[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:00.10,0:00:03.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,14 July 2011
Dialogue: 0,0:00:05.57,0:00:10.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,To me, personally, the future. That is, I don’t see much today.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:10.38,0:00:16.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,When I write, better that I’m thinking that Cuba will be different in 7 to 10 years.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:16.15,0:00:28.36,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,As for specific stories, what I like most is to write chronicles of the street, especially in the slums… I was born in a slum.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:28.36,0:00:38.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,About the hookers, the losers, little things, I’m not so pretentious as to think that with a story I can reflect Cuban reality.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:38.94,0:00:49.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Instead I try to reflect what I see, or a part of reality, above all Havana’s reality. That’s what I mostly write, it’s where I live.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:49.59,0:00:53.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Q: How many years total have you been a journalist?
Dialogue: 0,0:00:53.52,0:00:59.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I started out in independent journalism in December 1996, it would be 15 years.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:59.63,0:01:02.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,No, in December 1995, so 16 years now.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:02.93,0:01:09.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In an agency -- Cuba Press -- founded by Raul Rivero, a poet and journalist still living, who lives in Madrid.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:09.70,0:01:15.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I did that until 2003 and since then I do journalism on my own.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:15.91,0:01:21.97,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Above all I think the biggest challenge is the lack of information you have.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:21.97,0:01:31.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That is, the journalist in Cuba generally has no access to government sources, you have to rely on feature stories or opinion articles.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:31.96,0:01:41.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You can’t do a big story because there’s no balance… so you have to fall back on feature stories, testimonials and articles of opinion.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:41.47,0:01:47.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And the other is ... not in my case… but for independent journalists it’s the problem of money.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:47.74,0:01:54.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Most are very poorly paid and have a lot of problems accessing the Internet.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:54.88,0:02:00.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They have to go to embassies, to the United States Interest Section here in Havana.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:00.05,0:02:04.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think those are the great challenges of independent journalism in Cuba.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:04.92,0:02:15.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In particular I don’t think that a government, whether it’s the United States or Tonga, has the right to intervene…
Dialogue: 0,0:02:15.80,0:02:28.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… with the greatest reason in the world, to transplant democracy in Cuba, in the internal issues of a country. Personally I don’t think it’s right.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:28.18,0:02:38.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now, from the point of view… trying to be as objective as possible, I think a political party or a group or any movement needs money, right?
Dialogue: 0,0:02:38.16,0:02:40.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Napoleon said it: money and more money.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:40.59,0:02:47.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And so the United States publicly supports dissident groups with money to promote the transition…
Dialogue: 0,0:02:47.50,0:02:51.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… and then those dissident groups in Cuba have to take that into account…
Dialogue: 0,0:02:51.34,0:02:58.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… above all they have to be more transparent with their own co-religionists, their followers, people who are in that party.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:58.91,0:03:08.89,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because I imagine there are a lot of shady deals with 20 million, I suppose in the future when they have control of the public purse, they will plunder it, for sure.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:08.89,0:03:15.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I’m being optimistic if 5 million comes in, in equipment and things like that.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:15.86,0:03:22.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Also I would like to ask the U.S. government how 15 or 20 million can bring us democracy…
Dialogue: 0,0:03:22.29,0:03:28.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… because then who needs wars, a few million and you bring democracy to the distant countries that don’t have it.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:28.10,0:03:33.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because if there is a point of agreement between me and the U.S. administrations it is that there is no democracy in Cuba.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:33.09,0:03:39.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But I don’t see how they can be effective with books, radios, laptops, how this is going to bring democracy.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:39.88,0:03:46.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I don’t know, I think that looking at it from their angle they think that they can help the work of a number of people here.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:46.74,0:03:52.36,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But I’m not sure where that money ends up.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:52.36,0:04:00.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yes, there are many people who believe you shouldn’t accept money, any money, there are others who think it doesn’t matter, it’s their right.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:00.61,0:04:08.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I am among those who think they shouldn’t accept money, any money, not covert money from any government.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:08.35,0:04:15.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I simply prefer, at least if it’s needed, I know journalism is expensive, especially you need a laptop…
Dialogue: 0,0:04:15.14,0:04:20.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… a camera, that obviously you can’t buy with your salary…
Dialogue: 0,0:04:20.25,0:04:32.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,…support from some foundation in the end, I don’t know, another way that it’s not openly money of a State, and especially that the State isn’t called “The United States.”
