Bloggers Abroad Open Windows to the World (Washington Post, November 3, 2006)

Explore the relatively unpoliced wilderness of cyberspace and hear thousands of voices from or about countries where traditional news outlets lack independence. Irreverent, imaginative or purely informative, the blogs below share little in common beyond use of the English language, an authentic local perspective and a stab in favor of free expression. And the odd masked persona.

That rarest of creatures, a blog that pops onto the Internet from Havana. Walter Lippmann, an American photographer and artist, offers up a heavy dose of pro-Fidel Castro stuff. Although he sometimes posts from Los Angeles, it's in Cuba where Lippmann produces the real gems: photos of the country and its leaders. The site is a bit disorganized and updates are sporadic, but it includes a link to a Yahoo group where Lippmann posts Cuba news frequently.

FULL STORY:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/02/AR2006110201661_pf.html

Comment by Walter:

Thanks to the Washington Post for the plug! The Post got my name spelled right, too, and I'm grateful for that. (The name Googles better when it's spelled correctly.) Since August 2000, I've operated a news service through Yahoo. It's sent out over 57,000 items from, about or related to Cuba. There you can find lots of materials, pro and con, from a wide range of sources. I WELCOME other points of view than mine. My hope is to make the rather voluminous list as interesting as possible. I don't hid my point of view, but I always separate my opinions from that of the materials posted there. My goal is to make it a useful resource for anyone interested in Cuba where readers can find lots of material.:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/

Here, on my personal site there's primarily material which describes Cuban life or reproduces Cuban documents, many of which are original translations from Spanish for CubaNews. This is among the most important items on this site. The Yahoo news group which I operate includes materials from a wide range of perspectives: favorable and hostile to the Cuban Revolution. It's important to know all sides are saying so the news group provides all sorts of materials, political, cultural, musical and whatever, primarily about life in Cuba and from a Cuban point of view. But also about life in the Cuban diaspora, mainly in the United States.

If it weren't for Cuba, I would never have been born. My father and his parents lived in Cuba from 1939 to 1942. As German Jewish refugees from the Holocaust, they weren't allowed to enter the United States, so they had to wait for three years to come to the U.S. where my dad met my mom and, well, the rest is history. My parents are gone, but my history is still being written. My father took me to see Cuba in the summer of 1956. When I began learning about the world, as a high school student in 1961, I was drawn into activity around Cuba, and have been working on Cuba-related issues ever since.

There are other lots and lots blogs and bloggers in Cuba, but this is a relatively new area for Cubans.
Among the others are:

Circles Robinson (U.S. journalist living and working in Cuba). Writes in English.
http://circlesonline.blogspot.com/

Elsy Fors (Cuban journalist at Prensa Latina, lived in the U.S. and speaks and writes in English.
http://noticuba.blogspot.com/

Iosvany Cordoves (Cuban journalist at Periodico 26, Las Tunas, Cuba. Writes in English
http://meetcuba.blogspot.com/

Sandra (Young Afro-Cuban woman, feminist, writes in Spanish, on racism, sexism, Rastafari, much more
http://negracubana.blogia.com/

Rosa Baez (works at National Library, blogs in Spanish)
http://lapolillacubana.blogspot.com/

Jorge Garrido (Editor of the English-language CubaNow website, blogs in Spanish)
http://cubajorge.blogia.com/

Ciro Bianchi (Cuban journalist at Juventud Rebelde. Writes in Spanish.)
http://wwwcirobianchi.blogia.com/

Luis Sexto (Cuban journalist also at Juventud Rebelde. Writes in Spanish.)
http://luisexto.blogia.com/

Pastor Batista (Cuban journalist in Las Tunas, in Central Cuba)
http://www.cubanitosoy.blogspot.com/