· November, 2011

Stories about Cuba from November, 2011

Cuba: Under “Survey-lance”

  30 November 2011

“As far as many Cubans here are concerned, it is not necessary to have survey results to verify the high levels of discontent and uncertainty we live under”: Without Evasion explains why she's sceptical of surveys.

Cuba: Mariela's Red Light Comment

  29 November 2011

Ernesto Morales Licea takes issue with Mariela Castro's now infamous statement to Radio Netherlands during her visit to Amsterdam's Red Light District.

Cuba: Entrepreneurship & Home Ownership

  28 November 2011

Generation Y wonders whether the country's new wave of entrepreneurs will survive, while Laritza's Laws is concerned that “the housing regulations, recently enacted by the government of Cuba…leave intact regulations that impede the full exercise of the right of ownership.”

Cuba: News, 24/7

  25 November 2011

Cuba will apparently soon have a 24-hour news channel; Regina Coyula says: “Despite so much supposed information, we are the most disinformed people in the world.”

Cuba: Photos of Violent Arrests

  24 November 2011

Uncommon Sense weighs in on photos showing the violent arrest of “two Cuban female activists, Yris Pérez Aguilera and Donaida Pérez Paseiro, as they tried to leave Yris’ home in Placetas so she could see a specialist for treatment of head injuries she suffered during a beating by a police...

Cuba: Giving Thanks, Cuban Style

  23 November 2011

This Thanksgiving, My Big Fat Cuban Family “opted to take a traditional Thanksgiving side dish (corn) and added a Cuban spin to it” – check out the mouth-watering recipe, here.

Cuba: Siding with Syria

  23 November 2011

Bloggers comment on Cuba's opposition against a United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning Syria for human rights violations, here and here.

Cuba: Censoring “El Chupi”

  22 November 2011

Generation Y blogs about El Chupi Chupi, a hugely popular song in Cuba right now, which has been panned by the Cuban Music Institute, saying: “Controversy will arise, of course, and generate debate, but no public official will be able to erase it with the stroke of a pen, because...

Cuba: Ladies Detained Again

  21 November 2011

The Ladies in White were once again attacked this weekend as they tried to attend Mass, babalu reports; two of the group's members are allegedly “still being held in a Castro prison.”

Cuba: Overseas Voting

  21 November 2011

“The attention with which the Spanish community on the Island follows the Spanish electoral process is surprising,” says Generation Y, suggesting that “among voters here there is a clear intention to push the policies of Madrid’s Moncloa Palace so that, in turn, something will move in the Plaza of the...

Cuba: No Respect for Parents

  18 November 2011

“The love of the mother for her child is unconditional — according to Cubans — as are the child’s feeling toward its mother”, says Regina Cano, but notes that “in more than an insignificant percentage of instances nowadays, this image is broken and the pieces of the picture go flying.”

Cuba: Censorship in Film Festival

  18 November 2011

Generation Y says that the International Festival of the New Latin American Cinema, which takes place in Cuba next month, “has been losing ground in the cultural life of Havana”, partly because of censorship.

Cuba: The Freedom of Twitter

  17 November 2011

“Mariela Castro, the daughter of Cuban dictator Raul Castro, opened a Twitter account recently to freely share her thoughts 140 characters at a time”: babalu says that the micro-blogging service has made “Mariela [get] a taste of freedom — not her own freedom, but the freedom of other Cubans to...

Cuba: Filmic Propaganda

  17 November 2011

babalu notes that “ScreenJunkies.com has chosen the Castro propaganda classic ‘I am Cuba’ as one of the top five blatantly lying propaganda films of all time.”

Cuba: Walking the Streets

  17 November 2011

Generation Y blogs about Tony, a street vendor who “has passed through all the stages of the emerging private sector in Cuba” and wonders, even in this period of entrepreneurial “revival”, “why [it] has to be plagued with so many absurdities, so many limitations.”

Cuba: Honouring the Island's Patron Saint

  16 November 2011

Havana Times reports on the celebration of an outdoor mass this past weekend “in honor of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, considered by Catholics to be the ‘Patron Saint of Cuba'”, explaining: “Next year will mark the 400th year since the discovery of the image; it seems that...

Cuba: “Antunez'” Wife Tries To Reach Hospital

  15 November 2011

Pedazos de La Isla reports that “Yris Tamara Aguilera [wife of the dissident ‘Antunez’] was victim of a brutal beat down at the hands of the Cuban political police” and is in need of medical attention which may prove impossible thanks to the fact that “the dissident couple has their...

Cuba: Illegal Internet Access

  15 November 2011

Two diaspora bloggers address Cuba's accusations that the United States helped finance “the creation of illegal television and Internet networks that have allowed some Cubans to bypass state-run services” – Uncommon Sense says: “Let's hope so…because limiting access is just another way the dictatorship exercises its control of the population”,...

Cuba: Reports from Diaspora Bloggers

  14 November 2011

Pedazos de La Isla reports that “Antunez” has been released, babalu has what he laments is a “regular” report on “on Ladies in White being arrested by the Castro dictatorship for attempting to attend Sunday church services” and Uncommon Sense suggests that an independent journalist may have been arrested “because...