The bloggers

Ángel Santiesteban  

Ángel Santiesteban Havana 1966. Graduate of Dirección de Cine, resides in Havana, Cuba.

In 1989 he won a mention in the Juan Rulfo contest, held by Radio France International, and the story was published in Le Monde Diplomatique, in Letras Cubanas, and in the Mexican magazine El Cuento.

In 1995, he won the National Award of the Cuban writers guild (UNEAC); but because of his human (or inhuman) vision of the reality of the war in Angola, where Cubans participated for 15 years, the story was not published.

His book, Dreams of a Summer Day, was published in 1998.

In 1999 he won the César Galeano prize, given by the Centro Literario Onelio Jorge Cardoso.

And in 2001, he won the Alejo Carpentier Prize given by the Cuban Book Institute for his book of linked stories, The Children Nobody Wanted.

In 2006, he won the Casa de las Americas prize in the genre of story for the book, Blessed Are Those Who Mourn.

He has published in Mexico, Spain, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, China, England, Dominican Republic, France, USA, Colombia, Portugal, Martinique, Italy, Canada and other countries.

Link to his blog translated to English or Spanish

Photo: Claudio Fuentes Madan

I was born in 1983, and was a happy child living in the socialist paradise until I was six, when the disintegration of the Soviet Union showed me that I had been raised in an atmosphere of privilege. Economic necessity, however, did not make my parents — both were employees of the Ministry of the Interior and members of the Communist Party — drop their high communist morality in front of me.

At ten I was fully convinced of the ideological homogeneity of the entire country, and if it hadn’t been for the revolt of August 5, 1994, many more years might have passed before I discovered that everything around me was not the color of roses. By thirteen I already knew what I could and could not say. At 17 they “downgraded” me, knocking me down the ladder for “poor participation in political-ideological activities.” By18 I was completely disillusioned with the system and couldn’t even really pretend to myself any more, although I was careful not to externalize it.

In 2008, Gorki Aguila, lead singer and guitarist for the punk rock band Porno para Ricardo, was arrested on charges of pre-criminal dangerousness: if the National Revolutionary Police believe that a citizen has the potential to commit a crime, they can be judged and sentenced from one to four years in jail. Together with a group of friends we started a movement inside Cuba to protest, supported by an immense show of solidarity — that was how I met Yoani Sanchez — and we launched an international campaign for Gorki’s release.

In a short space of time I went from being a person who didn’t talk to strangers about politics and was always paranoid, to standing in the middle of a concert crown with a sign in my hand and shouting. For a novice in the uses of freedom of expression it had everything: beatings, a police operation and arrests.

I started to write my blog after Gorki was released. I remember that we were very serious, exhausted, we had almost lost our sense of humor. During the trial the defense lawyer forgot the name of the accused and began to search through his papers, and then I understood that everything was completely stupid and incoherent. I felt like telling about the things around me, to share the total absurdity with someone. Yoani Sánchez explained to me what a blog was, and she herself published my first post in Generation Y, and helped with the technical side, even taking a photo of some eggs for my first entry in Octavo Cerco; without her I might never have discovered the possibility of having a blog.

Octavo Cerco won the prize for BEST BLOG in the Virtual Island Contest.

