By Carlos del Porto
November 7, 2017
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
On November 7, 1867, Polish scientist Maria Salomea Slodowska Curie is born in Warsaw, Poland.
Maria Curie was a Polish physicist, mathematician and chemist, and a naturalized French citizen. She was the fifth daughter of Władysław Skłodowski, a high school teacher in physics and mathematics like her grandfather, and Bronisława Boguska, who was a teacher, pianist and singer.
In 1891, at the age of 24, Maria enrolled in the Mathematical and Natural Sciences Department at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France. From that moment on, Maria was renamed Marie Skłodowska. Despite having a solid cultural background acquired in a self-taught way, Marie had to work hard to improve her knowledge of French, mathematics and physics, in order to keep up with her peers.
In 1893, she obtained a degree in Physics and came first in her class; in 1894, she also graduated in Mathematics, coming second in her class. In that year she also met her future husband, Pierre Curie, who was a professor of physics. The two began working together in the laboratories and married on July 26, 1895.
After a double degree, the next challenge was to obtain a doctorate. Up to that time, the only woman who had been awarded a doctorate was the German Elsa Neumann. The first step was to choose the topic of her thesis. After discussing it with her husband, they both decided to focus on the work of physicist Henri Becquerel, who had discovered that uranium salts transmitted rays of an unknown nature. This work was related to the recent discovery of X-rays by the physicist Wilhelm Röntgen. Marie Curie became interested in this work and, with the help of her husband, decided to investigate the nature of the radiation produced by uranium salts.
Marie Curie and Pierre Curie studied radioactive leaves, in particular uranium in the form of pitchblende, which had the curious property of being more radioactive than the uranium extracted from it. The logical explanation was to suppose that the pitchblende contained pieces of some element much more radioactive than uranium. They also discovered that thorium could produce radioactivity. After several years of constant work, by concentrating various kinds of pitchblende, they isolated two new chemical elements.
The first, in 1898, was named Polonium in reference to their native country. The other element was named Radium, due to its intense radioactivity. Pierre had periods of great fatigue that even forced him to rest in bed, and both suffered burns and sores from their dangerous radioactive work. Shortly thereafter Marie obtained one gram of radium chloride, which she achieved after handling almost eight tons of pitchblende. In 1902 they presented the result, which brought them fame. Both Pierre and Marie accept and lend all their research without making any profit from it by means of patents, a fact that is applauded by the whole world.
Directed by Becquerel himself, on June 25, 1903, Marie defended her doctoral thesis, entitled Investigations on Radioactive Substances, before a tribunal presided over by the physicist Gabriel Lippmann. She obtained her doctorate and was awarded cum laude. Together with Henri Becquerel and Pierre Curie, Marie was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903, “in recognition of the extraordinary services rendered in their joint research on the radiation phenomena discovered by Henri Becquerel”. She was the first woman to receive such an award.
On April 19, 1906, a tragedy occurred: Pierre was run over by a six-ton carriage and died without anything being done for him. Marie was greatly affected, but continued with her work and refused a life pension. She also took over her husband’s professorship and was the first woman to teach at the university in the 650 years since its founding. On November 15, 1906, Marie Curie gave her first lecture. Expectations were high, as it was the first time a woman had taught a class at the university. A large number of people attended; many of them were not even students. In that first session, Marie spoke about radioactivity.
In 1910 she demonstrated that a gram of pure radium could be obtained. The following year she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry “in recognition of her services to the advancement of Chemistry by the discovery of the elements Radium and Polonium, the isolation of Radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this element”.
With a disinterested attitude, she did not patent the process of Radium isolation, leaving it open to the research of the entire scientific community. Marie Curie was the first person to be awarded two Nobel Prizes in two different fields. The other person to have won it so far is Linus Pauling (Chemistry and Peace). Two Nobel Prizes in the same field have been won by John Bardeen (Physics) and Frederick Sanger (Chemistry).
A few months after her last visit to Poland, in the spring of 1934, Curie, after going blind, died on July 4, 1934 at the Sancellemoz Clinic, near Passy (Haute-Savoie, France), from aplastic anemia, probably due to the radiation to which she was exposed in her work, and whose harmful effects were still unknown. She was buried next to her husband in the cemetery of Sceaux, a few kilometers south of Paris.
Sixty years later, in 1995, her remains were transferred, together with those of Pierre, to the Pantheon in Paris. In the speech delivered at the solemn entry ceremony, on April 20, 1995, the then President of the French Republic, François Mitterrand, addressing especially her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, emphasized that Marie had been the first woman to be buried in the Pantheon, noted that Marie, who had been the first French woman to be a Doctor of Science, to be a professor at the Sorbonne and also to receive a Nobel Prize, was again the first French woman to be laid to rest in the famous Pantheon in Paris on her own merits (in which she remains the only one to this day).
Her eldest daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie (1897 – 1956), also won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, in 1935, one year after her mother’s death, for her discovery of artificial radioactivity.
She founded the Curie Institute in Paris and in Warsaw, and in addition to the two Nobel Prizes, won the Davy Medal in 1903, the Matteucci Medal in 1904 and the Willard Gibbs Prize in 1921.
El marcado aislamiento de la isla ha sido útil para contener el coronavirus, pero difícil en cuanto a problemática economía. Las andanzas de un fotógrafo capturaron la belleza de Cuba y la resistencia de un pueblo que ha luchado durante mucho tiempo con el flujo y reflujo de la historia.
STOLEN MOMENTOS. Un adolescente de pie en una plaza iluminada por el sol en la Habana Vieja. “La moda está totalmente planificada”, dice el fotógrafo Andrew Jacobs, que visitó Cuba el año pasado. “Cuando haces fotografía callejera es lo contrario. Eso es lo que quería abrazar.” FOTO: ANDREW JACOBS PARA WSJ. MAGAZINE
Por Tony Perrottet
7 de septiembre de 2020 8:21 am ET
Traducido y editado por Walter Lippmann para CubaNews.
