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La vida cotidiana en Cuba, según Leonardo Padura: “Hombres y mujeres se descubren más pobres que nunca”
La vida cotidiana en Cuba se ha visto atravesada por la precariedad y el silencio, según describe Leonardo Padura en su más reciente novela, Morir en la arena. El autor, galardonado con el premio Princesa de Asturias, aborda en esta obra la historia de una familia marcada por la tragedia y el desencanto, mientras ofrece un retrato de medio siglo de transformaciones en la isla. En una conversación telefónica desde La Habana con el periodista Jorge Morla del diario español El País, Padura revela que, ante los frecuentes apagones, ha debido instalar una batería con paneles solares en su hogar, una inversión de 4.000 dólares que considera inaccesible para la mayoría de los cubanos. “No todos pueden permitirse esto”, comenta, aludiendo a las estrategias individuales de supervivencia que se han vuelto habituales en el país.
La trama de Morir en la arena se centra en Rodolfo, un hombre que, tras haber combatido en la guerra de Angola y sufrir el asesinato de su padre a manos de su hermano Geni, enfrenta la inminente excarcelación de este último, gravemente enfermo. El reencuentro con su cuñada Nora, antiguo amor de juventud, y la llegada de su hija, desencadenan una semana de tensiones, resentimientos y recuerdos dolorosos. La novela recorre cincuenta años de historia cubana, explorando el desencanto de una generación que, tras décadas de sacrificio y lealtad a la revolución, se descubre más empobrecida que nunca y dependiente de las remesas enviadas desde el extranjero. Padura sostiene que este fenómeno refleja una tendencia global: el retroceso de las políticas de seguridad social, que en Cuba se manifiesta con especial dureza.
Aunque la novela se presenta como inspirada en hechos reales, el escritor aclara que se trata de una ficción con raíces en la vida. El punto de partida fue un parricidio ocurrido en una familia cercana a la suya. “Pasó en una familia cercana a la mía. Conocí a los implicados en la historia”, confiesa Padura. Sin embargo, subraya que los personajes de la obra poseen características distintas a los reales. El autor explica que la adaptación de la realidad a la ficción responde a necesidades dramáticas: “La mejor historia que te puedan contar, cuando la escribes, a veces no funciona. Los procesos de la realidad y los procesos dramáticos tienen distinto orden. Yo reescribo la realidad para lograr un fin dramático, porque al final es la ficción la que decide cómo organizas una trama”.
“Hombres y mujeres que estudiaron, trabajaron, se sacrificaron, repitieron consignas, incluso pelearon en la guerra de Angola y, sin embargo, con el correr del tiempo, lo primero que sienten es que vuelven a pisar mierda”, dice y agrega: “Tras años de esfuerzo, se descubren más pobres que nunca, viviendo de las remesas enviadas desde el extranjero”. Para Padura, lo que sucede en Cuba es reflejo de una tendencia más amplia: el retroceso de las políticas de seguridad social, que golpea en todas partes, aunque en la isla se sienta con particular crudeza.
Padura no busca ofrecer respuestas definitivas en sus novelas, sino plantear enigmas que desafían al lector. “Hay cuestiones que no se resuelven en la trama, que funcionan como ganchos”, señala. Esta estrategia narrativa ya estaba presente en obras anteriores como Adiós Hemingway y Como polvo en el viento, donde los misterios centrales permanecen sin resolver. El escritor cita a Cortázar para describir el tipo de lector que espera: “busco un lector macho, copartícipe, no hembra [que no quiere problemas, sino soluciones, decía Cortázar]… ¡Aunque estas cosas ya no se pueden decir!“, comenta entre risas.
