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What About Latinos in Other Parts of the Americas : UN Calls for End of Cuban Embargo, Again

12:20 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Cuba · No Comments

30 Oct 2009

cuba There’s has been a ton of attention on Latinos in (The United States of) America, with little acknowledgment that the Americas go beyond the borders of the U.S. and that current U.S. policy towards Latin America isn’t any better than internal policy. Just the other day the United Nations’ General Assembly voted 187-3, coming down on the U.S.’s continued embargo on Cuba. This is the 18th consecutive U.N. vote of its kind.

Award Winning Cuban Blogger Banned from Leaving to Recieve Award

11:21 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Blogs| Cuba| Media| media justice · 2 Comments

18 Oct 2009

Cubana blogger Yoani Sánchez was awarded the oldest prize in journalism, the Maria Moors Cabot Prize. Problem is, she wasn’t allowed the leave Cuba to accept the award. The awards were announced in the middle of the summer but according to her, she somehow held out a tiny bit of hope that she would be allowed to leave. She posted a video of her visit to the Cuban immigration office where she was told she couldn’t leave the country but not why. Could it be because she has been an unapologetic critic of the Cuban government whose voice, via the internet, has global reach?

Fidel Lives (And Changes His Clothes)

6:27 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Cuba| Ecuador · Comments Off

24 Aug 2009

fidel_correa Apparently Fidel Castro met with the President of Ecuador, Rafeal Correa last Friday and if I may say, he looks pretty good.

Via / Inca Kola News

Castro Praises Obama’s Speaking Skills, but Not his Truthtelling

9 Jun 2009

1fidel-castro Cuban leader Fidel Castro doesn’t have all that much to say these days about the U.S., but he did have some reflections to make on Obama’s now famous speech in Cairo. On the one hand, he admits that Obama isn’t the babbling idiot that former president George W. Bush was with regard to speechmaking, but when it comes to the content of said speech, he differs in opinion. In his weekly column “Reflexiones”, Castro says:

“If you take into account how long the speech was, without even using notes, the number of pauses isn’t important if compared to his predecessor (George Bush), who made mistakes at every paragraph. He has a great ability to communicate. However, the policies that the U.S. has followed for the past 7 decades is “in contradiction” with his words, since it was a history of “interventions” and “wars”, said Castro.

He expressed that although Obama started his speech saying that no nation has the right to impose its system or its form of governance on any other, he quickly contradicted himself “with a declaration of faith that makes the United States the supreme judge of democratic values and human rights.”

This doesn’t sound familiar to me. Does anyone know statement Castro is referring to here?

The fact is Castro does have a point. America has a way of wandering into countries or regions and telling people how to run their societies when the U.S. has a history of not following its own rhetoric…to say the very least.

Via / La Voz de Houston

Fidel Castro Accuses Mexico of Lying About Swine Flu

4:26 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| Cuba| Health| Latin America| mexico · Comments Off

13 May 2009

We don’t hear a lot from good old Fidel Castro, but when we do, it’s always something interesting. Take this piece of new: the Mexican government is angry because the Cuban leader is accusing them of keeping the 411 about the swine flu epidemic under wraps so as not to mess up Obama’s visit to Mexico. In a piece published in Cuba’s Granma newspaper, Fidel says that because of this deception, Cubans are now paying the price as citizens there were infected:

Today the presence of the H1N1 flu virus was detected in Cuba. The carrier is a young Mexican citizen who studies medicine in our country. The only thing that can be confirmed is that it didn’t come from the CIA, it came from Mexico [...]

The Mexican authorities did not inform the world of the presence of the virus while awaiting Obama’s visit, and now they are threatening us with suspending that of President Calderón, previously suspended for other, understandable reasons unconnected to the epidemic.

Mexico is emphatically denying this accusation, and Mexican president Felipe Calderon shot back yesterday that he “acted with determination, with promptness and with one single priority, which is and will always be to protect the health and the life of Mexicans.”

On the other hand, the Mexican Secretary for Foreign Relations (SRE) says that Castro’s accusations are making things a bit, well, weird for the relations between the two countries. Patricia Espinosa Cantellano, SRE, says that the declarations “make bilateral relations awkward”.

Via / Granma and Times of India

Cuban Music Legend Lashes Out at U.S. Government

2:44 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Cuba| Immigration| Music| Obama| Politics · 2 Comments

4 May 2009

silvio_rodriguez_2 Legendary singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez — arguably Cuba’s most celebrated musician — is lashing out at the United States government because they have allegedly denied him a visa to travel to the country. Rodríguez was set to perform at a tribute concert for U.S. folk musician Pete Seeger on his 90th birthday, but ICE seems to have impeded that. In a letter sent from Paris and published in Cuba’s Granma newspaper, Rodríguez states:

“It’s Friday, May 1st, 8:40 pm in Paris and I just visited the U.S. Embassy’s website for France where information about visa appications is published [...] mine is still pending, the same state it has been in since I first applied. Since today was the day I was to fly to New York and the visa hasn’t materialized, tomorrow I am going back to Havana.”

