Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

Sandokan · Jan 18, 2018

The Castro brothers imposed on the Cuban people and illegitimate political dynasty, taking advantage of their revolutionary fervor during the first year in power. The public office became the exclusive domain of the Castro clan, making a “dynasty” out of public service for 59 years and counting. The good news is that the Castroit horrors and violence against the Cuban people is almost at an end. Fidel Castro has died and his murderous brother Raúl will likely follow him soon.

Sandokan · Feb 2, 2018

Machado Ventura: Neither Young Nor Female
https://generacionyen.wordpress.com...oung-nor-female/comment-page-1/#comment-45913

Posted on September 1, 2015 by Auto Post

Machado Ventura in 2012, at the eighth plenary session of the 1st National CDR Directorate. (JCG)

Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 31 August 2015 — If anyone embodies the most antiquated orthodoxy of the Cuban political system, it is undoubtedly Jose Ramon Machado Ventura. With his frail gait and infinite power, the vice president of the Councils of State and Ministers represents the most reactionary and ultra-conservative wing of the island’s government. Thus, the excessive role he has gained in the media in recent weeks worries many.

Machadito, as his elders call him, has starred this summer in activities ranging from visits to sugar mills and a meeting with cattle ranchers, to the speech at the closing ceremony of the Federation of Cuban Women Congress, a day at the 10th Congress of the Young Communist League, and the closing words this Saturday at the National Council of the University Students Federation. All this, although he is neither a farmer, nor a woman and much less young.
Click link above for full article.

The intended transfer of powers has been to stop any pretension to power the people outside of the Castro family, and with the restitution of the so calls “historical leaders”, ensure that the “generational change” don’t try to carry out any change. Nevertheless, the international media have served only to overstate his microscopic political personality, his anodyne words and his still more inefficient governmental management in the poorest and devastated country of America.

Sandokan · Feb 17, 2018

The top Cuban leadership today resembles nothing as much as the feeble gerontocracy that governed the Soviet Union in the first half of the 1980s, until the ascension of Mikhail Gorbachev in March 1985. In quick succession Leonid Brezhnev was briefly succeeded by Yuri Andropov, and then Constantine Chernenko, all three by then in their 70s, feeble and incapable of leading their fading empire out of its terminal illness. Cuba's leadership today is even more unstable.

Sandokan · Mar 4, 2018

Raúl Castro, the nominal president, has performed inconsistently. That is not surprising given his continuing refusal to countermand his brother on any matter of transcending importance. The most important figures in the leadership are Raúl Castro 84-year-old, Ramón Machado Ventura 85 and Ramiro Valdés 83. Ranking Cuban officials don't know whom to obey or trust or how safely to maneuver around the Castro brothers. If there is a Cuban Gorbachev biding his time somewhere in the upper reaches of the leadership, he is wisely keeping a low profile.

Sandokan · Mar 19, 2018

That Raúl promotion happens on the anniversary of one of his noteworthy crimes is not without significance. On February 24, 1996, as dozens of members of Cuba’s peaceful opposition were rounded up, Cuban MIGs shot down two unarmed civilian airplanes in international airspace while flying a humanitarian search and rescue mission for the non-profit group “Brothers to the Rescue.” Three U.S. citizens, including a Vietnam War veteran, and a young man formerly rescued by the group perished. The incident was condemned by the International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal and the Cuban government was found by a U.S. Superior Court to have committed premeditated murder.

Sandokan · Apr 6, 2018

On February 24, 1996, as dozens of members of Cuba’s peaceful opposition were rounded up, Raul Castro gave order to the pilots of the Cuban MIGs to shot down two unarmed civilian airplanes in international airspace while flying a humanitarian search and rescue mission for the non-profit group “Brothers to the Rescue.” Three U.S. citizens, including a Vietnam War veteran, and a young man formerly rescued by the group perished. The incident was condemned by the International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal and the Cuban government was found by a U.S. Superior Court to have committed premeditated murder.

