The blackout reveals the absolute harshness with which Cubans perceive their situation
14ymedio, José Lassa, Havana, 13 February 2025 — The ups and downs of electricity give no respite to the refrigerators where Coppelia’s ice cream is stored. From blackout to blackout, between shortages and closures, a scoop of chocolate can become a warm milkshake in a few minutes. Without power and in the tropics, where it will no longer cool down until the end of the year, Havana’s ice cream “cathedral” is not even a chapel.
Even so, there is a line in front of the emblematic blue facade. “They are going to open,” says an enthusiast to whom the 1,810 megawatts (MW) of deficit announced today by the Electric Union has not taken away hope. Indeed, at 2:00 pm the doors of Coppelia open to an audience eager to taste a sip – with 31°C (87.8 F) there is no other consistency – of ice cream.
The joy will not last long. The most informed in the line, who handle the cumbersome calendar of cuts with ease, know that Coppelia will lose power at 3:00 in the afternoon. The time when “they killed Lola,” according to the pessimistic saying,* will be when the possibility of cooling down the product that gave fame to one of the most visited places in El Vedado will be lost.
The most informed in the line, who handle the calendar of cuts with ease, know that Coppelia will lose power at 3:00 in the afternoon
Aside from the energy situation, Coppelia suffers its own way of the cross. Last week, a few days after its laborious reopening, it plunged back into the mediocrity from which, supposedly, the repair was going to save it. Now, along with the price increase and the diminished supply, habaneros will also have to suffer multiple disappointments in the face of a dessert that comes in any form and temperature except in the appropriate one.
After a fatal January for the national electrical system (SEN), and after a year of alumbrones,** this month the lack of electricity hit rock bottom again. Without too much alarm on the part of the authorities, who have normalized the cycles of increasingly abusive blackouts, a deficit of 1,870 MW was estimated.
The figure, higher than the one the country experienced last October when the SEN collapsed, presaged a new total blackout that is still a threat this Thursday. In practice, cities like Cienfuegos, Cárdenas and Matanzas have their own blackouts of more than 24 hours now, similar to yesterday.
“I’m on strike and won’t go to work today,” a pre-university teacher who has been unable to plan her classes and perform various household chores told this newspaper. “I haven’t even dressed. If they don’t turn on the light, I’m not leaving my house.”
No matter the latitude, when the blackout arrives it brings out the total rawness with which Cubans perceive their situation. In a barbershop in Nuevo Vedado, in Havana, the current went out leaving several craniums half-cut. “When are they going to get on the plane!?” was the question that everyone shouted in unison.
They mean the leaders, whose erratic management always affects – and every day – “those below.” Unperturbed, forced to create strategies against electrical uncertainty, the barbers took out rechargeable lamps and electric shavers with the batteries charged. “Prepared and alert,” joked one of the workers, parodying the motto of the Civil Defense in the face of cyclones.
The blackouts totally interrupt or paralyze daily life in Cuba. In addition to economic consequences, energy instability has an important human impact: frustration, depression and proliferating nervous breakdowns leave the brains of Cubans as melted as the ice cream served this Thursday by the Coppelia in Havana.
Translator’s notes
* According to Cuban legend, Lola was a prostitute who was stabbed to death by a lover at 3:00 in the afternoon. It became a popular expression for that time of day.
** As opposed to the apagones (blackouts), Cubans coined the word ‘alumbrones’ for the brief periods when the lights are on.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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