Mil gracias a Pedro Gellert por su indispensable ayuda en esta traducción.
Cuando los viajes internacionales comenzaron a cerrarse en marzo debido a la pandemia de coronavirus, Collin Laverty tuvo que tomar una decisión repentina: ¿Miami o La Habana? Para un norteamericano que divide su tiempo entre las dos ciudades mientras dirige Cuba Educational Travel, una agencia que en tiempos menos restringidos contaba entre su clientela con senadores estadounidenses y luminarias del mundo de la tecnología, la elección era obvia. “Sentí que los cubanos iban a hacer un mejor trabajo”, explicó por teléfono desde La Habana. “Estaría más seguro aquí.”
Se ha demostrado que Laverty tenía razón. Mientras la situación se ha deteriorado este verano en Florida -una población de 21,5 millones con casi 10.000 muertes, o 46 por cada 100.000 habitantes- la isla cubana de 11,3 millones de habitantes había registrado a mediados de agosto 88 fallecimientos, o menos de una muerte por cada 100.000. A pesar del pequeño brote ocasional en las provincias, la isla informaba muchos días con cero casos nuevos o con pocos como para contarlos con los dedos de una sola mano.
El éxito de Cuba fue el resultado de una respuesta de libro de texto: Las autoridades sanitarias (que habían estado en constante diálogo con la Organización Mundial de la Salud desde enero) cerraron el país, suspendieron los vuelos internacionales, llevaron a cabo amplias pruebas, aislamiento y rastreo e impusieron el uso de cubrebocas, un proceso sin duda más fácil en un sistema autoritario.
Una guagua [autobús] en una carretera de Pinar del Río, una provincia al oeste de La Habana.
FOTO: ANDREW JACOBS PARA WSJ. MAGAZINE
“Es una cultura diferente”, dice Laverty. “Si los funcionarios de salud te dicen que es mejor usar un cubreboca, usas un cubreboca. Y a diferencia de los EE.UU., no hay medios alternativos que le digan a la gente que no use un cubreboca”.
Aunque el sistema de salud de Cuba está plagado de escases crónicas, la capacidad de su fuerza laboral médica le ha servido bien durante la pandemia. Cuba tiene el porcentaje más alto de médicos per cápita que cualquier otro país del mundo, y están capacitados para dar una respuesta comunitaria rápida a los huracanes y otros desastres naturales. “Había médicos y enfermeras en bata de laboratorio que llamaban a la puerta una o dos veces al día, para registrarse”, dice Laverty.
La otra cara de la moneda es que la crisis ha castigado a una economía que ya estaba en serios problemas por la mala gestión interna y su desconexión del resto del mundo. Mientras que Cuba ha estado alejada durante seis décadas de su socio comercial natural, los Estados Unidos, a través de un embargo comercial conocido en la isla como “el bloqueo”, el Covid-19 ha llevado el aislamiento del país a nuevos extremos. El cierre de un día para otro de la industria del turismo, la principal fuente de divisas de Cuba, ha llevado el desempleo y la escasez de alimentos a niveles nunca vistos desde el “período especial” de hace 30 años, cuando el colapso de la Unión Soviética y el fin de sus subsidios económicos dejaron a la isla varada y empobrecida.
Pescadores de la época de la adolescencia en un puerto deportivo cerca de La Habana. Las 3.500 millas de costa cubana bañadas por cálidas aguas tropicales han ofrecido un respiro durante las décadas de aislamiento. FOTO: ANDREW JACOBS PARA WSJ. MAGAZINE
Cuba ha dado algunos pasos tentativos hacia la reapertura al turismo. Se han destinado cinco arenosos cayos septentrionales para recibir vuelos chárter, donde los visitantes extranjeros serán sometidos a pruebas de detección del virus a su llegada y alojados en centros turísticos de playa lejos del resto de la población. Hasta ahora, ha habido pocos viajeros. Los canadienses hambrientos de sol, el mercado objetivo lógico, han sido desalentados por su gobierno a viajar al extranjero, y los europeos también están nerviosos por aventurarse lejos de casa. Los locales también son cautelosos: “Los cubanos han sacrificado mucho”, dice Laverty. “Saben que tan pronto como se abran existe el riesgo de una segunda ola”.
Un posible resquicio de esperanza es que la crisis ha empujado al presidente Miguel Díaz-Canel a reiniciar las reformas de la economía estatal, un proceso que había comenzado bajo el mandato de Fidel Castro en 2011 pero que se estancó hace tres años debido a la resistencia de los partidarios de la línea dura del gobierno. El anuncio se hizo a mediados de julio; los detalles siguen siendo vagos, pero la idea es fomentar la empresa privada y la agricultura y reducir la regulación gubernamental. “Es una noticia muy positiva, pero también hay mucho escepticismo”, dice Laverty. “Todo el mundo está esperando a ver qué pasa”.
La pandemia es sólo el último capítulo de la montaña rusa de Cuba desde la revolución de 1959: períodos de grandes esperanzas seguidos de desilusiones. Como resultado, hacer frente al incierto flujo y reflujo de la historia se ha convertido en una especie de especialidad cubana, una resistencia que permite a su pueblo sobrevivir a desafíos que podrían haber sido aplastantes en otros lugares.
