From the Cuban Blogosphere - Erasmo Calzadilla: Insufficient Arguments... (Part II)

Erasmo Calzadilla's latest post, "Insufficient Arguments against Yoani," at The Havana Times is not so much a defense of Sanchez herself, as it is a criticism of the attack article, "Yoani, la hija de PRISA," written against her by Enrique Ubieta that appeared recently in the pages of Granma Intarnacional (both on-line and in the Spanish language print version) on November 27.

While I have criticized that article myself at length (here, here, and here), unlike Calzadilla I am not Cuban, do not live in Cuba, and thus am not subject to its leaders or laws. So, in Part II of this post on Calzadilla and the burgeoning Cuban blogosphere, let me share my analysis of his words and ideas.

Calzadilla begins by reminding his readers that Sanchez's blog Generacion Y is blocked in Cuba. Still, he has been able to read many of her writings (he does not say how) and finds Ubieta's claims against her unconvincing and unfounded by any evidence so far presented. Indeed, in his reading of Generacion Y, Calzadilla does not find anything "that threatens the civil norms of coexistence in a society of democratic rights and responsibilities, as Cuba is said to be."

From the Cuban Blogosphere - Introducing Erasmo Calzadilla and The Havana Times (Part I)

La blogosfera cubana esta en candela - The Cuban blogosphere is on fire. So in order to capture a bit of that fire, today I will kick off a new semi-weekly feature on El Yuma called,

"From the Cuban Blogosphere."

New blogs are appearing weekly and new groups and portals promoting and hosting those blogs are proliferating rapidly despite, or perhaps because of the Cuban government's simultaneous repression of some blogs and promotion of others.

Periodically, as I follow these developments in Cuban cyberspace, I will post links to, descriptions of, and if necessary, translations of the most interesting of these new blogs and portals. So here goes...

Introducing Erasmo Calzadilla of The Havana Times.

Thanks to the advice of Carlos Alzuguary that was the subject of one of my previous posts, I recently discovered The Havana Times.org, an English-language news and culture portal that was founded in Cuba in October 2008. Originally run from Cuba as a kind of "private venture" by the state-employed, foreign-born interpreter Circles Robinson (yes, that seems to be his real name), the site is now operated out of Nicaragua, where the Robinson lives after losing his job in Cuba. In fact, with the owner based in Nicaragua, the web master living in Spain, the writers reporting from Cuba, and the translators working mostly from the United States, The Havana Times is a true "transnational" operation that illustrates the power of the web in overcoming low budgets and long distances.

While I will have more to say about this on-line portal in my on-going series of posts Let a Thousand Bloggers Bloom, here I only want to introduce and highlight a number of recent posts by blogger Erasmo Calzadilla (pictured above). Calzadilla's blog/diary is available at The Havana Times in both English and Spanish.

The Savaging of Yoani Sánchez: The Reasons Why... (Part 3/3)

My previous post in this three part series, "The Savaging of Yoani Sanchez," described the flood of recent articles in the Cuban press aimed at disqualifying the blogger. Essentially, these articles allege that she is a foreign media phenomenon, completely unknown in Cuba, financed by enemies of the revolution.

While it is clear that Sanchez began with a much greater following abroad than she has so far attained within her own country (kind of like the Buena Vista Social Club, come to think of it), none of her critics care to admit that this fact is due primarily to the government's monopoly on mass media in Cuba. By law and by definition, Cuban mass media is Cuban state media. Remember, the national daily Granma is the "Organo Oficial del Comite Central del Partido Comunista de Cuba" (the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party).

Indeed, up until last week, the state media had steadfastly refused to even mention her by name, knowing perhaps that the wily Cuban public is often skeptical of what it reads in Granma, and may become interested in "un tal Yohanis" exactly because the government has begun to badmouth her. This is also likely the reason that the article that did attempt to savage her, " Yoani Sánchez: la hija de PRISA" (a reprint of an article first published on-line back in January, 2009) appeared only in the weekly, Spanish-language version of Granma Internacional, not in the national daily Granma.

Furthermore, the fact that Sanchez's blog, along with a growing number of the blogs and portals that she is associated with, are "blockaded" by the government and thus inaccessible to the vast majority of the Cuban public did not seem to merit mention by her critics. (Last year on a trip to Cuba I confirmed this when I was unable to access her blog or the portal that houses it, DesdeCuba.com, from a number of Havana hotels).

