October 10, 2018
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
The Cuban writer Leonardo Padura has won the International Prize for Historical Novel Barcino, which is awarded in the framework of the Barcelona Historical Novel literary contest, which this year reaches its sixth edition, as reported today by the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona, organizer of the event.
The jury has decided to award the prize to Padura because his works “are novels written with the resources of the black genre that become existential, social and, naturally, historical stories”.
“In the same way that we learned about the Spanish Transition with Pepe Carvalho and much of the history of the United States in the 20th century with Harry Conejo Angstrom by John Updike, the best way to walk through revolutionary Cuba is in the company of the great Mario Conde”, the protagonist of Padura’s novels, added the jury.
Leonardo Padura (Havana, 1955) received the Premio Princesa de Asturias de las Letras in 2015 for his work as a whole and is internationally known for the series of novels about the detective Mario Conde. Padura is also the author of other outstanding literary works such as La novela de mi vida, Herejes, the story book Aquello estaba deseando ocurrir and El hombre que amaba a los perros, about the figure of Trotski and his murderer, Ramón Mercader.
Padura will receive the International Prize for Historical Novel Barcino next November 8 at the Saló de Cent of Barcelona City Council. The jury of the sixth Barcino Historical Novel International Prize is composed of journalist Òscar López, novelist Care Santos, cultural journalist Sergi Doria, writer Enric Calpena and the curator of the Barcelona Historical Novel, Fèlix Riera, who is president of the jury. This prize has previously been awarded to the writers Lindsey Davis, Santiago Posteguillo, Simon Scarrow, Christian Jacq, and Arturo Pérez-Reverte.
(Con información de La Vanguardia)
Posted: Thursday 08 November 2018 | 10:17:27 pm.
By Juana Carrasco Martin
juana@juventudrebelde.cu
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
It’s not Theodore Dreiser’s novel, An American Tragedy, but murder is in the plot and it’s a real tragedy that shakes American society almost daily. Thirteen people, including the attacker, died when the victims assumed that on Wednesday night they would celebrate with country music at the university students’ favorite bar in the town of Thousand Oaks, a suburb of affluent residents northwest of Los Angeles, considered the third safest in the United States.
In cold blood, as Truman Capote’s documentary novel is titled, the Borderline Bar & Grill killer, a 28-year-old ex-marine suffering from post-traumatic stress, indiscriminately fired at least three extended magazines of his Glock 21, 45 caliber automatic pistol after throwing smoke grenades. The gun had been legally purchased…
Twenty-two other people were injured by bullets or injuries during the hasty escape to avoid the shots of Ian David Long, a young man described as angry and irrational by the police who came to his house last April for complaints of disturbance of order and were already known to the authorities by two other violent altercations.
At the first call for help, at 11:20 p.m., a sergeant from the sheriff’s office and an officer from the Road Patrol came immediately to try to “neutralize the threat. They were shot and Sergeant Ron Helus fell, with 29 years of service and only five months to his retirement.
“It’s a horrible scene. There’s blood everywhere,” Sheriff Dean told reporters. Some of the celebrating students were known to have survived the massacre at the Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas, a massive country concert in which 58 people died and more than 500 were injured on October 1, 2017, under the gunfire of Stephen Paddock, a sober and healthy 64-year-old man.
Just ten days before the new massacre, the “safe” Thousand Oaks, an ultra-massacre of 11 faithful at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Oct. 27; and just a week ago another individual fired on a yoga gym in Tallahassee, Florida, killing two women, injuring others.
According to the Gun Violence Archive – a nonprofit group that tracks these incidents on a daily basis – between January 1 and October 31, 2018, there have been 47,467 firearm incidents and 12,183 people killed, 23,759 injured, 560 of the fatalities were children, 2,370 teenagers, 1,701 were armed home invasions, 1,502 incidents used weapons as a defense, 1,332 were unintentional shootings and 301 mass shootings.
Already those numbers are history past, the numbers have increased. In the first eight days of this November, the United States has witnessed six mass shootings (description for those occurrences in which four or more people have died, not including the gunman), bringing the mass shootings to 307.
Alarms ring again and again, an increasing proportion of Americans are calling for laws that effectively limit or control gun ownership – there are at least 310 million in the possession of the nearly 325 million people, approximately 89 weapons for every 100 people, and a total of 48 percent of the 650 million weapons held by civilians worldwide.
Only 27 words of their Constitution give them that “right” and justify a culture of extreme violence, which is officially deployed with organization and participation in almost every war that occurs in today’s world.
However, President Donald Trump and many of the legislators are deaf to the petition.
After the Thousands Oaks event, Trump, in his usual way of “facing” the problems, immediately tweet: “I have been fully informed of the terrible shooting in California (…) God bless the victims and relatives of the victims. Thanks to law enforcement.
The National Rifle Association champions like Peter for his home. In 2017 weapons were sold in the United States for $41.93 billion, the same revenue as Facebook. Everything is resolved.
You must be logged in to post a comment.