Interviews

Flying on a Caiman

How can the scales of the Cuban caiman be turned into feathers? In Amerindian mythology, such a transformation is indispensable for the crocodile to fly. GECNA (the Our America Cultural Studies Group) aspires to defy not the gravity on the island, but something that is even more restricting: the individual ego.

Read More

“Living without God” in Cuba

I was always more and more surprised, because one year this man was a drag queen, the next year a transvestite, the following one a writer (without having finished school), and now he’s even become a visual artist, an actor and I don’t know how many other things. (16 photos)

Read More

Leaving Cuba

“In my case, I always knew that some moment in my life would come in which I would be compelled to explore other lands, though that didn’t mean I felt I would leave for good. The existing laws are what suggest that idea to us. They give you a certain amount of time to return, and if you don’t, you can no longer come back with the same legal status as others, though you’re still legally a Cuban. It’s something that’s really absurd.”

Read More

Between Two Cubans: One Here, the Other There (Part II)

Julio de la Yncera sees many merits in the system of government in the USA where he has lived for 20 years and is highly critical of the Castro government. Erasmo Calzadilla has his reservations about the northern power and would like to see some major changes in Cuba’s system.

Read More

Between Two Cubans: One Here, the Other There (I)

A few weeks ago we published an interview by Havana Times writer Erasmo Calzadilla with Julio de la Yncera, a Cuban emigrant and Havana Times reader. Now we’re turning the table to give Yncera the chance to pose his own questions to Calzadilla. What follows is their conversation.

Read More

Esteban Morales on “Corrosive” Corruption in Cuba

“I still view corruption as an extraordinary danger” to the country, as its “corrosive power” makes it a matter of “national security,” said Esteban Morales, who was expelled from the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) after publishing an article warning of its pervasive effects.

Morales has appealed his rebuke to the PCC which is the only political party recognized in Cuba.

Read More

A Young Woman’s Decision to Leave Cuba

“The first thing is to get settled and establish myself and to later look for some job. I’ll work for any place that pays me enough money to rent an apartment and buy things for myself – something I haven’t been able to do here.”

Read More

Beyond Genitalia

“Even today, despite the apparent freedom, women are also caught between two alternatives: either I’m a feminist and I fight against men, or I’m a lesbian. These are the only two possibilities for escape, at least if you don’t realize that there’s another possibility – not one of escape, but of liberation,” says Ruben Lombida.

Read More