Holguin, Cuba. – “My son told me: ‘Dad, I finished the course with good grades, and the holidays?’. With pain in my soul I replied that there was no vacation. If I barely have money to eat, much less for the holidays,” says Ismael Leyva Cañizares.
Far from The official promise of “Summer always young”what should be a rest season has become an extension of work and distressing days. In Holguín summer did not arrive with parties, or beach, or concerts, but with high prices, long blackouts and a generalized feeling of abandonment.
The combination of inflation, dollarization, bad services, null cultural planning and lack of government responses has broken the very essence of summer rest. More than a recreational season, summer in the territory is an additional problem that the Holguineros face sadly.
Rodolfo Pupo, also a family father, shares his experience: last year he could take his son to the beach, not. “The salary of my wife and mine together does not reach us,” he laments.
The priorities changed: the recreational became secondary, or rather, unattainable.
“Not every day I have 120 pesos for a liter of milk or 150 to buy bread,” the Holguinero Yosvany Matos complains.
Inflation, which has not given truce for months, has affected purchasing power. René Paredes Figueredo remembers that before, with little money, “it was resolved.” Today, “not even with two salaries,” he says.
The average of holiday payment in Cuba, According to the National Statistics and Information Office (Onei)ranges between 6,500 and 7,500 CUP (16 and 19 dollars respectively, to the change of the informal market), depending on the province and the specific economic sector of the worker, as established in Law No. 116 or Labor Code.
Although it has dropped its real value due to the loss of purchasing power of the Cuban weight, while prices rise and many products are only bought in currencies.
On the other hand, inequality is exacerbated in favor of those who receive remittances or work in dollarized sectors. Economist Mauricio de Miranda Parrondo warns That dollarization has been a serious error because it strengthens the dependence of the dollar and impoverishes the majority of the Cuban people, reflecting, according to their words “an irresponsible political discourse.”
But, even when someone manages to make space in the budget for a getaway, obstacles do not end there. Mariela Figueredo Mustelier reacts when asked about the summer: “Without current, without water, hunger … What vacation?”
“The people are suffering,” said Dr. Carola Salas, director of the International Economics Research Center at the University of Havana in the official program Blocking the boxbroadcast on Cuban television.
“The problems are not resolved by putting obstacles, or limits, or running prices; inflation problems are solved by increasing production and supply. They are spinal issues that the country must solve because in addition to no time, the Cuban people are suffering,” said the expert.
Meanwhile, in Holguín, the day revolves around a minimum emergency list that, according to Dania Santiesteban Labrada, turns vacations into just a “change of work.” “What does one do in the supposed vacation? Suffering daily blackouts, without cooking food, without water in the aqueduct …?”
Even those who previously found a certain refuge in the cultural offer of the city center today feel disappointed. Adolescent Dailenis Labrada comments: “This is one of the worst summers. There are no offers for young people as announced in the press, radio and television.”
On Saturdays Eduardo Velázquez has toured the center of the city of Holguín and has found the lack of recreational options. “Not even in the surroundings of the Calixto García Park, music is heard. You leave the center and there is so much silence that there seems to be mourning.”
He does not say it as a metaphor: there are empty streets, places off and a silence that does not invite to stay.
The only activity, according to Edelquis Peña, is in the Plaza de la Marqueta. But there only bars abound. “That is not a healthy option for young people; neither for adults either because offers are very expensive.”
Rodolfo Pupo summarizes what all the Holguineros are living: “After a course of study and work with a lot of scarcity, now we are spending vacation at home without any entertainment.”