YENDO ESPIRAL Una escalera en la Habana Vieja. Años de abandono han añadido una pátina a la arquitectura vernácula de la ciudad. FOTO: ANDREW JACOBS PARA WSJ. MAGAZINE
Este espíritu fue capturado por otro observador de Cuba, el fotógrafo neoyorquino Andrew Jacobs, que exploró la isla en el verano de 2019, sin saber que la pandemia pronto daría mayor resonancia a su trabajo. Al igual que muchos estadounidenses (emigró a los Estados Unidos desde Sudáfrica a los 13 años), Jacobs visitó Cuba por primera vez tras el llamado deshielo de Obama, un delirante espasmo de optimismo que parece hoy en día historia antigua. La reapertura de las relaciones diplomáticas entre Cuba y los EE.UU. en 2014 llevó a una escena improbable tras otra: El presidente Obama de gira por La Habana y asistiendo a un partido de béisbol con Raúl Castro; los Rolling Stones jugando ante una multitud masiva al aire libre; se aflojan las restricciones de viaje de los Estados Unidos que habían estado vigentes desde la época de Eisenhower; y dentro de Cuba, nuevos negocios individuales que convierten a la isla en una fiesta elegante y a la vez desgtastada.
Para los observadores veteranos de Cuba, las nuevas posibilidades estaban simbolizadas por el Bar Roma, una asociación entre un DJ local y un yanqui expatriado que se ocultaba en la azotea de un decrépito edificio de apartamentos art decó en la Habana Vieja. Encontrado de boca en boca, se calificaba como el Estudio 54 de Cuba: Desde el desmoronado vestíbulo, un ascensor de jaula operado a mano crepitaba hacia arriba sobre ruedas sin engrasar, y luego se abría a una multitud felliniesca de jóvenes fashionistas de La Habana y extranjeros conocidos que bailaban sobre los tejados coloniales iluminados por la luna. El co-director cubano, Alain Medina, señaló el lugar del suelo de baldosas donde nació. Para visitar un baño, los invitados le pasaban dinero a uno de los residentes del último piso y luego pasaban por delante del sofá mientras la familia se sentaba y veía la televisión.
Fue esta atmósfera eufórica la que cautivó a Jacobs, nacido en Johannesburgo, cuando una tarea periodística repentina e improvisado a principios de 2017 lo transportó de Nueva York a La Habana a través de uno de los nuevos vuelos directos de JetBlue. El rodaje comercial de los trajes de baño de Onia duró menos de una semana y no le llevó más lejos de la capital que las playas locales, pero quedó asombrado por lo que encontró. “Me cautivó lo vibrante que era Cuba”, recuerda. “Era muy visceral. Dejé de querer fotografiar a las modelos con las que estaba. Quería fotografiar a la gente en la calle.”
Cuba se mantiene fuerte
El marcado aislamiento de la isla ha sido útil para contener el coronavirus, pero difícil en cuanto a problemática economía. Las andanzas de un fotógrafo capturaron la belleza de Cuba y la resistencia de un pueblo que ha luchado durante mucho tiempo con el flujo y reflujo de la historia.
EN COLOR VIVO Artículos colgando para secar en la lavandería de un edificio de apartamentos en La Habana. REVISTA
Un mecánico de autos fuera de su lugar de trabajo.
Fruta en venta en un mercado de La Habana.
A guajiro, or Cuban campesino, in Pinar del Rio. WSJ MAGAZINE
Jacobs juró volver de forma independiente para documentar la nueva Cuba. Cuando finalmente lo hizo, en junio de 2019, el curso de la historia había cambiado de rumbo otra vez. Los EE.UU. invirtió el deshielo de Obama, endureciendo las sanciones económicas y volviendo el reloj a la Guerra Fría. La belicosa retórica del presidente Trump había asustado a la mayoría de los viajeros americanos, y las reformas del sistema socialista de Cuba se habían estancado. Cuando Jacobs se puso en contacto con Talía Bustamante, una productora de La Habana a la que había conocido en su anterior visita, llevaba más de un año luchando por encontrar un trabajo estable, al igual que su marido, Alejandro Callejas, un operador de cámara. Como para simbolizar el nuevo frío, el Bar Roma pronto cerraría sus puertas, después de una disputa entre los co-directores cubano y americano. “Fue muy difícil para los cubanos”, dice Laverty, cuya propia empresa había traído a muchos empresarios estadounidenses al país para investigar las oportunidades. “Eran la comidilla del mundo, este lugar guay y sexy; luego les dieron una serie de golpes en el cuerpo.”
Jacobs descubrió que, a pesar de este giro que truncaba muchas esperanzas, la vitalidad que lo había atraído primero a la isla seguía intacta. Generaciones de tumultos y reveses han enseñado a los cubanos a apreciar el adagio “Las mejores cosas de la vida son gratis”. Tienen la bendición de vivir en una isla tropical con 3.500 millas de costa, bosques exuberantes, playas de arena y un clima benigno. Este ambiente acogedor ha ayudado a fomentar la vida comunitaria, que, tras el paréntesis de las restricciones de Covid-19, ha empezado a recuperarse. Los cubanos siguen desparramándose por las esquinas, tocando música con instrumentos improvisados, bromeando entre ellos sobre sus políticos y disfrutando de la sensualidad de las tardes con aroma a azúcar. Dependen de recursos de ingenio y humor conversacional hasta un punto que otras culturas, inundadas por la tecnología, han abandonado. La Habana Vieja colonial puede estar desmoronándose, con un aire tangible de privación a la vuelta de la esquina de las zonas que han sido embellecidas para los turistas, pero muchos residentes se conocen por su nombre. Los adolescentes a veces se agrupan a lo largo del Malecón, el paseo marítimo de la ciudad, para compartir una botella de ron y bailar bajo las duchas de rocío marino.
Para capturar este espíritu, Jacobs se propuso explorar la capital a pie, con el azar y el capricho de su única agenda, caminando, hablando y conociendo gente mientras Bustamante servía de guía y traductor. Durante su viaje de 2019, fue estimulante renunciar a todo lo que se parezca a un programa de rodaje. “La moda está completamente planeada”, dice. “Cuando haces fotografía de calle es lo contrario. Eso es lo que quería abrazar.”
