Miguel García – Translating Cuba

In the Cuban Province of Holguin, a Town of Potters Lives Outside the Law

Entrance to the community of Cayo de Mayabe, a small town of potters in Holguín. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, 12 November 2023 — The red earth is everywhere. Stuck to the soles of the shoes, tucked between the boards of the houses and also on the bricks that come out of the oven in the Cayo de Mayabe community, a small town of potters who work outside the law and supply most of the bricks for the city of Holguín.

“This is a hard job and living here is even harder,” says Anastasio, one of the first inhabitants of the neighborhood, which was set up at the end of the 1960s. In his family there are now three generations who work in the brick factories that dot the entire area. The reddish color of the terrain has gotten into the skin of his hands and under his nails after decades of work.

In the neighborhood, made up of very low-income people, services are scarce: an elementary school, a doctor’s office, a food point of sale and a bleak park that was only cleaned and painted when State officials visited it. Outside those areas, people can be found in the halls of two evangelical churches, one Pentecostal and one Methodist.

Earth and water are thrown onto the so-called ’step’ and then mixed to form the mass of the bricks. (14ymedio)

In Cayo de Mayabe there are also, currently, about twenty brick factories where potters, from the early hours of the morning, shape the artisanal bricks and bake them. As the day progresses, these places are empty; not a soul peeks out there. Only the tables, the oven and part of the bricks are left. Working very early is vital for avoiding the midday heat and the police.

“They make our lives impossible,” Anastasio tells 14ymedio. “They don’t let us work but everyone knows that this city is built with the brick that comes from this little piece of land,” clarifies the man as he leans over the step, looking at the sinkhole into which the earth is thrown, the water added and the mixture prepared.

“This is a difficult part of the job ,and it takes a lot of effort because you have to grind the soil with a stick and keep it thin,” he explains. “Then you have to form the bricks on those potter’s tables,” he says, pointing to two raised metal vessels where “the hands and skills of the worker are what give quality to the shape and the compactness of the brick.”

A few feet away, an oven that is taller than a man is the next step in this informal manufacture. Once the pieces are baked, they are placed in a pile and sold for 11 Cuban pesos each. “People come here to buy because the continue reading

State does not make or sell bricks anywhere in the city.”

Both Anastasio and Leonel are aware that the holes they dig to extract the soil they need for the bricks affect their environment. (14ymedio)

When the sun starts to rise, the potters slip away and leave the factories empty. “We can’t stay even if we know that they can steal our merchandise, since no one wants to be caught and fined,” the man explains. There are times when they have to leave for long days because there are operations in the area, and when they return, part of their production has been stolen.

The brick factories of Cayo de Mayabe are illegal in the eyes of the authorities because the potters of the community don’t have a self-employment license to carry out this work. A few years ago some of them decided to become official, but shortly after they went back into hiding.

“We had the license and had to pay for it every month, but they didn’t sell us the raw material or allow us to extract it,” says Leonel, a young man who has been working with his father and brother in the family’s business for more than five years. “After a while we gave back the rights, and we continue working under the radar.”

The main material of the artisanal brick is mud, made with the reddish earth of the area, rich in clay. But there is no official place to buy this product, and the authorities prohibit it from being extracted. After a few years of accepting registrations for the potter’s license in the area, the local government closed off that possibility.

The bricks are shaped on the potter’s table. (14ymedio)

“They tell us that they can’t give a license to someone who doesn’t show the legal documents for the earth extractions,” Leonel emphasizes. “But they themselves know that there is no such thing as having it because it is not legally sold anywhere; the only way is by digging and opening up holes.”

When the rights were given to practice the pottery profession in Cayo de Mayabe, self-employed people were prohibited from hiring staff; only members of the same family group could work in the factory. However, then and now, when the work has been absolutely immersed in illegality, those craft workshops are the main source of employment for the locals.

If Cayo de Mayabe was already considered an area of poor people, several groups have emerged in the community with people who migrated from more remote municipalities wearing only what they had on. Over the years and with the departure of the youngest to Havana or abroad, the town’s population has been aging.

“Some 2,500 people live here, and right now the work in the brick factories is getting complicated because there is a lack of young arms,” Leonel acknowledges. “My father is still working with us but he can no longer do the mixing or other hard parts of the process. He’s now in charge of taking care of the people who come to buy the bricks.”