Link to her blog in English or Spanish

Claudia Cadelo  (Octavo Cerco)E

+535  2666833 Dimas Castellanos Born in Jiguaní, 1943 Living in Havana. BA in Political Science, Diploma in Information Science, Bachelor of Biblical and Theological Studies from the Institute for Biblical and Theological Studies. He was a professor of Marxist philosophy, is an independent journalist, member of the Editorial Board of the digital magazine Consenso and on the Board of the Institute for Cuban based in Florida. Has published in various journals. Link to his blog in English or Spanish Ernesto Morales Licea Ernesto Morales Licea. (Bayamo, Cuba, 1984) Degree in Journalism from Universidad de Oriente, Santiago de Cuba (2008). Writer, with several prizes from literary contests in Cuba. Has published in various specialized digital media. Link to his blog in Spanish Eugenio Leal Juan Eugenio Leal García Palmira, Cienfuegos, Cuba, December 27, 1952. Education: Polytechnic Institute of Chemistry. (1981-1983) * Degree: Chemical Engineer Military Technical Institute “José Martí”. (1983-1989) * Degree: Mechanical Engineer, specializing in Engine Systems of Piloted Aircraft Institute of Biblical and Theological Studies. * Degree: Bachelor of Biblical and Theological Studies. (1999-2002) * Degree: Masters in Biblical and Theological Studies. (2008) Link to his blog in English or Spanish Fernando Dámaso I was born in 1938 in Havana. I’m a Sagittarius. I studied at the Escolapios de la Víbora and graduated as a Qualified Accountant. I worked in advertising (market researcher and producer of commercials and television programs) and also was in the military. I am interested in literature, film, professional sports and nature. I have been writing for years. mermeladacuba@gmail.com Link to his blog in English or Spanish Guillermo “Coco” Fariñas Psychologist and freelance journalist, 48-years-old, based in Santa Clara, Cuba. He joined the opposition and since then has spent 11 years in prison. His most recent hunger strike before now was in 2006, to demand unrestricted Internet access for all Cubans. It resulted in many after effects and this time his family fears that the outcome may be fatal. Note: The above was written when Coco started his blog in March 2010.  Coco suspended his hunger strike in July 2010, at the beginning of the release of the political prisoners. At the end of July he was released from the hospital and returned home. Link to his site in English or Spanish Intramuros Intramuros is the blog of the digital magazine Convivencia, from Pinar del Río, Cuba.  The editorial below, which appears in English translation on the magazine’s site, describes the mission of Convivencia. Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo (1971). Wrong writer and postographer. He resides and resists in Habanaught, Cuba. Editor of the irregular writing e-zine The Revolution Evening Post. In Cuba he has published several newrrative books: Collage Karaoke (Letras Cubanas, 2001), Empezar de Cero(Extramuros, 2001), Ipatrías(Unicornio, 2005), Mi nombre es William Saroyan (Abril, 2006) and Boring Home (digitally domestic, 2009). Orlando’s photo blog, Boring Home Utopics, was named the Best Photo Blog in Cuba in the Virtual Island Contest. Orlando's Photo blog Spanish Blog English blog Iván García Freelance journalist since 1995, now blogger. Pablo Milanés, Benny Moré and Brazilian music occupy a space in his tastes. Eats everything and drinks wine. Fan of the Industriales, the capital’s baseball team. Also a fan of Real Madrid and of Brazil’s magic touch in soccer. For years has yearned for a T-shirt from Ronaldo (El Gordo). But what interests him most is the situation in his country. English blog Spanish blog Henry Constantín Henry Constantín Ferreiro. (Camagüey, 1984) (Camagüey, 1984) Journalist, writer and photographer. Expelled from Journalism studies on two occasions, both for political problems: in 2006 from la Universidad de Oriente, and in 2008 from la Universidad Central “Marta Abreu” de Las Villas. Represented Cuba in the II Spanish American Spelling Contest in Bogotá, 2001, and is a graduate of the VII Course of Narrative Skills at the Onelio Jorge Cardoso Center of Literary Education. His texts have been published in Cuban press media, even official ones. He directs the magazine ” The White Rose.” link to his site in English or Spanish Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antúnez” The phrase that gives its name to this blog synthesizes a statement of principles from one who suffered 17 years and 38 days of political imprisonment in Cuba. I will not shut up because I will continue to raise my voice and to denounce and resist, peacefully but directly, the totalitarian regime in Cuba. I will not shut up in the face of the injustices committed against my imprisoned brothers and those in the streets facing repression. I will not shut up because I will not fail in my commitment to those I left behind the bars. To remain silent would be to betray the legacy of Pedro Luis Boitel. I will not leave, I will not abandon my country because to do so would show an immense lack of faith in the inevitable return of freedom. I will not leave Cuba because if I go, what would have been value to the