English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
When Compay Segundo and Ibrahim Ferrer launched themselves at the world with Buena Vista Social Club, “And What Have You Done?” by Eusebio Delfín, it was already one of the favorite traditional ballads. It is among the top 100 best ballads of the twentieth century in Cuba. In Yucatán, Mexico, they know it by another … Continue reading “Eusebio Delfín, the Cuban Aristocrat Who Made Music / Iván García”
Apparently the uneven playing field in the euphemistic “cultural exchange” that is happening today between the United States and Cuba alarms no one. Week after week, artists from this side of the ocean continue to arrive on American soil, filled with remarkable talent, an understandable excitement, and a willingness to return to the island that, … Continue reading “Moral Exchange / Ernesto Morales Licea”
There is a bit of a soap opera in the life of Omara Portuondo. The diva of the Buena Vista Social Club was born on October 29, 1930 in the Havana neighborhood of Cayo Hueso. Her mother, Esperanza Peláez, belonged to a rich family of Spanish ancestry, and hoped she would marry a white man, … Continue reading “In Cuba We Lack A Lot of Things, But We Have Omara Portuondo / Iván García”
The ambiguous Silvio Rodríguez, good at music, doesn’t rise to the political rumor. His written invitation, reproduced in the today’s edition of Granma, to his personal blog, Second City, is an unoriginal repeat of the official black history coined over the republican years. There’s a reason Granma published it. Accepting that Havana wasn’t the ruins … Continue reading “Rejected Invitation / Fernando Dámaso”
I think that in my subconscious, I felt something more than professional interest when I visited them. Something like personally knowing the two rappers whose music and political positions greatly influenced my decision to confront, with the written word, the lies that embitter my beloved country. I still remember with pleasure my “punisher” using that … Continue reading “Aldeano’s Codes / Ernesto Morales Licea”
Fifty years ago, on May 10, 1960, the Matamoros Trio, headed by Siro Rodriguez, Rafael Cueto, and Miguel Matamoros, performed in public for the last time. They bid their farewells on the program called Partagas Thursdays, one of the most popular Cuban TV shows at the time. According to the Colombian investigator, Walter G. Magaña, … Continue reading “What they Don’t Tell Us about the Matamoros Trio”
Perhaps I’m not the right person to write this chronicle. Or maybe I am. I know colleagues who personally knew Silvio Rodríguez in that first stage of the revolution, ingenuous and difficult, crude and contradictory, where children magically became men. Further, I’m going to talk about the spell that Silvio provoked in my generation, by … Continue reading “Chronicle with First Quarter Moon”
The morning of Monday March 1st in Havana was like any other. After spending the night with my girlfriend I returned to my house at around 6:30 AM. There was no sign of abnormality. The only warning sign emanated from a small portable radio next to the bus driver. It was a song by Silvio … Continue reading “House Arrest”
Perhaps I’m not the right person to write this chronicle. Or perhaps I am. I know of colleagues who personally knew Silvio Rodriguez in that first stage of the revolution, ingenuous and difficult, crude and contradictory, where children, as if by magic, were converted into men. Again I am going to talk about the spell … Continue reading “Chronicle with a First Quarter Moon”
Before Sept. 20, when Juanes * at the end of his concert made public thanks to Los Aldeanos (The Villagers) and Silvito El Libre (Silvito the Free), the rapper son of Silvio Rodriguez was already known on the internet. “Who said that the Cuban revolution is in the final stage, that there is no renewal … Continue reading “Silvito the Free and I”
14ymedio, Yunior García Aguilera, Madrid, 31 August 2022 — If we take into consideration that the security of any country is based on the notion of stability, peace, development, as well as in the strategies to achieve these objectives, there is no doubt that the authoritarian powers on the Island constitute the main threat to … Continue reading “Cuba’s Enemy is in the Plaza of the Revolution”
14ymedio, Madrid, 28 April 2022 — The authorities are addressing, at the highest level, the departure of Armando Franco Senén as director of Alma Mater; his dismissal was announced on Tuesday and has generated a strong controversy between the readers of the university magazine and the Cuban intelligentsia, close to officialdom, or not, who believe … Continue reading “Controversy Grows Within the Cuban Regime Over the Dismissal of the Director of ‘Alma Mater’”
Juan Juan Almeida, 16 August 2017 — The Cuban government will immediately strengthen controls and political indoctrination of Cuban doctors chosen for overseas medical missions. According to reports obtained by Martí Noticias, the leaders from Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health of Cuba (MINSAP) met last Friday with all its national and provincial directors to provide … Continue reading “Cuba to Increase Control over Doctors Working Abroad / Juan Juan Almeida”
Like Silvio, I think the people are screwed; unlike him, however, it didn’t take me so much time to realize it, but traveling outside Havana let me see it first hand. The domestic terminal at Jose Marti Airport is the original airport building. After checking your luggage you have to go up an escalator. “It’s … Continue reading “Postcard From a Journey (1) / Regina Coyula”
… Any solution that may result somehow in violence or discord is neither a sensible solution nor can it bring us any good. Juan René Betancourt If there is something the communities of African descendants in America can’t forgive, and especially in the United States, particularly in the fight against racism and the related forms … Continue reading “Point-blank / Manuel Aguirre”
