English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
A few years ago I accompanied a friend from the Basque Country to the home of Oswaldo Payá. I left him nearby so as not to call attention to ourselves, because Payá’s house was always under heavy surveillance. The Basque wanted to do an interview with him and had already arranged the appointment. It was … Continue reading “A Visit to Oswaldo Payá / Ángel Santiesteban”
by Ernesto Santana Zaldívar HAVANA, Cuba, June, www.cubanet.org – In the ’90s, the generation of the Novísimos (the Newest) brought to Cuban literature themes and narrative forms that marked a certain rupture with the previous generations. Angel Santiesteban, born in 1966, became one of the most emblematic creators of this time, not only for the … Continue reading “Now I feel more free in my conscience: Interview with the writer Ángel Santiesteban / Ángel Santiesteban”
While it is considered a construction of State Security by some extreme anti-Castro types, and a creature of the CIA by the Cuban government’s cyber-Talibans, the independent Estado de Sats project successfully works for the promotion of civil society and the transition to democracy. Presumably the reasons that motivate both diametrically opposed interpretations of the … Continue reading “The Conspiracy Exposed: Who is Behind Estado de Sats? / Estado de Sats, Alexis Jardines”
Villa Marista is the main operations center of the Cuban Ministry of the Interior. Its huge structure was built to house a school run by a religious order, but since 1963 it has been home to the most feared jail cells in the country. At the beginning of the Revolution there was talk about “converting … Continue reading “The New Man vs. The Honest Man / Yoani Sánchez”
Agustín has come over to reminisce with me about his detention and the interrogation he underwent at the hands of the young instructors of Villa Marista — the headquarters of the secret police — under the mask of the “good” political police, “open to dialog,” “in disagreement with the higher ups,” ignorant of the Universal … Continue reading “The Strength of a Hidden Tendon / Lilianne Ruíz”
While I’m a Cuban author, sometimes I would love to be the political police. Only they have all the information, omniscience obtained by legal means, or through crime under contract. Only they have absolute operability, all-powerful regardless of the mediocre bureaucracy and the little national swamp of ministerial resolutions. Only they have the diegetic sense … Continue reading “And the Police Arrived, Yes Sir / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
These days I have wandered with my lawyer through the “legal systems” of Cuba. The Castro brothers, who own the Birán estate that was previously their father’s, later extended the fence to the limit of the jurisdictional waters and converted the estate into Birania. They seized the rest of the nation and have “governed” it as if it were their personal fiefdom, … Continue reading “My Case File Disappeared / Angel Santiesteban”
Believe me that I have neither read, nor do I care to read the article written by the notorious spy and mercenary in the service of the Castros, the Guatemalan Percy Alvarado who, in the most ruthless and most of all cowardly way, attacks the former political prisoner Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, one of the … Continue reading “And Now Against Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia / Jorge Luis García Pérez Antunez”
It all started with a phone call. “Did you see the Jaime Bayly program?” a familiar voice kept asking. “I never watch the Jaime Bayly program,” I answered. The voice on the phone shot back, confident, “Then find the interview he just did with Tony Cortez. I need you to see that and give me … Continue reading “On the Steps of Nila: Bayley, Cortes and Mega TV / Ernesto Morales Licea”
… and the portable lamp moves from one horror to another… One of the most critical times of the day is the News Hour. It is overwhelming, sometimes I despair. But I use all personal resources to recover and reclaim my serenity, it could be the power of some memory that stimulates the opioid in … Continue reading “The spider’s s abode is no longer illuminated… / Lilianne Ruíz”
Before Reading Even for an uneducated Customs official, to whom the name of Antonio José Ponte means nothing, a book titled Villa Marista Exposed would stop the inspection line, given that Villa Marista is the headquarters of Cuba’s security services. But the official was more jealous of my gluten-free sausages — so beautiful in their … Continue reading “Speaking Bluntly / Regina Coyula”
At nine in the evening of December 31, coinciding with the guns of the Morro of Havana and after the staging of poems by representatives of OMNI ZONA FRANCA, Voices 12, the digital magazine of the alternative Cuban blogosphere, was presented. 12 issues say goodbye to 2011 and welcome to the twelfth year of the … Continue reading “VOICES 12 / Miguel Iturria Savón / Miguel Iturría Savón”
The “Laura Pollan” Ladies in White movement suffered another violent act of repudiation and arrests at 3rd Avenue and 26th Street in the Miramar district, at the end of their march demanding freedom, at noon on Sunday, December 11. The act was orchestrated by women undercover police officers in civilian clothes, who also summoned drunken … Continue reading “Ladies in White: Act of Repudiation and Violent Arrests After Sunday March / Katia Sonia”
My small end-of-year tribute to the commentators Water* falls from the balconies. It’s midnight and sonorous waterfalls spill from the windows and doors that give on to the street and terraces. It is the overflowing liquid of a slow scrubbing, the residue of a national bath taken under tossed buckets and without soap. The body … Continue reading “It’s Not The Same Water / Yoani Sánchez”
It is the determination of the literary colonels of the Cuban Book Institute. Five years ago, they officially ceased inviting me to artistic events, competitions, and public readings. An edict, coming from the ditches of Villa Marista and aimed at cultural institutes, has automatically excluded me from any sort of intellectual debate. Still, to this … Continue reading “Neither a Poet or a Cuban / Luis Felipe Rojas”