She carries a name that evokes encampments, and I am just a Sanchez, dragging the "ez" ending that once meant to be "the son of" some Sancho. Yes, like that chubby guy on the donkey who accompanied and satirized Quixote, although I weigh many pounds less and have never galloped, not even on a pony. She grew up in some beautiful comfortable place, while I spent my childhood in a noisy and violent tenement. She is a sexologist and psychologist, and I taste the pleasures of love and negotiate life's obstacles although I never graduated from any course in the subject. She is the daughter of the man who inherited the presidency of my country through blood, that same country where my father years ago lost his profession as a train engineer. She is tethered to every word he says, and I broke out of the prison of opinion long ago, freeing myself with the word.
She is afraid of the embrace, of a Cuba where we can both walk freely, attend a concert or public debate without problems, leave the country and reenter it without asking permission. I understand her. She carries on her shoulders an ancestry that perhaps many times she would have liked to shake off, deny, erase from her life. I am just the upstart, the intruder, without pedigree, without a worthy family tree to show off. My parents didn't fight in the Sierra Maestra, the slogans that were forged inside her house were regularly rejected in mine, the speeches delivered by her exalted uncle fell on the skeptical ears of my clan. She is entitled to the microphones, appears on national television to be interviewed and praised, while my face is only seen surrounded by adjectives such as "enemy," "cyber terrorist," without offering me -- of course -- the right to respond.
She has been making her tour of the United States and the Cuban news has not labeled her a mercenary for it. She has said, "I would vote for Obama," and -- surprise! -- the national press does not accuse her of being "pro Yankee." She is a prisoner of her lineage and I barely have a past to look at, right now I just wake up thinking about tomorrow. She and I, although it scares her and she denies it, are part of this country... very different daughters of this land, the fruits beloved and not beloved of the process. She will have to recognize that I exist, I am, that this Sanchez demands her right to criticize the follies of its windmills.
Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.
Translating Cuba is a compilation blog with Yoani and other Cuban bloggers in English.
Yoani's new book in English, Havana Real, can be ordered here.
Follow Yoani Sanchez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/yoanifromcuba
VICTIMS OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTION- Cases up to January 25, 2012
This work documents loss of life and disappearances of a political or military nature attributed to the Cuban Revolution. Each documented case is available for review at The Cuba Archive and substantiated by bibliographic/historic data and reports from direct sources. Due to the ongoing nature of the work and the difficulty of obtaining and verifying data from Cuba, the following totals change as research progresses and are considered far from exhaustive. Cuba Archive is currently examining additional cases -most are expected to be added to this table. Experience has shown that as additional outreach efforts are undertaken, many more cases are likely to be uncovered.
Non-Combat Victims of the Castro Regime: Work-in-progress-Documented Cases
Total = 10,500
"Balseros" (estimate to 2003) = 77,833 victims
http://cubaarchive.org/home/images/stories/1.25.2012_update.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL_zP2pHp3w
THE DAILY STAR LEBANON: Iranian vice president visits Cuba - May 28, 2012 08:39 PM
HAVANA: Iranian Vice President Ali Saeedlu began an official visit to Cuba Monday, following up on a trip to the communist-ruled island earlier this year by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Saeedlu, Ahmadinejad's deputy for international affairs, will hold "official talks" with his counterpart Jose Ramon Machado, the Iranian embassy told AFP, without specifying his length of stay or topics of discussion.
The visit comes five months after Ahmadinejad's trip to Havana to meet with President Raul Castro and his brother, former leader Fidel Castro, who stood down from the leadership over health issues in 2006.
On that trip the two leaders signed statements affirming the "right of all nations to the peaceful use of nuclear energy."
Cuba and Iran share similar positions in international organizations, with Tehran condemning the half-century US trade embargo against Cuba and Havana recognizing Iran's right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
The United States and its allies have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons in the guise of a peaceful enrichment program. Tehran denies the charge.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/International/2012/May-28/174888-iranian-vice-president-visits-cuba.ashx#axzz1wD6kLdn5
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Cuba
Perhaps it was this characteristic that inspired the NGO, of which she is director, to hire her in the first place. Their good judgement has been emphatically borne out.
If Sánchez devoted even a fraction of her time to active campaigning, as Castro does, she might earn a little respect. Instead she appears content to manufacture grievancies out of thin air for the benefit of those outside the country whose agenda is based in vindictiveness and spite for their perceived losses and the gains of ordinary Cubans.
A vote last week by the United Nations General Assembly Human Rights Committee has LGBT and human rights activists outraged over the decision to remove “sexual orientation” from a resolution that protects people from arbitrary executions.
Following is the list of countries that voted to remove “sexual orientation” from the anti-execution resolution:
Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belize, Benin, Botswana, Brunei Dar-Sala, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, China, Comoros, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, CUBA.....
http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2010/11/united-nations-vote-will-lead-to-more-lgbt-murders-activists-claim/
But it's strange that these other nations care at all about formally being 'good' in terms of UN regulations.
EL BLOG DE MARIELA CASTRO link
http://elblogdemarielacastro.blogspot.com/