Translating Cuba

A drop slid down my leg, I maneuvered it into the hollow between my ankle and my shoe and did a thousand pirouettes so my high school classmates wouldn’t notice. For months, my family had had only mineral oil for cooking, thanks to pharmacist relative who was able to sneak it from his work. I remember it heating to a white foam in the pot and the food tinged with the golden color of a photograph, ideal for food magazines. But our bodies could not absorb that kind of fat, made for creating lotions, perfumes or creams. It passed right through our intestines and dripped, dripped, dripped… My panties were stained, but at least we got a break from food that was just boiled, and could try another, slightly roasted.

We were quite fortunate to have that semblance of “butter” that someone stole for us, because in the nineties many others had to distill engine oil for use in their kitchens. Perhaps that’s why we Cubans are traumatized by this product extracted from sunflowers, soybeans or olives. The price of a quart of oil in the market has become our own popular indicator of well-being versus crisis, in the thermometer that takes the temperature of scarcities. With an ever shrinking culinary culture, from Pinar del Rio to Guantanamo, most stoves know only recipes for fried foods. Hence, pork fat, or buttery liquids with high-sounding names such as “The Cook” or “Golden Ace,” prove essential in our daily lives.

When, a few days ago — with no prior warning — the price of vegetable oil in hard currency stores rose by 11.6%, the annoyance was very strong, even more so than when fuel prices rose. Many of us don’t have cars to show us that convertible pesos are continually turned into less and less gasoline, but we all face a plate every day where the prices of staple foods have soared. That this happens with no accompanying public protest, no discontented housewives raising a ruckus beating on their pots and pans, no long articles in the press complaining of the abuse, is harder to swallow than a meal with no fat. I’m more embarrassed by this tacit acceptance of rising prices than I was of the thread of mineral oil snaking down my calf before the mocking eyes of my classmates.

Fantastic! In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the declaration of socialism and for its continuity. Thus says the propaganda, lately, that saturates the programming of the already politically overloaded national television.

But, as if this were not enough, for more than a month those of us who live around the famous Plaza of the Revolution, have been faced with the ongoing power outages, street closures, traffic diversion, loudspeakers in the early hours, volleys, etc., all due to the rehearsals to make the military parade media-perfect.

The only good thing that we draw from this is that the main avenues and side streets around the perimeter of the area of the parade, have been and are being paved, and we only had to wait fifty-two years for that long awaited dream to become reality. Now, you have to walk in the street, dodging all the dangerous traffic, in order not to break your face by walking on the broken sidewalks. Which makes us think, optimistically, that we’ll only have to wait another fifty years for this mess, as we say in good Creole, to be fixed up as well. Maybe this also has something to do with celebrating the achievements and continuation of what they brag about so much.

April 3 2011

Salty or sweet. Dark or medium roasted. Havana wouldn’t be the same without the peanut sellers. Eating peanuts is a major way to spend more than an hour waiting at one of Havana’s crowded bus stops.

The cucurucho (paper cone) cost one Cuban peso (five cents U.S.) and on any central street, children’s park, and at the exits of hospitals and schools, you can find men and women selling the popular seed.

Almost none pay taxes. René, a state inspector, says that the peanut distributors could be classified as “ambulatory food sellers,” according to the bureaucratic jargon, and so they are included in the authorized self-employment list of activities. “But for the moment we’re not interested in collecting taxes,” he says grimly.

It’s a business with few benefits. “It costs. From a pound of peanuts I make 24 cones and get about 12 Cuban pesos. If you take into account the salt and the sheets of paper I have to buy for the cones, I earn less,” says David, a skinny gentleman who usually sells peanuts on the Havana corner of Acosta and Diez de Octubre streets.

In the farmers markets, a pound (less than half a kilo) of peanuts cost between 8 and 14 Cuban pesos, since the start of the year. There are sellers, like David, who prepare cones full of hot peanuts nicely roasted.

Inocencia, an occasional seller at Fraternity Park, gives cones barely full without salt and burnt. “Grandma, you have the worst peanuts,” the students say. The old woman, unperturbed, answers, “Child, for a peso you can’t expect more.”

Rodolfo, another manisero, said that on a good day he earns between 80 and 100 pesos (3 or 4 dollars). “On average, twelve hours I’m walking from one place to another selling peanuts. This is a business of pennies. And poor people. At times the police harass us. But lately, they don’t bother us. ”

At a time when the private work has expanded, the peanut vendors do not appear explicitly among the 178 offices authorized to work for themselves. Maybe the state recognizes that these people, mostly elderly, live below the poverty line and earn lower profits. Just enough to survive.

“Either way, I don’t trust them. Even the fortuneteller, pet groomers and public toilet attendants are paying taxes. No doubt they’ll decide to include us,” said Suraima, a mother of five children selling peanuts at the P-10 bus stop.