The sale, however, is not going well. The economic crisis that the Island is going through, the lack of fuel to carry the merchandise and the slowdown in tourism have decreased demand. “Sometimes we spend weeks without selling a brick, and that’s very serious because here the brick is what feeds us.”

An oven to bake bricks in the community of potters of Cayo de Mayabe. (14ymedio)

Among the clients that Leonel’s family has, there are people who are renovating or building their home, entrepreneurs in the city who are expanding a private hostel, others who improve a paladar (private home restaurant) or who want to decorate an interior patio with the handmade, reddish pieces. A few non-agricultural cooperatives also bought them “occasionally.”

Both Anastasio and Leonel are aware that the holes they dig to extract the soil for their bricks affect their environment. They cause erosion of the soils, damage to vegetation and water that stagnates in the sinkholes, increasing the risk of the growth and emergence of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, with the consequent danger of dengue fever.

“Where the plant layer of the earth is removed, there are rocks where plants do not grow; nor can cows, goats and horses graze on those lands,” warns the young man. “But what are we going to do? This is what we know, this is how we feed our children. If they don’t sell us the land, we will have to steal it.”

By a rusty swing, in the only park in the community, a young woman threw an inflatable ball to her little son on Tuesday. “Here we lack everything; we don’t even have a bodega (ration store) to shop in. We have to travel two or three miles to get the little sugar and rice they sell us,” she explains to this newspaper.

After leaving the oven, the bricks are stacked for sale. (14ymedio)

The terrible condition of the roads around Cayo de Mayabe complicates the transfer. “The water they pump does not reach here, so we have to take the water from the wells that we have in our courtyards, but we already know that it is not good to drink.” The woman lists her demands: “a butcher shop, a bodega and a place to buy milk,” but clarifies that this is just “to begin with.”

“Here, a year ago, leaders came to visit and even brought some foreigners,” recalls the holguinera. “That’s when we were classified as a prioritized community of social complexity.” In 2022, with great fanfare, they built the park where a mother can go with her child. The weeds and rust go hand in hand where before the painting shone and the officials took photos for the official press.

As the ball goes up and down, a horse cart enters the neighborhood. “It comes to carry bricks,” the woman ventures. The red earth of the area sticks to the wheels, the same earth that feeds the potters of Cayo de Mayabe.

The community of Cayo de Mayabe was founded at the end of the 1960s. (14ymedio)

Translated by Regina Anavy

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An Electricity Pole Miraculously Still Standing Threatens Drivers and Pedestrians in Holguin

The post has been left in disrepair for six years, despite the danger it poses. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, 31 October 2023 – Six years ago, a wagon crashed into an electricity pole on the road the leads to Valle de Mayabe in Holguín. The base of the structure was fractured and the rest of it remained, and remains, in a precarious condition, held up only by luck, and by the cables above it. Countless reports to Unión Eléctrica (UNE) have prompted hardly any visits by technicians and the concrete and steel giant remains broken. There is a constant mortal danger posed to the vehicles and pedestrians which pass below.

The pole – which is only metres away from a bus stop where workers and even local schoolchildren congregate – is a target for residents’ complaints. “This has been the topic of discussion in many many meetings”, Niubis, a local resident told this newspaper. “On one occasion we did have a visit from an Electricity Company rep but all he said was that it didn’t pose any danger because the cables – which are High Voltage! – were stopping it from crashing down!”

The residents didn’t believe the official view. “How can they say it’s all ok? These poles aren’t designed to be supported from above, they need to have a continue reading

solid base”, says the woman. “Many people use this pathway to get to their appointments”, she says, in reference to patients of the nearby Holguín Clinical Surgery Hospital, and adds that there are also people on their way to the affiliated Arístides Estevez Infirmary.

“To watch them, they’re not really aware of the danger. But when someone gets close to it they realise that no part of it is actually fixed into the ground: it has no foundations”, explains Nuibis, and she blames this danger on the apathy of the authorities. “If it were leaning more, or broken higher up maybe our complaint would go further, but as everything around here is always just a question of cosmetics, of optics, the only thing that matters to them is that it looks ok should Díaz-Canel pass by”.

