The Havana Ramp Fair returns, with less tourists and more Chinese baratijas

Havana/The ramp fair has returned to its usual place, in the heart of El Vedado. Dozens of merchants were located this week on Avenida 23 between m and n with offers ranging from handmade products to low quality Chinese falsifications. If until a few years ago the ideal client was the tourist who was looking for some souvenir, Now, with the fall in the number of foreign visitors arriving in Cuba, the focus has been put in the national buyer.

The reopening of the space, a few meters from the Habana Libre hotel, arrives with a change of image that resembles it more to an imported variety store than of local clothing. Next to the traditional Maracas, the sizes of cedar who reproduce an elderly couple dresses to dance a good danzón or the seeds of seeds, the Pacotillas come from outside, the objects of everyday use and the cleaning products are gained ground.

“How much are those wireless hearing aids?” A young man asked this Friday. “5,000 pesos,” the seller replied while eating a bread. A teenager also investigated the copy of a Xiaomi Smart Band, a device that, among other functions, calculates the steps walked every day and that in the black market costs about $ 50. However, at the ramp fair, for 2,000 pesos, a falsification can be acquired that, although visually very similar to the original, only gives the time.

Next to the headphones there were also watches that imitated those of the firm Casio, for 3,000 pesos. On the same tablecloth they peeked very varied products: nipple, cotton swabs, combs for combing, skin cream and a facial mask that promises to leave the face fresh and clean. With that range of options, the sales post is increasingly similar to Candongas located in less glamorous but very popular neighborhoods, such as the Cuevita.

The ramp fair was founded in 1993. That summer, against the strings of the economic crisis, Fidel Castro decriminalized the dollar, opened the island to tourism and legalized small private businesses. The market was then a very observed and controlled showcase given its central location. In his early years it was only possible to market in their national productions, so leather sandals, knitted fabrics and an infinite variety of memories abounded to take out the island that included from magnets with palm trees to place in the refrigerator, going through the style berets that Ernesto popularized Che Guevara to miniatures of the old almonds that circulate in Havana or the facade of the medium winery.

In the last decade, those limits have been flexible and the goods, imported and low quality, have taken over the fair. He has also experienced some aesthetic changes. Now, in the El Blanco street market, it is the color of the protective umbrellas, the puloveres that the merchants and the tablecloths carry with which they cover their tables. Perhaps it is a way to exorcise that official argument that “ranging” the area, used to transfer them about six years ago to the side of the Coppelia ice cream shop, a location that brought losses for the pocket of the merolics and a fall in interest in the customers.

Despite the irruption of plastic and watches that mimic faces, in the premises some artisanal products made in Cuba are still sold. Leather bags, footwear, goldsmiths, women dresses around 4,000 or 6,000 pesos, wood sculptures and dictations in Panel Maché. Payment can be made in cash or through electronic transfers. Showing the QR code for these operations is mandatory.

Although this Friday, the majority of the clients of the fair were Cubans, the few tourists who approached the premises were received as unicorns that appeared from a thick forest. Merchants know that foreigners almost always prefer to pay in foreign exchange. So they are offered to liquidate the account in dollars or euros, to informal change. The same happens at the other nearby fair, located in El Quijote park. Under the heart of the Hidalgo, the Fulas The same is disrupted in a pair of beach flip flops than in a guerrilla cap with a red star on the forehead.