En el corazón de la novela se encuentra Raymundo Fumero, intelectual y narrador que intenta reconstruir los hechos a través de la escritura. Padura considera a este personaje una reivindicación de la figura del intelectual en Cuba, especialmente de aquellos que sufrieron la represión durante el Decenio negro de los años setenta. “Muchos fueron apartados y murieron en la marginación, como José Lezama Lima o Virgilio Piñera”, recuerda el autor. Por ello, palabras como miedo, pavor y temor se repiten en la obra, mientras Fumero se empeña en documentar “la crónica de la derrota de esta generación”.
El escritor reconoce que los mecanismos de censura persisten en la actualidad, aunque de forma menos drástica. “Hoy no son tan drásticos, pero existen. Hay una manera muy fácil de censura: decir que no hay papel, y que tu libro no se puede imprimir. Que, además, es cierto”, ironiza. Padura atribuye su libertad creativa a la relación con la editorial Tusquets desde los años noventa, lo que le ha permitido publicar en 32 lenguas y enviar sus manuscritos a Barcelona de manera inmediata: “Termino el libro, aprieto una tecla y en dos segundos está en Barcelona. Soy muy afortunado”.
La novela utiliza símbolos potentes para retratar la fractura social y familiar en Cuba. Aitana y Violeta, hijas de los dos hermanos protagonistas, representan a la diáspora y la distancia generacional. El muro que separa las casas de los personajes funciona como metáfora de la división íntima y colectiva. Padura explica que la obra está “llena de símbolos, también de guiños con los que el lector se identifica”, y que su objetivo es construir un universo que refleje la vida contemporánea del país.
En el ámbito cultural, Padura observa con preocupación la evolución del reguetón en Cuba. “Es terrible. Ahora el reguetón tiene modalidad cubana, que se llama reparto. Ha avanzado en el gusto popular en la misma proporción que ha avanzado en lo escatológico, sexista, soez y agresivo”, afirma. Considera que este fenómeno es síntoma de una degradación social, económica y política que se remonta al Período Especial de los años noventa, cuando el colapso económico provocó profundas desigualdades. “Lo que antes era la libreta de abastecimiento, hoy solo te da un poco de arroz, azúcar y poco más”, señala. A esto se suman los apagones, que en algunas zonas pueden durar hasta 20 horas al día. “Un día así, y otro, y otro… No nos queda más remedio que incorporar toda esta miseria a la vida, y en muchos casos callar”, lamenta. El escritor recuerda las protestas de julio de 2021, cuando centenares de personas recibieron condenas de hasta diez años de cárcel por actos como romper un cristal. “La gente sufre y calla, porque lo otro…”. Padura repite con ironía una frase popular: “Si en la calle la comida está tan difícil, imagina en la cárcel…”.
Al concluir la entrevista, Padura expresa incertidumbre sobre el futuro de Cuba y del mundo. “No lo sé. El presente está tan deprimido que necesariamente tiene que haber algo que ocurra, un gran cambio, no sé si para mejor o para peor”, admite. Observa que la duda sobre el porvenir afecta tanto a la isla como al contexto global, marcado por “el auge de las derechas más xenófobas y nacionalistas”. Antes de regresar al calor de La Habana, el escritor resume su escepticismo: “Me temo que estamos abocados a un gran signo de interrogación”.
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La heredera holandesa, la princesa Amalia, junto a su mamá. Foto: EFELa isla de Spetses
Máxima sigue de vacaciones
Los reyes con sus tres hijas y su perro Mambo. Foto: EFE
La realeza española asiste al casamiento del príncipe Nicolás de Grecia, en Spetses, en 2010. Foto: Reuters¿Una casa más cerca?
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EPA urged to axe funds for ‘radical’ climate project accused of training judges, state AGs rally
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First on Fox: Nearly two dozen Republican state attorneys general sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin Tuesday, calling on him to cancel funding to a left-wing environmental group accused of training and lobbying judges on climate policy, Fox News Digital exclusively learned.
«As attorney general, I refuse to stand by while Americans’ tax dollars fund radical environmental training for judges across the country,» Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen told Fox News Digital of his push to encourage the EPA to end its funding of the Climate Judiciary Project.