From a distance, the danger doesn’t seem as great as when it’s seen close up. (14ymedio)

“No sooner than another vehicle happens to to give it a nudge, or another cyclone arrives, it’ll come straight down to the ground”, says a local seller of juice and soft drinks. “They haven’t replaced it because they don’t want to. Hundreds of people pass through here every day and they’re risking their lives everytime they get near this pole”. The man believes they’ve deliberately conspired to blame their negligence on the current fuel shortage, which, so often, officials use as a justification for not carrying out necessary repairs.

UNE also alludes to problems in getting hold of new electricity poles, given that production of these items was halted for more than two years in parts of the country. A lack of specialist labour also contributed to the deterioration in maintenance carried out by the state electricity monopoly. The exodus of trained linesmen has grown in recent months – they earn less than 10,000 pesos a month, including the additional ’danger’ payments.

It’s got to a point where locals and regular passers by are just praying that there won’t be a cyclone to bring down the battered pole – or failing that, that some ’illustrious’ visitor is due to pass by, thus obliging them to replace it. For the time being though, it remains a simple question of survival by keeping a careful eye on it and avoiding it as much as possible when travelling on the road to Valle de Mayabe.

Translated by Ricardo Recluso

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With Mobile Phone Internet and Fear of Being Robbed, Cubans Abandon Open-Air Wifi

A man connecting to a wifi hotspot at a park on the corner of Infanta and San Lázaro streets in central Havana. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya and Miguel García, Havana/Holguín, 25 October 2023 — It’s 11:00 AM and the only people to be seen in the park at the corner of Infanta and San Lázaro streets in central Havana are couple of people sitting on a bench and a man with his dog. The scene was very different a few years ago when, all day long, dozens of people were enthusiastically connecting to the wifi hotspot here. Now safety concerns, technical problems and the advent of web browsing on mobile phones has left the benches empty.

Forty-three-year-old Dunia was one of those who spent many hours sitting on a sidewalk curb or in the shadow of the park’s trees. In July 2015, when the first antennas were being installed and the public squares of the Cuban capital were becoming wifi hotspots, this sociology graduate felt like she could finally breathe. Now, she says, “it bears no resemblance” to what it was back then.

On Monday morning the connection speed in the park was barely 270 Kbps (kilobits per second). A little after 1:00 PM, two more people — a man and a woman — arrived and sat down to log on. “It’s no longer like it used to be,” says Dunia of the times when the park was full of people with their eyes glued to their screens.

On Monday morning the connection speed in the park was barely 270 Kbps

“At that point, I almost didn’t know what the internet was. I had only spent a few hours online at a hotel when my brother came to visit us from Madrid and he was staying at the Presidente,” she recalls. “It was all anyone in this neighborhood talked about. Even children in their mothers’ arms were glued to screens to see what they could see.” continue reading

Dunia made her first video call from this hotspot and saw the inside of the Madrid home where her emigré family lives. From here she reconnected via Facebook or Twitter with old friends scattered around the world. And from this corner she shared with her brother the sad news that their mother, who suffered from diabetes, had died.

“We used to spend hours and hours here but I don’t come anymore,” she admits. “Now that we have internet on our phones, I have more privacy and feel safer [connecting] at home. There have been incidents in this park where someone’s phone was snatched or their computer was grabbed while they were logging on.”

In the first year of widespread internet access, official media was filled with headlines praising the new hotspots. Initially, an hour of internet browsing cost 4.50 convertible pesos but Etecsa, the state telecommunications monopoly, kept reducing the price until it was as low as 1.50 pesos.

After years of pressure, Cuban officials finally allowed customers to access the internet from their mobile phones in December of 2018. With the demise of the country’s dual currency system, and along with it the convertible peso, the fee rose to 25 pesos. The technical problems, however, only increased. Since then, the web browsing service has been marked by ups and downs, outages when authorities get nervous about social media posts, deteriorating infrastructure and the exodus of tens of thousands of customers that have left a gaping hole in Etecsa’s balance sheet.

A student using the wifi at Trillo Park in Havana’s Cayo Hueso neighborhood. (14ymedio)

The wifi phenomenon filled Havana’s squares and parks with people, who captured the gaze of photographers, whose images filled the pages of dispatches from the island’s foreign press. Now it seems something is missing on strolls through La Rampa, the park at the interection of San Rafael and Galiano, large stretches of the Malecón, and areas surrounding hotels and important sites. The hundreds of people who once occupied these spaces are gone, a situation that is repeated throughout the country.

