True Truths / Fernando Dámaso

The weight of the measures implemented beginning this month will fall, as always, on the tired shoulders of the citizens, responsible for the mistakes and blunders of their leaders. In recent days, official rhetoric has not stopped insisting that the decision to eliminate state paternalism, the subsidies and the products in the so-called basic basket, and the end of egalitarianism, all of that, is caused not because people don’t work as they should, waiting with their beaks open like little chicks, and the current chaotic situation. These absurdities, strange as it seems, are entirely the responsibility of the government, which is the one which established them.

It’s necessary to delve more deeply to find the real truth in all this because, as we know, half-truths are not true. The paternalism has never really been such: after appropriating to the government all the resources, all the companies and businesses, from a central sugar refinery to the shoeshine chair, the citizens were converted into employees of the sole owner (the state), with miserable salaries (currently 240 dollars per year on average) and without any rights to protest. The original output distributed, by way of government handouts, was a fraction of what was looted, under the guise of protecting the state.

For years, the subsidies of products come from what was left, and what workers didn’t receive for their work, as well as the appropriation of other income. For example doctors and other professionals who are sent to work abroad, receive only a quarter of what the countries where they work pay Cuba for their services, leaving three-quarters to the state. With this they also subsidize health and education and social services.

The theme of egalitarianism reminds me of an old joke: Everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others. Furthermore, patterns of poverty have been established, which is where only the we common men are equal.

All these cyclical expansions and contractions, with which we have been duped for over fifty years, do not add much real change of the current situation, but may serve as popular entertainment for a few months.

January 8 2011

Brand-Name Dressing / Iván García

In Cuba there are two types of citizens. Those who can enter the elegant boutiques and buy brand-name clothing and those who have to content themselves with pressing their noses against the window panes.

In many cities of the world, December is the month for reductions. In Havana it’s not. In 2010, in a circular to the managers of the hard-currency stores, the articles to be discounted are enumerated for the year-end.

It’s not a cause for fireworks, but it’s something. Waiting for this day, Yuliet, 25 years old, a hotel employee, goes to the Comodoro complex of shops, located in the west of Havana, to look at the price of a pair of dresses with the Mango label.

“If I don’t find what I’m looking for, I’ll go to Zara, to see what they are selling,” she says while she checks the merchandise, all very expensive.

The prices are abusive. A pair of good tennis shoes for a little girl can easily cost 50 dollars. And if they are Adidas, Nike, Puma, Levi’s or Guess, they can be close to or more than 100 dollars.

Obispo Street, in old Havana, is full of hard-currency shops. Román, 43 years old, a teacher, shakes his head when he sees the prices in a leather store.

“This is the last straw. I need a pair of shoes to be a witness at a friend’s wedding, and I have only 40 dollars. I’ve spent 7 hours going to all the shops. I liked the ones made of Italian leather, but they cost 120 dollars,” he said, disillusioned.

To buy something good in Cuba is a mission impossible. Nothing is cheap when you have to pay in a type of money that you don’t receive when you get paid (the average salary on the island is 12 dollars per month).

In addition to clothing and shoes, in order to buy certain articles of food and cleaning products, you have to pay in Cuban convertible pesos or CUCs, the Cuban hard currency.

And everyone knows that hard currency comes from the USA, the “enemy” territory of Fidel Castro. Also from Europe and Latin America. There are Cubans sprinkled in half the world.

Although dollars and euros are a rare commodity for 40 percent of Cubans who don’t have access to hard currency, the prices for clothing and shoes have gone up by 30 percent in the last five years.

Add to this that the Castro government taxes hard currency between 12 and 18 percent, a casino for the State. Without counting investments, this “revolutionary tax” (instituted by Castro in October 2004), brings in about 600 million dollars annually.

This isn’t the only one. There’s a tax on products in the “shoppings,” the hard-currency stores, that sometimes exceeds 240 percent. This doesn’t prevent artists, intellectuals, musicians and high-class prostitutes from buying brand-name clothing and shoes without looking at the prices. They don’t even blink when it comes time to pay.

