Hail, Coco! / Mario Lleonart

El Coco - Guillermo Fariñas - during his hunger strike.
El Coco – Guillermo Fariñas – during his hunger strike. From: www.bitacoracubana.info

To walk together as two good friends breathing freedom through the quiet streets of Warsaw just a few days ago; to happily chat with the man who today is receiving the Andrei Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in Strasbourg, this seemed like an impossible dream just four years ago.

Then, I could barely greet him through the glass window of the intensive therapy room of the Arnaldo Milián Castro Hospital on one of those days when I went to Santa Clara to serve as a chaplain commissioned by my own vocation in the face of an exclusively divine calling.

The prayer I issued forth on those evenings, which added up to one hundred and thirty-five, could be summarized by: “Lord, save this man, and free the prisoners who have decided to die.” I had to endure the advice of many who in vain tried to make me desist from this authentic adventure of faith: Stop going to that hospital – they would tell me – that man is going to die and none of these prisoners will be released.

And when it seemed that Guillermo Fariñas Hernández was indeed dying, and already even the newspaper Granma was preparing for the scenario that friends and foes considered most likely, July 2010 arrived along with his first sip of water, which followed the announcement, published in their own Official Organ of the Central Committee of Communist Party of Cuba (Granma), of the liberation of the fifty-six prisoners that remained from the Group of 75 imprisoned in the Black Spring in 2003.

And time, which does not stop, arrived at June 2013 to lead us to walk together through these magical streets of Warsaw, the striker and the pastor, whose co-belligerence few understood and many considered destined to failure. And finally there has arrived another July in this escalation of triumphs, and today El Coco, as those of us who love him call him, sits in the chair that ceases to be empty, in order to receive, at last, in a special ceremony in the European Parliament, that prize that it offers for the freedom of all Cuba.

And the best thing of all is, that I know that all of this is nothing, “compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” [Romans 8:18]

3 July 2013

The Polish angel who appeared at midnight, loaded with books and Mozart CDs / Mario Lleonart

It was midnight and Warsaw, if wrongly judged, seemed to be taken only by the good times, clubs and bars. A group of Cubans, enraptured by the magic of the city, proof that freedom can finally rise above the nightmare of authoritarian communism, could not sleep despite the intense schedule of our days, and we went out to take the pulse of the Warsaw night. Seated at the tables next to the street of a bar where a trio did not stop singing Irish songs, suddenly, as in a vision, we contemplated the approach of a character like someone out of a novel.

A bearded Polish man was transporting by hand a bicycle loaded with treasures. The merchandise that he was hawking by night was none other than classical music and select literature. Mariana Hernández, a Cuban-American who confirmed for me that the Cubans of the exile and those within Cuba are are same people, and I went out to meet him to verify that in Warsaw, the same by day as by night, literature and culture walk the streets.

He wasn’t carrying Bibles among his books, but upon knowing of my interest in getting one in Polish, he let me know that the Bible Society was not far, and demonstrating that he had it among his frequented sites, he drew me a map with detailed directions of how to get there. And smiling as only a Polish angel can, he disappeared into the night giving us one of the most exact lessons which we received about the amazing nights of Warsaw.

4 July 2013

The Summing up of the Helsinki Foundation / Mario Lleonart

Screen Shot 2013-07-05 at 11.57.35 AMTo visit the site in Warsaw of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights on the afternoon of the historic June 4, anniversary of those first elections with which Poles inaugurated their new period of democracy; to be received there with so much emotion by its President Danuta Przywara, and to hear her from her own mouth the narrative of her experiences in those crucial years the ‘80s, as well as the raison d’être of such a laudable Foundation, this alone would have completely justified my presence in Poland.

The fact that its predecessor organization, the Helsinki Committee, was founded during, and in protest against, the martial law of 1982, made me reflect on how the bad ends up becoming the good. Already it was a long time ago that that repressive wave is past history, but in Poland one finds very active this Foundation that the Committee organized in 1989 as an independent institution to monitor, educate and promote human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights is one of the reasons why, on my return to Cuba, I felt stronger that when I had left. One of the four fundamental purposes of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA), of whose family I am honorably a part, is exactly the defense of human rights, and for that its Commission on Justice and Peace. In the difficult implementation of this mission for which God has put me in Cuba, international organizations such as Amnesty or Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) have been my main support. Now I also count on this prestigious Foundation of Poland. Human Rights in Cuba win, their violators lose,increasingly at a greater disadvantage, predestined to disappear.

