Category: Zunilda Mata

The protagonists of Sisters on Wheels display the technical difficulties of practicing this discipline in Cuba, with few resources and places to skate for training. The young women talk about their struggle to have skateboarding recognized as a sport, far beyond an entertaining pastime.

The Amigo Skate project has helped alleviate the material hardships of some of these young women. The initiative asks, from its on-line site, for people to bring or send skateboarding equipment to the island, and facilitates events linked to the sport, in additional to concerts and the painting of murals.

Cuban-American René Lecour is part of the solidarity project and the director of Sisters on Wheels came to the reality of skateboarding through him. In a country where very few skateboards have been marketed and there are barely enough spare parts to fix a broken table, the practice becomes complicated. However, new technologies help, with videos and tutorials that teach spinning and other techniques.

Ellis, who traveled to the island initially to film material about women filmmakers, was attracted by the “innovation” she saw in these urban athletes and knew first hand about a similar phenomenon in her own country when “skateboarding pioneers, in the ‘80s, made their own boards with what they could find.”

“Without intending to, we moved from filmmaking to skating,” recalls the director, who believes skating becomes an act of protest for these young people in a nation where the government regulates every centimeter of reality, especially the sports scene.

The documentary, which began filming in 2015, uses skateboarding as a way to approach the national reality and in particular the changes that occurred after the thaw between the Governments of Cuba and the United States.

In the practice of skateboarding, the filmmaker sees a gesture of independence that “is seeking free expression”

Expectations grew and climaxed when JetBlue’s 387 flight arrived in Cuba on August 31, 2016 from Fort Lauderdale airport in southeastern Florida. The plane arrived in Santa Clara in just over an hour, completing the first commercial flight between the two countries in more than half a century.

Everything was all positive predictions at the time, and the Cuban ambassador to the United States, José Ramón Cabañas, cut the inaugural tape of the flight with JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes. In all, the routes of all the airlines reached 110 flights daily, 20 of them to Havana, the most popular destination.

For some airlines this is a test of persistence rather than speed. “Patience is the word for now,” said Gary Kelly, chief executive of Southwest Airlines

Earlier this year, American Airlines sounded the alarm when it cut its daily service by 25% and decided to use smaller planes. At the end of last year the company was operating two daily flights from Miami to Havana, Varadero and Santa Clara and daily service to Camagüey and Cienfuegos, but many of the aircraft flew with more than half of the seats empty.

Americans are still banned from traveling to the island as tourists but can travel within 12 other categories. The most used are cultural and educational exchanges. In January 2017, Cuba received 43,200 visitors from Cuba, a growth of 125% compared to the same period last year, according to Cubadebate.

However, the numbers of travelers have not grown as expected. The causes range from the slow economic changes implemented by Raúl Castro, up to the arrival of Donald Trump and the fears that have been generated before a possible reversal in diplomatic normalization between the two countries.

The low number of customers also points to Cuban-Americans’ caution in visiting the island. “With the immigration changes implemented by the Trump administration, many rumors have surfaced that exiles could have problems if they travel,” Idania Consuegra, a middle-aged Cuban living in Miami for two decades, told 14ymedio.

Frontier has announced that it will operate its last daily flight from Miami to Havana on June 4

Idania had plans to visit her family in the spring, but preferred to “cancel everything until further notice, because you do not know what will happen in this country.”

For some airlines this is a test of persistance rather than speed. “Patience is the word for now,” said Gary Kelly, chief executive of Southwest Airlines. The executive clarifies that the company had no expectations about its six daily flights to Havana and two other cities since this route had not be served for 50 years.

Silver Airways was forced to cut its weekly flights to six cities in Cuba, according to Bloomberg. The inability to sell tickets to the island through major online travel agencies such as Expedia and Priceline are some of the causes of these cuts according to company managers.

Frontier, a low-cost carrier based in Denver, Colorado, has announced that it will operate its last daily flight from Miami to Havana on June 4.

The cruise ships stay afloat

On the other hand, the president of the Norwegian Cruise company, Frank del Río, is elated due to the high sales levels of the cruises that include Cuba in its itinerary. During the Seatrade Cruise conference this week in Fort Lauderdale, the manager said he believes the island “is going to be a home run” for his company.

The declarations come a few days after the company’s first cruise arrived at the port of Havana with 1,250 passengers on March 9 on its inaugural trip to Cuba.

For the first time in its history Cuba received 4 million tourists last year

Norwegian plans to make nine more trips from the US during this year with two other of the company’s brands also participating: Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises.

The reception of the imposing ship was the occasion for the president of the Enterprise Cuba Travel Group of the Ministry of Tourism of the island, Jose Manuel Bisbé, to predict an increase in the number of trips of this kind.

According to the official, during 2016 88,000 cruise trip passengers visited the island and in the first two months of 2017 the number is 55,000. Visitors have arrived on the twelve cruise lines that have agreements with the country.

For the first time in its history Cuba received 4 million tourists last year, a record that represented a growth of 14.5%. For this year it is expected that the numbers will exceed 4.2 million visitors.

The Cuban press has been sparing in details about “Operation Weak Meat,” but the issue has generated hopes among Cubans of a possible fall in prices of these foods, in high demand on the nation’s tables.