They are in the minority. The majority have to write down the telephone number of their families in Miami, Madrid or Rome. Or risk their hides in some black-market negotiation that will give them a good profit.

Since 1959, Cubans have had the custom of wearing something brand new to welcome in the new year. During this time, the shops make money, in spite of the questionable quality of what they offer. And the fact that Havana is as expensive as New York.

Photo: Fashion show on the Malecón of Havana.

Translated by Regina Anavy

December 30 2010

Changes in U.S. Travel and Remittance Rules for Cuba

This site is a compilation of Cuban blogs from the Island (and from a few bloggers who joined this site from the Island but have now gone into exile). It is not a news site.  But, some news is potentially of such great interest to our readers, we want to make sure you don’t miss it. So, in case you did not see this elsewhere, here is a link to today’s White House announcement of new travel and remittance rules regarding Cuba.

Please note, you can now legally send remittances to Cubans who are not related to you.

Please click on the image below for the full announcement:

Another Letter to the Attorney General / Yamil Domínguez

Havana, January 11, 2011

To: the Attorney General of the Republic of Cuba

Allow me to present myself, Yadaimí Domínguez Ramos, resident of Calle 4, No 119 between 1st and 3rd, Playa, City of Havana, I direct myself to you to make you aware of the situation of my brother Yamil Domínguez Ramos, as a result of your criminal process.

On 31 August 2010, the People’s Supreme Court issued sentence 120/2010, which annulled the sentence 549/2008 of the Provincial Court of the City of Havana, as a result of a review and appeal process requested by the First Vice Minister of Justice: Urbano José Pedraza Linares.

The Highest Judicial Organ of the Republic ordered the process returned to the preparatory phase to widen the investigation with this result: the investigation made the same statement, confirming what Yamil had stated from the very beginning. In early December the Instructor sent the Preliminary Case File No 97/2007 to the Attorney General with his conclusive report for an alleged illegal entry, and at the same time the attorney asked for a change of custody for my brother.

Up to today there has been no pronouncement on the part of the Prosecutor about this matter and what’s worse is that my brother, since December 30, has been on a hunger and thirst strike at the Security Pavilion of the Carlos J. Finley Hospital, demanding a change in his custody status until the process is complete. It is worth considering that the crime with which he is charged has a maximum sentence of three years in prison, and in this case Yamil has been in prison three years and three months in these conditions.

I request your greatest understanding. From the humane point of view, the case demands your attention, dedication and a solution as quickly as possible. Please do not allow irreparable damages to occur to a good man and a good family. With the change in custody, if the paperwork is delayed, more damage can be avoided and time to amend the injustice gained.

In the name of our whole family, and myself, we thank you in advance for your valuable time.

Yadaimí Domínguez Ramos.

January 12 2011

Letter to the Attorney General of the Republic of Cuba / Yamil Domínguez

For injustice there is only one remedy, and it is not forgetting, but justice.

I, Inés María Ramos Nápoles, a Cuban citizen with ID car No.: 40012108557 and resident of Calle 4 No. 119 between 1st. and 3rd. Playa, City of Havana, put before you my understanding the situation of my son Yamil Ramos Domínguez, a U.S. citizen of Cuban origin, who has been on a hunger and thirst strike since December 30, 2010.

In April of last year we presented an Appeal of the Case to the Ministry of Justice and, collaterally, my son began a hunger strike demanding a review of his case. He abandoned the strike after 107 days following a report by the First Deputy Vice Minister of Justice himself, Urbano José Pedraza Linares, in which he asked for a review by the Supreme Court. Subsequently in August of the same year, the Supreme Court accepted the request, reviewed the case and the sentence (Sentence No, 120/2010) and annulled the sentence and sent the case back to the preparatory phase.

In October, the widened investigation found in Yamil’s favor and closed the report in November on the alleged illegal entry.

Since 6 December, the instructor gave the file preparation phase (EFP: 97 / 2007) to the Prosecutor, requested the change of custody as the attorney representing my son had requested, and nothing was heard from the Prosecutor on this request, up to today, there has been no conclusive report, leading to Yamil being in the position he is now in.

