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MEXICO CITY — At his parents’ cramped house in Havana, Yondainer Gutiérrez builds apps and websites on a makeshift computer that runs on pirated software. He has no Internet access there, so he rents time on a friend’s connection to send his work to clients in France, Britain, Canada and the rest of Latin America.
墨西哥城——在哈瓦那父母的狭小房子里，尤达内尔·古铁雷斯(Yondainer Gutiérrez)用一台安装着盗版软件的破旧电脑编写应用和创建网站。由于那里没有联网，他需要租用朋友的网络来把自己的工作成果发送给法国、英国、加拿大和拉丁美洲其他地方的客户。
This is outsourcing, Cuban-style, a little-advertised circle of software developers, web designers, accountants and translators who — despite poor and expensive Internet access — sell their skills long-distance.
这是一种鲜为人知的古巴式外包服务。这些软件开发人员、网页设计师、会计师和翻译会把自己的技术卖给远在他乡的顾客——尽管网络连接又差又贵。
And ever since the United States in February authorized Americans to import goods and services from Cuban entrepreneurs for the first time in half a century, they have their eyes on America as well.
今年2月，美国开了半个世纪以来的先河，开始允许国民进口古巴从业人员提供的商品和服务。此后，古巴人也盯上了美国市场。
“This opens up the world,” Mr. Gutiérrez, 27, said of the new rules, which mean that an American can hire Cubans, or buy a limited range of goods from them, so long as they work in the private sector, not for the state.
“这打开了通往世界的大门，”27岁的古铁雷斯提到新规定时说。这意味着，美国人可以聘用古巴人，或者购买他们提供的有限范围内的商品，只要他们身处私营领域，而不是为国家工作。
After President Obama announced a new era of engagement with Cuba in December, Havana has been awash with American executives scouting business opportunities and hoping to sell commercial flights, yogurt, pharmaceuticals and other products.
去年12月，奥巴马总统宣布开启与古巴交往的新时代，在那之后，美国商界高管纷纷涌至哈瓦那，不仅是为了探查商机，也希望把商业机票、酸奶、药品和其他产品销售给古巴人。
Of course, there is still an American embargo against Cuba. Trade is complicated by the fact that American exporters are banned from offering credit to their Cuban customers, and many more restrictions will have to be lifted before Americans can freely invest on the island.
当然，美国仍然在对古巴实施禁运。美国禁止出口商提供信贷给古巴客户，这让贸易往来变得复杂。而在美国人可以自由投资古巴之前，还有很多其他限制条款需要解除。
But under Mr. Obama’s new policy, Cuba’s tiny outsourcing sector is now open for American business, several experts said.
但一些专家说，在奥巴马的新政策下，古巴微小的外包行业现在可以接纳美国客户了。
“This has an immediate impact helping entrepreneurs in Cuba,” said Tomas Bilbao, the executive director of the Cuba Study Group in Washington, referring to the new regulations.
“这会马上产生影响，帮助古巴的创业者，”华盛顿古巴研究团体(Cuba Study Group)的执行主任托马斯·毕尔巴(Tomas Bilbao)在谈到新规定时说。
Cuba is certainly no Bangalore and is unlikely to ever rival the great outsourcing hubs. But more and more Cubans are marketing their services online, using skills obtained in the country’s socialist education system and workarounds learned from years of hardship.
古巴当然不是班加罗尔，可能永远都无法与那些一流的外包中心抗衡。但是越来越多的古巴人开始利用在该国社会主义教育体系获得的技能，以及在艰难岁月中学到的变通方法，在网上推销自己的服务。
Websites like Freelance.com, Behance, twago.es and Traductores Autónomos carry postings from Cubans across a dozen cities, from Pinar del Río in the west to Santiago de Cuba in the east.
在Freelance.com、Behance、twago.es和Traductores Autónomos这样的网站上，有不少古巴人发的帖子，他们来自西起比那尔德里奥，东至古巴圣地亚哥的十几个城市。
There are no official figures, but nearly a dozen Cubans with postings on online job sites, who were contacted by telephone or by email, said that this work was their main source of income and that their peers were doing the same. Some said they already had American clients who hired them through middlemen.