2 July 2013

Prison Diary XXXIV: Courts That Offer Revenge / Angel Santiesteban

The best thing that could happen to me in prison is that time slips away, because between editing unpublished manuscripts, creating some story, reading, writing posts, and listening to complaints from the prisoners, I barely have time to sleep.

Alexander Sanchez Izquierda complains about the arbitrariness with which they sentenced him. The instructor, First Lieutenant Dueña of the Sixth Station, is the godmother of his ex, and assured him during his detention that she would get revenge for his breaking up his marriage to her.


To achieve this, the officer to let him know he hurt-Alexander-was the one who had committed the crime and not accepted during the trial witnesses attesting to his innocence.

To achieve this, the officer told the injured one that he — Alexander — was the one who committed the crime, and during the trial they didn’t accept witnesses who’d testified to his innocence.

Alexander asked me how it’s possible that a government can ask for “justice” for five spies who carry several deaths on their shoulders, and not worry about the courts handing out justice to its nationals.

Alexander is waiting to finish his ten-year sentence to fight for the freedom of Cuba. He says the Cuban people can continue supporting the prisons being flooded by innocent people.

This is what we all are waiting for, I say to him. Meanwhile, we continue being the children nobody wants.

Ángel Santiesteban-Prats, Prison 1580, June 2013

4 July 2013

The Last Days of a House / Regina Coyula

Once, many years ago, the little palace at 13th and 4th in Vedado was the home of a family, a rich family who abandoned it also leaving behind other assets at the triumph of the Revolution in 1959 to go into what they thought was temporary exile and where nothing would even be the same again.

Along with other family properties, the house was considered embezzled goods recovered by the government and was then a diplomatic site for one of our brother countries of Eastern Europe with us in the construction of socialism.

I didn’t know at what point the brotherhood changed in tone, and socialism as well, and the mansion became an annex to the well-known MININT (Ministry of the Interior) unit charged with checking telephone transmissions, about 100 yards away; the annex was in charge of monitoring email traffic.

The corner is shadowed by powerful poplars sending roots over the sidewalk, the slender bars were boarded up with metal plates, and the enormous house was safe from prying eyes and at the mercy of its new owners.

Sheds were erected, the arcades bricked in and the walls painted now and then with treachery and cruelty to blacken later with humidity until it became a blot on the landscape.

I couldn’t fail to be surprised when I recently saw the metal plates removed from the perimeter, restoring the garden with the addition of streetlights, the little palace painted in the pastel shades they favor. A second youth to host in its heart something like the site for the struggle for the return to the fatherland of the anti-terrorist fighters imprisoned in the empire’s prisons, and the predictable and final destination of the ex-member of the Party Central Committee and the ex-president of the National Assembly of Peoples Power — and of so many exes, extinct — Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada.

3 July 2013

The Cuban Mega-Soap Opera / Fernando Damaso

Street Graffiti

The mega-soap opera of the Five Spies, recycled as anti-terrorists and heroes, for years have occupied a lot of space in the national political programming. Structured for the seasons, in the best style of the soaps, they appear one after another, regardless of the actual audience. The main characters presented at the beginning as meek and innocent doves attacked by the imperial eagle, according to the season it’s broadcast, have been adapted to the arguments of the interests of the moment.

In the first season, the starring performances were given by the attorneys, some designated officials and chosen journalists, who were charged with trying to convince us of their innocence, constantly bombarding us with scholarly interventions and articles. In it, the main characters were kept discreetly in the background, with few public declarations, to give the impression that in addition to imprisonment, they were subjected to isolation.

In the second, they started to appear alongside the popular figures (mainly actors who visited them) and their mothers, where they looked lush and healthy, although on returning these people speak of the cruel physical and psychological tortures, the subhuman conditions, harassment, etc. and shed a tear to add spice to their words in the in the best style of the soap operas from the fifties of the last century.

The melodramatic weight increased from chapter to chapter, with the incorporation of the loving and long-suffering wives and daughters, who lost no opportunity for national and international stardom, both in print and on radio and television.