The surrounding area is full of MicroTik wireless routers that suck up the signal

“You can’t connect,” complains Julio, who lives near a park in central Holguín. “You get there, you see the network but you can’t log on because there’s no capacity even though there’s not a soul to be found,” he adds. “The surrounding area is full of MicroTiks [a brand of wireless routers] that suck up the signal.”

Savvy businesspeople have saturated the area near the park with these routers, which allows them capture to the signal, amplify it and charge residents for a service they can enjoy from their homes.

“For 500 pesos a month, I can provide you with home-based internet,” says Dany, a Holguín resident whose name has been changed for this article. “It’s much more convenient and less dangerous. But it’s true that, if you want to connect at the park, it’s going to be difficult because we have the signal. It’s rerouted through our equipment, which is more stable and more efficient that Etecsa’s.”

Dany manages a network made up of about twenty Nano and Mikrotik routers. A significant part the city of Holguín’s digital traffic relies on it. “We cannot create capacity where there isn’t any and some days are tough,” he admits. “Etecsa has not expanded the bandwidth of these wifi hotspots, so we have to work with what there is.”

In 2018 Etecsa was talking about more than a thousand wifi hotspots across the island, seeing them as a way to computerize all of Cuban society at twice the speed. Internet users, however, complained about the precariousness of these spaces, the inclement weather that affected the technology when used outdoors, and the threat of crime. They also complained, though less vociferously, that they wanted to be able to consume content that they could not enjoy in public.

When the power goes out, everything shuts down. The park’s antennas turn off and, without electricity, Etecsa’s telephone data towers go dead

With the country’s current energy crisis, blackouts are having a severe impact on Dany and her crew. “When the power goes out, everything shuts down. The park’s antennas turn off and, without electricity, Etecsa’s telephone data towers go dead. So whether you have a Mikrotik or not, you also get disconnected.”

Jessica, a young resident of Sancti Spíritus, notes that, though there is less enthusiasm for them, people still go online at the city’s public hotspots. “They’re downloading movies and TV programs to sell as video entertainment, or to use in their computer or cell phone repair businesses. It’s not crazy like it was before, when everyone was going to the park for wifi. There are those who still use it, not so much for personal reasons but to download big files.”

Jessica believes that the mass protests of 11 July 2021 (’11J’) were the kiss of death for these public hotspots. “They’re seen as threat because they have internet and people are physically congregating there.”

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San Pepper’s Burger, the Holguin Business Raising the Ire of Cuban Officials

The name of the new food service business has irritated some officials. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Natalia Lopez Moya / Manuel Garcia, Havana / Holguín, 12 October 2023 — For decades, chewing gum, corn chips and hamburgers were very much frowned upon by the Cuban government as symbols of American culture. Enjoying these products in public could lead to anything from a reprimand to more severe penalties. Though attitudes have changed a lot since then, some of that resentment remains among the most diehard officials.

A new, privately owned establishment called San Pepper’s Burger* was about to open it doors in the city of Holguín when it got some angry reactions on a government-run news site. An op-ed in Cubadebate criticized the restaurant — basically a hamburger joint — for promoting “a culture which is not our own.” The article’s author goes further, asking, “What happened to fighting the culture war?”

Located on Luz Cabellero Street, between Maceo and Libertad, and next to the José María Ochoa Correa Conservatory of Music, the building has been undergoing repairs for roughly seven years. The renovation process involved some internal structural changes but parts of the original facade, including some colonial-style entrance doors, were preserved to be enjoyed by passersby or people sitting on a bench in the nearby Park of Flowers.

“Word is that its prices will also be high, that the owners will have to recoup their entire investment and that the sign must have cost an arm and a leg”

That corner was very depressed so I’m glad this is going to, at least, revive it somewhat,” says Heidy Laura, a 28-year-old Holguín resident who lives a few yards from the new business. “But word is also that its prices will be high, that [the owners] will have to recoup their entire investment and that the sign must have cost an arm and a leg.” continue reading

“The wings coming out of the hamburger say it all, that the prices will be sky-high,” she jokes. Of course, unlike the author of the critical article, “Market and Culture with an English Accent”, Heidy Laura welcomes the fact that the city of Holguín will have this type of place. “But I’ll have to save all year to eat the cheapest combo on the menu,” she adds.