目前没有官方数据可以参考，但是我们通过电话或电邮联系了在招聘网站发帖的十几个古巴人，他们说这种工作是其主要收入来源，他们的同伴也是一样。有人说，已经有一些美国客户通过中间商雇用了他们。
John McIntire, a former investment banker and chairman of Cuba Emprende Foundation, a nonprofit that trains Cuban entrepreneurs, said the computer programming sector had the greatest potential to flourish under the new American regulations.
约翰·麦金太尔(John McIntire)曾在投资银行工作，目前是为古巴创业者提供培训的非营利机构古巴承诺基金会((Cuba Emprende Foundation)的主席，他说，在美国新的规定下，最有可能繁荣发展的领域是计算机编程。
“It’s in huge demand,” said Mr. McIntire, speaking at a conference in Washington hosted by the Brookings Institution last week. “And guess what? Cubans are world class at it.”
“这个领域有巨大的需求，”麦金太尔上周在华盛顿举行的布鲁金斯学会(Brookings Institution)会议上说。“而且你们知道吗，古巴人在这方面有世界一流的的水平。”
Many who work at the University of Information Sciences, or UCI, near Havana, or the José Antonio Echeverría Higher Polytechnic Institute, or Cujae (pronounced Coo-hai), moonlight as freelance programmers, using the institutes’ broadband to transfer large files, software developers said.
在哈瓦那附近的信息科学大学（University of Information Sciences，简称UCI），或何塞·安东尼奥·埃切维里亚高等技术学院（José Antonio Echeverría Higher Polytechnic Institute，简称Cujae，发音Coo-hai），有很多人兼职当自由程序员，利用学校的宽带传输大文件，软件开发者表示。
Others buy dial-up connections on the black market — for about $200 per month — or rent time on wireless connections at big hotels. The smoky lobby of the Habana Libre hotel in downtown Havana serves as an office for Cubans who write software, build apps, unblock or fix mobile telephones, or rent houses. They huddle daily on deep armchairs and pay $8 per hour for Wi-Fi.
其他人在黑市上购买拨号连接——大约每月200美元——或按时段租用大酒店的无线连接。在哈瓦那市中心，哈瓦那自由饭店(Habana Libre Hotel)烟雾缭绕的大厅被一些古巴人当作办公室，他们写软件、开发应用、解锁或修复手机，或出租房屋，每天都坐在深深的扶手椅里，为Wi-Fi支付每小时8美元的费用。
Dairon Medina, 28, a Cuban computer programmer who worked as a freelancer for several years before moving to Ecuador four years ago, hires colleagues in Cuba to do jobs for clients in Argentina, Canada, Germany and the United States.
28岁的达尔隆·麦地那(Dairon Medina)是一名古巴电脑程序员，四年前搬到了厄瓜多尔，在那之前，他当过几年的自由职业者。现在他聘请古巴的同事为阿根廷、加拿大、德国和美国的客户工作。
He believes Cuba’s proximity — 90 miles across the Straits of Florida — is a plus.
他认为，古巴与美国地理位置上的接近——佛罗里达海峡的90英里——是一个加分项。
“There’s a cultural affinity,” he said by Skype. “And then there’s the question of time zones.”
“这有一种文化亲和力，”他通过Skype表示。“再有就是时区问题。”
If American clients began hiring Cubans on a regular basis, he said, “it could be an immense market” for Cuba.
如果美国客户开始常规性地雇用古巴人，他说，这对古巴“可能是一个巨大的市场”。
Oquel Llanes, a fluent Russian speaker who works with a Spanish tourist company in Havana and writes translations on the side, said there was constant demand.
欧奎尔·兰斯(Oquel Llanes)能说一口流利俄语，在哈瓦那的一家西班牙旅游公司工作，同时做着笔译兼职工作，他说这方面的需求很稳定。
“Translators are like barbers,” he said by telephone. “No matter what, people will always need them.”
“译员就是像理发师，”他在电话中说。“不管怎样，人们总是会需要他们的。”
Especially when they come cheap. Mr. Llanes, 52, who studied mathematics and computer science in Moscow in the 1980s, said he charged between $5 and $10 per page to translate literary criticism and history books. That is hardly a fortune when a page can take an entire day, he said, but much more than the average $20 per month paid to state workers.