incarceration, the arrests, and my participation in projects like the Central Opposition Coalition and the National Front of Civic Resistance and Civil Disobedience, real achievements of the spirit of unity and maturity of the Cuban civilian movement. I will not leave because I have complete confidence that sooner rather than later my dear sister, Bertha Antúnez, will return to my embrace in Cuba. English blog Spanish  blog Juan Juan Almeida El Morro habanero doesn’t judge It’s not my intention to poke around in anyone’s wounds, I just want the testimony of all those people who for reasons, of the caprice of a “Don Juan de los palotes” cannot travel to or from this Island. I want to claim all those who, sadly, share this absurd prohibition, rather than separates us, unites us. English blog Spanish blog Luis Felipe Rojas Here are the words of those who attempt to cross the barbed wire. Beyond those limits imposed by the real fence, the desire for freedom escapes. Luis Felipe Rojas Rosabal. 1971. San Germán, Holguín, Cuba. Free and independent writer, journalist and poet. English blog                                        Spanish blog Miguel Iturria Savón Havana, 1956. Degree in History and postgraduate degrees in Art, Literature, Journalism and Ethnology. Has published several books, lives in Cuba, and practices independent journalism. WELCOME TO THE BLOG ISLAND ANCHOR I welcome you to my blog with the desire to exchange literary and cultural reviews, stories, opinion articles about Cuba and elsewhere, as well as various articles far from institutional, religious and political dogmas, while acknowledging opposing comments and views. Personally, I dedicate myself to literary and cultural research and survive by my work as a freelance journalist. English blog Spanish Blog Miriam Celaya Miriam is a Habanera of the island, belonging to the generation that has lived torn between disillusionment and hope, whose members reached adulthood in the controversial year 1980. She has published collaborations in the digital magazine Encuentro en la Red, for which she created her pseudonym. Miriam started this blog under the pseudonym Eva Garcia but in her entry of July 22, 2008, she came out from “behind the mask” and posted her photo and name. Sin Evasion won the prize for BEST JOURNALISM BLOG in the Virtual Island Contest. English blog Spanish Blog Oscar Elías Biscet CUBA: DR. OSCAR E. BISCET CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER AND PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE January 2010 “I say to my brothers in exile, the international community and the Cuban people that I feel kidnapped only for defending the right to life and the right of all Cubans to live in freedom. REMEMBER I WILL NEVER BETRAY A JUST CAUSE: THAT OF DEFENDING HUMAN RIGHTS. Please, do not ask me to do this. What inspires me is alive: God and the great teachers of nonviolence, present today more than ever. As Martin Luther King said: “If a nation is capable of finding amongst its ranks of people 5% willing to go voluntarily to prison for a cause they consider just, then no obstacle will stand in their way.”” Provincial Prison Kilo 8 in Pinar del Rio, Cuba June 1, 2003 Dr. Oscar E. Biscet, President of the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights, was released October 31, 2002, after serving a three-year sentence at a maximum-security prison for his peaceful defense of human rights. Thirty-six days later he was violently re-arrested in Havana and forced in a cell with common criminals as he was to join a group of civilians to discuss human rights. He remained in prison and was included in a crackdown by the Cuban regime in March-April, 2003, against 75 independent journalists, librarians, and human rights advocates who went before summary trials and were sentenced to prison terms of up to 28 years. Since 1998, this physician has been suffering physical and mental torture in different penitentiaries for refusing to carry out any disciplinary prison measures he deems unacceptable as a political prisoner of conscience. He is presently serving a 25-year sentence at the Combinado del Este, maximum security Prison in Havana. Dr. Biscet is an example of the human rights violations suffered by all those in Cuba who dare to defend the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. -Born of humble origin on July 20, 1961, Dr. Biscet is a Cuban physician of the black race, follower of Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King. He is a leader in the peaceful civil rights movement, who struggles to establish in Cuba a state based on the rule of law through nonviolent civil disobedience. He is president of the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights, an organization established in 1997, considered illegal by Cuban authorities. -Dr. Biscet is forbidden from practicing his profession in his own country. He was expelled from the Cuban National Health System in 1998, for documenting abortion techniques and peacefully denouncing them before his medical colleagues and Cuban authorities as a form of genocide in a study called: RIVANOL: A METHOD TO DESTROY LIFE. -Dr. Biscet was evicted from his home in 1998 with his wife and son, having to depend