The third season was characterized by their recycling as intellectuals. It turns out that not only were they anti-terrorists and heroes, but also cartoonists, painters, poets and writers. The reason for this readjusted argument was given so they could incorporate national and foreign artists and intellectuals and to the cause, and it was necessary that the main characters belong to that sector. Cartoons, paintings, poems and writings proliferated, most of poor quality, despite the hard work of surreptitious cartoonists, painters, poets and writers, trying to improve the work and make them more digestible.

In this fourth season, with one of the main characters gone from the plot (he already served his sentence), the argument has moved on to the moral and altruistic, related to virtue, dignity, loyalty and courage. Thus, one of those who is still in prison, marvels at the attitude of a self-employed punch seller in Las Tunas, whom he welcomes and greets for offering free punch to the ambulances.

The one released, now acting as a hero at events (he has no other work), participates in whatever congress, conference, meeting or workshop held, and offers lectures on morality, loyalty, dignity, etc. to students and, out of sync with the times, talks to them about visiting the Coppelia ice cream stand, without realizing that this hasn’t been an option for young people for several years, more interested as they are in discos, hotels, trips abroad and private restaurants (paladares).

Together, with the participation of some artists from the Governmental Team Cuba, draw up a huge mural for the Cuba Pavilion on the Havana La Rampa, and so it continues.

We don’t know what they’re going to try in the fifth season nor those that will come later, but it seems that the mega-soap opera will be prolonged in time, considering that in the absence of some more interesting argument, they will continue stretching it out as a way to keep a part of the population entertained and make them forget more important and momentous things, at least until the boredom of “more of the same” runs its course. The argument, which is nothing original, has already been used multiple times. They are only changing the characters!

1 July 2013

The Battle for Tres Leches / Rebeca Monzo

Among the reasons for the government’s move to increase the number of licenses for self-employment is the need to provide employment opportunities in the private sector for the large number of workers who have lost their jobs due to the massive reduction in national labor force. As a result paladares, or private restaurants, have sprung up and with them a new trend heretofore unknown in our country’s food scene: the dulce de tres leches.*

For many years the lack of  information and reference sources in almost all sectors of the economy and society led Cubans into a type of “creative hibernation.” Often someone would copy something, the idea for which had come “from outside.” If it turned out well, everyone would then want to copy it too.

Gastronomy has not been completely immune from this phenomenon. These days every paladar has a dessert menu featuring “French pastry.” This in a country which for many years had seen this specialty slowly “dying out” due to the rise of private businesses and low productivity of state enterprises. Milk, butter, cheese, even sugar – essential ingredients for this type of cooking – have been rationed little by little almost to the point of extinction.

There are very few paladares – we could say almost none – that offer homemade baked goods. They seem to have been forgotten amid the guava, grapefruit and orange shells poached in syrup, the jams, custards, puddings… in other words the whole long list of sweet delicacies. Certainly, fruits and other ingredients for baking have also gone through long periods when they were in short supply, so these could well have served as alternatives.

One day a restaurant owner decided to offer a tall glass (the kind used for sundaes) filled with a small portion of sponge cake, a bit of condensed milk and a lot of meringue, and called it tres leches. Soon there were imitators. Some used sponge cake, also covered with meringue, but with the milk component barely noticeable. In more “creative” versions almonds and chocolate were added. Ultimately, everyone came up with his own version, but none came close to the original dessert from Nicaragua, which has become famous throughout all of Latin America.

This type of confection is expensive, sometimes costing more than an order of cannelloni or lasagna. For this reason it is, of course, not in great demand. I cannot understand why at this point restaurant owners have not been able to find solutions more in line with the range of possibilities and their customers’ budgets. This is the main weakness of almost all these successful businesses.

That is why I have allowed myself to make this brief analysis. For the benefit of those interested, I am also providing the original recipe for this contentious confection as well as the costs to produce it in this country.

Ingredients for one cake: 6 eggs, 2 cups sugar, 2 cups all-purpose flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 cup whole milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Instructions: Reserve two tablespoons of sugar and set aside. Beat the egg yolks until light and lemon colored. Gradually add the remaining sugar and vanilla, and beat until incorporated. Add flour and baking powder and beat until incorporated. Gradually add milk, and beat until incorporated. In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until frothy. Add reserved sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form. Gently fold egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. Turn batter into a prepared cake pan and bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Assembly: To finish the tres leches, mix one and a half cans of the condensed milk with an equal amount of evaporated milk. Add one container of cream. Poke holes in the top of the cake with a skewer and pour the mixture on top. To make the meringue topping, beat six egg whites to form stiff peaks. In a saucepan add two cups of sugar and one cup of water. Bring to boil and heat to the soft-ball stage. Gradually pour the hot syrup into the egg whites, beating constantly. Beat the meringue until cool. Spread meringue over the cake. Cut and serve.

