#cuban-literature

#cuban-literature

Classic France is a country of nuance with a love of conversation and freedom and an aversion to fanaticism. Contemporary Houellebecq describes France as a museum, where landscape turns into decor and where rural areas are emptying out.

I find England ugly...I hate England; the weather is like a jail sentence...the food in England is like a jail sentence.

Eliades Ochoa's aura is so powerful that under the generous rays of sunlight streaming through the large window on this March morning, he evokes a Western film.

"One must put himself in the period... crime had a certain familiarity from its repetition through time.... That's what they were like, unscrupulous. So was I. And since we are speaking about it, so was the Renaissance."

There are politics in my songs, but not propaganda, says the musician, who receives EL PAIS on Wednesday at the Ojala studios in Havana. He speaks of the government's orthodox and closed vision in the economic sphere, and of his commitment to a less rigid socialism.

Valeria Luiselli, an acclaimed author, discusses the intricacies of Julio Cortázar's 'The Night Face Up,' highlighting its themes and narrative structure that intertwine reality and dreams.

She explained that she was facing bureaucratic hurdles in obtaining her degree to qualify as a senior technician in dental prosthetics. And, even with the diploma, it would be difficult to survive on a monthly salary of 3,000 pesos (about $6). In Cuba, she said, you have to be a magician to survive the nonexistent transportation, the inflation, the corruption, [or] the fact that the country is operating with a currency that not everyone can access.

An exhibition of Wifredo Lam is about as safe a bet as the Museum of Modern Art can place and still plausibly say that it's a bet on expanding the canon. The Cuban artist is one of the most famous painters of the 20th century, featured in almost every single key show about Surrealism. MoMA acquired his famous painting The Jungle in 1946, a few years after he made it.

Cuba's government said Thursday night that it would release 51 people from the island's prisons in an unexpected move. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the release in the upcoming days stems from a spirit of goodwill and close relations with the Vatican. The government did not identify who it would release, except to say that 'all have served a significant part of their sentence and have maintained good conduct in prison.'

Maspalomas, a resort down off the coast of Gran Canaria in Spain, is one of the top gay vacation destinations in the world. It's home to fabulous beaches, stunning sand dunes, and a population of just over 36,000 with an impressive 30 LGBTQ+ bars, meaning there's nearly one bar per every thousand residents.

In late 2024, his brother said, authorities detained their parents, both of whom are fighting cancer, and held them for months to pressure him to return to the island and turn himself in. But he had become obsessed with his mission to 'liberate Cuba,' Edisbel Sánchez González said. He wanted to show the world 'an act of courage.'

The Cuban Revolution was more successful at exporting its epic narrative than any other tangible commodity. Not even sugarcane, tobacco or rum can compare. The face of Che Guevara transformed into left-wing merchandise, the stoic image of Fidel Castro with a cigar in his mouth defying the 600 assassination attempts orchestrated against him by the CIA, and the slogan that Cuban education and healthcare are the best in the world have been an important part of the global progressive ideation from 1959 to the present.

I believe Venezuela is a different country after January 3. An external factor became an event that dramatically altered the internal landscape. Obviously, there's a new dynamic: the players have shifted. These events caught the opposition off guard. The U.S. government has made controversial and complicated decisions, but they offer the country an opportunity.

A few blocks from Revolution Square, in a former shantytown in Havana, Dr. Omitsa Valdes holds her consultations. It's a dusty, dilapidated place where she tells patients they must bring their own syringe and medication from home. But if a general checkup is needed, including urine and blood tests, Dr. Valdes is even more direct: If you can get it done yourself, I'll write the order.

The Mexican president's phone call, asking Castro to leave a summit of heads of state before the arrival of U.S. president George W. Bush, perfectly illustrates the dilemma that other Mexican presidents have historically faced, and which now confronts the government of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum: how to maintain good relations with both Cuba and the United States. Sheinbaum finds herself stuck in this dichotomy,

He doesn't have an X account. He's not on Facebook. Nobody knows where he lives or what kind of life he leads. In fact, people don't have a clue who he is. I've never heard of him, says a bakery worker in Bauta, a municipality west of Havana. No idea who he is, a housewife from Pinar del Rio shrugs, when asked if she knows Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga, the great-nephew of Fidel and Raul Castro.