Category: Translator: Adrian Rodriguez

They Threaten to Prosecute Opponent Sonia Garro and Six More Women for Marching Against the Government in Havana, Cuba. / Iván García

Photo : On the left Mercedes Fresneda, on the right Sonia Garro.

According to opponent Sonia Garro, intelligence officers let her know that they may open a court case against her and six more women who several times organized peaceful marches of protest on the streets of Havana.

Garro commented that in one of the interrogations, agents of the State Security told her that “President Raul Castro himself wants to know who is the woman organizing protests on the streets. It may be possible that we won’t put all seven in prison, but for sure the leader or leaders will end up in a prison”.

Like the rest of the group, Sonia belongs to the Ladies supporting the Ladies in White. She, also, is a member of an Afrocuban independent association Led by Mercedes Fresneda, who is another of the ladies threatened with prosecution if they insist on engaging in anti-government protests.

Garro is one of the few opponents who is dedicated to do communitarian work in the island. Since 2007 she has led a project to help poor children, without taking into consideration the political affiliation of their parents. The project is operating where she lives, in the Los Quemados neighborhood, in the Marianao municipality in Havana,Cuba

Graduated as a nurse, in 2008 she was terminated from her job because of her political activities against the regime. She is the mother of a 14-year-old daughter and she is married to another dissident, Ramon Alejandro Munoz, who as an answer to the beatings given to Sonia by the police, in May of this year, chained himself on the roof of his home, machete in hand, yelling anti Castro slogans. Still today he goes out to the street with one arm chained, as a protest against police brutality.

“I feel harassed by the State Political Police. In front of my window there are constant repudiation rallies of mobs egged by the authorities. I received severe beatings and I suffer from a right knee contusion. On Thursday June 9, 2011, at a protest at the Anti-Imperialist Stage paying respect to Orlando Zapata, we were battered. They arrested me and kept me for two days in the police precinct of Aguilera, in the municipality of 10 de Octubre. The other six ladies were also arrested in different precincts. They opened a case against us for insult to patriotic symbols, disrespect and disorderly conduct”, Garro points out sitting on a ramshackle sofa.

The seven Cuban women who monthly go out to the street asking for democratic changes are Mercedes Fresneda, Ivonne Malleza, Niurka Luke, Yaquelin Bonne, Rosario Morales, Leidi Coca and Sonia Garro. Recently and separately, they have been taken to Cuban Intelligence’s “visiting house,” in order to intimidate and scare them.

“They offer you everything. From improving your way of life to becoming one of their agents. Officers of Cuban Intelligence with ranks of Lieutenant Colonel and Major talk with us. In charge of this harassment is a man called Tamayo, second chief of Section 21, the department dedicated to watch and to repress the opponents”, explain Mercedes Fresneda.

Garro adds that she has been threatened by the political police that if she continues with the street marches, her daughter will not longer continue studying.

These women promised to keep on in a public way expressing their grievance about the ways of the Cuban government. They believe it is their right. All of them have in common that they are poor, almost all are black or mestizo, and they were born with the revolution.

They are longing for profound and serious changes in the policies of their country. They are rooting for a democracy. And they shout for it.

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Translated by Adrian Rodriguez

June 22 2011

Cuba is Not a Country For the Elderly, Especially if They are Black / Iván García

Being old in Cuba is a problem. Check this, if a young family have to work miracles to bring three meals a day to the table, buy clothing for their children and try to make money from who knows where to repair their shack, you can imagine how hard can be for an elder. It becomes harder if you are black.

The quality of life of the Cuban grandparents has been decreasing for a long time. They are the biggest victims for this war without thundering cannons that lasts for already 22 years, ludicrously called “The Special Period”. The new fiscal adjustments to balance out the finances has been striking hard at those of the third age. And it will keep pounding them. The General Raul Castro pretends to give another turn to the screw. He promises to end the old subsidies and throw in the trash the ancient ration card.