The digital sites that sell on the island have taken the first step and this week some of them have dropped prices on beef. “Meats imported from Brazil. With great discounts and better quality,” announced Supermarket Treew, one of the most popular internet sales sites.

The services of the company, based in Toronto, began in 1998 and are widely used by emigrants living abroad to supply their families with food, cleaning supplies and appliances; they place and pay for their orders on line and the products are delivered in Cuba. Now online products like roasts, ground beef, hamburgers and steak are showing price reductions ranging from 5% to 15%.

However, Cuba’s Ministry of Internal Commerce has not applied similar discounts in the network of domestic stores nor withdrawn these products from the shelves.

The Ministry of Internal Commerce has not applied similar discounts in the network of national stores or withdrawn products from the sale

The Department of Attention to the Population of that state entity confirmed to this newspaper, by telephone, that “no particular measure has been taken with regards to that subject. We have not ordered the suspension of the sale of meat from Brazil nor lowered prices, although each store can do so autonomously.”

The point of sale of frozen products located at Neptuno and Angeles streets continued displaying the usual prices: 10.90 CUC per one kilogram of beef, half of the monthly salary of a professional.

“I have the store’s phone number and I have called every day to know if they have put anything on sale, but nothing,” says Ignacio Luaces, an entrepreneur who runs errands for a private restaurant. “We are hoping that the goods will go on sale, but so far, no,” he told 14ymedio.

Others are concerned about the potential health implications. “Every day on TV there are lots of announcements about mosquitoes and the dangers of the diseases they transmit, but they have not said anything about it,” protests Liudmila, a medical student who plans to specialize in gastroenterology.

“Food poisoning is very dangerous and most people who buy beef for domestic consumption do it for children or the elderly,” she says. “I think it’s time for the Ministry of Public Health to make a public announcement telling people not to eat that meat.”

In the case of chicken, the authorities have warned that it is more of an economic fraud, consisting of adding water to the product to increase the weight, without any risks to health.

In the case of chicken, the authorities have warned that it is more of an economic fraud, consisting of adding water to the product to increase the weight, without any risks to health

The results of what was called “Carne Fraca” (“weak meat” in Portuguese), confirmed the suspicions of those who warned that something “doesn’t smell right” in the world’s largest exporter of these products. Each year Brazil exports beef worth roughly 5.5 billion dollars and chicken worth roughly 6.5 billion. This business represents 7.2% of Brazil’s Gross Domestic Product.

So far, no Cuban store or market has withdrawn the Brazilian frozen food products. On the digital sites that offer a wide range of foods that emigrants abroad can order for their families on the island, Brazilian beef and chicken remain on sale.

The official media spread the news of the scandal, focusing on the possible repercussions for President Michel Temer’s government. The Ministry of Public Health did not discuss the issue when asked by 14ymedio.

Cuba imports more than 80% of the food it consumes. For 2017, the bill for these purchases is expected to exceed $1.75 billion, $82 million more than the estimate for the previous year.

Each year, more than 120,000 tonnes of chicken meat are bought in the international market, most of it hindquarters, also called “dark parts.” Alberto Ramírez, president of the Cuban Society of Poultry Producers (SOCPA), recently confirmed to the official press that “[domestic] meat production is practically zero.”

Each year more than 120,000 tonnes of chicken meat are bought in the international market, most of it hindquarters

In 2014, several representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture visited Brazil to inspect the facilities of the dairy and beef plant managed by JBS in Mato Grosso do Sul, with a view to importing its products to the Island. Another 25 facilities approved for trade with Cuba are located in the states of Tocantins, Rondonia, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Goiás, Mato Grosso and Sao Paulo

The United States and Brazil are the countries supplying the greatest amount of frozen products to the Cuban market. Faced with the lack of supply and the lack of variety, chicken has become one of the most common foods at the table of Cubans. Only the wealthy can afford beef.

“I came to buy a piece of top round steak,” said a retired woman at the butcher’s in Plaza de Carlos III on Monday. She said, “it is a luxury that I can only allow myself from time to time.” The meat on offer in that market comes from Brazil, according to an employee who preferred anonymity, but who, so far, had received “no order to stop selling it.”

On display in the meat case are several packages with prime ground beef, stew meat, top round and tip steak. No merchandise specifies where it comes from, but local workers confirm that it has been bought from Brazil. The customers look longingly at the display; meat remains a forbidden delicacy for many, even if it is wrapped up in investigations and fraud.

“Here we work with Brazilian meat,” explains one of the waiters at the restaurant next to the Riviera cinema, formerly El Carmelo, on 23^rd Street. In their menu they offer sirloin, fillet mignon, fried beef tender and ropa vieja (shredded beef in sauce), this last a very traditional dish that is in high demand among tourists.

The select El Palco market, whose main customers are diplomats and foreigners living in Havana, is also “especially stocked with Brazilian meat,” points out one of the local cashiers.

Some 27 people have been arrested in Brazil, and Federal Police Commissioner Mauricio Moscardi warned of a corruption network inside the government that allowed adulterated meat to be legalized. That chain of infractions involved officials of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, to which President Temer belongs.

The main Brazilian meat producers added chemicals to meats that were “rotten” or unfit for human consumption. An extensive network of bribe payments purchased approval from the Ministry of Agriculture.