特别是当他们开价便宜的时候。兰斯现年52岁，20世纪80年代曾在在莫斯科学习数学和计算机科学，他称自己翻译文学批评和历史书籍的收费是每页5美元到10美元。他说，翻译一页有时候会花费一整天的时间，做这个发不了财，但比公务员每月平均20美元的工资强多了。
The Cuban government has long had a policy of exporting services, especially those of doctors, nurses and sports trainers, in order to increase state income. Some 65,000 Cubans are currently working for the state overseas, earning it about $8 billion per year.
古巴政府有一个出口服务的长期政策，特别是医生、护士和运动训练师的服务，以增加国家收入。目前大约6.5万古巴人在海外为国家工作，每年约为古巴赚取80亿美元。
Datys, a Cuban state-owned software company with 700 employees, sells services to Latin America, according to its website, and Desoft, a state-owned high-tech company, has several clients in Cuba.
古巴国营软件公司Datys网站上的资料显示，它有700名员工，在拉丁美洲销售服务。国有高新技术企业Desoft在古巴有好几个客户。
Were the government to improve Internet connectivity and telecommunications, Cuba could develop a competitive outsourcing sector, either state-run or independent, experts said.
如果政府改进了互联网连接和通讯，古巴的服务外包部门可以变得很有竞争力，无论是国营还是独立公司，专家说。
“If you wanted to run a Spanish-speaking call center, why do it in Mumbai?” Mr. Bilbao said. “Maybe Cuba could eventually do that.”
“如果你想经营一个西班牙语呼叫中心，为什么要去孟买呢？”毕尔巴说。“也许古巴最终可能做到这一点。”
That is still a way off, though, experts said. Under current sanctions, Americans are permitted to buy services only from the private sector; Cuba may not wish to see that sector grow.
不过这还有一段路要走，专家表示。现行的制裁条款只允许美国人从私营部门购买服务；而古巴可能不希望看到私营部门增长。
Improved Internet connectivity is also a big “if.” A plan apparently leaked by the Cuban communications ministry and published this week in a blog, La Chiringa, indicates that the government aims to connect 50 percent of Cubans to broadband by 2020, but the anticipated speed would be too slow to stream video or play games online.
改善互联网连接也是一个很大的假设。本周，博客La Chiringa贴出了一份似乎是古巴通信部泄露的计划，显示政府的目标是在2020年前，让50%古巴人用上宽带，但计划中的数据传输速度太慢，不足以观看流视频或玩在线游戏。
As the United States eases restrictions, it will test the Cuban government’s willingness to open up, Mr. Kavulich said.
美国放宽了限制条款，这将考验古巴政府开放的意愿，美古贸易和经济委员会(U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council)的约翰·卡武里奇(John Kavulich)说。
“At some point the impediments will leave the shores of the United States and wash up on the Malecon,” he said, referring to Havana’s seafront promenade.
“在某个时候，问题将漂离美国海岸，被冲到马勒孔，”他说。马勒孔是哈瓦那的海滨大道。
For now, experts said, restrictions on both sides are limiting engagement with Cuba’s private sector.
专家表示，双方各自的限制条件，正在制约美国与古巴私营部门的来往。
Mr. Gutiérrez, whose products include an app that helps drivers find a parking space and AlaMesa, an online Cuban restaurant guide, said that, for the moment, he would have to find a workaround to get payment from American clients. His projects range from around $500 for a basic website to several times that amount for one project that required hiring three people.
在古铁雷斯的产品中，有一个应用可以帮助司机找到停车位，还有一个是古巴餐馆在线指南AlaMesa。他说，目前他必须找到一个变通办法，以便从美国客户那里收款。他的服务范围从建立一个基本网站，收费约500美元，到开展需要雇用三个人的项目，收费几千美元。
Banking and Internet problems aside, he said, he is optimistic that the thaw between Cuba and the United States will help freelancers like himself.
他说，除了银行和互联网问题之外，他乐观地认为，古巴与美国之间的关系解冻将有利于像他这样的自由职业者。
“There’s a lot to build here in the way of services; there’s a whole market to exploit,” he said. “All I need is a normal Internet connection and a way of getting paid.”
“关于服务，还有很多东西需要兴建；这里有整整一个市场需要开拓，”他说。“我需要的无非是一个正常的互联网连接，以及一个收款方式。”