Un día, se encontraron con una pequeña liga de béisbol [little league] en la que los jugadores llevaban zapatos de gran tamaño y uniformes de segunda mano. Como neoyorquino, Jacobs fue recibido como una celebridad. “Los niños estaban tan emocionados que no podían quedarse quietos ni mirarme durante mucho tiempo”, dice.
Cuba is Staying Strong
El marcado aislamiento de la isla ha sido útil para contener el coronavirus, pero difícil en cuanto a problemática economía. Las andanzas de un fotógrafo capturaron la belleza de Cuba y la resistencia de un pueblo que ha luchado durante mucho tiempo con el flujo y reflujo de la historia.
CIELO AZUL Las jaulas de pájaros cuelgan de una pared en Playa.ANDREW JACOBS para el WSJ. MAGAZINE
Una carretera costera cerca del puerto de La Habana. Dado el bloqueo comercial de EE.UU. durante décadas, los cubanos se han convertido en expertos en el reciclaje de piezas para mantener los coches americanos antiguos.
CARRETERAS SOLIDARIAS Residentes de Santa Fé en Playa, un municipio de La Habana. La economía de Cuba ha tenido dificultades desde los años 90, después de que la Unión Soviética se disolviera y el apoyo se agotara. Las áreas fuera del centro de la ciudad que ven menos turistas han sido especialmente afectadas.
Para explorar las provincias, Jacobs hizo un viaje por carretera a Pinar del Río, al oeste de La Habana. La logística se improvisó al clásico estilo cubano: El marido de Bustamante se apuntó como conductor, y durante los tres días de viaje Jacobs y su ayudante se metieron en el asiento trasero del pequeño vehículo bajo montañas de equipos de cámara. La recompensa fue explorar el Valle de Viñales, donde un mosaico de plantaciones y granjas de tabaco de una exuberancia imposible está enmarcado por espectaculares afloramientos de piedra caliza llamados mogotes (“Como el Parque Jurásico”, dice Jacobs). La hermética sociedad rural tiene un aire de otro mundo: campesinos bañados por el sol con sombreros de paja que cabalgan a caballo pasando por bohíos, chozas de paja, creando escenas tropicales que recuerdan los lienzos de Gauguin.
Las imágenes de Jacobs rara vez incluyen signos reveladores de lugares específicos -no estatuas, catedrales o vistas de postales para turistas- y en cambio se concentran en detalles íntimos. Le atraía especialmente lo que había detrás de las puertas cerradas. La arquitectura hispano-caribeña, con sus balcones de hierro forjado, pórticos cubiertos y ventanas con contraventanas, protege a los residentes del sol pero también desvía las miradas indiscretas. “En las calles, se puede acercar a cualquiera, charlar, reír y tomar fotos”, dice Jacobs. Pero acceder a las casas privadas era un asunto delicado; a muchos les preocupaba que sus circunstancias pudieran ser juzgadas por un extrañjero.
En realidad, Jacobs era lo opuesto a juzgar, ya que se vio envuelto en la poesía casual de la vida doméstica de los cubanos. “La gente no tiene mucho, pero es hermoso”, dice. “La luz, la forma en que arreglan las cosas, el uso del color. Los cubanos sacan lo mejor de lo que tienen.”
Un lago de montaña. FOTO: ANDREW JACOBS PARA WSJ. MAGAZINE
Los cubanos son legendarios por la creatividad que aplican a los bienes materiales. Sin acceso a las nuevas piezas mecánicas, son expertos en el reciclaje, con Chevrolets, Dodges y Buicks de los años 50 reconfigurados para durar décadas más allá de su vida natural, a veces con motores Toyota bajo el capó, con cables que sostienen las ventanas agrietadas o con tablones de madera usados como tablas del suelo. Pero el acceso a los lujos más retro se desgasta en las provincias. Muchas de las aldeas que Jacobs visitó exudaban un aire fantasmal.
Típico era el puesto de avanzada de Hershey (hoy conocido como Camilo Cienfuegos), aproximadamente a 35 millas de La Habana, un pueblo fundado en 1916 para proveer de azúcar a la compañía de chocolate con sede en Pennsylvania. Las calles estaban antaño bordeadas de ordenados bungalows que hacían eco de las ciudades modelo de los suburbios americanos -un mundo desaparecido capturado en la novela de Rachel Kushner de 2008, Telex desde Cuba. Cuando la refinería fue nacionalizada después de la revolución, la ciudad siguió funcionando mientras la URSS compró la cosecha de azúcar de Cuba a un precio inflado. “Era como un pueblo del Viejo Oeste en pleno auge del oro”, dice Jacobs. Hoy en día, la refinería cerrada se cierne como una catedral en ruinas sobre calles habitadas sólo por ancianos.
La provincia de Pinar del Río, a unos 160 km al oeste de La Habana, es el centro agrícola de la industria tabacalera cubana. Arriba: Un bohío, o cabaña de paja. FOTO: ANDREW JACOBS PARA WSJ. MAGAZINE
Para esta generación mayor, los sueños fracturados de Cuba en la última década tienen un aire familiar, que se hace eco de ciclos históricos más largos de esperanza y decepción. Al principio, la llegada de Fidel Castro y sus románticos barbudos (“los barbudos”, como se conoció a sus guerrilleros en la Sierra Maestra) fueron recibidos con un éxtasis. Toda la isla se vio envuelta en el cuento de hadas “revolución juvenil” contra el brutal dictador Fulgencio Batista, mientras Cuba se embarcaba en un experimento que parecía prometer una utopía política, económica y racial. Con el paso de los años, la desilusión se instaló, y el sueño se derrumbó en la década de 1990.
Aún así, dentro de la Cuba de hoy, la esperanza continúa. “Si todo se alinea, Cuba estará en un buen lugar”, dice Laverty. “Pero para llegar allí, tendrán que lidiar con muchas dificultades.” Como siempre, los cubanos tendrán mucha experiencia en la que apoyarse. -•
By Patricia Sulbarán Lovera
June 16, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Robert Fuller and Malcolm Harsch, were found hanging from trees in two southern California cities. Photo: @AAPolicyForum/Twitter.