Instead, with a twisted logic, her critics use the fact she is (still) relatively unknown within Cuba (because of this internal "embargo" on the free flow of information) as "proof" that she is a foreign media construction and, it is insinuated, a foreign agent, whose critiques of Cuba's socialist system serve foreign interests and and are not shared by her fellow Cuban subjects, er, citizens.

Thus, out of overconfidence, naivete, jealousy, or just a lack of understanding of this new generation and their newfangled gadgets, and in their effort to disqualify the blogger, her critics have willfully overlooked or conveniently ignored the real reasons for her substantial success and rapid rise to international influence to date.

So, here I offer my own analysis of "the reasons why"; my “top ten list” of what is really "behind" what her critics have labeled alternately “The Yoani Phenomenon” or more sinisterly “La Operación Yoani.”

1. David vs. Goliath: The laudatory international media frenzy that initially greeted Fidel Castro in the 1950s (with Herbert Matthews of the New York Times - pictured with Castro above [Fildel's the one with the cigar] - describing him as "an overpowering personality" whose "men adored him"; "he has caught the imagination of the youth of Cuba all over the island," "an educated, dedicated fanatic, a man of ideals, courage, and of remarkable qualities of leadership"), is ironically being replayed here with Sánchez and her “revolutionary” blog. Remember, Batista also attempted to censor the Cuban national media preventing them from fueling Castro's rising popularity within the country - necessitating the foreign media's "infiltration" of the country to get the story out. However, Batista was much less adept at completely controlling a national media (which was still then in private hands) than is the current government, of which the national mass media is an official extension.

The Savaging of Yoani Sánchez: Of Straw Men, Cocky Hens, and Lobeznas Disfrazadas (Part 2/3)

In the first part of this series, "Crying Wolf(ette)," I highlighted a series of articles appearing in the Cuban press (in print and on-line) aimed at disqualifying Yoani Sanchez. Without exception, they deploy one or more of a handful of tired tactics traditionally aimed at discrediting any critics of the Cuban revolution.

Most commonly, they attack the critic, not the criticism; the messenger, not the message.

In other words, they attack Sánchez’s person, her integrity, her motivations, her (rich and luxurious?) lifestyle, or even her choice of fashion (a blond wig in Cuba – how dare she!), choosing to ignore her arguments and analysis about Cuba’s many pressing problems:

Official corruption, collapsing infrastructure, an inefficient economic system, lack of freedom of expression, of the press, of association, of assembly, to travel freely abroad, to live where one chooses, to buy and sell one’s belongings (including one’s home or car), to work on one’s own account, not to mention the severe limits on other political, civic, economic, and human rights.

In other words, these attacks are a concerted but unsuccessful attempt to change the subject. Cuba’s real problems don’t appear on that long list above and can simply be reduced to this: the fatherland is threatened by an ungrateful, anti-Cuban, skinny computer hacker with a poison pen (ink bought and paid for by Uncle Sam, of course).

This elegant graphic comes to us courtesy of the blog of Cuban journalist Norelys Morales Aguliera - Islamia.

Luckily, Yoani hasn't taken the bait. She refuses to be dragged down into the mud with her critics, even having the class to express solidarity and understanding with them as fellow bloggers. Instead of being distracted by the noise, er, news, she has kept up her mission of expanding the space for critical dialogue by speaking truth to power, refusing to stop "kicking the darkness 'till it bleeds daylight" - verbally speaking, of course.

Los Consejos de Carlos: Elaine Diaz @ La Polemica Digital

Some of the best comments that I've gotten so far on this 6-week old blog* have been direct e-mails from readers, some angry and others complimentary. Unfortunately, however much they warm my heart or boil my blood, these direct e-mails never see the light of day.

However, I received one e-mail about two weeks ago from an old friend in Cuba, Carlos Alzugaray, a former diplomat, active scholar (see his recent essay, "Continuity and Change in Cuba at 50" here), and a professor of Political Science in Havana, that was quite helpful for me in expanding my still limited knowledge of the blogosfera cubana.