Prices for the main ingredients in Cuba, where the average monthly salary is 20.00 CUC,** are as follows:

A can of condensed milk, 1.20 CUC

A can of evaporated milk, 1.30 CUC

A small container of cream, 1.50 CUC

1 kilo of flour, 1.20 CUC

Eggs, 1.50 Cuban pesos (the so-called national currency) apiece.

Note: 1 CUC = US$0.85

*Translator’s note: Literally, a three-milk cake, so-called because it is made with three different milk products: whole milk or cream, evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk.

**Cuba has two currencies in circulation: the Cuba peso, or moneda nacional, in which salaries are paid, and the CUC, a convertible currency pegged to the U.S. dollar. Increasingly, essential consumer goods can often only be purchased at government-run hard currency stores with CUCs. Most Cubans with access to hard currency obtain it through cash remittances from relatives overseas.

30 June 2013

Not everyone so easily gives up being King in order to become a Beggar / Angel Santiesteban

My beloved son*, my so loved Chinito:

I almost cannot write to you because I lack breath.  Now I have a little of the strength that I will use in order to send to you some letters that you will know go quite moist and full of love.  I am fine, working as always in the same place that you know, with the same people.  I am still proud of you, since not everyone gives up so easily being King in order to become a Beggar.  In my selfishness as a mother, I prefer the former, but I have to accept your decision, which could not be any different, since your integrity, honesty and values do not permit you to be another, because you were raised under the precepts of José Martí.

I support you in everything while I live, and if I do not come to the end with you, I already leave you entrusted with Ana.  But I am going to be optimistic, I am going to think that soon you will be proven innocent of this that they blame you for in order to cover the truth, to try to seal your mouth, which they have not been able to, because your friends do not permit it, nor your family, nor  intellectuals with a sense of shame, nor all those who feel the need for justice; your echo transcends limits, I do not know how they can be so crude, because the more they want to drown your voice, the further it goes.

It is not so easy to hide a truth as big as that which you so bravely scream to the universe.  They do not realize that your letters are everywhere, the more they box you in, the more they hide you, the stronger your letters and truth emerge.  That even when nothing of yours is received, your screams are stronger, your voice is heard more clearly and the world is more interested.  In these moments you have more followers than when you were on the La Lima prison farm, because when everyone knew that you were well, although innocent, they were not so worried about you. But now they are lions roaring for your life, for your liberty. So my beloved son. They are more damaged than you are.

Do not worry, suffering is inevitable and necessary in order to become a better person, to understand your fellows, and later you will know how, as you have done until now with your books, to transmit the feelings of our oppressed people.

I love you a lot, as always or more.  I am almost with you there, in that cell or barracks, you must hear when I breathe and my heart flutters.  And I am your angel, because those books that you do not know how they arrived, they were mine, I’ve always like to read.  Now I prefer to read yours.

A very big hug, as on that night, at the edge of the sea, when we said goodbye without knowing if some day we would see each other again, I still feel it, our ties have not weakened, and we are still together, as together as on that dark night on which you let me go, with pain, to liberty.

I love you a lot.

A thousand kisses,

Your Mary

*Editor’s note:  This letter was written by Maria to her son Ángel Santiesteban-Prats. We publish it on the blog by express permission of Ángel.

Translated by mlk

11 June 2013

Mystical Poland / Mario Lleonart

To be in Poland on June 4, just when they were celebrating the 24th anniversary of those first partially-free elections, an immediate result of the roundtable returning life to this historic land, was not by chance for me. Nor was the visit to the concentration camps at Auschwitz on June 14, just as the opening day of the site was remembered with horror.

Practically speaking, June 4 opened my visit to this Central European country, and June 14 closed it. When I weigh every minute of what I hope has been my first, but not my last, visit to Poland, I can only conclude that, above all, it was a mystical experience for which God had prepared the way for me.

Now I seem to be awakening from the lethargy I was left with after such a short but intense trip, perhaps prompted by the invitation from our friend Yoani Sanchez this last Friday, the 28th, at 7:00 pm, to debate “Travel and Return,” I will offer in my blog small reflections of the imprints of my journey.