“They used acids and other chemicals, in some cases carcinogenic, to disguise the physical characteristics of the rotten product and its smell,” Moscardi explained. They treated the meat with vitamin C to give it a more “appetizing” color, along with levels of preservatives well above those allowed by health authorities.

Representatives of both companies have denied allegations by police authorities, but the alarm has spread in the international market and the companies’ stock prices have tumbled sharply.

“BFR ensures the high quality and safety of its products and guarantees that there is no risk for its consumers,” said one of the largest food companies in the world with more than 30 brands in its portfolio, Sadia, Perdigão, Qualy, Paty, Dánica, Bocatti or Confidence.

Cuban customers who are learning about the news coming from Brazil are beginning to connect the dots. “The chicken no longer came with the quality of before and had a lot of ice”

The Chilean Ministry of Agriculture announced, a few hours ago, that it would accept no more imports from the Brazilian beef market. Minister Carlos Furche explained that the measure is temporary “until the Brazilian authorities know exactly what facilities are being investigated, and of those facilities which have exported to the world and Chile,” he said.

The Chinese authorities have responded unceremoniously. The Government banned all such imports and prevented meat already shipped from being unloaded in its ports. Last year the Asian country imported 1.6 billion dollars from Brazilian meatpackers.

Europe has slowed shipments from JBS and BRF. This week the European Commissioner for Health Affairs, Vytenis Andriukaitis, will travel to Brasilia and the agenda revolves around the food scandal.

Cuban customers who are learning about the news coming from Brazil are beginning to connect the dots. “The chicken no longer came with the quality of before and had a lot of ice,” complains Luisa Cordoves, a housewife in Central Havana who says that “right now it’s better to buy the chicken boxes that come from United States, because the product tastes better. ”

She believes that the scandal will not dissuade domestic consumers from acquiring these products. “People have many needs and there is no choice: you take it or leave it.”

The more orthodox argued that their script distorted the facts and was unaware that many of the mistakes had been rectified

The controversy over the exclusion of the movie was unleashed for weeks and the most orthodox argued that that script distorted the facts and didn’t note that many of the mistakes had been rectified. As if it would be useful to publish a poetry book by an author whose reputation was assassinated two decades earlier and to whom the worst adjectives were attached.

The defenders of the film point out its undeniable artistic values ​​and believe that in speaking publicly of those dark moments of the national culture the movie helps to build a better future. But even the opinions of renowned directors such as Fernando Pérez have not changed the ideas of the Party machinery of the Department of Revolutionary Guidance (DOR).

In the film, the two distant worlds that represent each of the protagonists manage to find a common thread. Perhaps the greatest annoyance felt by the censors is not the treatment of the conflicted poet, but the director’s thesis that it is possible to be reconciled amid such abysmal differences.

This possibility of the protagonists conversing and embracing in spite of the ideological gulfs that separate them, may have influenced the opposition to the movie Lettuce. In a country where political hatred is the main engine that drives power, there is no room for the reconciliation promoted by the film.

The Cuban Institute of Art and Film Industry (ICAIC) simply played its role of applying scissors to the national culture, but the order was given from above. From an entity that, fortunately, is still not able to control the movies that are shown in Miami, that other Cuban province.

Behind his discreet appearance hides the man who controlled the immense resources of a “supra-ministry” with omnipotent powers, arising from the campaign for the return of the child rafter Elian Gonzalez to Cuba. A supra-ministry with the capacity to oversee gas stations, distribute air conditioners or call forth the shock troops in repudiation rallies against dissidents.

On March 2nd, but eight years ago, a brief note published in the official press gave accounts of its end

On the second day of March, but eight years ago, a brief note published in the official press gave notice of his end. The Council of State had decided to “free compañero Otto Rivero Torres of his responsibilities as vice president of the Council of Ministers.” A phrase which, for connoisseurs of the official grammar, confirmed his fall into disgrace.

Rivero’s exclusion from the “family photo” had been foreshadowed since Fidel Castro was sidelined by health problems in mid-2006. The former secretary general of the Young Communists Union (UJC) had been part of the entourage of the “Comandante’s men” and his dismissal was only a matter of time.

In the purges carried out by Raul Castro against the team loyal to his brother, others who fell included vice president Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. But unlike in their cases, Rivero’s ousting was not the subject of an acidic public diatribe; no column by the former president in the Party newspaper accusing him of addiction to “the honey of power.”

Close witnesses report that after his dismissal, Rivero went through a real ordeal. He was detained in the cells of the dreaded Villa Marista, State Security’s headquarters in Havana. He was accused of having allowed and participated in an enormous embezzlement that sucked funds out of the Battle of Ideas. The losses totaled millions in an era when Venezuelan oil allowed every kind of excess.

Police investigators blamed his lack of control over the entity and his having allowed its resources to be squandered on luxuries, foreign travel and gifts. Embezzled products circulated in the informal market: white, red and blue shirts; refrigerators made in China; and air conditioners.

“He was interrogated endlessly and his head could not resist,” a close family source says. “When he returned home he was a zombie, he could not even speak”

“He was interrogated endlessly and his head couldn’t resist,” a close family source told 14ymedio. “When he returned home he was a zombie, he couldn’t even speak.” His mental state deteriorated to the point that he attempted suicide, but “that didn’t go well,” the relative commented.