In the midst of a wave of protests against racism in the United States, two deaths initially labeled as suicides have caused shock and raised questions.
In the last few weeks, the bodies of two black men, Robert Fuller and Malcolm Harsch, were found hanging from trees in two Southern California cities.
In the first announcements, the authorities pointed to suicide as a possible cause of death in both cases, but have now opened investigations.
This was after the families demanded investigations after expressing their unconvinced opinion that they had been suicides.
About 50 miles and 10 days separate the deaths of Fuller and Harsch.
The names of Fuller and Harsch resonated widely on social networks over the weekend, and activists in the Black Lives Matter movement joined the demands of their families.
The characteristics of the incidents have also brought to mind the terrible past of lynching of blacks in the United States in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
Robert Fuller, 24 years old
Robert Fuller was 24 years old. Photo: Via GoFundMe.
At almost 4 a.m. last Wednesday, June 10, the body of 24-year-old Fuller was found near City Hall in Palmdale, a city of 150,000 people, about an hour north of Los Angeles.
“No one was at the scene and paramedics found the body hanging from a tree,” Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief Daryl Osby said Monday.
A passerby who saw the body contacted the authorities.
An autopsy was carried out last Friday 12th, the results of which have yet to be announced.
“Initial reports seemed to be consistent with suicide, but we thought it prudent to step back and continue to investigate,” said Jonathan Lucas, head of the county coroner’s office.
Lucas explained that there was initial talk of suicide, due to the “absence of evidence” indicating a possible homicide.
According to authorities, there were no chairs or other artifacts in the vicinity of the site and only “what was in his pocket and backpack” was found, Kent Wegener, in charge of the sheriff’s office homicide unit, said Monday.
Wegener detailed that a forensic analysis of the rope will be done, as well as a study of the type of knot to determine how it was made. They will also investigate whether “there is video footage from surveillance cameras or from homes” that has captured what happened, and they will check the young person’s cell phone.
Authorities said they will also investigate the medical history of Fuller, who was assigned to a state social worker, although the reason is unknown.
According to what county sheriff Alex Villanueva said Monday, the attorney general’s office “is going to monitor and review our investigation.
The official also noted that the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) will be involved in the investigation from the civil rights division.
What was the reaction and what did your family say?
Last Friday, after news of his death was made public, Palmdale residents questioned authorities for first reporting it as a suicide.
Palmdale residents set up an altar in honor of Fuller on the tree where he was hung on June 10. Photo: Getty Images.
“Where are the surveillance videos?”, “We don’t trust you”, “Why did you conclude it’s a suicide?”, some questioned the city sheriff in the middle of a tense press conference.
On Saturday, Fuller’s sister spoke from the square where the incident occurred and where hundreds of protesters gathered.
“We want to know the truth about what really happened. Robert was a good little brother. And it’s like everything we’ve been told isn’t right (…) we hear one thing and then another, and we just want to know the truth,” Diamond Alexander claimed.
Robert Fuller’s sister said her brother wasn’t suicidal. Photo: Reuters.
“It doesn’t make sense, my brother wasn’t suicidal,” he said.
Antelope Valley, the area where Palmdale is located, “is known in Southern California as a bastion of white supremacy and that goes back decades,” Los Angeles KCRW radio reporter Cerise Castle said in a report Monday for National Public Radio (NPR).
“In 2016, there was an incident in which three men were charged with a hate crime after attacking a group of Latinos in a park. This was one day after the Ku Klux Klan [white supremacist extreme group] held an event in the area,” he said.
Malcolm Harsch, 38
A una hora de Palmdale en dirección este, en la ciudad de Victorville, un grupo de bomberos acudió a la escena en la que Malcolm Harsch, de 38 años, había aparecido colgado de un árbol el pasado 31 de mayo.
Malcolm Harsch, the 38 años. Photo: @AAPolicyForum/Twitter.
According to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office report, shortly after 7:00 a.m., a call came in to the 911 emergency number from a woman who reported that her boyfriend had hung himself.
The paramedics arrived at the site, which the authorities describe as a “land” where there is a camp of homeless people.
The woman indicated that “she and her boyfriend, later identified as Malcolm Harsch, had been together during the morning, but she had returned to her tent for a short period of time.
“Others in the camp warned him that Harsch had been found hanging from a tree,” that he had been taken down from there and was being given CPR “to resuscitate him,” the statement said.
The emergency personnel who arrived later continued unsuccessfully with the attempts until he was declared dead.
The cause of death is yet to be known.
The authorities present at the scene, including forensic personnel, stated in the letter, “did not collect any evidence suggesting a possible murder”.
What did the family say?
Harsch’s relatives, who live in the state of Ohio, said in a statement last Saturday that they found it hard to believe the man had killed himself, that he “did not seem depressed” and that he had “recently talked with his children about seeing each other soon.
In the letter, the relatives reported that the autopsy had been carried out “12 days after” his death.
“There are many ways to die, but considering the current racial tensions, for a man to have hung himself from a tree definitely does not make sense at this time. We want justice, not easy excuses,” they said.
The city authorities reported that they would make the results of the investigation public once it is completed.
County Sheriff John McMahon said his office was in contact with the state Department of Justice, which was following up on the inquiry.
The editorial strategy of every media outlet in Cuba goes hand in hand with the application of strict preventive measures because, as a premise, if there is one thing the people cannot be without, it is information and in order to offer it, one must also be healthy
April 6, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Rebel Radio Photo: Secret Naturality (Latin World)
There are frontline heroes, heroes in white coats.
There are others in the background, behind a microphone or a camera.
There are others who write, ask, speak.
There are anonymous heroes.
Sometimes they’re called journalists, camera operators, announcers, sound recorders, photographers…
In this joint battle against the coronavirus in Cuba, communication is key.