Cándida, a 61-year-old engineer who is also the young woman’s mother, believes, “This won’t last long because there are a lot of extremists in Holguín.” She believes that, given the critical article in the official press, it is very likely that the owners will change the name or delay the opening. “The thing is that people here carry a lot of ideological baggage and it’s very difficult to let go of that.”

Cándida remembers that the first hamburger she ate in public was in the late 1980s. “It was when Fidel Castro decided to open some cafes to sell the famous Super-Zas. On the face of it, it looked like a McDonald’s burger. Until then, saying that you wanted to sink your teeth into a hamburger with a bun, sesame seeds, mustard and cheese was like admitting you were a counter-revolutionary,” she says.

“So far, there’s been nothing in the local press about it I’ve but I have heard about some party members complaining about the English name because they say it sounds capitalist to them”

The new, privately owned establishment, which is next door to the state-run restaurant 1545 and the Benny Moré Room, “has raised the ire of people in the Communist Party,” says another Holguín resident who prefers to remain anonymous. “So far, there’s been nothing in the local press about it but I’ve heard about some party members complaining about the English name because they say it sounds capitalist to them.” The man notes that, until now, the building has always been used as a residence and that it probably will not open until next month because the furniture layout is still being worked out and the exterior in particular needs some more work.

“If you’ve already put a sign on the facade, it’s because you’re about to open. People walk by and take photos,” he says. “It’s quite large. It takes up half of one side of the block. It used to have a big inner courtyard but it looks like that part of the house has been roofed over and will have tables in it.”

The man shares his concerns about how high the prices might be given what he has seem with other privately owned businesses. “There are differing opinions in Holguín. Many people can’t afford those places but others are glad to have the option,” he says.

The rhetoric surrounding San Pepper’s Burger extends even to preservation of Holguín’s architectural heritage and the impact the recent changes have had on the urban fabric. The house, one of the oldest in the city still standing, was originally the residence of Fr. Antonio Santiesteban, and later of master builder José María del Salto y Carretero, according to experts consulted for this article.

“I don’t like how they’ve remodeled it. They’ve changed the original shape of the roof and now there’s almost nothing left of the colonial style,” complains Juan Ramón, another local resident who believes the city is losing too many historic buildings this way. “They’ve added too many modern elements that are not a good fit for this area.”

Young people, on the other hand, are optimistic that the it will become a popular gathering spot. The nearby Conservatory of Music, its central location and the dearth of public spaces suggest that the new business could become a place in high demand. Ultimately, price will be the determining factor but so will the quality of the ingredients.

“I don’t like how they’ve remodeled it. They’ve changed the original shape of the roof and now there’s almost nothing left of the colonial style,” complains Juan Ramón

“Will the hamburgers be made of beef or pork?” asks Javier, a rancher from Holguín’s Calixto García district. The cattleman describes the problems that the sector is having and the challenges of insuring a stable supply for a restaurant like this. “Will they be importing the product from abroad? Unless they do that, I see them having big problems.”

The theft of livestock, the lack of pasture land and the shortage of supplies and equipment — for example, wire for building fences and hydraulic pumps to provide water to the animals — have led to a significantly smaller livestock population. “Conditions here don’t allow anyone to sell high-quality meat on a consistent basis,” Javier says.

In July, the officials from the Ministry of the Interior arrested three people in the Martillo neighborhood, which is also in Calixto García, as they were transporting 200 pounds of beef on two motorcycles. According to official sources, they had allegedly obtained the meat through theft and the illegal slaughter of cattle.

For her part, the Cubadebate columnist warns that the problem is not the hamburgers — “they are not the enemy,” she writes — and does not want some “extremist commentator” misinterpreting her criticisms.