Sandokan · Apr 24, 2018

The Sacred Way
https://generacionyen.wordpress.com/2015/09/08/the-sacred-way/comment-page-1/#comment-45941

Yoani Sanchez
on September 8, 2015

Reina Street in Central Havana. (14ymedio)

Yoani Sanchez, 8 September 2015 — The paint drips into the cracks and holes and over the rusted metal poking through the columns and the ceilings. A colorful layer that covers over cobwebs, cracks and dirt, like make-up masks scars and wrinkles. Havana preens for the arrival of Pope Francis. The facades along the streets are touched up where the Bishop of Rome will pass by and popular humor has derisively re-baptized the path “The Sacred Way.” It is an ephemeral blush, rushed, one that the rain and the months will wash away.

They have not been able to camouflage the people, however, with optimism. The strokes of the painters, rushing to meet their schedule, don’t cover the skin or the worries. From early in the morning, Habaneros go out with their bags hanging from their shoulders looking for food. “Not even the pope coming has put something in the shops,” complains a woman on the corner of Manrique and Salud, while a friend directs her to Galiano Avenue where, she assures her, “they have good hot dogs for sale.”

Bergoglio isn’t going to pass by the empty refrigerators in the stores, so the touch up doesn’t include pretending that there is food, or disguising the shortages. Thus we are saved from the cartons of chicken thighs and the powdered milk extended with sand! There are no cosmetics to cover up the economic downtown we are experiencing. The market stands and shelves remain indoors, far from all the pomp of the papal entourage.

Our Sacred Way is hollow, purely a stage set, with the crudest props, the least believable.

Pope Francis will not be able to see the dilapidation of buildings near by the Malecón (seaside boulevard) unless he change his itinerary. Of course no chance, the regime would not allow his entourage to do that.

Photos of the day: Havana, labyrinth of ruins
Photos of the day: Havana, labyrinth of ruins | Babalú Blog

Sandokan · May 10, 2018

Since Fidel Castro seized power in 1959, buildings have not been maintained and the results have been devastating. It is obvious that this zone of the Malecón seawall was off limit to the motorcade of Pope Francis.

Crumbling buildings along Havana's Malecón sea wall

Along the Malecón, a five-mile stretch on the edge of Havana, there are many condemned structures under demolition, like this one

Sandokan · Jun 1, 2018

Generation Y Behind Bars
https://generacionyen.wordpress.com/2015/09/17/generation-y-behind-bars/

Yoani Sanchez
Posted on September 17, 2015

Men handcuffed(Luz Escobar/14ymedio)

Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, 17 September 2015 — With the publication of the Official Gazette No. 31, there have been many published opinions about the pardons granted to 3,522 prisoners in anticipation of the visit of Pope Francis. Most of the criticism has focused on the fact that the beneficiaries include no one sentenced for political reasons. However, on reviewing the list of the released prisoners, another element jumps to mind.

At least 411 of those pardoned have names that begin with the letter “Y,” more than 11 percent of the total. It could indicate that we are talking about people between 20 and 45 years of age, because from the beginnings of the seventies to well into the nineties it was a fad in Cuba to give children names starting with the penultimate letter of the alphabet. Thus, we are in the presence of the “New Man,” born and raised in a society that felt itself part of “Utopia,” living under Soviet subsidies and excessive ideological indoctrination. How is it possible that so much of this human clay has ended up behind bars?
Click link above for full article.

It is time for the world to know how blacks are treated in Cuba, how everyday their rights are violated. They are constantly followed and provoke by the police, who throw them in jail for any minor charge they can think off. The Castroit totalitarian regime squelches all human rights in the island. Racism remains widespread under the regime.

Sandokan · Jun 30, 2018

Cuban blacks have many complaints about the existing racism and believe is it getting worse. Cuba’s rappers have made racial complains a major theme of their songs. Young Cubans blacks are detained and harassed by the police for no apparent reason other than their race. They are asked for identifications and interrogated. This is political profiling of black males, an abuse of power by the military regime.