«The Environmental Law Institute’s Climate Judiciary Project is using woke climate propaganda, under the guise of what they call ‘neutral’ education, to persuade judges and push their wildly unpopular agenda through the court system,» he said. «I commend President Trump’s efforts to cut waste and abuse during the first eight months of his presidency, and I am optimistic that his Administration will do the right thing and halt all funding to ELI.»
Knudsen spearheaded the letter sent to Zeldin Tuesday, which included the signatures of 22 other Republican state attorneys general, calling for the EPA to axe its funding to the left-wing environmental nonprofit, called the Environmental Law Institute, which oversees the Climate Judiciary Project (CJP).
TOP ENERGY GROUP CALLS FOR PROBE INTO SECRETIVE ‘NATIONAL LAWFARE CAMPAIGN’ TO INFLUENCE JUDGES ON CLIMATE
Montana Attorney General Knudsen spearheaded a letter sent to EPA chief Lee Zeldin Aug. 26, 2025, calling for the EPA to end its funding to the Environmental Law Institute. (Getty Images)
The Environmental Law Institute founded the Climate Judiciary Project in 2018, which pitches itself as a «first-of-its-kind effort» that «provides judges with authoritative, objective, and trusted education on climate science, the impacts of climate change, and the ways climate science is arising in the law.»
The group, however, has been accused of trying to manipulate judges to make them more amenable to left-wing climate litigation.
The letter sent Tuesday called on the EPA specifically to end any grants and awards endowed to the group.
«We write to bring to your attention grants made by EPA to the Environmental Law Institute (‘ELI’),» the letter reads. «According to its 2024 financial statements, ELI received approximately 13% of its revenue in 2023, and 8.4% in 2024, from EPA awards. ELI also apparently still expected to receive funds from the federal government; its financial statement warned that the collectability of federal grant funds ‘is subject to significant uncertainty related to collectability and continual funding due to (the federal grant) funding freeze or other federal actions.’»
CLIMATE GROUP SCRUBS JUDGES’ NAMES FROM WEBSITE AFTER UNEARTHED CHATS UNMASKED COZY TIES
The Environmental Law Institute received $637,591 from the EPA in 2024 and $866,402 in 2023 from the EPA, according to nonprofit tax documents published by ProPublica detailing the group’s federal expenditures that year.
«The Climate Judiciary Project’s mission is clear: lobby judges in order to make climate change policy through the courts,» 23 state attorneys general wrote in the letter. «An alumni magazine profile said the quiet part out loud, writing that the Climate Judiciary Project co-founder was ‘explaining the science of climate change to a group of people with real power to act on it: judges.’ The Climate Judiciary Project’s tampering raises serious legal and ethical questions.»
EPA administrator Lee Zeldin’s office was sent a letter Aug. 26, 2025, by 23 state attorneys general calling on the EPA to end funding to the Environmental Law Institute and its Climate Judiciary Project. (Al Drago)
The Environmental Law Institute, however, in recent comment to Fox News Digital, has maintained that its educational programs through Climate Judiciary Project are in accordance with the standards established by national judicial education institutions.
Climate Judiciary Project educational events are done «in partnership with leading national judicial education institutions and state judicial authorities, in accordance with their accepted standards,» a spokesperson for the group said in an emailed statement in July. «Its curriculum is fact-based and science-first, grounded in consensus reports and developed with a robust peer review process that meets the highest scholarly standards.»
«CJP’s work is no different than the work of other continuing judicial education organizations that address important complex topics, including medicine, tech and neuroscience,» an Environmental Law Institute spokesperson previously told Fox News Digital when asked about its educational programs.
The call for EPA to slash any funds to the Environmental Law Institute was celebrated by leading groups such as the American Energy Institute and the Alliance for Consumers, who lamented in comment to Fox Digital that taxpayer funds should not be used to fund the group and that «courtroom maneuvering» threatens day-to-day life.
