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Racism and Translation
Race, class and gender in Cuba and the world

Enrique Del Risco
Writer
Cuban. Resident of the United States

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Recently ended, year 2013 witnessed an unprecedented increase in the debate about racial discrimination in Cuba. The fact that the most substantial and
visible part of that debate was not covered by Cuba’s
official press, but was covered by the New York Times,
does not diminish this fact’s importance. Moreover, it
complicates it even more. Suffice it to consider that
this debate is taking place in a ‘language’ different
from the one in which racial discrimination is expressed, a difference that creates the kinds of problems
that all translations incur. In fact, the somewhat extreme reaction against Roberto Zurbano’s piece in the
New York Times was chalked up to a problem of translation: he was removed as Director of Publishing at
Casa de las Américas. The official Cuban press was
also permitted to publish a reply.
Zurbano’s complaint-excuse was that the NYT article’s1 title was changed: “The Revolution is not over
for Blacks in Cuba” was changed to “For Blacks in
Cuba, the Revolution Hasn’t Begun.” He did not
bother to stop and realize that the original title at least
implied that the Revolution in Cuba had ended for the
rest of society, something that would not please the
authorities. They are very sensitive when it comes to
reaffirming not only the revolution’s long trajectory,
but also its current strength and relevance.
The titles of the articles that appeared in the online,
weekly publication La Jiribilla,2 the media source responsible for dealing with Zurbano’s article and with
the most limited connectivity in the Americas, were
quite explicit in their response. One with a chronological bent, by Estaban Morales, was titled “La revolución cubana empezó en 1959 [The Cuban Revolution
Started in 1959].3 Another one, with a more rhythmic
title was “Para los negros, la Revolución no ha terminado, ni para nadie de este lado” [The Revolution Is

Not Over, not for Blacks or Anyone Here], by Ernesto
Pérez Castillo.4 Yet another more emphatic one was
“En el órgano equivocado y el lenguaje equivocado”
[In the Wrong Organization and Wrong Language], by
Silvio Castro.5 This last one fell just short of stating
that the article had been translated to the wrong language.
The translation problems of Harvard professor
Alejandro FR