Havana/When the Berlin wall fell not only their pieces were sold but also the medals that the residents of communist Germany had treasured for decades. Outstanding workers, exemplary teachers and high -level athletes liquidated those pieces of calamina. In Cuba the auction of the official memorabilia of the last 66 years has already begun. Decorations and brooches that, until recently, some hung on the flap full of pride, offered on Monday in front of the Coppelia ice cream shop, in Havana.
For about 600 pesos, the client could take a medal commemorating literacy, delivered by the State Council to those who participated in the 1961 campaign. The saleswoman also proposed, for 500 pesos, a pin that honored the revolutionary directory and, in 150, a police whistle of 1959. The peculiar offer was completed by a ticket with the face of Ernesto Che Guevara, some books for use and numerous national and foreign currencies of different historical moments.
The sale of official badges began in Cuba with the openness to tourism in the 90s. In the Plaza de Armas of Havana Vieja they looked in those years from decorations delivered to the veterans of the War of Angola to those received by the senior officers of the Ministry of Interior. Shortly after, sports medals broke into the market, which have been a constant in recent years, by the hand of athletes urged by financing food, a roof or the exit of the country.
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At this time it has changed, however, the way in which these symbols are marketed. If before they arrived surrounded by a certain aura of solemnity, the shame has now imposed on some objects that summarize a story of failures. The woman who exhibits her merchandise in the face of the best known Cuban ice cream shop knows that these pieces of metal with colorful ribbons are less and less. If any curious approaches and decides to haggle, it is willing to give up some tens or hundreds of pesos in order to get some money to one products that are devalued every day.
The medal trade was done a few years ago in a more discreet way and almost directly with the owner of the award, but now it is a business of poor, of people who touch the destitution and have found these distinctions in the garbage. The hurried merchants know that these plates with stars and shields can only interest some nostalgic tourist or who want to disguise themselves for the next Halloween party. The past has a value only if you want to remember, say the most skeptical against so much communist paraphernalia.
