Sections

ARTS. New trends in the arts, cutting-edge initiatives at film and art schools, and media-related events in Cuba and in the diaspora will be featured here. Guest contributors will offer critical interventions, whether short reflections or long essays on the entire Greater Cuba audiovisual universe.

DISPATCHES  present snippets of daily life in Cuba. Our “resident alien” men and woman around the island share photographs, observations, and testimonies of the everyday dynamics of contemporary society.

In OFF THE PRESS find out about the latest releases of academic, literary, and trade books related to Cuban affairs, and follow the readings’ suggestions of our review editor Susannah Rodriguez Drissi.

In PLANET RED, Alan West-Durán and guest authors explore, comparatively, the experience of life under state socialism, from the USSR, to China, North Korea, and, of course, Cuba. Our lens zeroes in, comparatively, various features of these regimes, including politics, art, home economies, unusual events, humor and the dreamworlds they constructed.

RELIGION. In revolutionary Cuba, religion is no longer underground. Religious symbols plaster the exteriors and interiors of many homes, and it has become a fad to say goodbye with a “God bless you.” Raúl Castro even recently expressed his admiration for Pope Francis, stating that he might return to the Catholic Church. The faithful are finding spiritual homes in evangelical churches or in front of Santería/Regla de Ocha altars, among other places. In this section, we gather news analysis, commentary, interviews and images to orient us to the spiritual dimension of contemporary Cuba and its diaspora.

SOUVENIRS. Texts, postcards, photographs, signs, monuments, and other memorabilia trigger memories as well as fuel feelings of nostalgia. They are also cues into what the future might hold.  Kristine Juncker curates‘SOUVENIRS,’ and invites guest contributors.

TRANSLATION MAGIC. Translating between languages means transporting meanings to new contexts. Translators, like magicians, recreate entire worlds, pushing the boundaries of truth and belief while remaining loyal to an original concept not their own. Yet they must remain invisible in the seams between authorship and reproduction, reinforcing a text’s make-believe. In this section, Jacqueline Loss will take us for a ride through the rich and absorbing world of texts and meanings, with an emphasis on works by Cuban or Cuban-American authors.