1 July 2013

The Cuban Communist Party and the Workers Central Union / Dimas Castellanos

The XCIII Plenary of the National Council of the Workers Central Union of Cuba (CTC) that recently met under the chairmanship of the Second Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), agreed to postpone the celebration of its XX Congress, create an Organizing Committee and appoint Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento to its leadership.

The postponement of the XX Congress was made so that the newly created Organizing Committee would have more time to organize the event, which has a pending discussion on the Draft of the Labor Code Bill and on the Congress Rules document.

Considering that another Plenary of the National Council of the CTC in which the progress of the organization efforts for the Congress were discussed took place just a month ago, the following questions arise: Why wasn’t the date for the Congress proposed at the time? Why was Carmen Rosa López ratified at the front of the CTC until the celebration of the XX Congress? And why wasn’t the Organizing Committee created during the time of the convening or last month at the Plenary?

The answers seem to be related to the difficulties encountered in the preparatory meetings. If so, doubts point to a poor preparation and to the inability of the Second Secretary of the CTC to reach the goals set by the Communist Party (PCC). This assumption is based on the fact that Carmen Rosa López had been appointed as the head of the PCC until the celebration of the event and had been elected Member of the State Council, which indicated that she was going to be “the chosen one” as Secretary General in the XX Congress. However, surprisingly, she had just been replaced by Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, who was the Secretary General of the PCC in the Province of Artemisa two weeks ago.

The discussion topics, according to the preparatory meetings of the XX Congress, will be related to the economy and represent an unavoidable duty for the CTC and its unions to achieve the conscious mobilization and participation of all workers in the fulfillment of the economic and social policies that were passed in the VI Congress.

Nonetheless, in the preparatory meetings the inadequacies that conspire against what the PCC expects from the union movement were highlighted. By that I mean keeping the CTC as the only labor union under the control of the PCC to ensure support for the implementation of the recent reform Guidelines; for such purpose it would be necessary to enroll all workers under the same union, the CTC, particularly those self-employed from the private sector, who would tend to grow and provide the strength without which reaching the expected results would be impossible.

Some of the criteria expressed during the process shed light on what happened. Salvador Valdés Mesa explained in Matanzas, on March 8th, that even when retirees, state and non-state affiliates, represent three sources of affiliation with different interests, it is the self-employed who are demanding special attention because of the novelty they represent to the union movement. Then later that month,  in the report to the XCII Plenary, Valdés emphasized in the shortcomings faced in the functioning of the organization, in the affiliation of workers and he made a call to combat crime, illegalities and to perfect the workers’ guard service.

Meanwhile in an interview published in Granma on April 27th, Carmen Rosa López said, “We still frequently find in the collective convening of workers that they have not been affiliated because of the shortcomings of our work,” and she also said that in all of the questionnaires and assessments completed this year the statements from the assembly members make reference to wages; which shows that the goals set took a different path from that of the workers’ concerns.

The recurring concerns expressed by the workers show their non-recognition of the unions as representatives of their interests, especially after the statement made by the Workers Central Union (CTC) in September of 2010 in favor of the layoffs, a measure that directly affected workers and their families. The statement said: Our State cannot nor should it continue to sponsor companies, institutions of production and services that are budgeted with inflated payrolls and result in losses that drag down the economy, which is counterproductive, generates bad habits, and distorts the codes of conduct of workers.

To summarize, the main goal of the Congress is to emphasize the performance that is expected from workers by the PCC in the implementation of the Guidelines for reform, not to address their particular problems, such as the insufficient wages and pensions in relation to the cost of living, among others, which has led Cubans to survive on the fringes of the law turning their backs on the so-called ideology while creating a negative attitude that hinders the realization of any social project.

We have to remember that unions in Cuba emerged to defend the interests of workers  when paid work began replacing slave labor; that the labor movement became widespread with the General Law of Associations of 1888 and then with freedoms and rights recognized in the Constitution of 1901; that it showed its strength with the founding of the National Confederation of Workers of Cuba in 1925 and with a general strike in 1933 that toppled Gerardo Machado’s regime; that it achieved the passing of a number of labor laws, including the most important in Cuban labor legislation — Decree 798 of 1938 — which was subsequently endorsed in the Constitution of the Republic; that this development led to the birth of the CTC in 1939; and that joint committees were created to set a minimum wage standard, the terms to the right of collective bargaining and other measures in line with the established by the International Labor Organization.

