becerra * The compatriot José Conrado Rodríguez Alegre, known as Father Conrado, Catholic but above all Cuban, visited Argentina and among his activities he met in Buenos Aires with a group of Cubans and Argentinians who carry Cuba in their hearts. I went to the meeting with great interest because the Father Conrado … Continue reading “Father Conrado: Evangelist or Politico? / CID”
Editor’s note This is going to be a long but necessary post. From the La Lima prison, where he currently finds himself serving a five-year imprisonment which the government imposed in a rigged trial in order to condemn him for a common crime that he did not commit, we have received these responses by the … Continue reading “Angel Santiesteban: To Proven Innocence, Manifest Disloyalty”
To celebrate World Book Day — and the Castilian language — on 23 April, the online edition of the daily El Pais has presented to readers in Latin America with Voces para un Cervantes (Voices for a Cervantes) to download on computers and ebook tablets. The collection “brings together interviews that this newspaper has undertaken … Continue reading “Voices of the Cervantes / Miguel Iturria Savon”
Tomorrow, May 1, the United Nations Human Rights Council will meet in Geneva, where Cuba will present a report with notes on its prison policy. “Dressing up” for the occasion, for the first time in nine years the Castro regime opened its jails to the national and international press accredited in Cuba. It is public … Continue reading “The United Nations Human Rights Council and its Great Challenge With Cuba / Angel Santiesteban”
Amir, listen, I was remembering a lot of intellectuals we respected and loved who on many occasions went to my house to talk about the interviews you were doing with me because they claimed that you were going to betray me when State Security attacked me. Today I arrived at the conclusion — once again … Continue reading “Blessed are Those Who Have Friends / Angel Santiesteban”
Our adolescence was fertilized with novels and TV series that marked our aesthetics and personalities. How many times did we read the novels, “Here the Sands are Cleaner,” “If I Die Tomorrow,” or the series “It Had to Be in Silence,” with most of us enjoying those fantasies of socialist heroes who, guided by Cuban … Continue reading “Facing State Counterintelligence Part 1 / Angel Santiesteban #Cuba”
Cuba’s partisan newspaper, Granma, announced that at nine in the morning on October 5 in the city of Bayamo, Granma province, a public trial would be held of a Spanish citizen, Ángel Francisco Carromero Barrios,accused of homicide while driving a car on a public road. Ángel Francisco, 27 years of age and director of the … Continue reading “An Injurious Trial / Rosa Maria Rodriguez Torrado”
Citizen Demand for Another Cuba As Cubans, legitimate children of this land and an essential part of our nation, we feel a deep sorrow at the prolonged crisis that we are experiencing and the demonstrated inability of the current government to make fundamental changes. This obliges us, from civil society, to seek and demand our … Continue reading “Citizen Demand for Another Cuba – 536 Signatures and Counting”
“I do not agree with giving mercenaries the same rights as intellectuals,” claimed the writer Miguel Barnet, president of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) and member of the Communist Party Central Committee, at the 30th Conference of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) held in San Francisco, California, this May. Barnet’s … Continue reading “Who is the Mercenary? / Oscar Espinosa Chepe”
Citizen Demand for Another Cuba As Cubans, legitimate children of this land and an essential part of our nation, we feel a deep sorrow at the prolonged crisis that we are experiencing and the demonstrated inability of the current government to make fundamental changes. This obliges us, from civil society, to seek and demand our … Continue reading “For Another Cuba – Citizen Demand for Another Cuba”