In Cuba, Bread and an Ideological Circus for Jose Marti’s Birthday

The animators of the activity invited children and young people to repeat slogans and sing political songs, although without much success, since most of them were focused on reaching for something to put in their mouths. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 28 January 2022 — “What a way to have bread here!” said a resident of Infanta Street in Central Havana, speaking sarcastically this Friday while waiting to shop at one of the improvised kiosks in Martyrs’ Park where, for the 169th anniversary of the birth of José Martí, the government held a political act accompanied by a food sale.

“I hope they continue to do these fairs, but in the neighborhood bakeries they have a hard time,” added the woman standing on a corner located a short distance from where the teenage Martí was sentenced by the Spanish colony to forced labor in the quarries of Saint Lazarus.

Very early in the morning, the park was decorated with July 26th flags, which had nothing to do with the birth of the national hero, while elementary and high school students were brought to the place to create a supposed crowd that commemorated the date. The animators of the activity invited children and young people to repeat slogans and sing political songs, although without much success, since most of them were focused on reaching for something to put in their mouths.

The main attraction of the celebration was concentrated in two tents where they offered snacks and bags of bread, an increasingly scarce product on the Island where the lack of flour and other ingredients hits production hard. Nor was it enough to be there. Those who wanted to buy had to form a huge line and as soon as the products were sold out, the rest of the crowd left the place.

“The bread is done, the activity is done,” said one of the last attendees to leave Martyrs’ Park, having barely managed to buy two loaves of bread with their corresponding croquettes.

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