Dialogue: 0,0:04:32.87,0:04:37.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Look, I don’t have all the elements, to judge the policy of USAID.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:37.06,0:04:44.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Cuba is one of the many countries that USAID gives money to. I think there’s a list, I don’t know how many there could be.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:44.58,0:04:53.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I’ll tell you what has been shown to me… but no, that takes years, it would take 20 years or something like that.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:53.29,0:05:03.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That distinct, different administrations of the United States, award credit, or cash money, to groups like USAID, or even foundations.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:03.14,0:05:12.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The point of the money – which the government also handles… it know that of the opponents or dissidents, really, none are rich…
Dialogue: 0,0:05:12.51,0:05:24.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… independent journalists much less so. As I see it, it’s not effective. I don’t see why receiving more or less money can bring…
Dialogue: 0,0:05:24.29,0:05:31.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What effectiveness? I don’t see it; 15 or 20 years, I don’t see… that the result is something good, no?
Dialogue: 0,0:05:31.95,0:05:40.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think it’s only served for propaganda for the government, against the opposition groups that receive it.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:40.98,0:05:47.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,My question is, if the U.S. government didn’t give them money, would the opposition in Cuba disappear?
Dialogue: 0,0:05:47.32,0:05:54.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I don’t think so. And the government also argues against the embargo, which I don’t agree with, with the U.S. embargo against Cuba.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:54.72,0:06:01.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because here in Cuba you can buy everything from information equipment to California apples… in hard currency.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:01.26,0:06:06.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The end of the embargo would benefit the government of Fidel Castro the most…
Dialogue: 0,0:06:06.03,0:06:10.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,…when there is no Cuban economy it’s not going flourish, it’s not going to be like the Bahamas.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:10.17,0:06:16.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But then there is the vice versa: when there’s no money, credit won’t be granted to the Cuban dissidence...
Dialogue: 0,0:06:16.35,0:06:19.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,...and I think that even so the dissidence would continue to exist.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:19.55,0:06:22.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That’s my point of view, perhaps a little naïve.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:23.58,0:06:26.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It worries me, good question.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:26.59,0:06:32.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That is how I see it, perhaps if you’d asked me 25 years ago, perhaps I would have spoken very prettily about when there would be freedom for all…
Dialogue: 0,0:06:32.95,0:06:40.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… but today I am a little pessimistic, I think about the future of Cuba and it looks like Russia: State capitalism that is the worst version, no?
Dialogue: 0,0:06:40.87,0:06:50.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I see there are a number of military companies that are monopolizing all the businesses that exist here in Cuba, the few businesses that profit.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:50.46,0:06:56.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,With an opposition that for me lacks a real reason for being, I always call it the banana dissidence…
Dialogue: 0,0:06:56.16,0:07:02.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… in the sense that it is directed more to the exterior than to the problems here, of their community, of their neighborhood.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:02.32,0:07:08.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They have to do the work of proselytizing more with the neighbor next door to them, than to some press conference …
Dialogue: 0,0:07:08.00,0:07:12.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… and projects that are more directed to the outside, they need to know their own country more.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:12.65,0:07:14.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Honestly, I don't think it looks good.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:15.48,0:07:21.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And also to the dissidence I tell them that politically they are talking with political cadavers…
Dialogue: 0,0:07:21.67,0:07:24.27,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,…through a series of things that have come out in Wikileaks about corruption…
Dialogue: 0,0:07:24.27,0:07:30.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… about nepotism and the “strong-man” leadership that there is in some of the opposition groups.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:30.14,0:07:41.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I don’t think the future of Cuba… obviously for me… it simply looks bad.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:42.15,0:07:47.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What motivates me most is that I was born in a poor neighborhood, I was born in what was the Cerro neighborhood in Havana.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:47.58,0:07:54.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Today it’s Pilar Atare, which is probably one of the most marginal neighborhoods in the city.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:54.13,0:07:56.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now I live in Vibora, which is not a marginal neighborhood…
Dialogue: 0,0:07:56.64,0:08:02.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… but where I move in the world is at the margins with people who have no options.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:02.75,0:08:06.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Or they haven’t known how to take advantage of them or they haven’t wanted to take advantage of them…