Sandokan · Jul 15, 2018

Fidel Castro declared to the world that he had abolished racism in Cuba. Those who said the contrary were simply denigrating the revolution and were labeled “agents of American imperialism.” By denying the existence of racism in Cuba for 60 years, the regime guaranteed a safe haven for the perpetuation and growth of a rampant racism in Cuba. Cuban society continues to be today a profoundly racist society.

Sandokan · Jul 31, 2018

The Faces Of The Cuban Dream
https://generacionyen.wordpress.com/2015/10/20/the-faces-of-the-cuban-dream/#comments

Posted on October 20, 2015 by Yoani-Sánchez

The musical On Your feet! based on the lives of Gloria and Emilio Estefan. (Matthew Murphy)

14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 20 October 2015 — “What is the Cuban dream?” he asked, as one inquires about the hour, the quality of the coffee, or the afternoon’s weather forecast. Around the table we all remained silent in the face of this question launched by the visitor. More than answering him about the country desired, the provocation made me think about the need for our dreams to reflect that faces of those who hold them, the people who inhabit them.

I remembered this conversation last Saturday, while enjoying the musical On your feet! in a crowded theater on Broadway in New York. Based on the lives of Gloria and Emilio Estefan, the work transcends the story of a Cuban couple making their way in the competitive world of entertainment in the United States, to become a story of nostalgia, tenacity and success.

Before the spectator’s eyes, a story develops beginning with the pain of exile and memories of a life left behind on the island. A reference that is maintained throughout this play, currently being staged at the Marquis Theater in the Big Apple. Directed by Jerry Mitchel, the musical successfully details the transformation of sadness into energy and of the melancholy of emigration into entrepreneurship.
Click link above for full article.

As George Gilder wrote in “The Spirit of Enterprise” 20 years ago: “Cuban-Americans are the most successful immigrants in the history of this nation of immigrants.”

This is something for which neither the Anglo establishment nor the black/Latino population will ever forgive Cuban-Americans; because they shattered the former’s myth of superiority as well as disposing of all the excuses which the latter had for their endemic failures.

Sandokan · Aug 13, 2018

The Cuban presence in the United States goes back several centuries. The earliest settlers of the southeastern United States were Spanish explorers who lived in Cuba and launched their expeditions from the island.

Before 1959 fewer than 35,000 Cubans Americans lived in the United States. By 2010, according to the US Census, 1.8 million of Cuban Americans were living in the United States. About 70% of all Cuban Americans were born in Cuba, and most arrived in the United States after January 1, 1959, when Fidel Castro took control of Cuba’s government and established a Communist dictatorship. Cuban Americans do not regard themselves as typical immigrants, but rather as political exiles.

Sandokan · Sep 4, 2018

Soon after Castro’s takeover in 1959, the number of Cuban immigrants rose sharply. From 1959 to 1962, more than 200,000 people left Cuba for the United States. Approximately 125,000 more left Cuba on so-called freedom flights, daily flights from Havana to Miami between 1965 and 1973. A similar number were transported to the United States in the summer of 1980 by the Mariel boat lift, an informal fleet of fishing boats and pleasure craft sent by Cuban exiles to pick up relatives from the Cuban port of Mariel. From 1959 onwards, thousands of other Cubans reached the United States in small boats and homemade rafts. Many others, above 100,000 thousands, lost their lives trying to escape from the island of Dr. Castro, in the shark infested waters, really and figuratively speaking, of the Straits of Florida.

Sandokan · Oct 4, 2018

On Your Feet!’ Off to Strong Start at Broadway Box Office
'On Your Feet!' Off to Strong Start at Broadway Box Office - The New York Times

By
Michael Paulson
October 13, 2015 4:21 pm

Ana Villafañe, left, as Gloria Estefan and Josh Segarra as Emilio Estefan in the musical "On Your Feet" at the Marquis Theater.Credit Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

“On Your Feet!,” a jukebox musical about Gloria and Emilio Estefan, barrelled onto Broadway last week, grossing $970,013 in its first seven preview performances and suggesting that the show might be the first new hit since “Hamilton.”