Carlos and I have since kept up a healthy e-mail exchange, not always agreeing, but always open to debating and learning from one another. If we were not separated by those pesky 90 miles, we'd also likely share a bottle of ron anejo as we argue over US-Cuban relations.

Given the recent rise in the temperature of the debate surrounding the Cuban blogosphere and the flood of personal attacks, innuendo, and basic lack of buenos modales or even el respeto por el derecho ajeno from some bloggers, I think Carlos' note is a good example of respectful, fruitful engagement.

With his permission, I'm pasting his initial e-mail here as food for thought and fodder for more critical and respectful debate.

Adelante Carlos!

Hi Ted!

I have been following your blog and I cannot help but notice your infatuation with Yoani. No doubt an intelligent, articulate and attractive figure. I think in many ways she reflects what many young Cubans of her generation think.

Nevertheless, since you are a scientist and I am one too, I must point out that I find your attention on Yoani excessive and supporting a distorted view of Cuban reality. Your blogs give the impression that the Cuban blogosphere begins and ends with Yoani and the group of young people that surround her and follow her, an idea that Yoani and her husband, Reinaldo Escobar, tend to promote.

A Classy Lady: Sánchez Responds to Critics (via Twitter!)

Yoani Sánchez
yoanisanchez

I have come to think that those who are always ready to insult, disqualify, and attack as a way of life, are quickly neutralized when confronted with sweet words. 23 minutes ago reply

For now, I send them all a complicit wink: I know very well that one’s mask can drop away in a split second, that their true opinions will blossom one day. 2 hours ago reply

Someday, we Cuban bloggers of al stripes will be able to come together and debate without insults and personal attacks. It’ll be soon. 2 hours 10 minutes ago reply

I know that behind all those offensive words and defamations against me, many times there is a journalist under pressure from their superiors. I don’t hold grudges. 2 hours 15 minutes ago reply

Although it may seem that we alternative bloggers are separated by a great difference of opinion from the official ones, we really have common problems. 2 hours 25 minutes ago reply

I want to thank all these official Cuban blogs that keep the topic of the alternative blogosphere on the front burner. Keep it up!!! 2 hours 30 minutes ago reply

Join the

conversation

Note: To navegate to the other entries in thies series, "The Savaging of Yoani Sanchez," you click here on Part I, "Crying Wolf(ette)," Sanchez Responds to Critics, "Classy Lady," Part II, "Of Strawmen...," or Part III, "The Reasons Why..."

The Savaging of Yoani Sánchez: Crying Wolf(ette) - Part 1/3

Is this the sound of the other shoe dropping? You can be forgiven for not having noticed, but while you were eating your Lechón con flan over the long Thanksgiving weekend, the Cuban government clearly changed its strategy in dealing with the independent blogger movement and especially with the most prominent member of that movement, Yoani Sánchez.



Of course, October and November were quite eventful in the Cuban blogósfera, featuring a series of audacious guerrilla video maneuvers from La Flaca (first at an immigration office and then inside the Temas internet debate). This was followed by a pair of violent, government-orchestrated crackdowns, both taking place in the streets and aimed at reminding her and her husband, Reinaldo, along with their pesky blogger friends like Claudia Caudelo and Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo (pictured above with Sánchez), that “la calle es de Fidel” – even if he hasn’t been seen on it in more than three years.

This was all capped off by Sánchez’s coup of scoring a one-on-one Q&A with President Obama, published on her blog as “Siete Preguntas” on Thursday morning, November 19.

However, over the course of the following week, more articles critical and dismissive of Sánchez have appeared in the official Cuban on-line press (and, according to AFP, it seems also in the print version of the Spanish language edition of Granma Internacional) than had appeared there in all of the previous two-and-a-half-years.

Agreeing to Disagree - The Best Things (about Cuba) I've read (in Spanish) this week (II)

I've just read two provocative and well reasoned blog posts about the unfolding situation on the ground in Cuba, "Repression as a Means of Distraction" (by Alejandro Armengol, Blog Cuaderno de Cuba) and about the debate over lifting the travel ban, "Of Tourists and Suitcases" (by Frank Rodriguez, Blog de Emilio Echikawa).

