14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 28 August 2024 — The boar moves freely through the streets of Luyanó, in Havana. As if he knew that this December 31 his life has been spared – he still has many pigs to fertilize and piglets to see grow – he calmly sniffs the grass on the sidewalks and ignores his owner, who takes him for a walk as if he were a pet.
The scene is almost bucolic – the little terrier runs next to him, the owner greets those he meets – if it weren’t for the pig’s appetite: if he finds a bug he eats it. The problem is when its teeth find a hard shell and a gelatinous mass: it is the Giant African Snail, which has met the most unlikely predator.
The owner doesn’t seem to care. The boar has managed to break the shell and already chews the foot, mucosa and tentacles. On the palate of the strange hunter, the prey is a delicacy and in a few minutes there is no trace of the dangerous mollusk or its beautiful spiral shell.
The dog, perhaps with a sixth sense that tells him what is good for the stomach and what is not, does not interfere. What the boar has just had for breakfast is a highly toxic animal, capable of devouring – if its victim does not move, of course – anything. Its slow invasion of Cuban streets began a decade ago and has only increased. Once circumscribed to rural spaces, they are now the owners of the street.
It is a plague. Cubans dodge them and sometimes destroy their shell, when they are rushing and don’t observe the sidewalk well. However, it is rare that they find a nemesis, as happened this Wednesday with the unfortunate Luyanó snail. In his life, which can reach six years, he collects bacteria, parasites and excrement. The trail left by his slime is far from being harmless.
Without the slightest hint of concern, exhibiting its testicles to the slight Havana breeze, the pig continues on its way. He does not suspect – although his owner should know – that what he has just ingested is practically poison, and that his work as a male to guarantee the continuity of the domestic pigsty is in danger. Maybe, in fact, he doesn’t even face December 31st alive. And not for the usual reasons.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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