The former vice president’s family fell into a precarious economic state. The car and chauffeur were taken away as was the supply of luxury foods. As a punishment, the authorities sent Rivero to work at the Frederick Engels printers among the ink and printing presses. But he spent weeks before showing up for work the first time, where he became a mute automaton keeping his head down.

Rivero does not give statements or respond to questions about his past. All attempts to make him talk about the subject crash into the wall of his silence. But a nervous tic in his hands appears in response to the sound of certain names. His co-workers describe him as someone “affected” who has been “under psychiatric treatment.”

Of the confidence with which he wove slogans from the dais, nothing remains. “He is very careful and avoids being seen,” a singer-songwriter who has organized several events at Covarrubias Theater tells this newspaper. “He has changed a lot physically and most of the people who pass by him do not recognize him,” says the artist, who prefers anonymity.

Before the crash, his trajectory had been meteoric. At the age of 38, he was appointed Vice-President of the Council of Ministers after leading the UJC for seven years. With a degree in Economics and a seat in the National Assembly of People’s Power, the young man ascended the power structure at full speed to stand at the right hand of the Commander-in-Chief.

At the 7^th UJC Congress of the, Fidel Castro defined Rivero and his team as “an avant-garde army, an elite troop of the Revolution.” Four years later, he had become a pariah

At the 7^th UJC Congress, Fidel Castro defined Rivero and his team as “an avant-garde army, an elite troop of the Revolution” for being at the forefront of the Battle of Ideas. Four years after those words, the brand-new official had become a pariah.

To accommodate the Battle of Ideas, he began to refurbish a luxurious mansion on the central corner of 23 and B in Havana’s Vedado district. Here the promising leader would spend his glory days. The arrival of Raúl Castro stopped that dream and now the property hosts the Comptroller General of the Republic. A cruel irony.

Otto Rivero’s biography has also been removed from EcuRed, a Wikipedia substitute made to measure by the ruling party. For many Cubans, that youth leader no longer exists or has been forgotten. But very close to the Council of State he was once a part of, a gray employee ruminates his fate of banishment in the dim light of a theatrical hall.

The areas that do not receive potatoes this month will be able to acquire the pounds corresponding to February along with the six pounds for March.

The potato was distributed exclusively in the controlled way until 2009 at a price of 0.45 Cuban pesos per pound, less than 2 cents US. After that, sales were uncontrolled at a price of 1 Cuban peso ($0.04 US), an amount the state described as subsidized.

Between the years 2014 and 2015, the potato harvest experienced important growth, going from a little more than 53,000 tonnes, to 123,000 tonnes. But domestic consumption also grew with the greater number of tourists coming to the country and the expansion of the private sector, especially those dedicated to food services.

The distribution of the nationally grown potato, with a lower yield than the imported, started this year in the municipalities of Artemisa, San Antonio, Guira de Melena and Alquizar, where the potatoes are grown. In the coming days potatoes will also arrive in the capital, where consumers are anxiously awaiting them.

“Something had to be done because when the potatoes came, the only ones who could buy them were the resellers and the hoarders,” complains Samuel, a retired resident of nearby Estancia Street, outside the Youth Labor Army on Tulipan Street.

For the man, “the measure favors the poorest people,” although he still thinks that “the price is very high” for those who are living on a pension. “I only get 180 Cuba pesos a month (roughly $7.20 US) and it’s not enough,” he says.

“That was a decision from above, and it surprised a lot of people here,” an official told 14ymedio

However, María Victoria, a worker at a foreign exchange store, believes that “this is a step back, because at this point the ration book doesn’t have them.” The state employee is surprised by the return of the potato to the ration market. “Instead of going forward, I think we’re going backwards,” she said.

In the Ministry of Agriculture, all the workers who enter the imposing building and the drivers who wait outside for some official are talking about potatoes. “That was a decision from above, and it surprised a lot of people here,” one of them tells 14ymedio, preferring to remain anonymous.

Last April, the Communist Party Congress ratified the Guidelines for Economic and Social Policy, among which it was agreed “to continue the orderly and gradual elimination of products on the ration book.” However, the decision has not been implemented so far.

The descendants of those travelers maintain some of their customs and gather at the Association that bears the name of Jose Marti’s mother, Leonor Perez.

In the main building, there’s a cultural folk night every Thursday, with typical dances and songs although the average age of the regulars is over 60 and the younger ones rarely come, says an employee of the place. “They are older people, most of them with economic needs,” she explains to 14ymedio. “They need food and basic products like vitamins, disposable diapers, bedsore creams, wheelchairs or walkers. But we are less and less able to help them, because they’ve cut off a lot of the aid to us,” she adds.

The descendants of canaries in Cuba maintain some of their customs and gather at the Association that bears the name of the mother of José Martí, Leonor Pérez

“When they are helpless we have to send them to the Church, because this Association is going through a bad time. We can barely help them and we also have to prepare the activities we hold here,” she confessed. “This building consumes a tremendous amount of resources and keeping the doors open every day is a heroic task.”

Upstairs, sales of food and drink try to raise some cash. Coffee, soft drinks, chicken and garbanzo Milanese, says the menu board. But the food service isn’t enough to stop the institution’s decline. A deterioration hardly noticeable to the newcomer, dazzled by the majesty of the interior and the recently painted façade.

