“Nobody fools me,” grumbles an old man in front of the Cadeca de 23, in Havana, this Tuesday. “I’m not stupid.” His face is swollen and red, he is sweating and dragging a crutch with difficulty. Next to him, a mulatto in a T-shirt and with a gold tooth nods understandingly. “He walked past me and walked in, simple as that,” yells the man, predicted by several members of the queue to have a heart attack if he doesn’t calm down.
Further on, at the door, a lady demands an explanation from the policeman who watches over the exchange house: “It’s not the first time this has happened today,” she blurts out. The officer looks at her listlessly, as if she doesn’t understand, and forwards the complaint to the “organizer” of the Cadeca queue, who calls the customers according to the list.
Everyone witnessed an individual arrive at the establishment, wander absentmindedly up the stairs, and beckon through the glass. The door opened and the man managed to squeeze between the policeman and the organizer, who did not speak to him.
Those who do not have the “godfather” must submit to the shady system of “lists”, illegally drawn up the night before, and which pretends to be a spontaneous form of organization against institutional corruption
The eyes of the clients followed the event in detail, but they did not flinch until the subject entered the Cadeca. First it was a buzz of comments, then someone yelled at the organizer of the queue, and finally the man with the crutch exploded, leaving his place and starting to scream.
Before the shouts and the fingers that point at him, the policeman stays calm.
“That one had a ‘godfather’ within Cadeca,” someone theorizes. Sponsorship consists of having a contact within the establishment, a friend or relative who wards off obstacles and facilitates access to the first place in line.
The client can bear the sun, the heat and the hunger, but never that someone “unrecognized” approaches the place and, mysteriously, enters the building without having to wait, is intolerable.
The workers of the Cadeca de 23 – those of any exchange house in Cuba – have their influence business. The “chosen ones” are relatives or friends, and also coleros who pay to be guaranteed a privileged place.
Those who do not have a “godfather” must submit to the shady system of “lists”, illegally drawn up the night before, and which pretends to be a spontaneous form of organization against institutional corruption. Solitary buyers sign up for them, but also “gangs” of customers, groups of five or ten people who intend to rob Cadeca.
However, spending the early morning in the vicinity of an establishment is considered, by the Police, as a violation. So they are authorized to fine or arrest night gangsters. But it is a risk that buyers of dollars are willing to run: in any case, without the few bills that the government agrees to sell, it is not that one lives decently either.
That is why the man with the crutch calms down, walks up to the policeman and tells him serenely: “Officer, you can arrest me if you want, but tonight I am going to sleep here, to see who is going to take the first place from me tomorrow.” The tail”.
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