English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
14ymedio, Havana, 4 January 2020 — After hundreds of criticisms in Cuba’s streets and on social networks about the high prices in the popular Coppelia ice cream parlor, which were raised at the beginning of the year, the Government of Havana announced on Monday that the new prices would be lowered, without specifying the details … Continue reading “Cuban Authorities Backtrack on Price Increases for Coppelia Ice Cream”
14ymedio, Elías Amor Bravo, Valencia, 1 January 2021 – The newspaper Granma, on December 31st of this cursed 2020, presents us the testimony of Raúl Castro published in the book El pueblo cubano, from the collection La Naturaleza y el Hombre, by Antonio Núñez Jiménez. I do not know if it is their intention – as it was with his brother … Continue reading “Raul Castro’s Distorted Memory”
14ymedio, Jorge Hernández Fonseca, Havana, 27 December 2020 — The abolition of the Cuba’s dual currency system is, as we all know, essential to the development of a healthy economy on island. It is a reform the Communist nomenklatura has said it will adopt but which it is reluctant to undertake for fear of losing the … Continue reading “The Perfect Storm: San Isidro and Currency Unification”
Regina Coyula, 27 December 2020 — “Among lawyers you see yourself,” that curse from the movies, would be readapted for Cuba as “Among the lines you see yourself,” exact, comprehensive. I’m going through paperwork, a brutal exit after the isolation of the pandemic. But in addition to the exercise of patience, long hours of waiting are … Continue reading “Among the Lines / Regina Coyula”
14ymedio, Havana, 29 March 2022 — The covid-19 Covifenz vaccine has become the first to have its emergency use rejected by the World Health Organization (WHO). The reason: the participation of the tobacco giant Philip Morris International in the manufacturer of the antidote, Medicago, based in Québec, Canada, of which it has a third of … Continue reading “If WHO Rejected a Vaccine Created in Canada by a Tobacco Company, It Will do the Same With Cuba”
14ymedio, Havana, 22 January 2021 — The dispute between the workers of the Empresa Integral Agropecuaria de Las Tunas and the directors of that entity has escalated one step further. According to Martí Noticias, the charcoal makers, on strike due to the low wages they received this January, have been threatened by their bosses and State Security itself. … Continue reading “Cuban State Company Threatens To Fire Charcoal Makers If They Persist In Their Protest”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 31 December 2020 — What happened in Cuba throughout this year can be related in a fragmentary way through a chronology, but the most important did not begin in January 2020, but on Wednesday, September 11, 2019, when the President of the Republic, to calm the citizenry, advised that on the … Continue reading “In 2020 the Cuban Regime Suffered its First Defeats”
Juan Juan Almeida, 27 February 2017 — Luis Enrique Cepero García was an opponent of the Cuban regime serving a sentence in the Combinado del Este prison when he decided to infect himself with a disease rather than continue being subjected to mistreatment in prison. Given his state of health, Luis Enrique was transferred and imprisoned … Continue reading “Cuban Double Agent Fears for His Life after Revealing His True Identity / Juan Juan Almeida”
Juan Juan Almeida, 31 March 2016 — Not so long ago there was a rumor that high officials of MINIT had been arrested by the Ministry. In agreement with those implicated in the event and making a clear allusion comparable to Case No. 1 of 1989 [a highly respected Cuban general was executed for drug trafficking], there was … Continue reading “MININT Confronts What Could Be Its Worst Challenge: Information Theft / Juan Juan Almeida”
Ivan Garcia, 21 June 2015 — When Berta Soler, leader of one of three splinter groups of the Ladies in White, convened a referendum on her continued command of the organization following a scandal in Fall 2014 regarding alleged verbal abuse of a member, it marked a milestone in dissident circles – more so for … Continue reading “Transparency, Honesty and Free Information: Exotic Ideals in Cuba / Ivan Garcia”
It has a woman’s name and the fatality of a widow. The Carolina center, in Matanzas province, not only ground sugar cane for decades, but gave sustenance and prosperity to an entire village. On dismantling the mill, the former workers and the neighbors had to learn to live in a ghost town. Carolina was one … Continue reading “The Second Shipwreck of the Granma / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar”
Carrying sacks of sugar – Taken from the Repeating Islands Blog In 23 years, Cuba has gone from being one of the world’s sugar refining nations to importing the sweet grass for the consumption of the tourist sector. If in 1990, in the dawning of that silent war that was the “Special Period,” 8.2 million tons … Continue reading “Cuba: The Bitterness of its Sugar / Ivan Garcia”
I confess that when I found myself referenced as an “alternative” voice, lacking previous reviews and bordering on misunderstood, I manned the battle stations against Elaine Diaz’s blog “La polémica digital” — The Digital Controversy. But when I noticed the objective and conciliatory tone in her post “Blogger, period,” I quickly took off the helmets … Continue reading “Cubans. Period. / Jeovany J. Vega”
Given the changes planned to be introduced into our economic model, designed and planned by the government, some citizens, according to our intellectual and material abilities, without anyone ordering us to or paying us for it, have taken on the task to comment on the aspects that we consider positive and negative. It is simply, … Continue reading ““Fight for your food, Taino.“ / Fernando Dámaso”
The formation of the ‘New Man’ has been a sterile task in Cuba. His precursor, Ernesto Che Guevara, was convinced that in the future society they were creating on the island they had to start by designing a human being from the laboratory. Che, a Maoist and radical revolutionary, dreamed and thought it possible, that … Continue reading “Of Che and His “New Man” / Iván García”