The musical, which tracks the couple’s journey from Cuba to the U.S. and from anonymity to stardom, was the eighth most popular show, out of 31 now running, by audience size, and had an average ticket price of $96.54, according to figures released Tuesday by the Broadway League. The show, which had a pre-Broadway run in Chicago, began previews on Oct. 5 and has scheduled an official opening on Nov. 5.
Click link above for full article.

The song “Get on Your Feet” was released as a single by Gloria in 1989, and in 1990 in the album “Cuts Both Ways”.
Now boys and girls get on your feet!

Sandokan · Oct 21, 2018

Gloria Estefan - Mi Tierra

The album “Mi Tierra” (My Homeland), was released in 1993, Gloria first album in Spanish. Emilio was the producer, and he did not spare expenses and effort to assemble the best musicians.

Juanito Márquez, one of the great Cuban musicians, composer, arranger, orchestrator, orchestra conductor, and guitar player, contributed to the album as an arranger, composer, player of the Tres and 12 String Guitar and conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra string section. The Colombian composer Estéfano (Fabio A. Salgado), wrote the lyrics for the son “Mi Tierra”, based in inspirations by Gloria, and two other songs.

Beside the regular musicians of Miami Sound Machine, a number of top notch musicians are feature in the album. Piano: Paquito Echevarría; Bass: Israel López (Cachao) & Chamin Correa; Guitar: Juanito Márquez; Tres (Cuban Guitar): Juanito Márquez & Nelson González; Percussion: Luis Enrique, Nelson González; Timbales Tito Puente & Sheila E.; Flute: Nestor Torres; Saxophone: Paquito D’Rivera; Trumpet: Arturo Sandoval.

Sandokan · Nov 9, 2018

The album “Mi Tierra” won Gloria a Grammy for best Album of the Year, and recognized as the best-selling Latin album of the year. It was an international success, having been sold over 8 million copies worldwide by 2006. Gloria Estefan is one of the world’s best-selling music artists of all time, with an estimated 90 million records sold worldwide.

On August 312, 2009, the song was played as a wake-up call for NASA astronaut José Hernandez aboard the space shuttle.

Mi Tierra lyrics:

De mi tierra bella, de mi tierra santa,
Oigo ese grito de los tambores y los timbales al cumbanchar
Y ese pregón que canta un hermano, que de su tierra vive lejano
Y que el recuerdo le hace llorar, una canción que vive entonando
De su dolor, de su propio llanto, y se le escucha penar

La tierra te duele, la tierra te da
En medio del alma cuando tú no estás
La tierra te empuja de raíz y cal
La tierra suspira si no te ve más

La tierra donde naciste no la puedes olvidar
Porque tiene tus raíces y lo que dejas atrás.

Sandokan · Dec 5, 2018

These outstanding beautiful lyrics reach everybody, everywhere, around the world that live away from their countries. Gloria Estefan album “Mi Tierra” has appealed to people of all nationalities.

This video of “Mi Tierra”, shows the inviting musicians playing their instruments: Cachao bass, Sheila E. congas, Nestor Torres flute, Paquito Echevarría piano, Luis Enrique timbales.

In an interview with the Washington Post on November 29, 2017, Glories said, "If I could only leave one album behind, it would be 'Mi Tierra' "

Gloria Estefan - Mi Tierra - 20,946,534 views

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWAWQmhqWGo

My Homeland lyrics

From my beautiful land, from my holy land
I hear that cry of the drums
and the timbales when cumbanchando
and that cry that a brother sings
that lives far away from his land
and that the memory makes him cry
a song that lives singing
of his pain from his own crying
and he is heard to grieve.
The land hurts you, the land gives you
in the middle of the soul, when you are not there
The land pushes you from the root and lime
The land sigh, if it does not see you anymore...
The land where you were born
you can forget it, because it has your roots
and what you leave behind.