Dialogue: 0,0:08:06.59,0:08:13.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… [the world] of hookers, all the illegal businesses there are in Cuba, like [illegal satellite] antennas, like many things.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:13.49,0:08:19.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Of corrupt people… in short, I prefer to write about the losers, or about the winners when they start to lose.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:21.24,0:08:25.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That was the root of the Black Spring of 2003.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:25.57,0:08:31.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,My mother was… or still is… at that time one of the most critical among the independent journalists.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:31.21,0:08:43.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Even Fidel Castro gave a hint some days before mentioning a number of people who had been to some kind of meeting…
Dialogue: 0,0:08:43.66,0:08:46.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… or some embassy reception, I think of the United States…
Dialogue: 0,0:08:46.72,0:08:52.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… in the house of the ambassador of the U.S. in Havana, and some days later it happened…
Dialogue: 0,0:08:52.70,0:08:59.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The raid against opponents and independent journalists started on March 18, and it seemed to me [my mother] should leave the country.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:59.45,0:09:08.87,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Obviously her days could have been numbered. And then we opened a map, a world map, and the country she liked was Switzerland.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:08.87,0:09:13.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,She didn’t like anything about Miami, she wanted to be far from Cuba… the United States…
Dialogue: 0,0:09:13.24,0:09:20.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There were three women in this case. My mother was almost 60 then.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:20.18,0:09:27.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,My sister who is not an opponent at all – she worked here like a normal person -- and my niece who was 8.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:27.40,0:09:33.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And they decided on Switzerland for the whole set of laws they have that support women,
Dialogue: 0,0:09:33.02,0:09:40.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,…the welfare state that it is, a country more prudish but less violent perhaps, or less stressful, no?
Dialogue: 0,0:09:40.82,0:09:44.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,As the United States could be, and is.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:44.48,0:09:47.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Neither good nor bad, just far from her country.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:47.07,0:09:55.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Something that I think doesn’t affect just me alone, there are something like 6 or 7 million Cubans who have someone on the other side of the river.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:55.73,0:09:59.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Or on that side of the Florida Straits.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:00.14,0:10:02.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Q: And how old is your mother now?
Dialogue: 0,0:10:02.14,0:10:04.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This year she will turn 69.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:04.70,0:10:07.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yes, yes, she is much more active than me.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:07.14,0:10:11.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,She writes much more, she writes for a lot of sites and of course you know…
Dialogue: 0,0:10:11.75,0:10:16.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… one’s homeland is not a disposable object you can throw out like some thing.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:16.54,0:10:21.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I think she is still sleeping with the Malecon, and with black beans, that can’t be taken from her.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:21.15,0:10:29.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because she’s been there nine years in Switzerland, this November it will be nine years but she’s still not fluent in German…
Dialogue: 0,0:10:29.76,0:10:37.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… that is clearly she continues to live in Havana, really she never left it.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:37.40,0:10:44.21,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Mainly what she does is ... I send all my [articles] to her, I have no [Internet] time ... as it’s journalism.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:44.21,0:10:48.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I send a package of articles and she goes to the distinct sites where she publishes them…
Dialogue: 0,0:10:48.60,0:10:54.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… the newspaper El Mundo of Spain, Diario de Cuba, the sites.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:54.34,0:10:58.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,She proposes them and they choose the ones that interest them.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:58.24,0:11:01.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So that’s what she does with my work. Sometimes she puts the photos in…
Dialogue: 0,0:11:01.19,0:11:08.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Sometimes I tell her: Look, put some video, or she can change the title… she does some editing.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:08.52,0:11:13.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,No, no, no. What influences me is the journalism…
Dialogue: 0,0:11:13.11,0:11:19.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… because my mother was a journalist in Cuba … official, working for the government for 40 years doing journalism.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:19.11,0:11:26.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,She worked for the magazine Bohemia which is the only media that didn’t disappear in Cuba, after the Revolution.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:26.75,0:11:32.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,All the periodicals were nationalized or Fidel Castro expropriated them but the magazine Bohemia continued to exist.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:32.70,0:11:37.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,She worked on that magazine when, in its time, it had the cream of the crop of Cuba journalism:
Dialogue: 0,0:11:37.55,0:11:43.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Enrique de la Osa, Enrique Capetillo, Mario Cuchilang, in short it was a school.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:43.17,0:11:48.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I grew up there, because I was such a clown she had to take me with her to work.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:48.47,0:11:53.71,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,When she had to work or report around the whole country… the journalism came to me through her, I had to, no?
