English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
While you slept Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo Ice is dead water. I smell bad, like a homeless person in a subway car in New York. Although my scent doesn’t please me, it belongs to me. Private property in my absolute state of biologisity. Exile is so exciting. All of us have been waiting for this … Continue reading “While You Were Sleeping / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
It wasn’t a too Christian life that brought him to his too Liberated homeland, but a barbaric war that devastated Cuban families to the point that he killed himself in a such a scenario of caudillos and criminals; his black frock coat attracting the Spanish bullets and the machete slashes of an Afro-Cuban ex-slave. Equally … Continue reading “Lens With Lyrics: For a Christian Marti of Liberation / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Castroism Doesn’t Exist, My Love Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo There is hatred in your heart. That is the true story of Cuba. A history of mistrust instigated from power. Of linguistic violence that translates in violence in the bodies. A history of extreme aridity, lack of solidarity as the only guarantee of socialism. A process … Continue reading “Of Castroism and Other Demons / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Until 1998 Christmas celebrations in Cuban were not looked on kindly by the top leadership in olive green. Starting in 1979 Fidel Castro slashed the tradition, claiming that the sugar cane harvest and work were more important than celebrating Christmas Eve and having a holiday on December 25. The essence of the regime is that … Continue reading “Past and Present of Cuban Christmas / Ivan Garcia #Cuba”
By Dagoberto Valdés On the afternoon of Sunday, 22 July 2012, we were surprised by unexpected and terrible news: Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, founder and leader of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL), had tragically died near the city of Bayama, seeking the roots of our Cubanness to say goodbye to the land he loved so much … Continue reading “Oswaldo Pay: Example and Legacy / IntraMuros, Dagoberto Valdes”
In my last post I talked about the emigration/immigration issue, but I didn’t mention there what I consider the worst sequel, which is the lack of identity of some who leave. Without intending it, as in all human matters, everyone travels the same path because each person is a universe, I have seen with sadness … Continue reading “Cuban Identity: Between Shame and Pride / Jeovany Jimenez Vega”
By Luis Eligio D’Omni and Amaury Pacheco D’Omni: (Artists currently on tour in the United States of America) 1- On The 13th of April, Hector Riscart Mustelier (El Ñaño), the leader of Cuban alternativity, musician for and director of the band Herencia [Heritage], and Bobo Shanti Leader in Cuba, will be tried behind closed doors, … Continue reading “An Open Letter to Castro and The Cardinal / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
A few months ago, when former President Jimmy Carter visited the island, he was interviewed by a Cuban television journalist. The interview was too forced, with constant leading questions: Carter ended up calling directly for the release of the five Cubans convicted for spying, and disparaging the sentences imposed by the United States government. The … Continue reading “Benedict XVI: Between Neo-Castroism and Democracy / Antonio Rodiles”
When one reads Raul Castro’s speech at the closing of the First National Conference of the Cuban Communist Party, something catches the eye, and it is the repetition of an idea that disturbs anyone who knows even briefly Marti’s doctrine, an idea already expressed on other occasions, without any foundation: to try to attribute to … Continue reading “Marti and the Idea of A Single Party / Jeovany Jimenez Vega”
You never know which is worse. The debacle of a hospital in ruins, like most in the city of Havana or perhaps in the whole country, or the no less deadly accuracy of a luxury therapy room, one of the science fiction hangars that come out in First World movies, and suddenly, a Day of … Continue reading “A Visit to Reality / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
The Cuban writer Jorge Alberto Aguiar Diaz (JAAD) pointed him out to me. Humbert Arenal had just awarded my book (Collage Karaoke) in the “Pinos Nuevos” Contest in the year zero, or 2000. JAAD said to me, “Go and introduce yourself. This old guy is the last witness of another era.” In fact he looked … Continue reading “REQUIEM FOR HUMBERTO ARENAL / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Death is step and journey in the essence of life. Archbishop Pedro Meurice Estiu course, retired archbishop of Santiago de Cuba has ended his fruitful and suffering journey for the time he lived. Cuba has lost one of its greatest pastors of all time and has gained one of the holy intercessors who has known … Continue reading “Pedro Claro Meurice: Cuban, Pastor, and Faithful Friend / IntraMuros”
Globalization, like a natural process of mankind’s development, is making strides and establishing itself across the geography of the planet, including in countries both large and small, powerful or weak, rich and poor. The word is new but the phenomenon is not: it has been building almost from the beginning of intelligent life on Earth. … Continue reading “Globilization, a Complicated Word / Fernando Dámaso”
LOVE AT FIRST STAGE Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo The homeland’s Sunday devastates you, ravages you, tears you to shreds of a Cuban without illusions. Then you take your Canon and rush into a theater. In the Trianón theater, for example, where Carlos Díaz has been dazzlingly undressing his crew of actors for decades. You never … Continue reading “(No Title) / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
Globalization, like as a natural process of mankind’s development, is making strides and establishing itself across the geography of the planet, including in countries both large and small, powerful or weak, rich and poor. The word is new but the phenomenon is not: it has been building almost from the beginning of intelligent life on … Continue reading “Globilization, a Complicated Word / Fernando Dámaso”