Continuum the crys, the melancholy
and every night next to the moon
continues the peasant singing the son.
and every street that goes to my town
he has a moan, has a lament
He has nostalgia as his voice.
and that song that keeps on intoning
runs in the blood and keeps coming
with more strength to the heart ...
He has a moan ... my land
have a lament ... my land
I never forget it ... my land
I carry it in my feeling, yes sir
I hear that scream ... my land
live the memory ... my land
runs in my blood ... my land
I carry it inside of course
song of my beautiful and holy land
I suffer that pain that is in your soul
although I am far away I feel it
and one day I return I know it

* ‘Cumbancha’ is a Cuban word of West African derivation that refers to an impromptu party or musical jam session. Many classic Latin songs refer to the ‘cumbanchero’, a person who knows how to party and have a good time. For those who are familiar with the word, ‘cumbancha’ implies an opportunity to get together with family and friends to dance, sing and celebrate life.

Sandokan · Dec 19, 2018

BEST SELLING MUSICAL ARTISTS!
BEST SELLING MUSICAL ARTISTS! - IMDb

Gloria Estefan was born on September 1, 1957 in Havana, Cuba as Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García. She has been married to Emilio Estefan Jr. since September 2, 1978. They have two children. Gloria was rank no. 70 among the top 100 best-selling artists of all time.

American singer-dancer (1977-present) Sold 90 million albums worldwide (one of the most successful Latin artists in the world. Before Shakira, JLO, and Selena, she made Spanish songs catchy, entertaining, and even understandable at times).

These are two of Gloria greatest hits, enjoy them.

Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine – Rhythm is Gonna Get You - 7,360,469 views

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZkjeJKBI0M

Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine – Conga - 6,789,798 views

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54ItEmCnP80

Sandokan · Jan 13, 2019

I no longer want to find you, Camilo
https://generacionyen.wordpress.com/2015/10/28/i-no-longer-want-not-find-you-camilo/

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Yoani-Sánchez

Flowers for Camilo Cienfuegos at a primary school in Havana’s Plaza district (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 28 October 2015 — The wall of the Malecón tastes of salt and is rough to the touch. Standing on it, my school uniform splashed by the waves, every October of my childhood I threw a bouquet of flowers into the sea. The tribute was addressed to a man who had died fifteen years before I was born. His face was on the walls and in schoolbooks, with an enormous smile beneath a broad-brimmed hat. Those were the days when I still dreamed of meeting Camilo Cienfuegos.

The story, repeated to the point of exhaustion in school assemblies and official propaganda, told of a plane that disappeared while the Commander was flying between the cities of Camagüey and Havana. For the children of my generation it was an almost magical enigma. We believed that one day we would find him, a bearded jokester, somewhere in the Cuban geography. It was just a matter of time, we thought.
Click link above for full article.

What an amazing coincident, that Camilo has been recently replace as head of the army by Raul, that the pilot of the British aircraft that followed Camilo's plane disappeared, that the plane's mechanic who reported the machine guns were spent was fatally struck by a car the very same day, that the fisherman who witnessed the aerial shooting was interrogated and never heard from again, and that the personal friend looking into the case was gunned down. Absolutely no doubt that the Castro brothers ordered him killed.

How Camilo Cienfuegos was Murdered - Documentary w/ English Subtitles

Part V

Part VI

PleasantValley · Jan 13, 2019

Is this a new "thing" now on DP?

Where one poster makes about 30 posts in a row. I saw this same BS on another thread as well by a different member.

Hey, if you want to be listened to, then make one or two posts, to open the discussion.
When you bombard the thread with only your posts, I shut you down and do not listen to anything you have to say because it all seems like a one-way conversation.

Get my point? Thirty posts all in a row is NOT how you open a conversation.

It is PROPAGANDA.

Sandokan · Jan 14, 2019

PleasantValley said:
Is this a new "thing" now on DP?

Where one poster makes about 30 posts in a row. I saw this same BS on another thread as well by a different member.

Hey, if you want to be listened to, then make one or two posts, to open the discussion.
When you bombard the thread with only your posts, I shut you down and do not listen to anything you have to say because it all seems like a one-way conversation.

