By Oscar Hijuelos
Lord knows, but had the resourceful and courageous Yoani Sánchez, 32,
come of age before the Internet, it's most likely that we would have
never heard of her. Nor would we have had the opportunity to read her
charming but pugnacious slice-of-life portraits of Cuba, which she has
been sending out through cyberspace since April 2007 as the Generación Y
blogger (desdecuba.com/generaciony).
Trained as a philologist in Havana but denied a career in academia—her
dissertation, entitled Dictatorships in Latin American Literature, was
perceived as a veiled criticism of the Castro regime—Sánchez has made a
living working in Havana's tourist industry.
More important, under the nose of a regime that has never tolerated
dissent, Sánchez has practiced what paper-bound journalists in her
country cannot: freedom of speech. The pieces she has been clandestinely
sending out from Internet cafés—while posing as a tourist—are often
funny, elegantly written and poignant. Her subjects have included the
shortage of lemons, the turgid proceedings of the Cuban parliament and
the slowness of meaningful reforms by Raúl Castro.
These have earned her international acclaim. With a feisty dedication to
the truth, Yoani Sánchez's activities bode well for the future of her
country.
Hijuelos is the son of Cuban immigrants. His novel Dark Dude comes out
this year
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/time100/article/0,28804,1733748_1733756_1735878,00.html
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