The most affected by these new measures are the elderly. In 2006 the government established a raise for the pensions. As an average, a retiree gets between 186 and 300 pesos (from 8 to 13 dollars a month). In everyday life, these amounts are very little. The inflation of some food products and the electricity bills, among others, it’s a bite that takes a big chunk out of the tiny increase in the pensions.

Ask Julia, an 82-year-old black woman, feeble and emaciated, if her retirement dough is enough to live her life with dignity. Her answer will be a pathetic grimace.

From the time she gets up, early in the morning, her life is hard. “I buy 100 newspapers in a news stand. Later I resell them for one peso each. Not always all of them are sold, so I have to sell loose cigarets and peanuts wrapped in paper cones. If I get lucky, I can have lunch and dinner. But most of the time I get money only for the dinner. I have no descendants and my family is in the same situation or worst. Being black and old is a curse”, she points out at dusk in a central avenue of Havana.

It is not officially known how many elders actually live as indigents. Cuba is a nation where the numbers and statistics are only known by the big shots. But what you are seeing in the streets is frightening.

The majority of the people looking in the trash containers, who pick pieces of discarded aluminum or sell any other junk at a city corner, are older than 60 years.

It is no longer unusual to see a drunk elder with home-made moonshine sleeping on cardboard. Or an abandoned old lady panhandling on the streets. And there’s not a government solution in sight for this sector of the population.

According to the data offered by the official news, the population of Cuba is getting inexorably older.

The pension system that guarantees a tranquil and safe retirement is bankrupt. The majority of elders who are wandering all over the city in search for food and money are humble working class people who once worked in the “construction of socialism”. Some are like Juan, 79 years old, who, in the Escambray mountains, chased the groups fighting against Castro. He also fought in Angola as a reservist.

For some years now he sleeps on the streets, in any place, wherever he is when the night falls. A porch, a funeral home or the staircase of any building.” A long time ago my family got rid of me. The same happened with the State. What they offered me was a position as school night-time security. I work alternate nights. I lost the sight of one eye. I escaped the seniors home, it’s better be dead than to live in such an asylum. Bad treatment and worst food. The only thing I wish is that God takes me with him as soon as possible,” expressed Juan while in a run down restaurant managed by the State he eats an order of white rice, black beans and boiled fish full of bones.

The senior citizen homes in Cuba in most cases are impoverished. They are run down buildings with a depressing look, and the people who pass by look the other way. On San Miguel St. almost at the corner of Acosta St., in the Diez de Octubre municipality, there’s one of them.

In the winter it is sad to look at a group of elderly wearing coats from the fifties to get warm. Swinging frantically on a rocker asking the passers-by for cigarettes and money. In the summer they sweat and stink. They pass the time playing dominoes on the asylum’s porch and watching TV. They eat little and bad. They talk nostalgically about the past, when they were young and strong. Many of them wish to die soon.

Most of these elders are black. The African descendants are living in an extreme poverty. The ones who live the worst. Dwellers of the prisons cells.

And when they arrive to the third age, the little hell where they grew up, their scarce preparation and family violent environment takes a toll. Along comes the insanity and the dole. They take refuge in alcohol. Or prefer to commit suicide. Decisively, Cuba is not a country for the elderly. Especially if they are black.

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Translated by Adrian Rodriguez

June 20 2011

Tribulations of a Moviegoer / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado

There was a trend in Cuban born some years ago that redefined the concept of film: el murcinema or murcinélago. In other words, “bat-movie-goer.”

Maybe some of the filmgoers who don’t visit the neighborhood or countryside movie theaters don’t know it, but there they are: those hanging rats, that like unpleasant nocturnal surprises are hung over our heads, with their threat of rabies, or a splash of excrement-feces, sprayed in order to fertilize us like plants.

