Voces de Cambio: Nueva Literatura Cubana features the poetry and prose of 21 writers who share their personal accounts of contemporary Cuba. It offers an uncensored window to Cuba’s richness and diversity, and the underlying common desire for change. The collection illuminates the human spirit’s ability to transcend limits to free expression.

 

The anthology includes Guillermo Fariñas Hernández’s testimony of his hunger strike to demand Internet access. Independent journalist Luis Guerra Juvier, in his compelling work, “Waiting for Justice: A Grandmother’s Lament,” interviews the grandmother of one of three youths executed in 2003 for attempting to flee Cuba. The reader will discover poignant poetry, including Omar Rodríguez Saludes’ “Love’s Moments, Conjugal Visit,” and creative short stories by authors such as Juan González Febles, Francisco García Pabone, and Jesus Carrera Gómez, among other exceptional works.

Carrera Gómez.

 

“What the reader has in his hands is more than a book: it is also a civil society project…The writers of Voces de Cambio show that half a century of oppression could not suffocate the creative imagination of these and other civilian heroes in Cuba.”

 

-Álvaro Vargas Llosa

 

“To create a better Cuba, one must participate in cultural activities free from censure, free from the repression that weighs over each and every one of us [in Cuba]. There are different levels of prison just as there are different levels of freedom. This book, Voces de Cambio, is a tribute to the mother country; it is a tribute to the mother country that we would like to create.”

 

- Julio Antonio Aleaga Pesant

 

Ojos Abiertos: Voces Nuevas de la Literatura Cubana compiles winning entries in a literary contest organized by the Independent Libraries of Cuba. The Independent Libraries offer Cubans a space to read, debate, research, and analyze a wide variety of materials. This anthology gives voice to artists and writers in Cuba that are unable to publish and distribute their works on the island.

The powerful works presented include essays such as Joaquín Cabezas de León’s “National Reconciliation and Nonviolent Action: Two Concepts with One Meaning,” poems such as Adela Soto Álvarez’s “Anemic Days,” and journalistic pieces such as Carlos Castro Álvarez’s “Forgotten Conquests: Carmen Ofelia and Her Crown of Thorns,” among many others.

What our readers are saying

“Liberty is not a pompous and empty word: it is creating books and being able to read them outside of the shadow of a censor and without the fear of submitting oneself to the moral humiliation of learning only that which is determined by a theoretician safeguarding the dogma of his sect. It is to write without fear. It is, as Martí said, to be able to speak without the pain of falsity and hypocrisy.”

-Carlos Alberto Montaner

 

“In 2003, a book, Ojos Abiertos, impacted and reverberated throughout Cuban society. Its impact has presented an alternative reality to that directed by the government. One sees the great importance of a book that breaks this barrier, presenting Cuban artistic creativity without fear and without censure.”

 

-Gisela Delgado Sablón

 

Václav Havel’s The Power of the Powerless, written in 1978, influenced the course of democratic change throughout Eastern Europe. Havel offers an inspirational guide to overcoming state oppression by demonstrating the incredible power of dissent in the face of authority. His analysis of life under a communist regime highlights the power of individuals to become agents of change under the most adverse circumstances.

This special edition includes Havel’s 2002 message of hope to the Cuban people. The seminal work is as timely and important for Cuba as it was for emerging democratic movements in Eastern Europe.

What our readers are saying

“All modern, free thinking individuals feel or should feel solidarity with those prevented from living in or visiting their country freely, those obligated to live with permanent fear, and those that cannot leave and return to their country in all normalcy.”

- Vaclav Havel

Readers in Cuba had had this to say about Gugulandia:

 

“You don’t know how pleased I was to see the first issue of Gugu….when I was a boy I never missed these comics, they are one of the reasons I decided to draw and paint. In my opinion, these characters are the most original and authentic Cuban caricature characters of all times.”

“With so many instructive messages, this comic should reach others so they can enjoy reading it.”

“Is it only this edition, or will you print more? Will it be monthly, quarterly, or yearly? How can I be sure to receive future editions?”