“What a way to have bread here!” Said a resident of Infanta Street in Central Havana ironically this Friday while waiting to shop at one of the improvised kiosks in the Parque de los Mártires, where the government held a political act for the 169th anniversary of the birth of José Martí, which was accompanied by a food sale.
“I hope they continue to do these fairs, but in the neighborhood bakeries they have a hard time,” added the woman on a corner located a short distance from where the adolescent Martí was sentenced by the Spanish colony to forced work in the quarries of Saint Lazarus.
Very early in the morning, the park was decorated with July 26 flags, which had nothing to do with the birth of the national hero, and elementary and high school students were brought to the place to create a supposed crowd that commemorated the date. The animators of the activity invited children and young people to repeat slogans and sing political songs, although without much success, since most of them were focused on reaching for something to put in their mouths.
The main attraction of the celebration was concentrated in two tents where they offered snacks and bags of bread, an increasingly scarce product on the Island where the lack of flour and other ingredients hits production hard. Nor was it enough to be in the place. Those who wanted to buy had to make a huge queue and as soon as the offers were sold out, the attendees left the place.
“The bread is over, the activity is over,” said one of the last attendees to leave the Parque de los Mártires and who barely managed to buy two loaves of bread with their corresponding croquettes.
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