Fernando and Odalis gave up medicine to open a restaurant in Cienfuegos
14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, 22 September 2024 – Odalis, a 55-year-old from Cienfuegos, has not worked as a surgeon for eight years. Instead, she started a restaurant with her husband, Fernando, also a doctor. “When I returned from my mission in Africa, I knew very well that I had to invest the money in some way. That’s when we opened a cafeteria, and now it also offers lunches and dinners at an affordable price,” this veteran doctor tells 14ymedio. Many, she says, called them crazy, including bank officials, who were reluctant to grant them a loan.
Like them, there are many Cienfuegos residents who, tired of the salary conditions in the service of the State, try their luck in the private sector, mainly in establishments dedicated to commerce and gastronomy, such as those that proliferate around the Prado or the Bulevar.
Odalis explains how she left the healthcare center where she worked. “Initially, I stayed at the hospital, while we were running the cafeteria, with great effort. When the business was thriving, my own co-workers made war on me, to the point that I asked for leave.” The doctor asserts, “It was not worth sacrificing myself for a miserable salary while also having envious glances turned on me.”
While speaking to this newspaper in her restaurant, she pauses to take an order from a customer who comes in. “This man comes every day from Pastorita to get his evening meal,” she says, boasting about the quality of the food they serve.
“It is a huge challenge to keep this place well stocked”
Her husband Fernando has just arrived with some groceries and joins the conversation. “It is a huge challenge to keep this place well stocked,” he says as he sits down. He has gone through most of the private shops in the city looking for “meats” with great difficulty. “With this situation of price caps, many are closed waiting for the tide to go out,” he explains, referring to the price controls for basic products established by the Government in July.
Another problem that worries him is finding a place that accepts payment by bank transfer. “The owners of the SMSEs say that they can only receive cash, because it is the only form of payment that is accepted in Havana when they go shopping,” he argues. “There is a contradiction between what the Government imposes and what is established by reality.”
Among the few small and medium-sized businesses that accept electronic payments in Cienfuegos are El Eslabón, on 35th Street, and Camposososmani, between Prado and Cristina. “But sometimes you go and you don’t find the products you need,” says Fernando. “Everything becomes an obstacle to any goal you set yourself.” On the other hand, the doctor turned businessman says that the state stores selling in freely convertible currency (MLC) don’t solve anything for them: “They are half empty, but also, if we buy at those prices, we would have losses.”
In the absence of wholesalers who can guarantee them the necessary products, Odalis and Fernando have turned to old friends who provide them with first-hand goods. “Many of the farmers we treated at the hospital are now our suppliers,” says Odalis. “They sell us the goods in very good condition and at a fair price. That way, we can do the same with our customers, leaving everyone satisfied.”
The string of complications faced by private companies has now been joined by stricter controls. The couple complain that the inspectors are not always looking for “illegalities” but rather “personal benefits.” “They have been asking us for all kinds of invoices and receipts. You get tired of explaining to them that most vendors don’t provide any paperwork. Then, the inspector tells you that the Article expresses such and such provision and to shut him up, you have to give him a little gift. That is inevitable,” confesses Fernando.
What began eight years ago as a humble venture is today an establishment recognized by the people of Cienfuegos. “An additional advantage is that we have the business in our own home, so we save on paying for rental space. “All the furniture and tableware we use is simple, but even the smallest detail is thought out so that the customer is satisfied, including home delivery if desired,” says Odalis proudly.
For this professional couple, living in a central neighborhood of the city, returning to the field of medicine is not an option. “My wife and I felt a calling for the career we studied and also for teaching. However, they never valued our experience and the results we obtained in the practice of public health. In addition to being poorly paid, we were mistreated,” laments Fernando, who went on no fewer than three international missions. In 2019, he requested leave from active medical service to devote himself entirely to developing the family business.
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