My experience with a big screen infested with these flying mammals, was in the Guanabo movie theater. At the end of the film I looked for somebody to warn and I found the same lady who sold us the tickets. I told her that the theater had a bat infestation and she acted as if I was saying that in Murcia, a city of Spain, there were a lot of lakes; she opened her hands in supine harmony with the express of indifference on her face. It wasn’t necessary that she say anything else. Her, “So what?” slapped me on both cheeks.

That’s why I became a home filmaholic. This has a disadvantage, you have to wait and “digest” a lot of sociopolitical pro-government propaganda in the national television network before you can actually watch the film. We can turn the TV on, at the time frame assigned to the program you want to watch, but because there’s no respect for the schedule or there is not good timing for it, any way you have to endure the icy winds of this long political winter of Cuba. Then we have to kill time playing “True or False” waiting to enjoy the celluloid.

Some people say that the cinemas with bats are not new in our country; that from many years ago the temperatures of the movie theaters are not controlled because of their defective air-conditioning systems. The bathrooms are in totally bad shape and lack hygiene, but the authorities are blind to these facts, and if they do pay attention, it is to close it down. The ones that are the showroom of the Cuban seventh art, and where the festivals and different activities are celebrated, don’t suffer this lack of maintenance and disrepair. I guess that somebody already made an inventory of the great amount of closed down movie theaters in all the extension of our archipelago. What nobody can really count is the amount of people who stopped going to the movies for these reasons, not even the cultural and recreational pleasures that part of the Cuban society can be enjoyed because of the inefficiencies and indolence of the government.

Translated by Adrian Rodriguez

June 19 2011

Tribulations of a Moviegoer

There was a trend in Cuban born some years ago that redefined the concept of film: el murcinema or murcinélago. In other words, “bat-movie-goer.”

Maybe some of the filmgoers who don’t visit the neighborhood or countryside movie theaters don’t know it, but there they are: those hanging rats, that like unpleasant nocturnal surprises are hung over our heads, with their threat of rabies, or a splash of  excrement-feces, sprayed in order to fertilize us like plants.

My experience with a big screen infested with these flying mammals, was in the Guanabo movie theater. At the end of the film I looked for somebody to warn and I found the same lady who sold us the tickets. I told her that the theater had a bat infestation and she acted as if I was saying that in Murcia, a city of Spain, there were a lot of lakes; she opened her hands in supine harmony with the express of indifference on her face. It wasn’t necessary that she say anything else.  Her, “So what?” slapped me on both cheeks.

That’s why I became a home filmaholic. This has a disadvantage, you have to wait and “digest” a lot of sociopolitical pro-government propaganda in the national television network before you can actually watch the film. We can turn the TV on, at the time frame assigned to the program you want to watch, but because there’s no respect for the schedule or there is not good timing for it, any way you have to endure the icy winds of this long political winter of Cuba. Then we have to kill time playing “True or False” waiting to enjoy the celluloid.

Some people say that the cinemas with bats are not new in our country; that from many years ago the temperatures of the movie theaters are not controlled because of their defective air-conditioning systems. The bathrooms are in totally bad shape and lack hygiene, but the authorities are blind to these facts, and if they do pay attention, it is to close it down. The ones that are the showroom of the Cuban seventh art, and where the festivals and different activities are celebrated, don’t suffer this lack of maintenance and disrepair. I guess that somebody already made an inventory of the great amount of closed down movie theaters in all the extension of our archipelago. What nobody can really count is the amount of people who stopped going to the movies for these reasons, not even the cultural and recreational pleasures that part of the Cuban society can be enjoyed because of the inefficiencies and indolence of the government.

 Translated by Adrian Rodriguez

June 19 2011

Paternalisms / Rebeca Monzo

Photo : A. Betancourt Monzo

Paternalism. Social doctrine in which the relationship of the employer and his employees is similar to the ones existing between family members. That’s the entry for this word on the Larousse dictionary.