Rodríguez says that his visa limbo is “contradictory” to U.S. President Barack Obama’s promises of a closer relationship with Cuba. Granma reports that Rodríguez stated: “As a worker for Cuban culture, I still feel as blockaded and discriminated against as I do by other administrations [...] and I truly hope that changes someday.”

We do too, Silvio!

Via / El País

Trouble in Cuba?

12:43 pm By la Macha · Cuba · Comments Off

22 Apr 2009

Oh, dear. Seems that President Obama’s Spanish speaking skills may not be as good as we thought they were. Seems that Cuba is not as ready to talk about “everything” as we thought it *said* it was:

From CBS News:

Fidel Castro said Tuesday that President Obama “misinterpreted” his brother Raul’s sentiments toward the United States and bristled at any suggestion Cuba should free political prisoners or reduce official fees on money sent to the island from the U.S.

Raul Castro touched off a whirlwind of speculation that the U.S. and Cuba could be headed toward a thaw in nearly a half-century of chilly relations last week, when he said Cuban leaders would be willing to sit down with their U.S. counterparts and discuss “everything,” including human rights, freedom of the press and expression, and political prisoners on the island.

I can’t help it, I must say that it amuses me to think of the trouble that Raul must be in right now. How badly did he screw that whole thing up? We can blame it on “misinterpretation,” but you know Fidel is threatening to keep him hidden in an attic room somewhere now.

I don’t think anybody really knows what to do with Obama’s extended hand rhetoric. Chavez is shaking hands with Obama, Raul is offering to talk, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is talking to resident flake, George Stephanopoulos… Obama is making world leaders look like total assholes if they don’t also extend a hand–but hell, who really wants to extend a hand when you can be a macho anti-U.S. crusader?

It will be interesting to see what happens in the upcoming years when the newness of Obama rhetoric wears off.

Not All Americans Welcomed at the Summit of the Americas

6:49 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Cuba| Latin America| Obama| Politics| Puerto Rico · 2 Comments

17 Apr 2009

h22161americasschenk A poet friend of mine invited me to join a Facebook Group called , “AMERICA” is not U.S.A. AMERICA is the name for a whole continent”. This US-centrism has been a peeve of mine for at least ten years now, specifically from when I lived in Chile and found myself in the very difficult position of defending my Latina/Puerto Rican identity (Yes, Kai I’m talking about being Rican again, sigh).

Now the idea of who is “America” comes up again against the context of The Summit of the Americas, which started yesterday in Trinidad. Love him or hate him, President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua raised a good point at the start of the Summit, saying:

“It is not of the Americas , because Cuba is missing, Puerto Rico is missing,”

So how can you have a Summit of the Americas without two nations facing important challenges rooted in colonialism?
Read more…

The White House Press Room : Now With Spanish Flavor!

7:53 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Cuba| Obama| Politics| language · 3 Comments

14 Apr 2009

Yesterday we told you how Obama lifted restrictions on travel to Cuba (but only for Cuban-Americans) and lifted the cap on remittances sent by family members to family members in Cuba. The real news was that the announcement was made in part in Spanish! Gasp!

This is historic yes, and it’s clear that the intent was to speak directly to Cuban-Americans and who knows maybe even Cubans. Pero dies it show that the Obama administration “gets it” as the anchor woman says?
Get what exactly?
The embargo is still in place. Travel to Cuba is still limited to Cuban-Americans.
While the policy is a change, it’s not exactly groundbreaking.
And what about that pesky immigration issue?
Where’s the Spanish language White House briefing on that.

I know, I’m never satisfied.

Obama Lifts Restrictions on Cuban American Travel to Cuba

1:23 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Cuba| Obama| Politics · 5 Comments

13 Apr 2009

obama_cuba_usa

As was speculated last week, President Obama will lift all travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans, allowing them to visit the island as many times and for as long as they like.

“Restrictions on the families will be lifted,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official said an announcement lifting all restrictions on travel and remittances by Cuban-Americans to the island would come later in the day.

It would be the first time since 1982 that Cuban-Americans would be free to travel back and forth between the United States and Cuba.

Also lifted are restrictions on remesas, the monetary remittances sent by Cuban Americans to family back on the island, which were — previously capped at $300 every 3 months — and packages containing personal items such as clothing and personal hygiene products.

Via / AFP

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