The Association has around 47,000 members throughout the country, and those who are able pay 12 Cuban pesos a month in dues. This money is barely enough to run the building, a few yards from the most luxurious hotels in Havana’s historic center, nor to maintain the association’s 14 houses across the country.

In mid-2014, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the government of the Canary Islands sent three grants worth 16,000, 9,000 and 6,000 euros for the Association, intended for a day care center for the elderly, the purchase of medications, and repairs and improvements to the Guines headquarters. But the resources were quickly depleted due to high demand, according to internal sources.

The president of the Association, Carmelo Gonzalez Acosta, traveled to the Canaries this January to remind its public administration of the need to maintain the aid and interviewed the Deputy Minister of Foreign Action, Pedro Rodríguez Zaragoza, with a view to “recovering the support of the Community Administration toward those who have Canary Island blood in their veins,” reported local media.

The Association has around 47,000 members throughout the country, and those who are able pay 12 Cuban pesos a month in dues. That money is barely enough to keep the property running

The Cuban authorities also asked the Canary Island government to help them by sending a stone mill to supply Canary descendants with gofio (flour made from roasted grains), the Cuban consul in the Canary Islands, Ulises Barquin, explained recently in an interview.

The official explained that the gofio disappeared “at the end of the 1980s with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, which was the main supplier of wheat,” but now they want to restart the production because “it goes far beyond the food aspect… it has an enormous symbolic value.”

The mill sounds like a distant promise to those who spend their hours in the spacious facility in Monserrate Street. “Before, you could come here and eat very cheaply, but we’ve lost a lot of options,” complains an old man. “Now they don’t sell custard and rice pudding for us, which I can’t eat any more because my sugar is through the roof.”

Paco, a Cuban son of the Canaries, feels grateful for being able to count on a place to “meet friends and have a good time.” His two sons emigrated to get Spanish nationality and now the old man waits to “have a place in the Canary Island vault in Havana’s Columbus Cemetery,” because his family “doesn’t have a proper tomb.”

A woman walks through the wide gate and asks the receptionist if there will be a feast for Easter. Her name is María Antonia Hernández, she is 56 years old and she is the granddaughter of a Canary Islander who came to the Island at the beginning of the 20th century. “He came looking for a better life and ended up owning a bodega in San Antonio de los Baños,” says the woman. “A short time later he married a woman from Pinar del Rio and they had eight children.”

“The behavior, the character and the way of being of the Cubans is very linked to the Canary Islands” …at present there are at least 650,000 Canary Islanders and their descendants” in Cuba

Roberto Domínguez, author of the book Ariguanabo: History, Music and Poetry, says that “the behavior, the character and the way of being of Cubans is very linked to the Canary Islands.” He calculates that at present in Cuba “there are at least 650,000 Canary Islanders of their descendants.

When she was a child and was annoyed by something, Maria Antonia Hernandez’s mother repeated with a sneer that she was acting like an “islander” like her grandfather. Although Cuba is also subject to “the damn circumstances of water everywhere,” according to the poet and playwright Virgilio Pinera, Cubans rarely self-define as islanders. In the popular language “islander” is reserved for those from the Canary Islands.

“We are the few who called them by their place of origin, because the rest of the Spaniards call them Galicians,” reflects the granddaughter of the old man. “He had a lot of friends who came from villages close to his and he loved to eat ropa vieja, but with garbanzos,” she recalls.

Hernandez tried to obtain Spanish nationality through the Law of Historical Memory, popularly known as the Law of Grandchildren, but failed to complete the paperwork with all the required documents. “My grandfather came to this country with just his clothes and always gave very little importance to the papers,” she laments.

Failure to obtain a European Community Passport has meant a severe economic blow for her. Earlier this month the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation announced the subsistence allowances for 2017, support that would have been very welcome to María Antonia Hernandez, who is retired with the equivalent of 10 euros per month.

As of January 2015, 119,662 Spaniards resided in Cuba, the vast majority of  them Cubans who obtained Spanish nationality through the law of grandchildren

Others have been luckier than this descendant of a Canary Islander. According to Cuba’s National Statistics Institute (INE), as of January 2015, 119,662 Spaniards resided in Cuba, the vast majority of them Cubans who obtained Spanish nationality through the law of grandchildren. In 2014 alone, some 5,618 nationals received their European Community passport through that route.

Maria Antonia’s grandfather was never able to return to his homeland. “He died a few days after the events of the Port of Mariel,” the migratory crisis that led thousands of Cubans to escape the island in 1980 and that came to be known in the United States as the Mariel Boatlift. “He would not have believed that the country he had come to would have turned out like this.”

“The bodega was nationalized and suffered directly from the shortage of things that he liked most: tobacco, gofio and sardines,” recalls Maria Antonia. As an inheritance he left her an old mahogany wardrobe and a three-string guitar that he played in country parties.

From Island to Island

José Luis Mosqueda is president of the Association of Cuban Residents in Gran Canaria, the second largest of the Canary Islands. The entity “was created six years ago and is meant to bring together the majority of Cubans” who reside on that other island, he comments to 14ymedio.