Lately the national TV news, the same one I try to avoid if at all possible because I can not relax when I see it for more than two minutes, is covering the Party assemblies that are happening all over the island. I turned on the TV trying to find something interesting to watch and because I couldn’t find anything, I briefly watched the coverage of one of these assemblies. This one in particular was happening in the Santa Clara province. One of the participants said very seriously, that if the cows gave milk every day it was because they ate every day. Because I had turned the TV on when the assembly was already in session for a while I couldn’t appreciate if it was a joke or not. At this point one of the members at the table, fat neck and a guayabera shirt, said, putting a lot of emphasis on his statement, that we have to put an end to the paternalism.

And I asked to myself: Who imposed the paternalism as a system in our country? Whom did they ask for permission for to apply it?

This is the grocery store where you are enrolled to be a customer.

This is the ration card that you have to use to purchase.

This is the quota of food you are allowed to buy.

This is the medical center that you have to go when you need attention.

This is the doctor assigned to you.

This is the doctor’s office where you have to go as a patient.

This is the daycare your son has to go to.

This is the school assigned to him.

This is the teacher that will teach him.

These are the college careers that you can choose from.

This is the career that your son must study.

And on, and on, the list could be interminable. Without counting the many years that toys and clothing were assigned to you depending which group’s turn it was to buy and depending also at which store your coupons were assigned.

Translated by Adrian Rodriguez

June 20 2011

My Grandchildren’s Country / Fernando Dámaso

At times I’ve stopped to imagine the country I wish Cuba would be in my grandchildren’s future. First of all, and I am being absolutely frank, it shouldn’t be either like the current one, nor the one I’ve been living for the last fifty years, disregarding the happy and sad times it has given me.

I would rather bet for a country with a coherent Constitution, where each citizen, disregarding their ideology, political views or religion, sex, sexual preferences, race or economic situation, will be able to exercise all of their rights and they will be respected; for a just State, responsible, strictly law-abiding and a watch dog for it, one that doesn’t interfere in the private life of its citizens, a keeper of social harmony and peace, that guarantee public health and education for all, considering this task as its duty not as a favor; for an economic system which permits the free exercise of individual initiatives, a promoter of economic growth, and one that doesn’t become an obstacle to people’s life projects, where everyone should be able to contribute with their talent and effort and, honestly, receive and enjoy  benefits they’ve earned; for a prosperous and continuously developing society, where the highest priority will be national welfare, and where public officers will be changed after terms established by the constitution; for a country with a minimum of armed institutions, only the ones very necessary for national security and to maintain the order, where respect for others will be a duty.

Maybe, for some people, this is nothing more than a utopia, but I am convinced that a nation like this is possible, if we learn from our many mistakes, and work to assure the they will never happen again. For this, we need the creation and consolidation of strong and healthy democratic institutions, that will be respected by all of us, where opportunists and power psychos could not find refuge. A society morally solid, it only possible when all of its citizens have and exercise their civic conscience, and will be able to avoid, with their actions, any type of deviation.

It will be a hard and difficult task to achieve this. There is a lot that is negative accumulated materially and spiritually. In the first place, maybe without looking for it, the crude reality has been dismounting myths and barbarities committed over years. The way is being cleared as the days pass by. What is missing is what is necessary to build, something new, different.

Reinventing a nation, after so many wasted years, and the distance from its historic connections, will require dedication and sacrifice. There are lost generations and others exhausted or close to be it, but also generations pushing, anxious for the necessary changes and ready to achieve them, in spite of all the difficulties. In them, as Jose Marti did in the past, we should trust.

Translated by Adrian Rodriguez

June 19 2011

Present Urgencies, Future Imperatives for Cuba / Dimas Castellanos

Last Thursday April 28, as part of the lecture series that regularly takes place in the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Room, Mr. Roberto Veiga, editor of the journal Lay Space, took as his topic “Present Urgencies, Future Imperatives of Cuba,” which was presided over by an emotional and illustrated introduction from Brother Manuel Uña, rector of the Dominican Center. Veiga began expounding on the theoretical assumptions of his thesis, structured around three core concepts: equality, freedom and fraternity.