Therefore, unions became an important sector of Cuba’s civil society to the point that in 1945 the CTC became the second largest trade union in the region with half a million members.

The takeaway is that workers’ participation in programs from the State or a political party, if it takes place, must be based on the interests, needs and decisions of workers themselves, a vital premise to the defense of their own interests.

Therefore, the postponement of the date of the Congress, from November of this year to the first trimester of 2014, has its roots in the conversion of the CTC into an auxiliary organization to the goals of the PCC, resulting in the loss of its independence and leading to the distortion of its original purpose. It is a situation beyond the capabilities of Salvador Valdés Mesa, Carmen Rosa Lópeza, Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento or any other individual appointed to the leadership of  Cuban labor unionism.

The only way out, which depends on a political will so far nonexistent, is not in changing political figures or in modifying documents pending for discussion, it is in the freedom of association. This way the PCC could keep the CTC as an auxiliary organization and allow those workers who do not want to be CTC members to form other labor unions and freely join them. This would also be a response to the remarks and recommendations that were given to Cuba in a recent evaluation by the Human Rights Council of the United Nations.

Published in Diario de Cuba

Translated by Chabeli

3 June 2013

Chance to Meet Cuban LGBT Leaders Wendy Iriepa Diaz and Ignacio Estrada Cepero Today in Miami… BE THERE!

wniindexCuban LGBT leaders Wendy Iriepa Diaz and Ignacio Estrada Cepero will be in Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus this evening. Come meet them and show your support!

WHEN: Tuesday, Jul. 2, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM

WHERE: MDC Wolfson Campus, Room 7128 500 NE Second Ave. Building 7 (first floor of the parking garage located on N.E. 5 St. and 2 Ave).

More information –> click here.

Custom Brushstroke / Regina Coyula

My husband needs alcohol to live. He is not an alcoholic, but being a bit dramatic, he uses it twice a day to inject insulin. He has the equivalent of a pharmacy version of a ration book, popularly known as “the card,” through which his medications are filled and he also gets ten disposable syringes and a 240 ml bottle of alcohol every month.

That’s in theory, because in practice in the time he’s been an insulin-dependent diabetic, the bottle of alcohol has been elusive. So he’s given a pig in a poke, in this case aloe syrup in place of alcohol, but he only realized it a couple of years ago when he came to use it because the bottles are the same.

In April,when Alcides went to buy his medicines, they were out of alcohol again, and on the recommendation of a neighbor, my husband asked for a “diversion.” A diversion is a paper that authorizes you to buy from a pharmacy other than your regular one. It was almost seven at night, and as the diversion was for a pharmacy situated very close to Rafa’s school, Alcides thought it was a good idea for Rafa to go for the alcohol the following day.

Rafa came back empty-handed. The diversion had to be filled the same date as on the paper, they told him at the pharmacy at 23rd and I, so again Alcides went to the neighborhood pharmacy for a new diversion, but please, for the following day.

This was useless, the diversion has to be on the date of the paper as established by the Company, and they can’t give you a paper for the following day because this violates the provisions. Alcides tore up the paper in the pharmacy and ended up buying a 250 ml bottle of alcohol for 3 cucos and 15 chavitos.

This month has been different. Alcides joined the usual line at the busiest time for that diversion; when they served him he couldn’t buy the alcohol because the new manager (there’s always a new manager) had left it locked up. Tremendous disappointment, but it wasn’t the clerk’s fault, so he returned the next day.

Needless to say that having made the line the day before, no excuse for doing it again. With another employee, he asked for the bottle of alcohol. They had it, but he couldn’t have it. The alcohol at the pharmacy was for the colostomy patients. He asked for a diversion but didn’t get it, because the next day it was possible that the medications would come.

I have Alcides own version, so I guess things got worse. The line stopped, Alcides, who is too old to be played with, another employee, trying to appease him, suggested they give him the alcohol for the colostomies. My husband continued to insist that the pharmacy didn’t belong to them, that the alcohol had to be on the shelf with the other drugs, because it’s not meat that spoils and he has the right to his bottle of alcohol.

The employee threatened him with the police, Alcides invited him to make the call to get them up-to-date with the business that has the medications; the employee, making use of the power you have when you have no power, refused to provide the alcohol.

Very picturesque, but don’t tell the story in front of Alcides, because he’s not amused.

1 July 2013