*Translator’s note: This article was written earlier than, but translated after, the linked article which speaks to the fate of the enterprise.
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Cuban Business Owner Does in Months What the State Didn’t Do for Years

Local residents say the business has reinvigorated the neighborhood. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, October 18, 2023 — A motorcycle zips by as a horse-drawn carriage makes its way on the other side of road. The sunlight glistens off the asphalt which is, quite surprinsingly, flawless, without a pothole or a crack. The owner of the nearby privately owned company, Super Rapido CG, invested in repairs to the street in front of his business so that it would not pose a danger to motorists. The money to restore more than a kilometer of roadway in the San Rafael section of Holguín came out of his own pocket.

“The man has revived the neighborhood,” says Georgina, a 76-year-old housewife who for decades watched the area around her deteriorate. Now hopeful, she closely follows the efforts of Amauris Gonzalez Parra, owner of the Super Rapido CG, who is changing the face of the neighborhood. “Not only did he fix the road here but several new businesses have opened thanks to this. The place is always full of customers.”

She points to a wide patio covered with a blue tarp where Gonzalez Parra, his two children and his employees wait on customers coming to pick up the shipments that relatives overseas have bought for them on the company website. On Monday, the place was bustling as workers behind the counter hurriedly fetched merchandise. continue reading

On Monday, the place was bustling as workers behind the counter hurriedly fetched merchandise

“Every month my brother buys me a supply of food, soap, cooking oil and detergent. It’s convenient for me come here to come here to pick it so we don’t need home delivery,” says 30-year-old Luis Angel, one of the dozens of people in the store at noon. Three coolers display soft drinks, beers and juices of different types and sizes.

“Amauris has helped his congregation a lot. He’s a Jehovah’s Witness and this is close to Kingdom Hall, the temple his family attends, says Luis Angel. “He has a very big heart. If a ’brother of faith’ gets sick, he provides food and other types of support. He has also given jobs to many of them.”

Although official resentment of Jehovah’s Witnesses has decreased significantly in recent years, it is still difficult for them to find work in strategically important sectors such as tourism. The prejudices that led to decades-long workplace discrimination have not been completely erased, which is why Gonzalez Parra’s gesture is so greatly appreciated by his community.

Luis Angel points out the the residents of San Rafael still find it odd that a private citizen had to pay to fix the road. It leads to two facilities — a slaughterhouse and an egg warehouse — belonging to Holguín Poultry Company. It also leads to Frutas Selectas, a division of the Silo Company, as well as to the main provincial warehouse of the all-powerful Cimex corporation, a business conglomerate run by the Cuban military.

To repair the road, Gozalez Parra hired a state-owned firm, Engineering Construction Company No. 17, from Holguín. (14ymedio)

“The highway was torn to pieces during all that time but none of those state companies lifted a finger or donated any resources so that delivery trucks didn’t have to constantly dodge potholes,” says Luis Angel. “With all the money they make, they didn’t invest a single peso to prevent accidents or improve the safety of their employees going to and from work. This businessman did in a few months what the state failed to do for years.”

To repair the road, Gozalez Parra hired a state-owned firm, Engineering Construction Company No. 17, from Holguín. Although the terms of the contract were not made public, many in San Rafael claim he paid seven million pesos for the repair work. They also claim he insisted on being onsite to insure the work was being done properly and with the required amount of asphalt.

In October of 2022, 50-year-old Octavio Almaguer Ricardo lost his life along the same stretch of highway when the motorcyle he was riding hit a pothole, throwing him off the vehicle. He suffered severe head trauma and multiple fractures in one leg.

“Holguín and Cuba are full of potholes like this, some even worse than this. What is the point of the license plate tax, the tax we pay to use the roads in Cuba? How many more lives will be lost due to the poor condition of Cuban roads?” asks an outraged cousin of the deceased on social media.

That bleak scenario has changed. Not only has the roadway in front of Super Rapido CG been repaired but stalls selling prepared food have popped up. Drivers also prowl the street looking for customers who want to be ferried with their purchases to a nearby town. And there is no shortage of vendors selling everything from freshly brewed coffee to cold beer.

The Super Rapido CG website points out that the company’s online operation is based in Hialeah, Florida. It provides both U.S and Cuban telephone numbers which customers can call if they any questions. Business at the Holguín location has been growing so rapidly that Gonzalez Parra decided to buy the house next door in order to expand.

