English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
In Havana it is a major event, while in the countryside “they have it at hand” 14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 6 March 2025 — Potatoes have just arrived at the rationed markets in Havana and Cubans do not need a town crier to alert them. With bags on their shoulders or carts in hand, … Continue reading “Cubans’ Obsession With Potatoes Takes Over Luyanó Amid Blackout”
Norberto Muñoz was fired from his job as an agricultural worker in Artemisa and had to hand over his cell phone to the Police. 14ymedio, Havana, July 31, 2024 — Filming a video and uploading it to social networks has cost Norberto Muñoz Palomino a fine of 20,000 pesos, his job and the loss of … Continue reading “Fined 20,000 Pesos for Filming and Disseminating on Social Networks the Theft of Potatoes in a Field”
14ymedio, Havana, 21 March 2024 — Local leaders and police officers sprang into action after receiving anguished calls from residents of the Rampa neighborhood in Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution district on Wednesday. The cause: the theft of 1,293 pounds of potatoes intended for roughly 431 residents — a rate of three pounds per person … Continue reading “Authorities in Havana Investigate the Theft of 1,293 Pounds of Potatoes”
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 25 March 2024 — They crane their necks and look, calculating how long before they reach the counter. The streets are damp after the weekend’s heavy downpours and the water seeps through the soles of their shoes. Most of those who got up early today to line up in front … Continue reading “Much Excitement in Havana over the Arrival of the Year’s First Rationed Potatoes”
14ymedio, Havana, 10 January 2024 — The Cuban State will pay more money to farmers this year for every quintal (220 pounds) of potato it buys, a measure whose real benefit – in light of inflation and the difficulty of obtaining agricultural inputs – is difficult to calculate. What will remain stable in 2024, according … Continue reading “The Cuban Government Will Pay Farmers More for Potatoes”
14ymedio, Havana, November 1, 2023 — On Wednesday, the provincial government of Cienfuegos decreed a cap on the prices of food sold in both state and private markets. It is expected that the measure, which does not take into account the abysmal difference between the real cost of the product and that imposed by the authorities, … Continue reading “Cienfuegos, Cuba, Decrees a 75 Percent Reduction in the Prices of Sweet Potatoes, Cassava and Bananas”
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 8 April 2023 – The potatoes have arrived. This sentence, written on a notice and pinned up in a food store or shouted aloud in a yard, is enough to set Cubans onto a war footing. Hunger, shortages, and the possibility of arriving at the back of an interminable queue … Continue reading “The Arrival of Potatoes Disrupts a Havana District During Easter Week”
14ymedio, Madrid, 8 March 2023 — Enfrigo, the state company dedicated to the conservation of cold products, has damaged 206 of its 574 refrigerated storerooms and must dedicate them to warehousing because they no longer refrigerate. The machinery, its directors told the the official Communist Party newspaper Granma this Tuesday, is obsolete and there are no … Continue reading “Cuba: Some 200 Cold Rooms ‘Invented’ by Fidel Castro to Preserve Potatoes are Damaged”
14ymedio, Madrid, 26 January 2023 — The price of potatoes in doubling in Cuba in 2023, as happened the previous year. The Ministry of Agriculture approved a resolution, published this Wednesday in the Official Gazette , which sets the retail price of the tuber at 11 pesos per pound; until now the cost was 5 pesos for fresh and6 … Continue reading “Cubans Will Pay 11 Pesos a Pound for Potatoes, Twice the Current Price”
14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Havana, 5 August 2021 — The photo above is from this Thursday morning and shows the line to buy potatoes in the rationed market near Parque Trillo, in Centro Habana. The image below was taken at a Fair organized by the University Student Federation (FEU) in that same park. The FEU Fair came … Continue reading “In Havana’s Trillo Park an Official Act Cannot Compete With the Line to Buy Potatoes”
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 27 March 2019 — “Between the end of February and April I do ’the harvest of potatoes’,” jokes Jaime, the fictitious name of an illegal seller of the tuber, in conversation with 14ymedio. “Before, I used to sell shrimp and lobster, but this is less dangerous, because despite having to move larger volumes, it … Continue reading “Fewer Potatoes, More Business”
14ymedio, Zunilda Mata, Havana, 23 February 2017 – The unrationed distribution of potatoes, a symbol of Raul Castro’s government, has suffered a big setback. During the quarter of February, March and April, the distribution of potatoes was returned to the ration market throughout the country, with a limit of 14 pounds per person and requiring … Continue reading “Potatoes Return to the Rationed Market / 14ymedio, Zunilda Mata”
14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 25 March 2016 – Expectations soared two weeks ago when Cuban Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura affirmed on national television that the first distribution of potatoes was imminent. This Thursday afternoon the first lines formed at Havana’s markets, in hopes that Good Friday would bring, in addition to a holiday, … Continue reading “Good Friday Potatoes / 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar”
Ivan Garcia, 15 March 2015 — The dirty, dilapidated produce market — its floor covered with red dirt and its shelving rusty — in Cerro’s crowded El Pilar neighborhood is ten minutes by car from the center of Havana. Sandra, a housewife, has spent two nights in line here waiting for potatoes. “At three in … Continue reading “Cuba: Potatoes from the Ration Book (When Available) / Ivan Garcia”
Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 4 February 2015 – Early in the morning Josefina heard on the morning news that Artemisa province had started the potato harvest. She heard that the “planned economy” target was almost 8,800 tons of potatoes and that the harvest would run through the middle of April. Almost intuitively, she looked through the … Continue reading “The potatoes arrived! No more potatoes! / Reinaldo Escobar”