My son is in the Security Ward of the Military Hospital Carlos J. Finlay, where he had recuperated after a long hunger strike.

In essence, Yamil has spent three years and three months in detention, which exceeds the maximum penalty for the crime he was processed for. I hope you have the greatest understanding of this case. I am a sick person, operated on for breast cancer, with high blood pressure, and other illnesses that I must bear with the pain of my family and I and the situation of my son. It is noteworthy that in the first seven days in the hospital he received no medical attention.

After only four months of recovery he has taken this position because he was not even granted the change of custody measure allowing him to stay in the legal residence where I reside until the end of this process, and so to avoid irreparable damage.

There is no reason to justify Yamil’s staying one minute longer in the Pavilion of the Security Hospital.

I am desperate, please listen to me and to avoid greater evils.

María Inés Ramos Naples.

Signed in Havana, this 7th day of January 2011.

January 10 2011

Restriction of Movement / Luis Felipe Rojas

Photo: Luis Felipe Rojas

I am sure that any Cuban would give a fortune to find out the name of the general from the Ministry of the Interior who gives orders to sign the Exit Permits, or the “White Cards,” as these documents which determine whether Cuban citizens can leave their country are popularly known. I would give more than what I have to know the exact names and inclinations of those who restrict movement for hundreds of Cubans within the national territory.

Since I have fruitlessly looked over those paragraphs within the Penal Code and the Constitution which prohibit me from entering Caimanera, Banes, or Placetas, I turn to my readers. If any of you have information about this, you are more than welcome to let me know through this blog. The absence of Guillermo Farinas in Strasbourg and of Yoani Sanchez in Sweden were reported with all the force of the media and communication sector of the digital era. I dream of the day when permits for entering any town will just be an obsolete ruse.

Why can’t Roberto Bartelemi Cobas and Yoandris Montoya Aviles visit Banes, home of the poet Gaston Baquero and the musician Juan Blanco? Who impedes Marta Diaz Rondon from going from Banes to Santa Clara (the city of Marta Abreu)? Under which decree should the son of Raudel Avila Losada, of Palma Soriano, present a safe-conduct in order to spend the night in the house of Caridad Caballero Batista in Holguin? These are only some routes of internal prohibition.

The process of deporting Eastern natives living in Havana back to their hometowns has been more than denounced. However, each week the security check points send back those who go from Contramaestre to Jobabo in Las Tunas, or from Moa to Banes in Holguin. But does this happen to all Cubans? No, it only happens to some dissidents who are singled out by their high levels of civil disobedience. Sometimes we are shocked as we read accounts of deportations described on major media outlets, yet we don’t have the time to look at all the gags which take place nearby us, in the most obvious of places.

January 13 2011

From San Antonio To Maisí, All Cuba Awaits / Juan Juan Almeida

JJ – Willy, like I told you a few days ago, it was a pleasure to meet you and an honor to see you sing. Tell me something, brother, what is your divine formula — or secret — to sound the same in a theater as on a CD?

W – If you’re asking me which is the biggest blessing God has given me in professional matters, I would answer you that more than singing, playing an instrument, writing a song and even entertaining a public, I think that I know how to make an orchestra sound good, or maybe it’s being able to ask each musician that the result be harmonious and with swing. Besides rehearsing frequently and always demonstrating to my musicians that the first one ready to give it his all is me.

JJ – I like your music, that fusion that you succeed in mixing rock & roll with sound in a masterful way fascinates me. Thought and heart, you’re all alchemist. Why does an artist of your stature, a local idol with an impressive musical presence, stay local and go out so little to explore? Do you do it for comfort, love of your native land, lack of time, or is it a question of opportunity?

W – That isn’t so, this past year we gave concerts in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Tenerife, Belgium, Milan, Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Mexico City, Guanajuato, Los Angeles, the Dominican Republic, Panama, and it’s possible I’ve forgotten some other place. Traveling more isn’t what interests me. I like dedicating time to my family, too, to my home and my studio.

JJ – “Ya viene llegando” (“Our Day Is Coming”) is an anthem to nostalgia, a song that makes you dance, cry, think. What happens today with that day you dreamt about in the 90s, that you sing about in 2011, that doesn’t stop coming?