The group has 112 members and the last public event they celebrated was for the anniversary of José Martí, when they took flowers to a bust of him in Telde. “The mother of José Martí was from Tenerife, but her ancestors, the grandparents, were from San Mateo, in Gran Canaria,” Mosqueda proudly remarks.

Consul Ulises Barquín estimates that there are some 22,700 Cubans spread over the seven islands that make up the archipelago, “although 25 to 30% of them are not physically here” because “they left with the economic crisis or they repatriated themselves after Cuba changed its controls on travel and migration, in January 2013, eliminating the requirement for an exit permit to leave the country.

“In actual numbers, we are around 15-16,000 Cubans living in the Canary Islands, with Tenerife having the most,” and 95% of them are regularized, says the consul.

Mosqueda emigrated to Gran Canaria 26 years ago. His sister is married to “a Canarian of those who went to Cuba to avoid military service during the Spanish Civil War,” he says. In 1961 they decided to return and soon the brother joined them.

When he arrived he began to work “in a company that polishes parquet and granite, with a friend of the family.” Later, he became independent and created “a building and renovation business,” he adds. He then set up an aluminum workshop where he has been working for 15 years.

The association that he leads, Mosqueda says, brings together those who “continue to believe that they are really Cuban and still love Cuba.”

Gladys is close to turning 70 and carries the memories of her childhood as “fresh as a lettuce.” As a child, she helped her parents to plant “corn, beans and squash.” She only finished the eighth grade, although she detects with a glance whether a furrow was planted with dedication or sloppily.

The female workforce in the agricultural sector represents 19.2% of the total of its workers and only 17.3% of the management positions in these areas are occupied by them

Although in 2013 more than 142,300 women worked in the fields of the island, in the popular imagination these tasks remain “a thing of men.” The female workforce in the agricultural sector represents 19.2% of the total workers and only 17.3% of the management positions in this area are occupied by them.

Inside the houses the picture is totally different. 56% of rural women are engaged in household chores. Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture indicate that for every 100 men with stable employment in the countryside, there are scarcely 30 women.

As a young woman, Gladys also cut cane, hard work that is scary even for many men. “I gave birth to my first child very young and shortly after the second one came,” she recalls. When the children grew up, her mother became ill and she took care of her until the end of her days.

The majority of her neighbors and relatives have gone through a similar situation. Hundreds of miles from the village of Artemisa, where Gladys lives, Rosa María also lives a life in front of the fire in Florida, Camagüey. “There are nights when I go to bed, everything hurts and my feet are very swollen.”

The main problems that both must overcome each day are linked to the energy source with which they process food, the water supply, domestic violence and economic difficulties. None have a hobby, they hardly participate in social activities nor have they gone to the movies in the last ten years.

The qualitative study, Fifty Voices And Faces Of Cuban Peasant Leaders, sponsored by OXFAM-Canada and the Government of Andalusia, revealed that the empowerment of rural women is failing on the overload of domestic responsibilities and childcare, along with insufficient technical preparation and sexist stereotypes, among other factors.

For every 100 hours of men’s work, women perform 120, most of them simultaneous activities

Across the country, females devote 71% of their working hours to unpaid domestic work, according to a 2002 Time Use Survey. For every 100 hours of men’s work, women perform 120, most of them simultaneous activities. A situation that is aggravated in the towns and villages.

Specialist Mavis Álvarez Licea believes that “a still significant majority of rural men behave with a strong hegemonic masculinity.” While women “are still subjected to male power, perhaps not in the same degree and condition as their predecessors but, overtly or openly, they are repressed and discriminated against.”

The case of Teresa González is different. From the age of 17 she began to keep the accounts at the José Antonio Echevarría credit and service cooperative at Artemisa. Today she holds the presidency. “I spent the day doing the accounts and at first the men who were in the field thought that this was not work,” she recalls. Over time she has made everyone respect her work.

In 2008, the government of Raúl Castro implemented a series of measures to revive agricultural production. Among them was the delivery of idle land in a form of leasing known as usufruct, under Decrees-Laws 259 and 300, but according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, four years after the start of the process, of the 171,237 beneficiaries, only 9.5% were women.

Men continue to have property control over agricultural resources such as land, water, inputs and credits, and make most of the decisions. Of women, only 12,102 are landowners, for 11% of all landowners.

Men continue to have property control over agricultural resources such as land, water, inputs and credits, and make most of the decisions. Women represent only 11% of landowners

The Cuban authorities favor the figures comparing the situation between men and women in terms of access to health, education, employment and administrative positions. But little is published about the gender wage differences and the contrasts of opportunities, especially those linked to regional location.

In the middle of a furrow where she picks tomatoes, Marisol says she always has something to do. “After this comes the harvesting of garlic that pays better,” she tells 14ymedio. Her husband prefers to have her “in the house all day polishing on the floor,” but economic constraints have forced him to accept that she works in agriculture.

At her side, under the inclement sun, is Mirta, who, every day after completing the tasks of reaping and arriving at her modest house, carries the water from a nearby irrigation channel to bathe, wash clothes and cook. “We do not have a television because the current comes to us from a ‘clothesline’ (an informal wire run off someone else’s line) and the voltage is very low.”

She has not been able to convince her children to stay in that house surrounded by fields and pigsties. Her son decided to remain in the military when he finished his military service and her daughter married a man who “took her to Havana.”