Dialogue: 0,0:11:53.71,0:12:00.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I had to because if I’m a journalist it’s because of her, because I grew up well with her.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:00.07,0:12:04.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,When I was about 12 or 13 so I wouldn’t get bored or when I was being punished...
Dialogue: 0,0:12:04.18,0:12:07.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,...she’d put me to transcribing things, tape recordings, which is very heavy.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:07.57,0:12:12.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And she told me: Take the typewriter and learn to use it and put a recording there to transcribe.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:12.10,0:12:16.84,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So by the time I was 15 I knew how to type.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:16.84,0:12:28.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The journalism… opinions, that is politics, we agree more than 70 percent of the time, but we do have disagreements.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:28.56,0:12:31.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You know, children reflect their times, not their parents, right.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:32.84,0:12:37.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,A very good question, I haven’t situated myself on the map of the Cuban blogosphere.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:37.19,0:12:40.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I see myself as someone pretty independent and pretty honest with myself.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:40.59,0:12:50.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That is I don’t fool around with a whole series of… I say what I think. And of course that has brought me problems with the Cuban dissidence.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:50.14,0:12:58.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And also I’ve done work that the government is very critical of, but those are my points of view.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:58.61,0:13:03.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I place myself in… well I don’t belong to any portal, I don’t belong to any group…
Dialogue: 0,0:13:03.49,0:13:06.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I’m an independent blogger and I’m also an independent journalist.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:06.45,0:13:08.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I work on my own, I prefer to go my own way.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:08.76,0:13:11.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yes, terribly fractured.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:11.22,0:13:21.41,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And what pisses me off is not the divide over political issues, if not many times divided by purely material things.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:21.41,0:13:24.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,To see who’s in favor with the U.S. government..
Dialogue: 0,0:13:24.24,0:13:28.27,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… to see who can pass the hat, collect more money from the European Union or the U.S.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:28.27,0:13:34.55,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's what pisses me off, there's no... and there is, in, fact and they don't know how to take advantage of it.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:34.55,0:13:38.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,For me, it's my opinion, the things we agree on are many.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:38.10,0:13:45.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,People want, many people would like a democratic Cuba, or to make a number of improvements within the country to drive a common project.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:45.12,0:13:53.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If one doesn’t get in on the racket, the discrediting, the politics of pimping, of gossip.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:53.85,0:14:02.91,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It doesn't make a real lobby, a politics to try to find a way out for Cuba.
Dialogue: 0,0:14:02.91,0:14:07.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because they all propose changes but no one has a project. What changes? How can this change come about?
Dialogue: 0,0:14:07.76,0:14:10.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,How can there be this change?
Dialogue: 0,0:14:10.25,0:14:15.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because if you put it on Tracey from a point of view there are many more things we agree on…
Dialogue: 0,0:14:15.50,0:14:19.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,…the ideology we have, opponents, Marxists, communists, than things that separate us.
Dialogue: 0,0:14:19.39,0:14:24.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because of we all have suffered with cojones (I like to say curse words) with the bad transport…
Dialogue: 0,0:14:24.15,0:14:29.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,With how 60% of the water is lost and never reaches the houses…
Dialogue: 0,0:14:29.28,0:14:35.41,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… with the state of housing, that 65% is in fair to poor condition, with the bad job the government has made of the economic plan…
Dialogue: 0,0:14:35.41,0:14:41.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think this affects us all, how the quality of public health has declined, which was one of the prides of Fidel Castro’s Revolution.