W – That question has different answers.

I prefer to think that we still haven’t stopped burning the karma produced by the crimes committed by our forebears since 1492. But today I feel more optimistic than ever that we see the light at the other end of the tunnel.

JJ – A friend we have in common told me that the present Cuban government (and I say “present” to not speak badly of it) won’t let you enter Cuba. Tell me something, Chirino, with so many people who follow you, you singing from your stage and with many who listen to you, why don’t you raise your voice and help me fight against that violation that the same “present” government uses to be able to dominate, punish, and divide the Cuban family and its own citizens?

W – I have not stopped, nor will I stop raising my voice through my music to denounce the horrors committed by this line of thugs who misgovern my country and demand justice for my people.

JJ – I don’t consider myself a politician; but I have political opinions as I have them about art, religion, sociology or sports. What do you think of those artists who use as a leitmotiv the phrase “I am an artist, and do not politically opine”? Do they say that out of fear, opportunism, or because they know the proverb “There is no more politician than the seeming politician””?

W – I believe that every Cuban has the responsibility to denounce the reality of our people, no matter where or how he lives.

Words from our Apostle (José Martí): “When we’re dealing with freedom, everything into the fire … even art, to feed the bonfire.”

JJ – A guajiro in Vuelta Abajo came up to me and said to me one day “If the breeze in Pinar makes a sound, it’s from Willy Chirino.”

W – That guajiro went over the top with his commentary. There is no pay nor applause that might be equal to words like those. What a good phrase for my tombstone.

Translated by: JT

January 13, 2011

Transparency / Regina Coyula

Photo: Katerina Bampaletaki
On the occasion of the shooting in Tucson and of the Congresswoman who was shot, we didn’t have to wait for a Reflection. Fidel temporarily abandoned his doctors in Haiti and dedicated two of his writings to the tragic news from Arizona. Yesterday this caught my attention by its final words. I don’t have the text, but my astonishment was skepticism at hearing him ask for transparency in the reports dealing with the health of Mrs Gabrielle Giffords. The ex-President seems to forget that the illness that made him abandon his duties was a State Secret. He, so given to medical works as he demonstrated with figures about the Haitian cholera epidemic and of its suffering; nonetheless, not even a word was said in the official media; all the information on the subject has been speculation; if you don’t think so, remember those cables revealed by Wikileaks and the health of those who govern us. I, for my part, want the same thing that Fidel asks of the American media for my own.

Translated by: JT

January 12 2011

Getting Married in Havana / Iván García

Diana, 25, has seen the same video hundreds of times on her Chinese television. And she still gets excited about the time when, dressed in white at the side of her future husband, she drove through the streets of Havana in a 1957 Cadillac convertible.

“It was the happiest moment of my life. Entering the matrimonial palace, the notary declaring us married, and those present asking us to kiss,” remembers Diana.

The modest hotel where they spent their honeymoon did not prevent them from having sex at all hours. Some months later, the marriage became a nightmare. Money was tight, and her husband suggested that she prostitute herself, discretely. “Darling,” he told me, “we cannot live in a virtual reality.”

Diana was very much in love. And she went to war. Her battle was to sleep with her husband’s friends, who lusted after her and were ready to pay 50 convertible pesos for one night. Later came foreigners who paid better.

As for material things, they went forward like the wind, but her love went out the window. “I had enough when a Russian offered me 120 dollars to screw me in front of my husband. The worst is that he accepted,” she said, indignant. Diana continued to prostitute herself, now on her own account.

Carlos, a sociologist, considers that one of the greatest harms caused by five decades of revolution has been the loss of traditional concepts about family and marriage, and the absence of ethical and moral codes.

“In the first years, the revolutionary discourse was very anti-Catholic. And the effort to give women more space in society brought promiscuity, with dorms in the country and the boarding schools, far from their families from a very young age. That created a frivolous feeling toward the institution of marriage,” pointed out the sociologist.