Periódico Granma Foto: Naturaleza Secreta (Mundo Latino)
Periódico Granma Photo: Naturaleza Secreta (Mundo Latino)
DEALING WITH FALSE NEWS
For Demetrio Villaurrutia, Deputy Director of Radio Rebelde, the first challenge is to inform.
“In a scenario where so much false news appears, the media has the role of guiding the population and increasing the perception of risk; without panic, but with awareness,” he said.
“Even when we are taking all the measures, we are also risking our health. In my case, I think about the family and I know they understand my social role,” he added.
Secret Nature will continue to share the stories behind the scenes of these information heroes.
Rebel Radio Photo: Secret Naturality (Latin World)
Rebel Radio Photo: Secret Naturality (Latin World)
Rebel Radio Photo: Rebel Radio
Yurisander Guevara Zaila, Deputy Director of Juventud Rebelde: “Right now the only thing being talked about in Cuba and in the world is the coronavirus. That is because humanity is experiencing an event like this for the first time. We are engaged in a communications campaign to constantly inform the people about the measures they should take. We have tried to create a journalism that calls for responsibility.
Juventud Rebel Photo: Secret Naturality (Mundo Latino)
“With the COVID-19 our life changed. It’s true that many of us can’t stop going out because we have to go and buy the products we need in the house, but you can stand in line far away from the other person”.
Juventud Rebel Photo: Secret Naturality (Mundo Latino)
Juventud Rebelde Photo: Juventud Rebelde
Juventud Rebelde Photo: Juventud Rebelde
Source of text and photos: Facebook page of Naturaleza Secreta, an audiovisual project of Mundo Latino
By Juana Carrasco Martin
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Esteban “Steve” Bovo, doesn’t look like a fool with his latest invention Author: Juventud Rebelde Published: 19/03/2020 | 10:50 pm
The new coronavirus has upset some people. The symptoms are a brutalization caused by bad intentions and Cubaphobia, translated into attempts to politicize the pandemic and -irrationally- to put Cuba as the focus and center of the contagion.
Of course, such bullshit could only come from Miami – a city contaminated for more than six decades by a visceral hatred and a vengeful desire for Cubans to disappear from the map, in order to appropriate this beautiful archipelago at any cost.
The most recent invention arrived with Twitter feeds and a letter sent to President Donald Trump by Commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo, asking him to place Cuba on the list of restricted travel to the United States, because “we need to take all preventive measures to protect Miami-Dade County and the state of Florida from the spread of COVID-19.
In Bovo County, the number of confirmed cases rose to 76 (March 18 data) and is increasing, as is the number of positive cases in all of Florida, which is almost 400, ranking among the highest in the 50 U.S. states.
Everyone knows, as do many Americans, including medical experts, and Democratic presidential hopefuls, say, that Trump did not act on SARS-CoV-2 in time, and that the public health care system — and, of course, the private health care system, plus the insurance companies — are responsive to the profits they can make, not the needs of their citizens.
Therefore, the records show that the United States is the country with the highest rate in the entire hemisphere, with 13,737 cases positive for COVID-19; 201 deaths and 108 recoveries. There are now 178 countries where the pandemic has made landfall.
However, the commissioner assures that Cuba has falsified its records, that it is rumored that the sick are Italians, that there have been no medicines in the country for a long time, and he dares to point out that “Cuba cannot protect its people, much less the tourists”.
Such is the blindness and bad temper of the aforementioned that he does not see how the world recognizes the benefits of the Cuban anti-viral recombinant Interferon alpha 2B, nor the gratitude of the passengers and crew of a cruise ship condemned to sail aimlessly through the Caribbean. [It wasn’t] until the humanism, solidarity and generosity of the largest of the Antilles and its people, opened a port and airport for them to return to the United Kingdom. A “I love you Cuba” was the best message from HM Braemar…
It would be good, in case they need it, to take into account that the Cuban pharmaceutical industry is prepared to treat thousands of possible patients with COVID-19, and our antiviral has already been successfully used in China.
The problem is that the Bovo is riding on the xenophobic bandwagon of the White House president, who never acknowledges his failures and looks for scapegoats in others, in order to also run an election campaign, since he hopes to be the mayor of Miami.
Nor does he care that if this extreme measure of cutting off travel between Havana and Miami were taken, it would totally sever the ties of Cuban families, a crime against humanity.
By Odalis Riquenes Cutiño
Published: Thursday 20 February 2020 | 05:59:34 pm.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Danay Leyva Barrios, hydraulic engineer and a pillar in the investments of the Provincial Delegation of Hydraulic Resources santiaguera Author: Odalis Riquenes Cutiño Published: 20/02/2020 | 05:55 pm
SANTIAGO DE CUBA.-Wilfredo Valdés Pérez, specialist in quality control at the Hermanos Díaz refinery; Danay Leyva Barrios, hydraulic engineer and a pillar in the investments of the Santiago Provincial Delegation of Hydraulic Resources; Beatriz García Vistel, who is training as an Early Childhood Educator at the Floro Pérez Pedagogical School and Dainier González Romero, fourth-year Telecommunications Engineering student at the Universidad de Oriente, were selected in their respective centers as direct delegates from this eastern province to the 11th Congress of the UJC.
Excited, each in their own way, among the hugs of their colleagues, the joy of their administrative leadership, and the respectful tribute to the merit of those who shared the candidacies with them, they received their credentials and recognition from the hands of the member of the National Bureau of the UJC, Yannara Concepción Domínguez, and reaffirmed their commitment to continue firm and moving forward, contributing to the present and underpinning a better future.
Wilfredo, Danay, Beatriz and Dainier are the faces of continuity and their stories of anonymous and daily devotion, the best evidence that the new Cubans are the protagonists of their time, and in their walk there are guarantees for tomorrow.