While I don't share the totality of either argument, both reflections are highly recommended for their civil, rational tone, critical analysis, and original point of view. Also, both are notable since they openly differ with the latest actions and statements from Yoani Sanchez, Reinaldo Escobar, and their blogger movement, but do so in a spirit of clear sympathy and solidarity.

¡Qué Vengan Los Yuma!

Last Thursday, the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs held a much anticipated hearing on the topic, "Is It Time to Lift the Ban on Travel to Cuba?" (see the full 3-hour webcast). While this is not a new subject for Cuba-watchers, there are a pair of bills currently winding their way through the Congress that seek to do just that. Current prospects for the change aren't good, however, what with the pro-embargo lobby donating generously to the Democratic members of Congress and with Nancy Pelosi saying essentially, "Yeah, but now ain't the time...".

However, those who favor the openning managed to bring together a new and quite forceful group of speakers, including activist and dissident Miriam Leiva (who addressed the gathering from the U.S. Interest Section in Cuba) and blogger Yoani Sanchez (who sent in her own powerful and typically literary statement). Coverage of Sanchez's participation from the Miami/Nuevo Herald is here and here, with a quick summary of parallel events in Cuba and on her blog here.

Phil Peters has covered this ground comprehensively on his own blog, The Cuban Triangle and, in fact, was an invited speaker at the hearing.

I leave you with an excerpt from the statement of La Flaca Indomable, "In the suitcases - A reflection on the necessary liberalization of Americans' travel to Cuba":

"Eliminating these long obsolete travel restrictions would mean the end of the main elements with which official propaganda has repeatedly satanized American Administrations, and the anachronistic travel permit that we Cubans need to enter and leave our country would be even more ridiculous. Of the phrase spoken by Pope John Paul II that January 1998 in the Plaza of the Revolution - 'Let Cuba open itself to the world, and let the world open itself to Cuba' - only the first part would remain to be accomplished..."

Otra Bomba de La Flaca (y mas por la manana)

Talk about audacity!

First, it was an in-your-face audio/video of this wisp of a woman with a tongue of fire dressing down a nameless, faceless immigration official and demanding to know WHY? she was being denied permission to leave the country.

A week later, we were met with another spectacle, this time a guerrilla video of an undercover infiltration operation in full Euro-trash disguise (platnum blod wig and a tight black skirt to boot), with la bloguera guerrillera revealing herself and voicing her criticisms as a chancletera orgullosa de Centro Habana.

Finally, the endgame, or so we thought... We get word of kidnappings and beatings - followed by a round of international condemnations and recriminations.

Then, just when we thought La Flaca could not pull another bomba out of her seemingly bottomless hat of tricks, we get Siete Preguntas (well, there are actually 14, but who's counting)!

By the time you read this - Obama's answers will have been posted. Raul, the clock is ticking...

"Clumsy and Anachronisitc" - Can I Get an Amen!?

For those pundits and politicians who have been trying to use the attack on Yoani Sanchez and her fellow bloggers last weekend as an argument against the Obama Administration's opening negotiations with Cuba, repealing the travel ban, or doing away with the "clumsy and anachronistic" embargo, here are three fresh quotes to consider:

The first is from Sanchez's latest blog post, "Made in the U.S.A.," the second from a Human Rights Watch report, "New Castro, Same Cuba," released today, and the third from an op-ed, "Lift the Ban," published in the Miami Herald yesterday by U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Representative Howard Berman (D-Calif.).

La Flaca
Made in the U.S.A.
"It is these trade restrictions, so clumsy and anachronistic in my judgment, that can be used as justification both for the setbacks in productivity and to repress those who think differently."

HRW
New Castro, Same Cuba
"Efforts by the US government to press for change by imposing a sweeping embargo have proven to be a costly and misguided failure. The embargo has inflicted severe hardship on the Cuban population as a whole, while doing nothing to improve the human rights situation in Cuba. Rather than isolating Cuba, the policy has isolated the United States, alienating Washington's potential allies on this issue."

Lugar and Berman
Lift the Ban - Let Americans Visit Cuba
"Isolation from outside visitors only strengthens the Castro regime. U.S. travelers' dollars ... could aid the underground economy and the small self-employed sector permitted by the state, strengthening an important foundation of independence from Cuba's authoritarian system... [O]ver the last five decades, it has become clear that isolation will not induce the Castro regime to take steps toward political liberalization. Conditionality is not leverage in this case. Our current approach has made any policy changes contingent on Havana, not U.S. interests, and it has left Washington an isolated bystander, watching events on the island unfold at a distance."