A bit over a hundred yards away, the family has a farm at which it is installing walk-in coolers to store merchandise. They will also be opening an ice cream parlor on their property as well as a store with a bakery and sweet shop. Customers will be able to move effortlessly between the current property and the new operations as “if they were in another country because this road is like glass,” jokes a neighbor.

Super Rapido CG has been growing so quickly that Gonzalez Parra decided to buy the house next door in order to expand. (14ymedio)

Local residents can also buy directly from the store. One woman with a small child in her arms is trying to decide whether or not to get some bars of soap. “The prices are high,” she says,” but no other privately owned store in Holguín is as well-stocked or has such a wide variety. Several containers of merchandise get delivered here every week so you can buy with confidence. It never fails.”

Using three vehicles from a fleet of two late-model Peugeots and three electric tricycles, the company delivers purchases by Cuban emigrés to their families in Holguín. Super Rapido also carries footwear, clothing, household goods and home appliances. A WhatsApp group keeps customers up to date on the latest offerings and announces special combos and sales.

Even state-run media has been enthsiastic about the privately owned company. In September, local televesion broadcaster Telecristal praised Super Rapido, describing it as “today’s undisputed leader in the import of essential products in the eastern part of the country.”

The broadcaster detailed the contents of various shipments delivered to the store in late August: “assorted chicken parts, ground meat, detergent, cooking oil, jam and other products.” The report described the entrepreneur’s work as “effective business management with nations such as the United States, Panama, Spain and Poland as well as with companies from other countries with whom he maintains commercial ties.”

Telecristal also commended the fact that the privately owned business counted among its clients state-owed companies such as nickel industry subsidiaries, hotel chains, retail and food-service establishments, and even the Cimex corporation, the same conglomerate that for years did not spend one centavo to repair the San Rafael highway, the one that now seamlessly runs past Gonzalez Parra’s operation.

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Following Criticism from Cuban Officials, the Sign for San Pepper’s Burger in Holguin is Removed

On Friday morning, nearby residents noticed the colorful letters and the cute image of a hamburger with wings were missing. (14ymedio)

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, 13 October 2023 — The sign on the facade of San Pepper’s Burger, a private establishment which was about to open in the city of Holguín, lasted less than a week. On Friday morning, nearby residents noticed the colorful letters and the cute image of a hamburger with wings were missing. “We saw it coming,” said a resident of the zone, alluding to the attack on the business last Tuesday on the state-run site Cubadebate, where they reproached the establishment for selling “a culture that is not ours.”

On Thursday, 14ymedio published an article which included testimonies of people from Holguín who offered their opinions on the diner, its name and the impact its opening could have on the depressed food service scene in the city. “No one knows what happened because it’s been closed all day, but rumor on the strees is that the owner got scared,” said an old lady who lives in the area near Parque de las Flores located right in front of the private business.

With what that sign must have cost and the effort they went through to put it up, no one believes that they now removed it for anything other than pressure by the extremists.

“With what that sign must have cost and the effort they went through to put it up, no one believes that they now removed it for anything other than pressure by the extremists,” said the woman. The renovated facade, painted yellow with its blue colonial doors, seemed to be missing something today after the establishment’s name disappeared. “People used to come all the way over here to take pictures and the kids were taking selfies with the wings in the background, as if they were coming out of their head,” added Paco, a frequent visitor to the park. continue reading

As of yet, the local press has not mentioned the matter and the question that Cubadebate’s writer posed in her article has already been answered. Faced with the question of “what happened with fighting the culture war” the facade is now bare and one sign no longer lights up the night in Holguín.

“People used to come all the way over here to take pictures and the kids were taking selfies with the wings in the background, as if they were coming out of their head,” added Paco, a frequent visitor to the park. (14ymedio)

Translated by: Silvia Suárez

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Adulterated Coffee in Short Supply for Cubans; Premium, Organic Coffee for Export

14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, 14 October 2023 — A stain on the wall reminds Nury that not only does rationed coffee taste worse and worse but it can be dangerous too. “They’ve added so many things to it that it clogged* the coffee pot while it was brewing. Luckily, I was in the room at the time,” she says. Despite the risks, this 57-year-old Holguín resident misses the coffee, which local stores have not been able to carry for months.