on the charity of friends to survive. His wife presently lives at the home of a former patient who took the family in. -Elsa Morejón, Dr. Biscet’s wife and a nurse by profession, has been unemployed since 1998 as a result of her husband’s human rights activities. Elsa was publicly attacked by the government-controlled mass media at her husband’s trial in 1999. She is constantly watched, has received threatening and obscene phone calls at home, and Cuban authorities have demanded she pay unjustified fines for penalties never committed. -Cuban State Security has mistreated Dr. Biscet physically through beatings. -Cuban State Security has tried to confine Dr. Biscet to a psychiatric hospital and has tortured him psychologically through systematic and arbitrary confinements, threats, humiliations, blackmails, and intimidating interrogations. -Cuban authorities have pressured Dr. Biscet to leave Cuba. He has reiterated that he will never abandon his country. -Dr. Biscet was arbitrarily incarcerated 26 times in 16 months from July 9, 1998 until November 3rd, 1999 in cells with no sunlight and with insane individuals and common criminals. When most of these detentions occurred, his family was not informed of his whereabouts. -Dr. Biscet went on trial on February 25, 2000, for announcing a peaceful march along with a number of human rights advocates, on the occasion of the 1999 Ibero-American Summit in Havana, at a press conference where two Cuban flags were displayed in an inverted vertical position as a sign of protest for the human rights violations in Cuba. -Dr. Biscet was accused of “dishonoring national symbols”, “public disorder”, and “inciting delinquent behavior”, and was sentenced to three years in prison. He was subsequently transferred 450 miles East of Havana away from his family to “ Cuba Si “, a maximum security prison in Holguín province. -At “Cuba Si”, prison authorities punished Dr. Biscet during 42 days for carrying out a fast, asking freedom for all political prisoners and human rights for Cuba. He described his isolation cell to his family as a torture; dark, and with no running water. He was fed such a deficient diet that he lost 20 pounds and several teeth. He was denied access to his Bible, medical attention, and family visits. -At “Cuba Si” prison authorities placed a paranoid schizophrenic inmate to share Dr. Biscet’s bunk bed on April, 2001. -During his three-year confinement in “Cuba Si”, his Bible was taken away four times and in spite of numerous official requests made by his family to receive spiritual assistance in prison, the Catholic Church was allowed to visit him only twice. -Dr. Biscet served his 3-year sentence at “Cuba Si”, and was released October 31, 2002, only to be re-arrested on December 6, 2002 as he was to meet with human rights activists, promoting a project called “Clubs of Friends of Human Rights”. -On April 7, 2003 Dr. Biscet went before a summary trial during a Cuban government crackdown along with 75 other activists, and was sentenced to 25 years for “serving as a mercenary to a foreign state.” He was transferred to the prison of Kilo 8 in Pinar del Rio where he was confined from November 13, 2003 through January 15, 2004 to an underground dungeon with a common criminal where he lost 40 pounds. -Dr. Biscet was transferred on December 1, 2004, to the Combinado del Este Prison in Havana where he is presently imprisoned, suffering inhumane conditions. During all his years of confinement, Dr. Biscet refuses to carry out any disciplinary measure or rule applied to common prisoners, which he deems unacceptable as a political prisoner of conscience (examples: he refuses to wear a common prisoner’s uniform or salute a prison official). For his stance, he has and is continuously suffering the following punishments: -Penal authorities violated established prison code regulations by denying Dr. Biscet privileges granted to common prisoners. (Denied freedom under probation and was not allowed visits from friends.) -Family visits have been arbitrarily prohibited or suspended.( the programmed visitation rights in prison are: family visits every three months for 2 hours, Conjugal visits every four months for 3 hours.) -He’s been prevented from writing to his family, and his mail has been and is intercepted, read, and confiscated. -He’s been prohibited from receiving or making phone calls and most calls allowed are intercepted. -His life and his health are in danger due to the repressive environment of the maximum-security penitentiaries he’s been confined to, exposed to dangerous convicts, insane individuals and in isolation cells 3 ft. by 6 ft. with no windows, no light, or running water. These humid whitewashed cells are void of any furniture or toilet facilities. -He highly distrusts the military medical personnel at the prison facilities, reason why he has refused to receive any medical attention. Though, physically deteriorated, Dr. Biscet is very strong spiritually. -Dr. Biscet is in a poor state of health suffering from hypertension, chronic gastritis, high cholesterol and gradual loss of eyesight, conditions he previously never had; caused by the psychological stress in prison, and the unbearable food he is forced to eat. The unsanitary