Vamos a Cuba! Well, Perhaps Not

You would think that in a "free" society, we would no longer have to worry about our government "protecting" us by banning books or restricting the free movement of its citizens.

You'd be wrong.

Today, McClatchy and the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from the Florida ACLU hoping to reverse a lower court's decision in February that upheld Miami-Dade officials' 2006 removal of the "objectionable" children's book, "Vamos a Cuba" (and its English language counterpart "A Visit to Cuba"), from the city's libraries.

Arriba Periodismo Ciudadano; Abajo Violencia Verbal: Video Interview with Yoani Sanchez (July 2008)

On a trip to Havana in July 2008, I had the good fortune of tracking down and interviewing the fearless, indefagable and now world-reknown Cuban blogger, Yoani Sánchez.

When I called her home to arrange the meeting and interview, her intrepid husband, the journalist and fellow blogger Reinaldo Escobar answered the phone and invited me to meet them over lunch later that day. My visit soon took on a typically surreal Cuban socialist quality, however, when Escobar explained that while they lived on the 14th floor, the building’s elevator only reached the 12th floor, from where I would have to proceed by foot.

In fact, when I arrived the elevator was not working at all, forcing me to ascend all 14 floors on foot, arriving drenched in sweat and out of breath. Upon seeing my state of exhaustion, Escobar commented ironically, “They must’ve told you the elevator was broken… And you must’ve believed them!”

Laughing, he quickly handed me an ice-cold blackmarket Bucanero beer and explained that he, in fact, was the buliding’s elevator repair man.

“Twenty years ago when they expelled me from the newspaper Juventud Rebelde, I decided to study engineering. In today’s Cuba there is just as much need for a good repair man as there is for a good journalist. Except that the first profession requires no ideological training. Really, I sould thank them for granting me my freedom.”

Soon thereafter I transcribed that interview (available in Spanish here and here) and then translated parts of it into English. However, due to my then negligible skills editing video for YouTube or at managing a blog, the video we shot of the interview has only been shown in public once and has so far remained off-line.

No more! I have just edited and uploaded the entire 50 minute video onto YouTube in 13 separate thematic parts. A list of links to the 13 clips is available here in chronological order.

You can also access individual clips here:

[1] The Origins of Generacion Y (4:19)
[2] The portal DesdeCuba.com (2:19)
[3] The connection between Generacion Y and the Polemica Intelectual (6:37)
[4] Sanchez explains the terms "Violencia Verbal" and "Periodismo Ciudadano" (5:19)
[5] The evolution, insults, and applause generated by Generacion Y (4:07)
[6] Sanchez's favorite blogs from within Cuba (3:01)
[7] Sanchez's favoirte blogs about Cuba from abroad (1:37)
[8] Obstacles to blogging in Cuba and strategies for overcoming them (3:43)
[9] A description of Generacioin Y's "citizen network" abroad and of the use of minidisks (3:13)
[10] How the "citizen network" helps with the translation of Generacion Y (2:01)
[11] Sanchez on how she finances her blog and on remaining independent (4:31)
[12] Sanchez's thoughts on Raul Castro's leadership and on his speech from July 26, 2008 (2:55)
[13] Sanchez's thoughts on Obama's candidacy and possible changes in U.S-Cuban relations that could result from his election (5:07)

Enjoy!

The best thing (about Cuba) I've read (in Spanish) this week (I): Haroldo Dilla - "Cuba: algo mas que un simple chancleteo"

Today I will inaugurate a new weekly (mas o menos) feature on my blog.

Some of the best writing about Cuba is published not surprisingly en cubano (as famed Cuban poet Nicolas Guillen liked to say) and thus largely inaccessible to my unfortunately many, many Yuma compatriotas (para no decir companeros), who do not easily read, speak, or understand the language (yet).

Until they learn cubano (hasta cuando?), I will help the cause of inter-American understanding (entre nuestra America y la otra America, como diria Marti) by highlighting one story, essay, blog, article, song, speech, joke, etc. not available in English.

