How a Havana Couple Lives on Cuban Pesos / Ivan Garcia

The photo is not of Yesenia and Sergio. It is another of the many couples in Havana who, lacking resources, go fishing with their daughter and dog. Taken from Hablamos Press.

Ivan Garcia, 26 January 2016 — In the large commercial centers of Havana, whether Carlos III, Galerias Paseo or the at Avenida Boyeros and Camagüey Street, you will not find families like Yesenia and Sergio.

In these ’shoppings’ or hard currency stores, a no-name plasma TV costs 399 CUC, or 10,000 Cuban pesos at the exchange rate of one Convertible peso (CUC) for twenty Cuban pesos (CUP). A juicer costs 219 CUC, or 5,475 Cuban pesos, and a food processor 118 CUC, which is 2,900 Cuban pesos in the devalued national currency.

Between them, Yesenia and Sergio earn 1,800 Cuban pesos a month, about 43 CUC. That amount of money does not allow them to buy modern appliances or a third generation computer. They can’t even sit in a state-run bar and have a beer together.

Six years ago they married, and in 2015 she gave birth to a boy, now about to celebrate his first birthday. This is not about two lazy people subsidized by the State, or people with no skills.

Sergio is a civil engineer and Yesenia graduated in art history. They live in a two-bedroom apartment in La Vibora neighborhood, in the southern part of Havana. At their respective jobs, neither has resorted to “inventing” (that is stealing State resources). Nor do they have family in Miami sending them 100 dollars every month.

How do they manage to make ends meet? Let’s look at this couple’s daily life.

Sergio gets paid on the 10th and Yesenia on the 22nd. Meanwhile, on the national television news the presenters describe in detail statistics and production figures for an economy that never stops growing, but the couple doesn’t even notice. They are two busy doing their accounts on a Chinese-made calculator.

“We have a budget of 250 Cuban pesos a week. And 80 pesos for incidentals. We pay 60-80 pesos a month for electricity. The home appliances we have are a Chinese-made Panda TV (ancient, with cathode tubes), two fans, a fridge, blender, rice cooker, iron and an old Russian washing machine,” says Sergio.

He explains that to save electricity, “we only use the rice cooker once a day — it uses a lot of electricity. I’m always at my wife not to leave the lights on. What we use the most is the TV, because there are not many opportunities for recreation, we are always glued to the TV.”

According to the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (ONEI), the average monthly salary in 2014 was 584 Cuban pesos, 197 pesos more than 2006, when it was 387. In 2015 it “grew” to 600 Cuban pesos.

But the nominal growth of government wages hasn’t kept up with the purchasing power of this income, because prices have risen over the same period. ONEI statistics include interesting data about the wage distribution in Cuba.

In 8 of the 16 provinces, the workers have an average salary below the national average: Isla de la Juventud (530), Santiago de Cuba (540), Guantánamo (548), Artemisa (551), Mayabeque (553), Granma (565), Camagüey (566) y Holguín (575).

The sectors with the lowest salaries are Hotels and Restaurants (377 Cuban pesos, which is why the employees steal so much), Public Administration, Defense and Social Security (485), Culture and Sports (486). The best salaries are in the Sugar Industry (963), Mining and Quarrying (819), and Science and Technological Innovation (811)

Those who earn the most are paid 40 percent more than the lowest average salary. Those depressed wages drown families like Sergio and Yesenia.

“It is impossible to live on your salary alone. The food from the ration book only costs 35 pesos a month for three people, but with what you get in the ’basic basket’ you can’t live, much less if you have a baby. For fruits, vegetables, rice, chicken and pork we spend close to 900 pesos a month. With the hundred-odd pesos left over after paying the light bill, we have to pay for gas, water and transport. When our son is sick or some appliance breaks, we have to dip into our reserve or the extra money we keep in the cupboard,” says Sergio.

How can they get extra money? “I tutor elementary and high school students in math. This way, under the table, I get about 40 chavitos (CUC), more or less two people’s salary. This hard currency goes to buying oil, toiletries, cereal, jam and juice for the boy. All in all we lead a very hard life,” he confesses.

Despite living 85 miles from Varadero, they don’t know “the most beautiful beach in the world,” according to the government’s tourism ads. They can’t even dream of a weekend in a three-star all-inclusive hotel.

What are Yesenia and Sergio’s future plans. The couple takes some minutes to respond.

“In Cuba the future is the next day. Clearly we want our son to grow up healthy and well-fed, to buy him clothes, shoes and toys, to sleep in a room with air conditioning, to get a car, visit another country, and when we go to the Havana International Book Fair to be able to buy as many books as we want, we are passionate readers. But right now we are denied all this. I want to be optimistic and think that things will change. The question is when,” says Yesenia.

Have they thought of leaving Cuba? “We don’t have family abroad, nor the money to pay for the risky journey through Central America. We don’t have any choice but to endure the storm on the island. For people like us, the miracle is to be alive.”