Ricardo, a notary, agrees with the sociologist. “In the Special Period, the number of marriages in Havana was spectacular. The reasons were simple. People got married because they had the right to buy three cases of beer and spend three days in a hotel where the lights didn’t go off and they could have breakfast, lunch and dinner. Most of the unions lasted two years on average. Others separated and didn’t even go to court,” affirmed the notary.

Then there are the cases of girls who get married for the extravagance. “I got married in church. To dress in white, with a tiara and veil, to take photos and make a video has become the fashion,” says Delia, a sculptor.

Others do it to imitate their parents. “I don’t understand how the old people have been able to last 45 years together. I tried it. But it was a fiasco,” confesses Rolando, a university student.

A female writer who asked to remain anonymous admits that “among my friends it’s normal that we sleep with the other’s spouse, with his consent. We even make love among ourselves. At times I tell my husband to go away, that tonight I need someone different in my bedroom.”

Carlos the sociologist wonders, So why get married? The answer can be what Ana, a primary school teacher, says. “To escape from your family and be independent.”

Couples have their reasons when they decide to go to the altar. The reality is that there’s an alarming tendency in Havana to get married. And later come the horrors, like the young writer who asks her husband to take a walk while she enjoys an orgy with friends.

Photo: Google images

Translated by Regina Anavy

January 13 2011

At Full Volume / Claudia Cadelo

The neighbor downstairs heard the salsa and the one upstairs the rock and roll. At any hour of the day you could walk past the building and hear the incredible fusion of Van Van and Metallica. They called it the “strength test” and it consisted of round after round of raising the volume. The first who gave in and didn’t gradually increase the decibels of the stereo, lost the fight. It didn’t occur to either that the neighbor on the third floor might prefer, for example, Mozart, or to listen to no music at all.

Neither the advice of the neighbors nor that of the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) influenced those involved in this “internal” matter. Nor did any neighbor dare to knock on their doors and ask for a little audio clemency. Apparently no one was bothered by the scandalous noise.

One day the rivals signed, without even agreeing, the final truce. It did not consist of lowering the volume, but of listening simultaneously to Los Aldeanos. The neighbors, this time, welcomed the cease fire because everyone liked the rap group and was used to the absence of silence. However, a week later, a delegate from the CDR presented himself at both apartments and demanded an end to musical blast, because the noise was bothering the neighborhood. That same night, while playing dominoes at a little table in the street, the watchdog admitted that the problem wasn’t the racket, but the lyrics of Los Aldeanos.

January 13, 2011

The English Take Havana / Iván García

The news spread like wildfire in the old part of Havana. A black rapper drained his beer while he spoke rapidly into his cell phone. “Buddy, a big ship of foreigners just arrived. They speak English, they seem to be gringos. Let them know about the girls, I think it will work,” noted the pimp.

From the other side of the avenue, in stalls and outdoor cafes located along the coast, ordinary people watched the huge tourist vessel docked in Havana Bay with open mouths.

While the visitors wandered around town or ate a sandwich, the prostitutes, private tourist guides, illegal sellers of cigars, crafts and disks, and the musicians who sing boleros for small change immediately went on the march to see how they could gain something by offering their varied merchandise during the three-day stay in the city.

What the Thomson Dream cruise ship brought was a load of 1,500 British tourists. They disembarked with summer clothes and beer in hand, and without wasting time began to tour the historic sites of Old Havana. They went on foot, took rickety pedicabs or rode in horse-drawn carriages.

A television journalist, soberly dressed, interviewed some of the English, who were surprised by the unexpected welcome and at the same time half-frightened, when they noticed the legions of Cubans who were accosting them with all kinds of offerings. Mulattos and blondes dressed in miniscule attire, flirted shamelessly with a group of young men wearing Liverpool shirts.

Since 2004, cruise ships stopped coming to ports on the island. The drought ended on 12 November, when the Spanish ship Gemini, with more than 200 passengers from 11 countries, was in Havana. But its presence didn’t cause as much stir among the people of the capitol as this floating English hotel.

Strict control by the U.S. Treasury Office of Foreign Assets against the embargo had unleashed a witch hunt, sending notice in strong terms to the companies that own cruise ships from Spain, Germany and other countries. If they stopped in Cuba, then they could not dock in U.S. ports. Those were the days of George W. Bush.