Nury’s days of going without her morning shot could end if Holguín’s Reynerio Almaguer Paz coffee roaster lives up to its managers’ promise. This week, company director Rider Juan Sanchez Hijuelos told state media that the factory was able to resume production after it received a delivery of raw materials. He added that its ¡Hola!-brand coffee would not only be in Holguín by October 25 but in Granma and Las Tunas as well.

“And what about the coffee we were supposed to get months ago? Why haven’t we gotten any since June?” asks Nury. Sanchez Hijuelos has made it clear that, to his regret, back orders will not be filled because the shortage of raw materials does not allow it. Residents in the east of the country, where the coffee shortage is most acute, have had to get it on the black market or make do with infusions of one sort or another.

And what about the coffee we were supposed to get months ago? Why haven’t we gotten any since June?

“Orange leaves, lemongrass, wild oregano — for months we’ve been brewing everything except coffee,” says Nury. Those with family members overseas have rediscovered the joys of coffee unadulterated by roasted peas, a common additive on the island. “The other day I was at a neighbor’s house and she offered me a little cup of La Llave [from the United States]. I almost licked the bottom of the cup because I had forgotten just how good coffee could taste,” says the Holguin native. continue reading

Difficulty importing peas has been one of the reasons production of ¡Hola! has ground to a halt. Raquel Vingut Ceballos, director of the Coffee Roasting and Distributing Company in Ciego de Ávila province, urges patience. She reports that five tons of peas have already been delivered, which will allow the company to meet its October quota.

“And what about the coffee we were supposed to get months ago? Why haven’t we gotten any since June?” asks Nury. (14ymedio)

In response to the crisis, Vingut Ceballos has been issued coffee from the strategic state reserve, a stockpile that is supposed to be used only in an emergency situation. A mixture of 50% coffee and 50% chicory, it is one item in a basket of staple products that Cubans may purchase with their ration books. The coffee harvest will begin in November but few have have any hope that it will alleviate the current situation considering that some portion of it will end up on the international market.

Meanwhile, thousands of kilometers from Nury’s house and the Vingut Ceballos offices, Lavazza — one of the most prestigious coffee brands in the world — was rolling out its new premium organic coffee, Reserva de Tierra Cuba. A blend of coffee beans from different regions, it is being marketed to the hospitality industry.

The coffee harvest will begin in November but there is little hope that it will alleviate the current situation

“With Cuban music playing in the background, Lavazza’s best baristas brew the product in full view of attendees [at a company event in Madrid on October 10]. The flavor and aroma of the Island’s coffee captivates the restaurateurs, distributors and food lovers. And no wonder since it offers a contemporary, sustainable, quality coffee experience that perfectly embodies our values of social and environmental responsibility,” the company press release boasts.

The statement details the product’s origins when, back in 2018, “the Lavazza group launched a sustainable development program” in collaboration with several institutions and local authorities to revive coffee cultivation in the country and restore the quality of Cuban green coffee. The company acknowledges that Cuban coffee growing has been drastically curtailed but attributes the drop in production not to the exodus of producers, government credit defaults or the lack of investment but to an outbreak of rust disease.

“The final result is La Reserva De ¡Tierra! Cuba, made from beans grown by 170 farmers in the provinces of Santiago and Granma.” To further tease the palate, the statement notes that it is made up of 65% specially washed Arabica Turquino, 25% washed Robusta and 10% fermented Robusta, which the company claims makes the final product “sweeter and more elegant.”

And no wonder, as it offers a contemporary, sustainable, high-quality coffee experience that embodies the company’s values of social and environmental responsibility

The resulting cup has a “velvety body with notes of almond, milk chocolate and the sweet aftertaste of wine,” nothing like dry, grassy flavor and grainy texture of the product that rationing has forced on the island’s consumers.

Lavazza claims that its collaboration with Cuba “protects farmers, promotes the role of women and young people, and helps the environment in terms of forest conservation and the exchange of good agricultural practices.” It adds it has provided specialized training to farmers and local producers “in the implementation of a controlled fermentation process during part of the Robusta harvest.”

Meanwhile, back on the island, many people are counting the days until ¡Hola! is back on the shelves. When brewing it, though, they’d better keep a safe distance from the coffee pot.

*Translator’s note: “Additives” used to stretch the coffee often clog the stove-top espresso pots, which then are prone to explode in Cuban kitchens.

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