Based on the beliefs of Father Felix Varela, he defined equality as the right that every person possesses, to have his merits and perfections appreciated. After that he delimited three kinds of equalities: natural, social and legal. The first one indicates the identity of the human being; the second one equal participation in social goods and the third refers to the assignment of rights and the imposition of rewards and penalties, that is, equality before the law. From this conceptual framework he failed to mention some vital aspects, from which I selected 12:

1. Racial equality, guaranteed by law but transgressed in daily basis. Regarding this matter he admitted the existence of a debate and established the need to facilitate it ,widen it and incorporate cultural and educational policies in order to solve it.

2. About the economic model he stated that the material and human precariousness we suffer damage freedom, equality and fraternity. Therefore, the need for its readjustment, for the decisive role of work to resolve full employment and make society more equal, fraternal and free; this represents a difficult task because it is impossible to be profitable with the current over employment.

3. About economic decentralization, he warned that it may increase the unemployment rate, generating more poverty and weakness. Therefore it is necessary to decentralize, at the same time creating means to ease the pain and to create jobs as soon as possible. Also, he considered that wide foreign and investment should be a priority every initiative coming from the citizens should be insitutionalized; for that purpose it will be necessary to establish fraternity as a social culture.

4. He considered that education should be free and obligatory up to the 9th grade, which, of course, led to the valid opinion of allowing this education to have a private variant. He also said that too much of a differentiation in basic education could originate an educational unbalance and lack of integration of the new generations. Therefore, the public school system should incorporate some academic freedom, pedagogical plurality and the possibility of learning religion and the most broad scope of philosophical, sociological, legal, economic and political knowledge.

5.He stated that to enjoy the equalities required by the human implies access to greater shares of freedom. But the current Fundamental Law limits the freedoms to be exercised in conformity to the goals of socialism and as a logical result the exercise of freedom is conditioned to this boundary. Mr. Veiga prefers a society that guarantees the broadest political and ideological spectrum, but assured that he would feel satisfied if we deploy all these ideals and means in a participatory and consensual manner.

6. He spoke of the crucial issue of political freedom, which limits citizens’ real capacity to act, especially when the citizen diverges from the official ideology. Addressing the question of how to guarantee the political freedom under such conditions, he considered that the best solution is to open the possibility to allow other political associations.

7. About the debate on the documents of the Sixth Congress of the PCC, said the ongoing dialogue process, mainly on economic issues, signals the existence of attitudes that can derail the path of achieving a consensus. On one side there are groups opposed to the government, with an enormous incapacity to recognize its legitimacy and to establish a dialogue with it. On the other side an official class that, in many cases, is afraid of any change and tries to strangle any debate. It is sad because we are living at the right time to jointly contribute to the search for a Cuba where we all can fit together.

8. In this regard, he stressed that a generalized agreement over the principles on which Cuban society should be based and the means to realize it, designed in a way shared by the population, could provide the national enthusiasm to devote to sculpting a community effort based on fraternity and diversity. At this point he reminded us that the Cuban bishops, in the Pastoral letter, Love Endures All Things, proposed a dialogue between Cubans, frank, friendly and free, not to get even and establish responsibilities, nor to silence the adversary and vindicate the past, but let the other to have a vast discussion; a dialogue not so much to find out the whys, but the what fors, because all the whys always discover a blame and all the what fors bring by themselves a hope. A consensus that could lead us also towards an important and necessary constitutional reform.

9. He stated the importance of the family for the formation of people and nations, its condition as the fundamental cell of the society, requires it to be guaranteed all the rights it demands and intensive support so that a responsible development can be achieved.

10. When referring to the political arena, which traditionally possesses a substantial influence in the social and institutional conduct of the country, he inferred the need for an institutional public network through which every citizen could fraternally contribute to achieve his or her freedom and equality and that of others, which he named the democracy of consensus.