The Tourism Ministry had already created an infrastructure in the ports of Havana, Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba, specialized in serving the unique guests. Foreign companies hired staff to work on Caribbean cruises. Everything was left hanging when the U.S. threatened the shipping companies that visited the island of the Castros.

The blow made Fidel Castro angry, and in 2005 he complained about having to receive rude tourists, who threw cans and garbage into the sea and didn’t care about the environment.

But enough water has passed under the bridge. Now, a relaxed Barack Obama is in charge of the White House. And since February 2008, Raul Castro, brother of the historic leader of the revolution, is leading the country’s destiny. And he is engaged in the implementation of a series of reforms to rescue the fragile economy of Cuba.

In addition to hard measures of cuts and layoffs of 1,300,000 workers, Castro II urgently needs dollars, euros or pounds, equally. Therefore, since 2010, he returned to a number of projects abandoned or left half-finished by his brother’s administration.

Among them, the construction of buildings for foreigners and the opening of golf courses for high-class tourist segments. The reopening to European cruise companies also is part of the package of measures whose main objective is to collect hard currency.

In a few months, the arrival in Havana of thousands of tourists by sea could become routine. To the delight of the prostitutes and hustlers.

Photo: EFE

Translated by Regina Anavy

January 8 2011

A Memorable Evening / Miriam Celaya

Yoani junto a un grupo de amigos. Ceremonia de premiación del 7 de enero de 2011
Yoani with a group of friends. Prize ceremony of January 7, 2011

Last Friday, January 7, in a simple and warm ceremony attended by her friends and family, Yoani Sánchez received the Prince Claus Award from Mr. Ronald Muijzert, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. After the words of Ambassador and his reading of the opinion of the jury that awarded the valued prize to our noted blogger, Yoani read her brief speech. It was an electric, vibrant address that permeated deeply into everyone’s hearts. Far from corny and trite, far from complacency and self-pity, the words of this “little blogger” — as she is often called — were also a prize for those gathered there, dedicated to also recognizing the support received from her traveling companions, and calling us together in our differences, in the new challenges we face, this year and in the near future.

When I hugged her, shortly afterward, she was trembling. Nervous, emotional, and happy, with the joy of one who has received compensation for the many days of work, dedication and dreams. She has a head full of projects, a bright outlook, and a soul full of confidence. At least that is the spirit transmitted to me by this young friend, an untiring girl who almost doesn’t sleep, a girl who seems moved by an energy greater than her fragile figure.

And so I think it was precisely her speech that was the memorable touch of the evening, because from my personal experience I know that every one of Yoani’s dreams is usually quickly converted into a kind of “Utopia realized” followed immediately by another and another; because her words find an echo in those of us who have hopes and who are convinced that the Cuban we want will our own achievement: this exercise of faith that allows us to get up every morning and take on the demons of disinformation, the lies, exclusions, isolation and the fear, in pursuit of a freedom long-awaited.

Listening to Yoani on this pleasant celebration of January 7, also evoked the recent past, when we were just a handful of six or seven friends, I was still “Eva González” and the blog Generation Y was beautiful creature, recently born. So many experiences since then, so many friends, so many emotions, so many hopes! Just over three years have passes, but I always remember like a gift to my spirit, that question with which Yoani — perhaps naively, perhaps with mischievous intention — infected me with the blogger virus: “So why doesn’t Eva open a blog?” That day, between doubts and enthusiasm, I answered that I would; but now, when my humble blog is reaching its third birthday, I would like to dedicate to Yoani another word that rises from my heart: Thank you!

January 11 2011

The Devaluation of Piracy / Yoani Sánchez

With their colorful covers and nylon sleeves, the new supply of CDs and DVDs fills every corner of my city. Selling music, TV series and movies is one of the self-employment professions that has expanded — more and more rapidly — in recent weeks. Everyone wants to have their own distribution point; the most creative offer compilations of the same actor, or the complete discography of a singer. There are no copyright barriers and the American and Spanish serials are the most commonly purchased. Piracy is no longer something whispered in the ears of those interested, rather the merchandise is displayed publicly on makeshift wooden and cardboard shelves. Anyone can wrap up record labels or producers, as long as they don’t cross the line of the ideologically acceptable.