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Editorial Note: This report was made with the support of Howard G Buffet Fund for Women Journalists  of the  International Women’s Media Foundation.

Kenya Medina Monesti, director of the Meat Company of Camagüey, said that with this measure the population living in urban areas will receive 12 ounces of chicken per person nine times a year, while in December they will get only 8 ounces.

The distribution will be more widely spaced in rural areas, where consumers will be able to purchase the product only four times a year

In February and September there will be deliveries in urban areas only, and only for children under six years old, who will be entitled to six ounces of chicken in each of these two months.

The distribution will be spaced out more widely in rural areas, where consumers will be able to purchase the product only four times a year, “in an amount equivalent to 10.6 ounces,” according to the report.

Each consumer would receive 7 pounds and 4 ounces of chicken a year, of which 6 ounces a month would replace fish (the so-called “chicken for fish”). Consumers will now receive 1 pound and three quarts of chicken a month for adults, and 11 ounces for children under the age of 14. In this way, each person gets three quarters of a pound of chicken more than before.

In 2014 the official press confirmed that the fishing crisis, which reduced fish consumption by 75%, would be very difficult to overcome

In 2014 the official press confirmed that the fishing crisis, which reduced fish consumption by 75%, would be very difficult to overcome, so seafood would continue to be missing from the ration card.

“Today, as a practical matter, we have only the fish from our own catches and from aquaculture, which together total just over 37,000 tonnes of fish,” said industry officials cited by the newspaper Granma. This amount is well below 200,000 tonnes, mainly of mackerel from the Soviet Union, which was consumed in the 1980s on the island.

*Translator’s note: The ration market has historically provided both chicken and fish to Cubans as a part of their monthly food ration. However, for years, fish has been scarce, to the ration markets routinely substituted “chicken for fish.”

After the authorization, numerous private real estate companies emerged, and a flood of classified announcements inundated the housing sections of digital commerce sites such as Revolico, Por el Techo, Cubisima and Casas Cubanas. Many of the property descriptions include, “Selling to leave, I’m in a hurry.”

“They are more likely to lower prices and accelerate the whole process, because they need the money as soon as possible”

“The housing market has been fueled largely by houses whose owners have plans to emigrate,” Juan Alberto Fonseca, an economist and manager of a small office in Vedado that helps interested people sell or buy a home, tells 14ymedio.

“That motivation makes them more likely to lower prices and accelerate the whole process, because they need the money as soon as possible,” says the specialist. The end of the program that allows Cubans to automatically obtain residence in the United States “will directly influence the number of houses in the market,” he says.

Since the implementation of the immigration reform in January 2013, some 671,000 nationals have traveled abroad. Of these, 45% have returned to the island, and of the rest, according to figures released this week in the daily official Granma, many have not yet been gone longer than 24 months, the maximum time away that had been set in the law if a citizen wanted to maintain the right to reside in Cuba. (Prior to the reforms the maximum time Cubans could remain outside the country while keeping the right to reside in the country was 11 months and, under the new agreement with the US, the Cuban government has said it will extend that time to four years.)

Official figures do not specify whether travelers or emigrants have paid for their departure from the country with the sale of a car, a house, land or other properties such as appliances, jewelry or a cemetery plot. It has become common in recent years to exchange one’s possessions for an amount that will allow emigrants pay visa fees, tickets, transportation and payment to the coyotes that lead to the US border.

“We have sold everything, we can not go back,” says Charly Medina, a Cuban who was stranded in Turbo this week and received “like a bucket of cold water” Washington’s announcement that it was eliminating the immigration privileges enjoyed by the islanders. “With the sale of our house in Santa Clara we were able to get here, but we do not have anything else,” he explains.

Charly’s story is also the story of many of those who have stayed on the road to the United States border. If they were deported to the Island they would face the harsh reality of not even having a place to sleep.

“So far we have not noticed a drop in the number of houses for sale, but we are preparing for this measure to have an impact on the market,” an employee of Zafiro Real Estate, located in the suburb of Miramar, tells 14ymedio.

The real estate agent predicts that many will remove their homes “from the listings, so it is possible that there will be a rise in prices in the coming months.” However, she believes that in the short term little will change. “The vast majority of those interested in emigrating do not yet believe that the United States will strictly uphold Obama’s provision,” she adds.

The latest official figures, which are for the year 2013, indicate that the emerging real estate market reached about 80,000 transactions that year, double that of the previous year, according to Aniuska Puente Fontanella, a specialist at the Registry Office for Property, Commerce and the Heritage of the Ministry of Justice.

The practice of two-part payments, the first in Cuba in convertible pesos and the second in dollars or euros in the destination country of the seller, has become common

The practice of two-part payments, the first in Cuba in convertible pesos (CUC) and the second in dollars or euros in the destination country of the seller, has become common in the national real estate market. The law, however, states that transactions must be made in Cuban pesos (CUP) or CUC.

Each property’s title establishes a minimum reference value in CUP for the dwelling. That is the value that is usually stated during the purchase transaction and, on that amount, the buyer pays a 4% tax on the transmission of goods and inheritance and the seller the same amount on personal income. However, the actual transaction is made for an amount that is often ten times the declared amount.