Peanuts have always been a popular food on the island. In times gone by the sellers offered them in cans with burning coals in the bottom, to keep them hot. Now they no longer proclaim, “Peanuts, the peanut seller is leaving…”

The peanut sellers formed part of the Havana landscape. So much so that the prominent musician Moises Simons (Havana 1889-Madrid 1945) in 1928 composed El Manisero, one of the most famous Cuban songs of all time, with more than 160 versions. Among them, those of Trio Matamoros, Rita Montaner, Bola de Nieve and Antonio Machin.

Eating peanuts while waiting for the bus and talking about baseball or watching a soap opera, or on the Malecon or at the movies, has become a Capital routine. After eating them, people throw the cones on the public street. A bad custom. Though the trash can is in sight.

Note: This article was written two weeks ago, when Ivan didn’t imagine that the ex-president Jimmy Carter wold visit Havana and much less that he would meet with dissidents, those who gave him a gift of peanuts. In my blog (http://taniaquintero.blogspot.com) you can find an investigation from two years ago about the Cuban composer Moisés Simons, author or El Manisero (Tania Quintero [Ivan’s mother who manages his blog from her exile in Switzerland]).

March 31 2011

In real politics what the media reports is important. But even more crucial still is what is not said. Jimmy Carter’s three days in Havana seems to suggest that Barack Obama’s administration asked the ex-president of the United States serve as a mediator with the riffraff for the Jewish contractor Alan Gross, sentenced to 15 years in prison for trying to set up computer systems and parallel communications not authorized by the Cuban regime.

In fact, in addition to his meetings with leaders and officials, the Catholic Church and the Jewish community and a group of dissidents Carter was allowed to visit and talk to the beleaguered Gross, 61.

In the political world, Carter is a well-known old man. Carter is an old world politics. Has intervened in a number of global conflicts and monitored various plebiscites in nations barely beginning to follow democratic rules. In 2002 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

It is true that during his tenure (1977-1981), at the height of the Cold War period, he suffered the setback of the hostage crisis in Iran, which cost him his re-election, and that Fidel Castro, despite concessions from the U.S. president to relax the economic embargo and to establish, in Havana and Washington, “interest offices” — in lieu of embassies — which paved the way for short-term dialogue between the two nations, Fidel did not know or did not want to know, how to grasp the opportunities offered by Carter.

Of course, at that time, the one and only comandante felt strong. It was the time when the former USSR injected the local economy with billions of rubles and endowed the Cuban military with the latest in conventional weapons. Castro cavalierly ignored the offer of Jimmy Carter. And he carried on with his war plans in Africa. Fidel Castro is one of those to blame for the fact that the unjust embargo remains in place .

Nobody denies the ethics and honesty of the bombproof Carter. Nor his desires for a better world. One might think that is naive. At some stage he was called ‘Carter the fool’, for putting his wishes of peaceful coexistence to real politics. But in any event, he is someone who deserves respect. On his second visit to Havana, he learned to please everyone. It is not easy.

He agreed with the Cuban government on the issue of the release of five men jailed in the U.S. and ending the embargo. But he maintained his democratic principles, calling for respect for freedom of expression and association.

He met with figures of the two political camps. As in his first visit in May 2002, Carter could not be manipulated by autocrats who govern the destiny of Cuba. What he said is what he thinks. Public statements aside, Carter had a mission. Negotiate the release or possible exchange of Alan Gross.

Outside this topic, little more can be achieved. And Carter knows it. It would be very pretentious to think that the ex-president of the United States can drive serious and thoughtful dialogue between the opposition and the government.

Although he is already 86 years old, he could try. Either way, it went well with all parties. Castro listened to the music they love. Freedom for their imprisoned spies and once and for all an end to the ancient embargo, and letting 5 million gringo tourists come to spend their dollars on the island of olive green.

Nor did Carter’s guests from the opposition feel themselves to be nobodies. They expressed their views in brief exchanges with the former president. And Carter mentioned on state television the right to freedom of speech and association of those who think differently.

As in 2002, the visit of ex-leader had little influence on the future economic and political changes that Cuba is crying out for. It is striking how the Castro government can discuss any topic with people from the United States while it covers its ears and furiously suppresses internal dissent.

One point the democrats on the island make is valid. I suspect that even the day that the U.S. repeal the embargo and normalize relations, the government will always have on hand a good excuse to stop the changes.

Leaving the Castro brothers with no arguments is a difficult task. We, the local opposition, have to roll up our sleeves and demand a face to face dialogue with the regime. The problems of Cuba are an issue that concerns everyone. And only we can make it happen. People like Carter are not going to solve it. It hasn’t come to that.