Given the audacity shown in ignoring copyright, it’s striking that no one dares to offer the popular — but banned — programs readily available in the alternative information networks. Absent from the public catalogs are the documentaries — so often watched in Cuban homes — that approach our national history through a different lens from the official. Nor do the shelves in doorways and windows display films that show the situation in the Romania of Ceausescu, or in Stalin’s Russia, or the North Korea of Kim Jong Il. The real hits of the underground world would jeopardize the licenses of these newly minted self-employed. Warning “visits” to the new entrepreneurs make it clear, don’t even think about providing certain controversial materials. The censorship pact is in place.

Beyond the issue of control is that of profitability of these small businesses. When they first started to emerge, the price of a DVD with five movies was around 50 national pesos. Today, in view of the profusion of vendors, it’s dropped to around 30. Many don’t survive the first quarter as independent workers. Others diversify their production and expand their sales. But to stay afloat and become profitable, they will probably need to turn to themes currently banned. In a few months, a good part of them will have, in addition to the visible offerings, another hidden shelf only for trusted customers, to satisfy the restless seekers of the forbidden.

Cuba 2011: Suckling Pig, Babalaos and Concerns / Iván García

In these last days, the smell of roast pig wafted through the streets of good houses in Vedado and Miramar or in the shacks of marginal neighborhoods like Fanguito or Pogolotti.The penetrating aroma of pork also made mouths water in neighborhoods full of the unemployed, street kids, and prostitutes in Atarés and Cayo Hueso.

There were no big parties nor did the rum flow until dawn. The economic situation is not one for shooting off rockets. Ordinary people preferred sobriety. Most of them celebrated the date with their families. And with music, of course. Timba and reggaeton rang out in doorways and on balconies until the first light of day.

The government of General Raúl Castro is planning cuts, and therefore the public festivities took place in specific sites. Without any waste, so that ordinary people could await the arrival of the 52nd anniversary of the revolution as best they know how to do, moving their hips and drinking beer from a keg.

It’s a revolution that has lost steam. His Marxist discourse no longer dazzles. The logical erosion of five authoritarian decades in power has resulted in a economy that is adrift and a chaotic infrastructure, with poor, gray cities.

In the brand new year in Havana almost nothing works. Urban transport and services are grim. Even the black market falters before the rigorous controls applied by the government to certain businesses, making the thefts and diversions that used to fuel illegal commerce difficult.

The best thing has been the weather, without unbearable heat or chilling cold. Leisure and cultural life are limited and of poor quality. And very expensive, if you want to shake your body in the clubs and fashionable discos.

While the people said goodbye to 2010, wondering how the regime will save its skin, on January 1, the official babalaos divulged their predictions for 2011. According to their prophecies, known as the Letter of the Year, in 2011 Ogun, the god of metals in the Yoruba religion, will govern. And he will be accompanied by Yemaya, the orisha mistress of the sea.

Among more than twenty recommendations are calls for respect for women, maintaining the family unit, caring for children, and avoiding situations that provoke fights that could have fatal consequences.

Although in recent times the number of admitted believers in different religions has increased, so has the number of non-believers. Citizens who don’t believe in the predictions of santeros nor in the proposals made by governments.

It’s logical. After 52 years of failure in the economic realm, people have difficulty assimilating the rhetoric of “Now, yes, we are going in the right direction.” That dog has already bitten several times.

Raul Castro has entered a dark tunnel where there is no going back. If there is no exit, somehow he will have to turn on a light to try to find it. Two things can happen. Either reforms will be their own trap, or they will work fairly well and improve the quality of life.

Not a few Cubans, while they prepared the roast pig, went round and round over the economic puzzle. Everyone is concerned there is no alternative. It’s like playing Russian roulette. For Olegario, 72 years old and retired, what worries him most is that it fulfills one of the maxims of the babalaos: “What goes around comes around.”

Illustration: Orishas of the Yoruba religion

Translated by Regina Anavy

January 7 2011