A graduate in Chemistry, Wilfredo is the youth leader of the Santiago fuel refinery, a center with a tradition of good work from the UJC and where, united by a shared vision, the Bisoño people are a true vanguard for carrying out any task of high impact or difficulty that may arise.
In addition to working long hours in all areas of the plant to secure the fuel demand in eastern Cuba, the novices set the pace if a substation affected by a fire needs to be repaired, a cooling tower needs to be dismantled, or an oil spill threatens the bay.
Danay Leyva Barrios, a specialist in water resource management and development, will raise her voice at the great gathering of the young Cuban vanguard, on behalf of those who from dawn to dusk are wasting sacrifices, whether in new investments, in dealing with drought or in daily water management, without expecting any reward other than a “thank you” from the population that has benefited from the precious liquid.
At only 17 years old and the love for history and children in her warm eyes, Beatriz García Vistel is the living example of the values of the girls who are trained at the Floro Pérez Pedagogical School, a center that has been outstanding at a national level for four consecutive years. There future early childhood educators are prepared, ready to continue the achievements of the Revolution in this sector.
Only two courses away from graduating as a telecommunications engineer from the Universidad de Oriente, Dainier González is already dreaming and striving for a tomorrow where, he says, science, which he is passionate about, and the research that can be generated from academia, will be put to work on the dilemmas of local development.
That is why he already speaks, passionately, of the use of robotics in the development of assisted rehabilitation technologies for patients affected by neurological diseases. This will be his degree thesis, because, in this way, he assures us, he will be at the level of the prepared and committed professionals who are trained in the country.
Today they are Wilfredo, Danay, Beatriz, Dainier, four among thousands in Santiago, in Cuba; party lovers, addicted to technology, but also industrious and dedicated, every day and from the most diverse fields, to forging the future of the Homeland.
These are the signs of continuity, real, concrete, beyond any slogan.
Viewers who’ve seen Parasites, and know of its quality, still scoff at the critical mess cooked up in Colorado, especially after the film’s producers responded that the problem is that the president can’t read subtitles. But what did Trump mean when he said “let’s bring back Gone With the Wind”?
by Rolando Pérez Betancourt | internet@granma.cu
February 25, 2020 22:02:03
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Gone With The Wind frame. Photo: Film frame
No one is forced to applaud a film praised by half the world, but at least, before giving an opinion, you should see it.
In his harsh criticism of the Oscar-winning film Parasites, President Trump let it be known that it was unknown, which did not prevent him from accusing it of being foreign, because it speaks another language, has subtitles, its protagonists are Asian, and – this last must have been blown by any advisor on the return from the cinema – it is a political and social allegation against the system that he reveres!
The film world already knows that anyone who tries to challenge the president’s actions will be diminished by insulting Twitter messages. Thus, Meryl Streep is “a second-rate actress,” Robert de Niro “a very low IQ individual,” Black director Spike Lee “a racist,” actor Alec Baldwin (who mimics him on Saturday Night Live) a conspirator “who should be punished along with the show,”. This recently led Baldwin to compare him to Hitler, and the latest pearl of the show, from a few days ago, during the election meeting in Colorado, where he criticized Brad Pitt – “I was never a big fan of him; he stood up and said a smart thing, he’s a smart guy”- because the actor, after receiving his Oscar, joked about the political process, without witnesses, who “judged” Trump.
The flag-waving minions of the Republican Party cheered when the president, on the campaign, was bewildered by Parasites’ Oscar, and called for a return to the days of awarding films like Gone with the Wind. This was a warning from the top of the establishment to the winds of change that – for the sake of maintaining hegemony and other considerations – seem to be coming to the Hollywood Academy: “… a
South Korean movie! What was that about? We have enough commercial problems with South Korea already. On top of that, we’re giving them the Best Film of the Year… Was it good? I don’t know. Let’s bring back Gone With the Wind, please. Twilight of the Gods. So many great movies…
Viewers who’ve seen Gone With the Wind, and know of its quality, still mock the critical mess cooked up in Colorado, especially after the film’s producers responded that the problem is that the president can’t read subtitles, but what did Trump mean by “let’s bring back Gone With the Wind?”
First-hand conservatism and racism, no more and no less, and along with it, offensive misinformation, unless, knowing the terrain he was treading on, he didn’t care about restoring the laurels of an anthological film, yes, but in the background of evaluations after it was established that, in addition to its racist overtones, it didn’t lack syrups and other tricks to idealize the slave-owning past of the South.
In the middle of the 21st century, the myth of Gone with the Wind, elevated to the empyrean by the enormous marketing that accompanied it, slips and cannot be sustained. A little over two months ago, on December 15, 2019, it was 80 years since its massive premiere in Atlanta. However, Hollywood preferred to go overboard and exalt instead The Wizard of Oz, also from 1939.
In the documentary The Legend Goes On (2014), the prestigious American sociologist Camille Paglia situates in a simple way what the film was: “it is not honest with what the slaves of that time felt”.
In August 2017, the Orpheum Theatre, a historic movie theater in Memphis, decided to withdraw its annual exhibition of Gone with the Wind after the bloody racial clashes that took place in Charlottesville (Virginia), where it became clear that race relations are still a pending issue in the United States. Trump received harsh criticism for his verbal lukewarmness towards white supremacists, a sector encouraged by the Republican boom: “It’s both groups’ fault,” Trump said in those days, washing his hands of where the attacks had come from, like the neo-Nazi who killed a woman with his car.
While there is no shortage of Gone with the Wind advocates as material from which critical lessons can be drawn. It’s all very well for it to be seen as an epoch-making cinema classic, but its racist weight is too strong for the new, non-conservative generations to take into account. This, without losing sight of the fact that, as a commercial film, the film crowned the Hollywood of spectacular sound and color alongside the proclaimed star system.