Economist Juan Alberto Fonseca explained to this newspaper that “many owners prefer that part of the money be delivered to their family in Miami, Madrid or any other city to avoid having to take too much cash through the airport if they are going to emigrate.”

The children at Patricia’s nursery are the children of parents with a high purchasing power: foreigners resident in the country or owners of private restaurants. They are willing to pay between 60 and 100 Cuban convertible pesos a month (about the same in dollars) for the care of their children and to satisfy all their whims for January 6.

However, the picture is very different in the vast majority of families. “I warned them that they have to ask for something cheap, because I have had many expenses,” says Yaimara, the mother of two girls, ages five and ten. The woman finished repairing the roof of her house and has been left in a complicated economic situation.

“The thing is, it’s not like before,” reflects Yaimara, who complains that “everything has gone up in price” and she cannot “reach into my wallet and buy toys, because now everything goes for food.”

A box with pieces to set up a small zoo costs 27.90 CUC, the monthly salary of a qualified state worker

The network of state markets is preparing for the occasion. The centrally located Carlos III Plaza in Havana has one of the toy stores most frequented lately. Inside, dolls compete with kitchen sets, costumes and small musical instruments.

A box with pieces to set up a small zoo costs 27.90 CUC, the monthly salary of a qualified state worker. Lower-income families buy plastic figurines or crystal marbles. “I’ve been saving up for this all year,” a grandmother told 14ymedio as she bought a truck with a tiny driver.

Others ask the Magi for food. “I want chocolates and soft drinks,” says Daniela, a sixth grader from a school in Cerro. Her parents warned her that “there is no money for toys” and the girl has adjusted her expectations in line with the family’s wallet.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the Government supplied subsidized toys through a rationed market for industrial products. With the fall of the Soviet Union that was eliminated. Those who were children then are now parents and juggle to meet the demands of their own children.

For them, informal commercial networks are an alternative. For 25 CUC, the Revolico classified site (a kind of Cuban Craigslist) offers Lego City sets* that include three small figures: a deep sea diver and two scuba divers. Cheaper options are inflatable balls for 3 CUC, jump ropes for only 1 CUC and teddy bears for less than 5 CUC.

*Translator’s note: The Lego Deep Sea Starter Set – which appears to be the set referred to – is available for less than $10 (in some cases much less) in the United States. 25 Cuban convertible pesos (CUC) is roughly $25.

With the gloomy economic announcements in the last session of the National Assembly, alarms have also been set off about the development of the housing fund in the short and medium term. In his speech to the parliamentarians, Minister of Economy and Planning Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz declared that in the next twelve months the state will only finish some 9,700 homes.

The areas prioritized for the new buildings coincide with the five municipalities affected by Hurricane Matthew in its passage across Guantanamo province, a region where more than 38,000 homes were totally or partially destroyed, and for which the government is raising international aid to rebuild them.

The Alaves Emergency Fund, established by the Provincial Council of Alava and the Municipality of Vitoria, in Spain’s Basque Country, just announced it will allocate 52,000 euros for schools and workplaces in the area of Cuba affected by the hurricane, but foreign aid is barely a drop in the ocean of Cuba’s housing deficit.

The difficult situation facing thousands of families has led many to stop waiting for the state’s construction plans – in the style of those undertaken in the years of the Soviet subsidy – and to seek their own solutions. A tortuous road, where the obstacles range from getting the materials to the cost of labor.

Luisa, 61, lived for six years in a place that she, her two daughters and her husband sneaked into. “There was no bathroom and we had to see to our needs in a can and empty it every day,” she tells 14ymedio. With the 2011 enactment of the law that allows the buying and selling of houses, Camejo acquired a small piece of land near Sports City, with a rickety wooden house on it

These last three years she has dedicated to construction, spending full time locating and acquiring the materials for the house, supervising the brick layers and making with her own hands everything from formwork to mortar. “We are living amid dust and sacks, but at least it’s mine,” she reflects. So far, she has spent 2,000 Cuban Convertible pesos, a decade’s worth of the salary from her former job as a teacher, from which she retired a couple of years ago.

In the middle of last year Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, vice-president of the Councils of State and of Ministers, made clear that the solution to the problem of the house in the country resides “in individual effort”

At the beginning of the century, Vice President Carlos Lage was the official functionary in charge of the housing program. The goal, in those years, was to build 150,000 houses a year to relieve the problem. Luisa hoped to benefit from an apartment in a microbrigade building built by a social contingent, but the brief economic flourishing the island experienced with aid from Venezuela was extinguished shortly thereafter.

“We realize we have to solve this problem ourselves,” she comments. Shortly afterwards, Lage was ousted and no other face of the government took on the public commitment to families needing a roof.

Instead, in the middle of last year, Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, also vice-president of the Councils of States and of Ministers, made it clear that the solution to the housing problem in the country resides “in individual effort.”

Despite the attention, the result is insufficient. The retired teacher is now worried about problems with the supply of construction materials, with the east of the island given priority, according to decisions made in the capital. “We have a lot of problems getting pipes and everything related to electrical installation,” she explains. She also needs “tiles, concrete glue and gravel.”

Since last November, there have been weeks of shortages of building materials in Havana, a situation that could slow even further the completion of construction projects. But Luisa seems determined to finishing her own personal plan. “This year my bathroom and my own shower, even if I have to tile it with my own hands.”