conditions in his cell have caused lesions in his skin, and he has lost most of his teeth due to a serious gum disease that needs urgent attention from a dentist. (After he was released October 31, 2002, the family dentist who was supposed to treat this critical condition received threats and Dr. Biscet was never able to obtain dental treatment.) -Dr. Biscet has been honored numerous times for his pro democracy struggle. On February 5, 2003, he received in the U.S. the first International Republican Institute Democracy’s People Award; on November 5, 2007, he was one of the recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civil award in the U.S., and he was also, honored in Germany with the “Dr. Rainer Hildebrandt Medal 2007” on December 12, 2007. In like manner, the Czech Embassy in Washington D.C. paid homage to Dr. Biscet’ on February 27, 2008. -Dr. Biscet is one of several Cuban political prisoners who will only accept an unconditional release from prison and would never go into forced exile. More than 50 ex-political prisoners were released and traveled to Spain during July – October 2010, after the Catholic Church, working with the Cuban government, offered them freedom only if they left the island. Many of the passports of these political prisoners and even their families (minors) were stamped by the Cuban government with the words: “FINAL EXIT”. These political prisoners of conscience were never pardoned of the “crimes” they never committed nor have the unjust sentences imposed by Cuban tribunals been eliminated. All documented facts were obtained in the USA through testimonials made by Dr. Biscet or his family in Cuba via telephone or in writing. Recorded, transcribed, and translated since 1998 to the present by the Coalition of Cuban-American Women/ E-mail:Joseito76@aol.com/ Tel: 305-662-5947. ADDRESS: Dr. Oscar E. Biscet González Combinado del Este Prison, Bldg # 1, 2nd Floor,South wing, Cell 1232, Carretera Monumental del Cotorro, Municipio Guanabacoa, Habana, Cuba. Rebeca Monzo Born in Havana on November 14… well the year doesn’t matter, I’ll just tell you I am of the era of the four-speed record player and the pressure cooker. I am a teacher, a “quasi-journalist” (I lacked one semester to finish), I worked in radio for two years, I was a diplomat in Paris and a seller in the market in Madrid, then a ceramics and pottery teacher, and in the same city I was a bureaucrat for many years. Since 1989 I am an “independent artist,” a member of the Cuban Association of Artists and Artisans. I have held exhibits inside the country and abroad, and continue earning a living as an artisan, and now I have a blog, because I love to write. English blog Spanish Bog Regina Coyula Regina Coyula. Born in Havana, 1956. A degree in history. Between 1972 and 1989, I worked in the Counterintelligence Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior.* Afterwards, I worked (or pretended to work) as a chauffeur, massage therapist, teacher, artisan and sales person. I am an atrocious homemaker, nevertheless, I have been “governing” my husband and son for twenty years. *Cuban Security equivalent of the KGB English Blog Spanish Blog Reinaldo Escobar Reinaldo Escobar (1947), an independent journalist since 1989, writes from Cuba where he was born and continues to live. He received his degree in Journalism from the University of Havana in 1971 and subsequently worked for different Cuban publications. His articles can be found in various European publications, and in the digital magazines “Cuba Encuentro” and “Contodos.” Desde Aquí/From Here is a personal undertaking born from the need to write about those topics that fill my head every day but that cannot find a space in the official Cuban media. English Blog Spanish Blog Voices Behind The Bars Voces Tras Las Rejas was begun by Pablo Pacheco, one of the prisoners of conscience from the Black Spring of 2003. It is a collection of thoughts and first-hand experiences of various political prisoners that reside behind bars in Cuban jails. Getting their voices out of their cells and into this blog is made possible by a team of volunteers within Cuba and abroad. The purpose of Voices Behind the Bars is to provide an unrestricted space in which these men can let their voices be heard, without any consequences. All entries on this site are typed versions of audio clips recorded directly from phone interviews with each of the prisoners. Pablo was soon joined by fellow prisoners who added their voices to this site. The entries were, and are — in the case of those prisoners still behind bars as of the end of July 2010 — telephoned out to supporters in Cuba, or brought out of the prisons by other means, and then transcribed and sent to supporters abroad who manage the blog. Pablo Pacheco has now been released and is managing the Spanish-language blog himself, from exile in Spain. Stand by for further developments. “The enemies of freedom could have strength but not reason, they could have laws but not justice. They could have media but not truth. They could manipulate man’s thoughts but not his conscience. They could imprison the body but not the spirit.” -Pablo Pacheco, November 2003 Pablo Pacheco has now been released and forcibly exiled to Spain where he continues to blog at: Cuban Voices From Exile. Considered a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, Juan Adolfo Fernandez Sainz was an independent journalist that frequently wrote for the Patria News Agency as well as for the Russian news agency known as Prima News. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for peacefully expressing his views. Frequent concerns have arisen about his state of health as he has taken part in multiple hunger strikes, has reportedly had an undiagnosed lump develop on his hip, been diagnosed with emphysema, a cyst on his kidneys, prostatic hypothermia, arthritis, and high blood pressure. Aldolfo has now been released and forcibly exiled to Spain, from where he has moved to the United States where he has family. Felix Navarro Rodriguez was born on July 10th 1953 in Perico, Matanzas. He was denied his degree in Physics and Astronomy, even though he was already well into his fifth year of study, because he was suspected of being involved with enemy propaganda. Diosdado Gonzalez Marrero Pedro Argüelles Morán English Blog Yamil Dominguez Born in Cuba in 1973, legally emigrated to the United States in 2000, when he finished his university studies, and worked as a general contractor in construction. Currently is a prisoner in Combinado del Este, for the crime of Human Trafficking which he did not commit. English Blog Spanish Blog Yoani Sánchez Yoani Sánchez, born in Havana, 1975. I studied for two terms at the Pedagogical Institute, majoring in Spanish Literature. In 1995, I moved to the Faculty of Arts of Letters, and after five years finished a degree in Hispanic Philology. I majored in contemporary Latin American Literature, presenting an incendiary thesis entitled, “Words Under Pressure: A Study of the Literature of the Dictatorship in Latin America.” On finishing at the University I realized two things: first, the the world of the intellectual and high culture is repugnant to me and, most painfully, that I no longer wanted to be a philologist. In September 2000, I went to work in a dark office at Gente Nueva publisher, meanwhile arriving at the conviction—shared by most Cubans—that with the wages I earned legally I could not support my family. So, without concluding my social service, I asked to be let go and dedicated myself to the better-paid labor of freelance Spanish teacher for German tourists visiting Havana. It was a time (which continues today) when engineers preferred to drive a taxi, teachers would do almost anything to get a job at the desk of a hotel, and at store counters you could find a neurosurgeon or nuclear physicist. In 2002, disenchantment and economic suffocation led me to emigrate to Switzerland, from where I returned—for family reasons and against the advice of friends and acquaintances—in the summer of 2004. In those years I discovered the profession I continue to practice today: computer science. I discovered that binary code is more transparent than affected intellectualism, and that if I’d never really come to terms with Latin, at least I could work with the long chains of HTML language. In 2004 I founded, with a group of Cubans all based on the Island, Consenso, a magazine of reflection and debate. Three years later I work as a web master, columnist, and editor of the site Desde Cuba [From Cuba]. In April 2007, I entangled myself in the adventure of having a blog calledGeneration Y that I have defined as “an exercise in cowardice” which lets me say, in this space, what is forbidden to me in my civic action. To my surprise, this personal therapy earned me, in a short time, the attention of thousands of people around the world. Thanks to the virtual citizens’ network that has woven itself around GY, I have been able to update this blog every week. Since March 2008, the Cuban government has enforced a computer filter that prevents seeing my blog from public Internet sites in Cuba. So I need the solidarity of friends off the Island to post my texts on the web. Thanks also to other volunteer collaborators, Generation Y is translated into fifteen languages. In May 2008, my personal exorcism also won me the Ortega y Gasset Journalism Award in the digital category. I was chosen by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in the “Heroes and Pioneers” category, and my blog was included on the list of the 25 Best Blogs in the World issued by Time Magazine/CNN. I won the Jury Prize on the Spanish blog contest, Bitacoras.com, and top honors in the well known blog contest, The BOBs Awards, with more than 12,000 participants from around the world. The weekly magazine of the Spanish newspaper El Pais named the100 Most Notable Hispanic Americans of 2008 in November of that year;Foreign Policy listed its 10 Most Influential IberoAmerican Intellectuals of 2008 in December; as did the Mexican magazine Gate Pardo. Your humble servant is included in each of these lists. Much more than I could have dreamed of, when I started to combine sentences to upload my first post! I live in Havana, I opted to stay and every day I am more computer scientist and less philologist. English blog Spanish Blog The following are blogs not yet translated to English http://palenquecubano.wordpress.com