The all-powerful producer [David] O. Selznick is known to have emptied Margaret Mitchell’s romance novel of anything that might be critical of Southern racists. These inluded references to the Ku Klux Klan founded by America’s far-right in 1865 with veterans of the Civil War. But it is enough to see how the liberated blacks, potential criminals, are represented to be intoxicated by the racist stench that emerges from the film.
The Hollywood Academy tried to mitigate the issue by giving Hattie MacDaniel the secondary Oscar, the first black actress to receive it, for her good performance as Scarlett O’Hara’s “Mamie”. The horror came later, when, at the awards ceremony, for being black, and also a lesbian, she was seated on a separate bench, far away from her fellow filmmakers, and then she was not allowed to attend the banquet of the winners because the segregationist laws did not allow it.
Bringing back Gone With the Wind films to face films like Parasites?
No way to think of a respectful response.
The Manufactured Gas Company informs its clients that due to work that will be carried out by Energas S.A. at its installation in Puerto Escondido, there will be effects on the service, from 9:00 p.m. on Saturday February 22nd until 3:00 a.m. on Monday February 24th
February 20, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews. NOTE: This article refers to gas for home cooking as received through pipes from the street.
They announce interruptions in the service of manufactured gas in the capital from Saturday 22 to Monday 24 February. Photo: Taken from the Internet
The note issued by the entity’s General Management also announces that during this period the gas service to the capital will be partially or totally affected.
State consumers in the territories are advised not to consume gas until this service is normalized, in order to allocate all production to customers in the population sector of the municipalities of Plaza, Cerro, La Habana Vieja, Centro Habana, Diez de Octubre, Playa and Marianao, adds the information note issued.
The execution of these works will allow greater reliability in the distribution of natural gas to the company’s production plants.
The General Direction of Gas Manufacturado Company offered apologies for the inconvenience that this interruption may cause.
(With information from Juventud Rebelde)
August 16, 2018
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Aretha Franklin won 44 nominations, 18 Grammys and 75 million records sold
The diva from Memphis had been fighting cancer for years.
Franklin still had time to make one last record, A Brand New Me.
She went on to replace Luciano Pavarotti at the 1998 Grammy Awards.
There are few black voices left of the old guard. One of the most imposing ones has departed. Perhaps the most recognizable, the one that became immense by singing Respect and that had the pleasure of finishing off the work with other unforgettable melodies such as Natural Woman, I Say a Little Prayer or Chain of Fools, a church voice that made the leap into the commercial arena and that, after 44 nominations, 18 Grammys and 75 million records sold all over the world, became the first woman to access the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a year before The Beatles. The queen of soul, the eternal Aretha Franklin, has passed away. She was 76 years old.
Aretha Franklin’s representative confirmed to the Associated Press that the queen of soul had died Tuesday at her home in Detroit. On Sunday, information began to circulate about the singer’s admission to a hospital in Detroit, the city where she lived. It was said that she was in an extremely serious condition and that she was surrounded by her closest family and friends, as a clear sign of her impending end.
The Memphis diva had been struggling with cancer for years – even though she had never officially recognized it – and last year announced that she was retiring from show business for good. “This will be my last year. I’ll be recording, but this will be my last year of concerts. That’s all,” she said in an interview in 2017
“I feel very enriched and satisfied with where my career comes from and where it is.
All this after she was forced to cancel a series of concerts during the summer and could not be at a jazz festival in New Orleans. “Aretha Franklin has been ordered by her doctor to stay off the road (because of the music tours) and rest completely for the next two months,” the singer’s team announced in a statement in March.
Elton John will be able to brag about getting her on stage one last time. She was in November in New York to raise funds for the fight against AIDS. And former President Barack Obama was able to count on the strength of her voice at the 2009 presidential inauguration, in one of her most notable and remembered public events in her homeland. She did the same with Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, as well as singing at Martin Luther King’s funeral.
Despite her health problems – for decades she had to deal with obesity and alcoholism – Franklin still had time to record one last album, A Brand New Me, a compilation of her most important songs, although this time with the collaboration of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London and the voice of a much more mature Franklin.
“Having the opportunity to work with that voice on this project has been the greatest honor and hearing a symphony orchestra involve these performances is impressive,” said producer Nick Patrick after releasing the album in November last year.
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
The World Bodypainting Festival is an annual event created in 1998 by Alex Barendregt, which became one of the most popular festivals of culture and community body painting. The festival attracts top artists and models from more than 40 countries, as well as millions of visitors who enjoy this event on the shores of Lake Wörthersee, in southern Austria.
El Festival Mundial de Bodypainting (World Bodypainting Festival) es un evento anual creado en 1998 por Alex Barendregt, quien lo convirtió en uno de los festivales más populares de la cultura y comunidad del body painting. El festival atrae a los mejores artistas y modelos de más de 40 países, al igual que a millones de visitantes quienes disfrutan de tal suceso a orillas del lago Wörthersee, al sur de Austria.
Una modelo posa durante el Festival Mundial de Bodypainting en Pöertschach, Austria. Foto: Reuters
Festival Mundial de Bodypainting en Pöertschach, Austria. Foto: Reuters
Una modelo posa durante el Festival Mundial de Bodypainting en Pöertschach, Austria. Foto: Reuters
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Festival Mundial de Bodypainting en Pöertschach, Austria. Foto: Reuters
Una modelo posa durante el Festival Mundial de Bodypainting en Pöertschach, Austria. Foto: Reuters
Festival Mundial de Bodypainting en Pöertschach, Austria. Foto: Reuters
Festival Mundial de Bodypainting en Pöertschach, Austria. Foto: Reuters
Festival Mundial de Bodypainting en Pöertschach, Austria. Foto: Reuters
Una modelo posa durante el Festival Mundial de Bodypainting en Pöertschach, Austria. Foto: Reuters
Una modelo con pintura fluorescente que brilla con la luz ultravioleta durante el Festival Mundial de Bodypainting en Pöertschach, Austria. Foto: Reuters
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