Dialogue: 0,0:14:41.94,0:14:48.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Even sports, because how… what I wonder is how the government can be so stupid as to allow them to desert after training them for 15 years…
Dialogue: 0,0:14:48.12,0:14:52.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… instead of allowing them to compete on their own… and even putting a tax on it.
Dialogue: 0,0:14:52.16,0:15:06.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There’s a whole range of things that I think the dissidents and those loyal to the government, more or less think the same thing.
Dialogue: 0,0:15:06.97,0:15:13.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I don’t think the dissidence takes advantage of this. Look, I don’t have any relationship with the U.S. Interest Section [USIS].
Dialogue: 0,0:15:13.15,0:15:17.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I remember that in 15 years I only went once to a reception and I went because because I wanted to eat something.
Dialogue: 0,0:15:17.95,0:15:21.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I said, well, a good day to drink or eat something, that they always have there.
Dialogue: 0,0:15:21.49,0:15:24.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And Raul said to me: “Coño, look how the other half lives.”
Dialogue: 0,0:15:24.06,0:15:27.83,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But I’ve never had contacts with USIS, I barely have relations, or I don’t have, in fact…
Dialogue: 0,0:15:27.83,0:15:33.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… with the cultural attaché here in the press of the Interest Office in Havana.
Dialogue: 0,0:15:33.12,0:15:36.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This subject, I can’t tell you anything about it.
Dialogue: 0,0:15:36.46,0:15:41.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,From friends who are independent journalists and they do go once a week to USIS to surf the Internet...
Dialogue: 0,0:15:41.42,0:15:45.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,...they say they are treated very respectfully and professionally.
Dialogue: 0,0:15:45.56,0:15:50.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But there have been very big differences with Bush and now Obama.
Dialogue: 0,0:15:50.07,0:15:56.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think I’ll stick with Obama, he’s a guy I personally admire greatly, especially for how well he writes.
Dialogue: 0,0:15:56.49,0:16:06.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I read his two books, The Audacity of Hope and Dreams From My Father, which he wrote. More is expected, no?
Dialogue: 0,0:16:06.28,0:16:12.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I’m not just looking at it from the point of view of Cuba, I think, for me, he’s done enough, or what he promised.
Dialogue: 0,0:16:12.14,0:16:17.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That is, he removed all those absurd things implemented by George W. Bush…
Dialogue: 0,0:16:17.86,0:16:22.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… who for me was the worst president the U.S. had in the 20th century...
Dialogue: 0,0:16:22.14,0:16:26.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,...and a little more but you have to see that Obama is threatened by a bestial crisis…
Dialogue: 0,0:16:26.59,0:16:30.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,… that the pockets of U.S. consumers are paralyzed…
Dialogue: 0,0:16:30.80,0:16:40.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,…with serious problems you already know, in the Middle East, North Africa, Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan…
Dialogue: 0,0:16:40.03,0:16:43.36,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think Cuba is on his agenda, decidedly.
Dialogue: 0,0:16:44.84,0:16:55.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, I read Andrew Sullivan, I read you, Yuma of Ted Henken I also read, but I like the American press the most.
Dialogue: 0,0:16:55.08,0:17:00.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That is, from the United States what I read most is the press, because it’s journalism that motivates me.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:00.32,0:17:11.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Especially Time magazine, New Juice in Spanish, I read when I can. The New York Times that every journalist takes his hat off to.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:11.94,0:17:17.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I don’t know, Gary Taylor, The New York Times, the Washington Post.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:17.98,0:17:20.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Yes, yes, it’s a paradigm for me.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:20.70,0:17:25.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I’m trying to do journalism, bridging the gap, because I know in this business you learn something every day.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:25.60,0:17:29.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The journalism I admire is American journalism.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:29.66,0:17:39.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Short sentences, trying to get the ideas as clear as possible… it has always been the journalism that to me, personally, I’m a fan.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:39.76,0:17:46.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I’m a follower of that kind of journalism, Although there are things I don’t like but really, I greatly admire it.