April 3 2011

CITY OF THE BLIND STARRING OLPL AGAIN…!, originally uploaded by orlandoluispardolazo.

March 23 2011

RAZONES CIUDADANAS 2.0, originally uploaded by orlandoluispardolazo.

Coming up next week…!

April 1 2011

VOCES-7 YA EN EL TINTERO (Y SAL/PICA…)!!!, originally uploaded by orlandoluispardolazo.

April is not the cruelest month, because the Cuban blogosFREEa of the little island is launching missiles and missives from the audiovisual to full color to the plain text in black and white…

April 1 2011

March 29 2011

.

Ingredients:

3 eggs, from the bodega.

1-1/4 C. powdered milk, sold door-to-door.

1-1/4 C. yogurt, sold door-to-door.

1 C. of white sugar from the ration book.

1 T. of vinegar from the farmers market.

1/2 tsp. of salt from the neighbor.

Directions:

Pour three whole eggs into a bowl.

Add the powdered milk, yogurt, sugar, vinegar and salt.

Stir and strain all. Pour into a mold you’ve put caramel in beforehand.

Cover and leave on medium heat for about 50 minutes.

Check that poor Marie’s* water does not evaporate.

The cake will be ready when you stick a toothpick, or whatever you have at hand into the middle, and it comes out clean.

Let it cool before inverting the cake onto a plate.

Serves many people, depending on the appetite of the guests.

*Translator’s note: A bain-marie (also known as a water bath) is a French term used in cooking in which a smaller container is filled with the substance to be heated or cooked and fits inside the outer container, usually filled with water.

April 1 2011

“Man in the Clouds ” is my personal blog. My expectations are based on fulfilling the natural mandate of God to live and express myself as a rational social being, like any creature with free will. I believe my right to think and share my thoughts is a universal inalienable right. I am open to sharing, in this sense, works that are literary, informative and of a diverse nature, including from other authors when appropriate.

I have not the slightest chance of regular access to the internet, not even to email. I cannot read, much less moderate, the comments that readers leave on my site, though the latter doesn’t interest me. Although I would like to post more often, it’s impossible for the same reason.

Opening this blog and making my thoughts “visible” has had a very high cost to me in my “real” life in Cuba, in an inland area and a province where there is no tradition of this kind of independent action. For now, I will not describe the consequences. Suffice it to say that certain defamatory comments, certain personal attacks, are only the tip of the iceberg that weighs on me and my family.

I believe I can summarize the human dignity offered by Christ as an ethical basis in which I aspire to remain firm, a consistent being. And, as I myself expect, in this blog I can expect my work to be censored and must adjust to that.

I have never belonged to any political organization.

I belong to my family, period.

As an intellectual, the cloud I am in is just as easy: literature, freedom, and the agony of living inclined to goodness and truth.

Although tomorrow I could feel myself destroyed, reduced to less than dust, whatever happens, whatever is said, whatever is done to me, I believe that the clouds or the beauty in which I rest my thoughts will not let me contradict myself.

March 31 2011

Congratulations, mum…!

Don´t be afraid, please.

Resist just a little more now.

There is light at the end of the nightmare…

I promise I will take a little more care!

Landy

[Translator: This is one in a series of posts]

The silence of the Ministry of Health was considered to show “profound lack of respect and to be almost an insult to this group of workers who were honest enough to draw attention to the harsh reality that knocks at the door every day and circles overhead.”

“The very same worker who at the most crucial and darkest hour of the Special Period remained at his post on no more than US$3.00 a month, thus ensuring that post was worthwhile, and who deserves to feel that his opinions are taken into account” they added.

“Despite the fact that justice is the supreme ideal of the Revolution, the salaries our workers currently receive, even after decades of effort and commitment, are not fair or proportionate, when other state sectors are being paid several times more. This situation flies in the face of the Marxist principle: …’to each according to his work’.

Doctors also warned that their concerns were “just the tip of the iceberg; the problem itself is far more controversial and deep-rooted and will never be resolved through soothing remedies or small wage increases. We can just provide this timid warning: those who have ears, listen. Reality is much harsher than any words and even though it may hurt, it is too big for any speech.

March 21 2011

[Translator’s note: This is one of a series of posts…]

According to what the doctors argue in their second letter, they are now “flying the flag on internationalism” through medical collaborations abroad, thanks to health professionals and technicians who stay on the island and take on “the work of those who have been sent on missions.”

“One doctor has to cover the work previously done by 3 or 4 colleagues, and there are cases where it is even more dramatic, all this while trying to deliver the same level of care to the patient and receiving in exchange the same salary they received before,” they argue.

The doctors state that their internationalist colleagues “receive several hundred dollars a month” and return to the island to “a monthly stipend that is completely negligible under existing circumstances.”

March 21 2011