Get my point? Thirty posts all in a row is NOT how you open a conversation.

It is PROPAGANDA.

The posts are about a variety of subjects, but by the same author Yoani Sanchez, a Cuban blogger that portray life in the island under the Castroit tyrannical regime. Her blog, which is block from internet sites in Cuba, reaches readers around the world in 15 languages, providing them with real information about daily life in Cuba, not propaganda. PROPAGANDA is the fake information that the regime feed to the outside world and is disseminated by the mainstream media.

The posts in the thread has been viewed 22,900 times, equivalent to 158 views per post. The thread is among the best views per post ratio. Obviously many people are interested in the posts and keep visiting the thread. Get my point? Thanks for posting.

Sandokan · Jan 27, 2019

Raul Castro, The Altar Boy
https://generacionyen.wordpress.com/2015/09/22/raul-castro-the-altar-boy/

Pope Francis greets Raul Castro on his arrival in Cuba. (EFE)

14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 22 September 2015 – The Cuban leader, Raul Castro, has accompanied Pope Francis at all his Masses during his tour of the island. From the one celebrated in Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution to the words pronounced at the Santiago de Cuba Cathedral. Like one seeking absolution for a long list of sins, the General President has traveled from the capital to the east of the country, following the papal entourage.

Castro appears to be fulfilling, in this way, the notice he gave in Rome last May. He said then, “If the Pope continues speaking like this I will go back to praying and return to the Church, I’m not joking.” The return to the faith appears to include not only him, but a part of his family that has accompanied him, along with the executive branch of the island and officials from the state press.

Despite the sudden mystical fervor, national television carefully avoided showing images of the Cuban president when the faithful were reciting the Mass, making the sign of peace, or repeating some prayer when he was present. The cameras only focused on his arrival and departure from temples and plazas.

Some television newscasters who participated in a special ‘magazine’ feature, broadcast during these three days have faced a particular plight. Several faces well-known for their staunch ideological discourse have had to moderate their vocabulary, and are salting their phrases with psalms, biblical allusions and reverence for religious figures.

The pirouettes performed by these presenters and journalists, to avoid words like “revolution,” “communist” or “comrades,” have also been worthy of the political circus they represent. All that was missing in the studio was a crucifix and a Bible, but they weren’t necessary.

The excessive incense of these days is not appreciated by many. “This goes from the sublime to the ridiculous,” a 63-year-old Communist Party militant who lives in my building told me. “From atheism to religious servility,” he added, referring to the attitude of the Cuban authorities and the broadcast of complete Masses in the national media.

Now, all we need is to hear Raul Castro’s next public speech, to see if he also has replaced the bellicose “Homeland or death!” with the more concise, “Amen!”

The Castroit tyrannical regime, which called itself Marxist-Leninist, materialist and atheist, remains the most restrictive place in Latin America for Catholics. The Churches of all religions are not allowed to operate any types of schools. Pastors and their families are especially vulnerable, and many have faced beatings, had their property seized, destroyed or both, and even faced imprisonment as a result.

Sandokan · Feb 12, 2019

Of the nearly 3,500 prisoners that were released in honor of the pope’s visit, there was not a single political prisoner among them. Just last week the repressive state security apparatus detained hundreds of members of the predominantly Catholic dissident group Ladies in White.
Christians are still suffering for their faith, denying them the right to education, or sending faithful party members to infiltrate churches and report on church activities.

The Castroit regime is a totalitarian police state. Civil liberties such as freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of the press do not exist under the regime.

Sandokan · Feb 27, 2019

The progressive’s official line on the Castroit regime is that it is wonderful and the people doesn’t need free speech, a free press, free elections, free trade unions or free political parties because it enjoys a sophisticated form of democracy, which is actually better than the one in the U.S. or any western democratic country. You have to be progressive and clever to recognize the Castroit monarchic tyrannical regime for the triumph of its power over people that it subjugate. If the cap fits were it.