«The State Attorneys General are right to call for the elimination of taxpayer funding for the Environmental Law Institute and its Climate Judiciary Project,» Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, told Fox Digital. «This is a coordinated campaign to advance the Green New Deal through the judiciary using so-called climate litigation in the courts. Its curriculum is developed by climate alarmist allies of the plaintiffs and delivered to judges behind closed doors. Public funds should never be used to finance political advocacy disguised as judicial education.»
O.H. Skinner, the executive director of Alliance for Consumers, which is a nonprofit focused on advocating on behalf of American consumers, remarked that «as we have long warned, the left has a plan to reshape American society by using lawsuits in courts all across the country, especially in places like Hawaii and other coastal enclaves.»
«The new wave of revelations about ELI is further concerning evidence of how committed the left is to imposing mandatory Progressive Lifestyle Choices through this courtroom maneuvering and how big a threat it really is to all our ways of life,» Skinner added.
A climate protester scales the Wilson Building as part of an Earth Day rally against fossil fuels April 22, 2022. (Getty Images)
CLIMATE LAWFARE CAMPAIGN DEALT BLOW IN SOUTH CAROLINA
The Tuesday letter specifically argued: «State consumer protection laws prohibit deceptive and misleading statements to market a product. ELI is representing its training as objective when reality shows that it is not. State Attorneys General are responsible for protecting consumers, and we are concerned by ELI’s statements.»
The EPA has taken a hatchet to millions of dollars doled out under the Biden administration to left-wing groups and other programs deemed a waste of taxpayer funds upon Zeldin’s Senate confirmation as EPA chief in January.
The EPA under the Trump administration has canceled $20 billion in grants under the Inflation Reduction Act — which has led to an ongoing court battle. Zeldin said in March that the $20 billion in U.S. tax dollars were «parked at an outside financial institution in a deliberate effort to limit government oversight, doling out your money through just eight pass-through, politically connected, unqualified, and in some cases brand-new NGOs.»
The state attorneys general reflected on the previous cuts in their call to Zeldin to do the same to ELI funding.
«Under President Trump’s bold leadership, federal agencies and the Department of Government Efficiency have saved an estimated $190 billion, including terminating more than 15,000 grants that saved approximately $44 billion,» the letter states. «You have heeded President Trump’s directive and achieved monumental savings for taxpayers. You canceled $20 billion in climate grants under the Inflation Reduction Act. You cancelled another $1.7 billion in diversity, equity, and inclusion grants.3 And you canceled 800 environmental justice grants.»
CHINA’S CLIMATE LAWFARE SHOULD COME UNDER BONDI’S MICROSCOPE, KANSAS AG SAYS
Climate Judiciary Project and the Environmental Law Institute previously have come under fire from lawmakers such as Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who accused the groups of working to «train judges» and «make them agreeable to creative climate litigation tactics.»
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The Texas Republican recently has argued there is a «systematic campaign» launched by the Chinese Communist Party and American left-wing activists to weaponize the court systems to «undermine American energy dominance.»
Climate Judiciary Project is a pivotal player in the «lawfare» as it works to secure «judicial capture,» according to Cruz, Fox Digital has previously reported.
environment,republicans elections,2020 presidential election
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Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker blasted President Donald Trump as a «wannabe dictator» Monday, accusing him of trying to «occupy» Chicago with National Guard troops after reports the White House is preparing a possible deployment as soon as September.
The Democrat railed against a Washington Post report detailing the potential move, warning that Trump was escalating rhetoric against Chicago and its leaders over crime.
«This is exactly the type of overreach that our country’s founders warned against,» Pritzker said at a press conference in front of Trump Tower in downtown Chicago.
‘SLAP IN THE FACE’: MAJOR BLUE STATE GOVERNOR SIGNS BILL OPENING FINANCIAL AID TO ILLEGALS
«What President Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal. It is unconstitutional. It is un-American.»