11. He referred to the administration of the court system, which must gain relevance in comparison to the all other public institutions and offer a highly professional treatment, given its character as a guarantor of justice. Regarding the National Assembly, he stated that all candidates should be elected as a result of an authentic process in the heart of social organizations which represent different sectors of the population, and act as a catalyst between the society and the state. About this he said, “What I can say is that in the future this should imply that the people can directly elect the top figure in the government, as well as revoke his office, which would result in a widening of freedom and equality.”

12. To close, he stated that the current president , Raul Castro, has the historic mission of facilitate this process, but also he comprehends, he said, that there is a little time left for such a huge task.

At the end of his exposition, clear and precise, Mr. Veiga was rewarded by his audience with one of the most prolonged ovations in the history of that academic auditorium.

(Published in the Diario de Cuba (www.ddcuba.com) on May 13 2011.

Translated by: Adrian Rodriguez

May 13 2011

Permission is Granted to Add a Discussion in the Neighborhoods About the Petition to Modify the Actual Elections System / Silvio Benítez Márquez

As of a few weeks ago members of the citizens’ protect Voices of the Neighborhood are announcing to national and international public opinion their supposed participation in the people’s debate on the economic and social policies with the intention of proposing to the communist government the modification of the current electoral system.

The novelty of the Spokespeople provoked a feeling of malaise and disdain in the General’s palace. The scope of the debate didn’t offer any guarantees for the proposal to be included in its political agenda, condemning it beforehand to the ostracism. To silence the effect of this initiative the orthodox communists and hard-line repression agents were instructed to act as soon as anything could affect the unanimous approval of the government guidelines.

The challenge of the proposal was in place. It only remained to convene the assembly to know the results. The intransigent rulers were busy tying up the loose ends and placing barriers before the citizens. The strategy was not to tell the voters in time so that the news wouldn’t reach the ears of the Spokespeople so they couldn’t participate in the debate.

A counterproductive measure which didn’t work at all for the organizers. On the contrary, they needed a sufficient quorum to keep in check The Neighborhood Spokespeople who were in the front row were anxiously awaiting the start of the assembly to make their proposals.

The expected debate was happening chapter by chapter with the inexorable note that no chapter was approved unanimously . A total of eleven voters were at all times defiant despite the inquisitive watch of the communists which were handling the debate’s manual.

Silvio Benitez, voter in his area, was present with a group of “Voices of the Neighborhood” in debate of Friday, February 4, asking at several opportunities for a turn to speak in order to include or modify the following proposals.( Propositions that were recorded in the official document.)

– The excessive taxation of the recently allowed small business licensees.

– The right to travel to any world destination.

– The humongous price of construction materials.

– The right to sell properties and goods without the interference of the government.

– The necessary inclusion of the Cuban diaspora exiles in the policies, based on the Jose Marti doctrine, ” For all and for the benefit of all.”

– The creation of a procedure to elect the delegates from the base to the National Assembly.

At the end of his motion Silvio was questioned by a disheveled woman who, in a harsh way, pointed out that these reforms were only for the Cubans who defend the regime, not for those who in the past abandoned their homeland. Her tirade didn’t have enough backing, the communists, sad and disappointed, left without the unanimous approval of the policies they seek, not even in one of its chapters.

Silvio Benitez Marquez

Promoter of the Neighborhood Spokespeople project

Translated by: Adrian Rodriguez

February 16 2011

Bitten by Underdevelopment / Rebeca Monzo

The very first time I sat at front of a PC, around six years ago, I thought that it was the end for me. It doesn’t matter how many times Alfredo, my son, told me, “It won’t break so easily,” I was so afraid every time I touched any key thinking that all of a sudden everything will be dark and a catastrophe will happen.

I am not a brave person, neither am I a coward, but a very cautious person indeed. The problem is that on my planet, when something breaks, it is for ever and ever, there’s no way to fix it, it is broken for life, moreover when involves equipment of such scarce technology.