While I can't promise a full translation (I do still have a day job), I will provide a quick summary and link to the original source (en cubano).

Ojo: My highlighting of a "best thing" should not be taken as an unequivocal endorsement of its content, sentiment, judgment, or political positioning. Instead, I aim to draw attention to what I consider important, thoughtful, serious contributions to critical dialogue and debate (whether I agree with them or not) - often from heterodox points of view.

So, here goes...
Haroldo Dilla - "Cuba: algo mas que un simple chancleteo"*
"Cuba: Something More Than Mere Gutter Talk"

Pull quote: "But in this 'ciberchancleteo' Yoani rescues two ideas that are vital for the future of Cuba. Above all, she defends her right, as well as that of her fellow bloggers and of the many millions of Cubans (including exiles), to live in their homeland, freely express their opinions, and work to realize their goals. In the second place, she calls attention to the duty of those in positions of power to open up public spaces to all opinions, above all when these same officials have used public spaces (in this case nothing more and nothing less than a university in Miami) to sloppily disqualify those who already suffer from repression and stigmatization by the reigning power."

Dear Mr. Obama - We've Seen This Movie Before...

In late February, 1996, as President Bill Clinton entered the last laps of a tough, though ultimately successful re-election campaign, he was confronted with a Cuban monkey wrench dropped directly into U.S. presidential politics.

Up to that point the Clinton administration had indicated its steadfast opposition to the Helms-Burton Act, which aimed at tightening the U.S. Embargo by adding third-country sanctions, strengthening the claims of Cuban-Americans for expropriated property, and transforming what had always been a presidential prerogative into a policy imbued with the force of law. In fact, the bill had been tabled a year earlier in 1995 when Helms faced an intractable Democratic filibuster.

All that changed on the morning of February 24 when Cuban fighter jets shot down two private planes operated by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue. While his administration had initially - and correctly - opposed the bill on principle, Clinton quickly reversed course and signed the bill with great fanfare, unwilling to risk losing any Cuban-American votes in the exile-rich swing states of Florida and New Jersey. (See criticism of the Act from Global Exchange and the American Enterprise Institute - a rare case when these two ideological enemies were in strong agreement!)

Neither Victims Nor Executioners: Claudia Cadelo and Yoani Sanchez blog about their detention

Cuban blogger Claudia Cadelo provides this fascinating, blow-by-blow description of her detention on her blog Octavo Cerco. Most interesting, perhaps, are her repeated efforts to tweet as she, Yoani, and a friend are forced into unmarked cars by state security agents aided by two slightly sheepish, uniformed police officers.

Cadelo follows up with this post, declaring with Camus that she will be "neither a victim nor an executioner."

Later, Sanchez put up two posts of her own. The first accuses Cuban state security of kiddnapping her and her friends, while the second responds to those who smirk at her situation implying, "she had it coming," and blaming her for provoking the incident.

Cuban Blogger Yoani Sanchez Detained, Beaten

I thought I'd spend a quiet weekend away from New York City and away from my blog. However, it seems that we're seeing the first signs of a violent crackdown against Cuba's incipient independent blogger movement.

See the preliminary report from Juan Tamayo of the Miami Herald here.

Tamayo's longer, follow-up story on Cuba's blogging phenomenon was published on Monday and Tuesday in the Herald. It is here (in English) and here (in Spanish).

CubaEncuentro has it's own report on the incident here.

CNN also caught up with Sanchez at home hobbling around on crutches after her ordeal. The video with English translation is here. A second video is here.

Tremenda Peluca! Tremenda Cubana!

I did not come of age in Cuba during the 1970s and 80s. Nor was I (un)lucky enough to spend part of my youth in a boarding school. I never contemplated (illegally) leaving my country by raft, nor was I christened at birth with a name like Yaniseidi, Yoandri, Yusimi, Yuniesky, or Yoani. In short, I do not carry within me any of the personal or generational frustration that marks many in what la bloguera cautiva calls Cuba's "Generacion Y."

However, I can offer up at least three "Y's" of my own. My middle name is AloYsius (really, it is!). My blog, as you can see is entitled El Yuma. And, after watching the most recent YouTube video post on Yoani's blog, I have to join her and her husband Reinaldo Escobar in asking of the ICAIC and the magazine Temas, WHY?