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks to reporters in front of Trump Tower in Chicago as he denounces a potential plan by the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops to the city. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Pritzker vowed to fight the move in court, accusing Trump of trying to occupy a U.S. city for political gain.
«Go talk to the people of Chicago who are enjoying a gorgeous afternoon in this city… ask if they want their neighborhoods turned into a war zone by a wannabe dictator,» Pritzker said, flanked by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and other local officials.
«Donald Trump wants to use the military to occupy a U.S. city, punish his dissidents and score political points. If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is — a dangerous power grab.»
The Democrat said Trump was trying to militarize a blue state while simultaneously slashing $800 million in federal crime prevention grants. Most of the grants were headed to nonprofits and local community groups, not to police departments or federal law enforcement.
Pritzker said that crime rates are down in Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, and that Trump’s narrative of the city being engulfed in crime is manufactured.
For instance, he said that murders are down 32% compared to last year and nearly cut in half since 2021.
«You are neither wanted here nor needed here,» Pritzker added. «We will see the Trump administration in court. We will use every lever at our disposal to protect the people of Illinois and their rights.»
Hours earlier Trump suggested he would prefer to be «asked» before sending troops. He has been floating the idea of deploying the National Guard in Chicago, replicating operations in Washington D.C. which has also seen the federal government take control of the local police. More than 1,000 arrests have been made and the capital has gone 11 days straight without a homicide, according to the latest figures.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker delivers remarks in Chicago alongside Mayor Brandon Johnson and other officials after reports the White House is preparing to deploy National Guard troops to the city. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
ILLINOIS GOV CALLS FOR MASS PROTESTS AGAINST TRUMP ADMIN: GOP ‘CANNOT KNOW A MOMENT OF PEACE’
National Guard units sent without state approval are generally restricted to defending federal property and personnel. When Guard troops were deployed to Los Angeles in June over anti-ICE protests, they were confined to federal buildings and escort duties for immigration agents. In Washington, D.C., which is under federal jurisdiction, Guard units have conducted armed patrols alongside local police.
«In a certain way, you really want to be asked to go,» Trump told reporters, before taking a jab at Pritzker: «He has to spend more time in the gym.»
Trump continued his attacks on Pritzker and ripped the Windy City’s crime record.
«I’m thinking about you know, when I have some slob like Pritzker criticizing us before we even go there. I made the statement that next year be Chicago because, as you all know, Chicago’s a killing field right now and they don’t acknowledge it. And they say, we don’t need him.»
Chicago recorded 573 homicides in 2024, marking the 13th straight year Chicago has led the nation in total murders, according to Chicago Police Department data compiled by Wirepoints.
According to the Council on Criminal Justice’s year-end 2024 update, aggravated assaults declined by 4% compared to 2023 but remained 4% higher than in 2019, gun assaults fell 15% though they were still 5% above 2019 levels, and carjackings dropped 32% year-over-year yet were 25% higher than in 2019.
Meanwhile, Johnson echoed Pritzker’s defiance, insisting Chicagoans don’t want a «military occupation.»
«We believe that you don’t solve crime by sending in the military,» Johnson said. «The last thing that Chicagoans want is someone from the outside of our city who doesn’t know our city, trying to dictate and tell us what our city needs.»
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office as he continues to defend a potential National Guard deployment to Chicago. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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Johnson called the plan «a stunt,» saying Trump’s targeting of Chicago is rooted in racism.
«We cannot incarcerate our way out of violence. We’ve already tried that, and we’ve ended up with the largest prison population in the world without solving the problems of crime and violence,» Johnson said.
«The addiction on jails and incarceration in this country. We have moved past that. It is racist. It is immoral. It is unholy. And it is not the way to drive violence down.»
chicago,donald trump,jb pritzker,crime world,politics,washington dc,illinois
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