Finally, with practice and perseverance I’ve been learning a little bit, enough to communicate with the outside world (where my family and friends are) and, even making a blog!

I am telling you all this, because recently someone gave me a cell phone as a gift and immediately I got a crash course on how to use it. This is the reason why I beg you to forgive me, due to the fact as you’ve probably already noticed, I just met this helpful little blue bird, which on countless occasions helped to save the physical integrity of my fellow colleagues who share with me my planet.

I hope you forgive my rookie skills twittering. I promise to work hard not to make any more mistakes, and avoid one more time being bitten by underdevelopment.

Translated by: Adrian Rodriguez

June 13 2011

In Havana There Are State, Illegal and Hard Currency Pharmacies / Iván García

Every time that Niurka needs vitamin C or an albutamol (albuterol) inhaler for her asthma, she knows where to find it. First, before asking Fermin, a medicines peddler, she tries to get it by slipping a 20 pesos bill over the closest state-owned pharmacy counter.

If the pharmacist opens her eyes incredibly wide, it means the deal is going bad, then she goes and looks for the illegal medicine peddler. Most of the time she finds what she looks for.

Fermin works for an old and central Havana hospital’s apothecary. His salary of 300 pesos (16 dollars) a month is a joke. But with the medicines he carries out of the hospital in his backpack every afternoon, he multiplies his salary by ten.

“I use to steal vitamins, asthma inhalers and, when I can , donated foreign medicines. Also I take orders, if someone asks me for a specific medicine and it’s in stock in the hospital, it will magically disappear from the shelf,” confesses Fermin.

The public health standards on the island are lower today in comparison to the decade of the 80’s, but either way, Cuban public health is still giving a notable service in spite of being a third world nation.

But certain medicines are scarce. The Cuban government blames it on the USA embargo, which impedes Cuba from buying latest generation medicines. It may be. But in the foreign currency pharmacies you can find vitamins, antibiotics or analgesics from renowned pharmaceutical brands of capitalist countries. To make up for the medicine deficit, the Cuban state approves humongous amounts of American dollars to increase its national production

Sonia, a pharmacist, believes that Cuban-made medicines have a low quality, a good portion are also limited by a ration card given out by the family doctor or by a specialist.

Those who suffer from respiratory illnesses are the ones who suffer most. There are two classifications. Type I and II. The first ones are entitled to one inhaler a month and the second ones, to one every two months.

“Most of the time I have to buy asthma inhalers on the side, in the black market. Either by bribing a hospital employee or a pharmacist with 20 pesos, or buying from one of the hundreds of existing medicine peddlers in Havana,” Rogelio, a chronic asthmatic, makes clear.

Cuba being a tropical island, with high humidity, the number of persons suffering respiratory illnesses is significant. For this reason, all illegal medicine vendors have a guaranteed market.

Denis, one of these vendors, says that in addition to the vitamins, antibiotics and inhalers, a product with a great demand are the sanitary napkins women called “intimas.”

“Women of fertile age are entitled to buy a package of ten sanitary napkins–“intimas“–a month. And because it isn’t enough, the sanitary napkins are a colossal business. Each package is sold for ten pesos (half a dollar). Thanks to the sale of female sanitary napkins, vitamins and asthma inhalers, in the twelve years I have in this business, I repaired my room,” says Denis with pride.

Cuban health care is free and its doctors–as a general rule–have a good preparation and are committed. But when it comes the time to get a drug the patient has three options.

First, acquire in the local pharmacy the ones prescribed by the doctor, if they have it in stock. Second, if you have “hard currency,” in an international pharmacy you can buy a fifth generation antibiotic or Johnson & Johnson syrups. And the third option, buy from an illegal vendor, who for dollars (fulas in Cuban slang) will bring the medicines to your door.

Ivan Garcia

Note- This article was written in March 2011, but I have a lot of articles to publish, from Ivan and other authors, and it was left behind. (TQ)

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Translated by: Adrian Rodriguez

June 7 2011