Long Lived Household Goods

A seller of manufactured household goods rides his bike through the streets of the city of Camagüey offering his merchandise. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Marcelo Hernandez, Camagüey, 9 March 2018 — A skimmer, a skillet or a simple corkscrew became, between the 1960s and the 1990s, pieces of kitchen equipment that Cuban families guarded jealously, due to the lack of their availability in the commercial networks. Any of these household tools was considered a relic to care for and to pass on from parents to children.

With the reopening to the private sector, more than two decades ago, the sellers of glasses, plates, dustpans and even baking dishes returned to the streets. Manufactured and of low quality, these objects have come to fill a void and replace some deteriorated odds and ends that were the stars of the Island’s kitchens for almost half a century.

The most cautious, however, avoid getting rid of their old ladles and can openers. They are afraid that the newly purchased kitchen items will not have such a long lifespan due to their shoddy manufacture or because, as has happened so many times, shortages.

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