Interviews

A Superhero with a Cuban Flag on his Chest

Express yourself! I can see you without ink. This invitation appears in the digital magazine Apulpso, which can be downloaded or obtained via the Weekly Package. It is a project created by five young enthusiasts who “wanted to do” more rather than go after money.

Read More

Paco, a Fighting Champion

Francisco Vila Flores (Paco) is 73 years old, is one of the founders of Cuba’s National Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired, An avid reader, he feels fulfilled with his work as the editor of Braille reading books.

Read More

Ileana the Painter: Art is the Path to Happiness

Ileana the Painter moves with the force of a torrent and irradiates the joy of a little girl. She confesses that she has always been “different” and challenging implacable society hasn’t been the greatest challenge in her life. She paints, she cooks, she lives with contagious and authentic freedom. With an unstoppable flair for improvising. (14 photos)

Read More

A Brave Cuban Woman

People still talk about Luanda Perez Hernandez (56 years old), a woman who decided to fight for her happiness in spite of the prejudice a machista and homophobic generation hold. Working in a Catholic church was her refuge during her marriage. She lives in a small town in the Artemisa province.

Read More

They Want to Vanish the Memory of My Father

Marialys father waited in a maximum security prison for 18 months to then finally have his trial and receive his sentence. When that happened, Marialys was only a 13-14 year old girl and she jealously kept the letters her father sent from jail.

Read More

Abdel Legra, a Democrat More Than an Opponent

During the current Cuban electoral process, 650 dissidents and opponents attempted to become district representative candidates, exercising their due right as recognized in the Constitution and Electoral Law, as Cuban citizens. None of them were successful.

Read More

A Moment with Marta Maria Borras

We interview the young Cuban filmmaker Marta Maria Borras. “As a director and scriptwriter, I’m very interested in my stories not having a closed story; I rather try to open up the narrative to multiple readings. This is a very difficult task for me, and it’s always an attempt.”

Read More

Behind The Hidden Havana: Interview with Daina Chaviana

Cuban writer Daina Chaviano is one of these untiring people who is always on the hunt for new ideas. In her first interview with Havana Times, the author tells us how she began her seasoned career as a Science Fiction writer, how she decided to leave her country of birth to settle in another country and how this new life in “unknown lands” influenced her work.

Read More

“Juan sin Nada”: Cuban Reality and Nothing Else

La singular historia de Juan sin Nada is an independent documentary made in Cuba. Directed by Ricardo Figueredo Oliva and produced by Diana Reyes Barrena, the movie has the audacity to openly and bravely question the raw reality of a Cuban who lives on the edge, with a simple average income that any Cuban living on the island could have.

Read More

Cuban Author Amir Valle: I’ve Always Hated Anything Sectarian

He was born in a town near the Antonio Maceo sugar mill in Guantanamo in 1967. The mill was modern. His town, two km away, wasn’t. Everything was made of wood, everything was empty. In Amir Valle’s home, poor people eat. His best friends eat. A black family. Seven brothers, he tells me, who still used to live in barracks in the 1970s. “The baby that was born into a house was everyone’s baby and, a death in the family was a death that everyone would mourn,” he recalls.

Read More