Are they going to take out toys? Where are they selling dolls? These and other questions were heard everywhere in Cuba this Wednesday, the eve of Three Kings Day. The limited supply in recent months, the financial difficulties of the parents and, in many cases, leaving the purchases to the last minute generated tension around the children’s stores.
State shops had only a few board games available, while private sellers took advantage of families’ anxiety to offer imported goods at high prices. Like other years, the products brought by travelers from Mexico, Panama or the United States were imposed as the few options available.
For decades, this holiday was paused in Cuba when it was considered the heir of a bourgeois past, and it was even instituted as a date to give toys to children on the third Sunday in July, the Day of the Boy and Girl. But despite the change of month, the tension to acquire these products never stopped and the queues could take up to days.
With the dollarization of the country in the 90s, the tradition of giving the little ones on January 6 slowly returned. A return that the Cuban regime has never liked and that the official media have harshly criticized on several occasions, calling Three Kings Day a justification for waste and consumption.
Despite everything, dozens of parents gathered outside the only toy store on Obispo Street this Wednesday, including Marisol, who was looking for gifts for her two children. Upon arrival, a store worker was pulling out the last available merchandise with a wheelbarrow: a few packs of disposable diapers. Shortly after the place closed its doors.
“They don’t sell anything here,” commented a man who was standing outside, “today half of Havana has paraded through here looking for toys, and I’ve told everyone the same thing, go to La Casa Pérez, which will surely solve there,” he advised the woman, who appreciated the information and headed towards Neptuno street.
The lack of state offers is also due to the dilemma of selling merchandise in Cuban pesos that is bought in foreign currency abroad. Trading toys in stores in freely convertible currency would cause great popular unrest and the Government knows it.
As she walked, Marisol went to the Fe del Valle park, near the Boulevard de San Rafael, where the self-employed often have sales tables. In the makeshift points of sale there was a wide range of toys, jams, footwear and costume jewelery, among other products. The woman felt lucky to see so much variety.
“At that moment I thought that the sky was opening up, and that I could buy gifts for my children and even some for my little niece,” Marisol tells 14ymedio. However, a bucket of cold water fell on him when he realized that the prices shown for the merchandise on display were “simply unpayable.”
Stuffed animals, guns, balls, tops, kitchen sets, and many others with a price that was between 500 and 3,000 pesos each. “This is incredible, a normal Barbie 1,200, and a plastic Hulk 2,000,” said Marisol, who had a budget of 1,500 pesos thanks to a shipment sent by her cousin from the United States. “I keep looking at the state ones, and if I don’t solve it, then I’ll go back and see what I do.”
The young woman decided to try her luck at the currency store on Carlos III Street, but an employee explained that there had been no toy store for a long time. “I advise you to buy with individuals, because in the state ones you will have a difficult time,” added the shopkeeper.
Helpless, he returned to the Fe del Valle park and toured all the points of sale in search of the cheapest option. “Please, give me a discount, I need gifts for my two children and my niece,” she said to one of the merchants, but received a reply: “Don’t complain about the prices, I didn’t send her to have so many children and life is hard for everyone, “replied one.
Among the more affordable but less attractive offers were the so-called “merolico toys”, where few bought. Trucks, cars and soldiers made from molten plastic and whose quality is far from imported. “Those are the toys of poor children,” commented one woman.
Finally, Marisol opted for three bags, at 500 pesos each, which included cookies, candy and a small toy. “I never thought in my life to spend 1,500 pesos for a handful of trinkets, but these are the times we are living in this country.” A time where the tradition of Three Kings Day is no longer forbidden but it is prohibitive for many pockets.
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