Poverty prints without costume in the streets of Havana

Havana/It carries the hidden face under a cap in whose visor there is a calvary painted with ink. Pirabuzons of brown hair are born on his ears, he chews a tobacco and his mouth, surrounded by a beard of several days, draw a buccanero grimace. It is a pirate of the 21st century, but it has nothing picturesque or it is a “costume”: to survive in Havana you have to have the saber in your hand, but in its case the saber is nothing other than a crutch.

With an extended can, the most shiny object of all those who make up his fifteenth collection, the man asks for alms stationed in a corner of Centro Habana. It is the living stamp of poverty on the island and its single existence is uncomfortable for many.

“That wandering is a religious thing, by Babalú Ayé, San Lázaro,” explains to this newspaper a santero that sees San Lázaro, Andrajoso and accompanied by a couple of dogs, embodied in the needy of the city. Therefore, although some “bother a little because they ask in a very rough way,” they seem natural to the environment.

Full of Ñáñar and dresses with rags, the beggars are the reminder that the system fails, that in Cuba there are poor and that the state – contracting to what likes to appear – does not take care of everyone. However, say aloud that they do not exist or are disguised, As the former Minister of Labor and Social Security didthe thunder maximum to conserve appearances. “Something happened to the minister, so it will have been expressed,” says the man.

By necessity, for abandonment – institutional and family – or for seeking “the money”, the daily life of the robber is linked to scrap and garbage, but even for them, the landfills of biblical proportions that house the city are out of control. “The only thing I can tell you is how the garbage system is. This is no longer the one who holds it. Mosquitos, the mice,” he explains to 14ymedio Lorenzo, who stops his work from coverall To talk to this newspaper.

“I have my house, there in San Ignacio, next to the Church of Las Mercedes. I am a Christian and I believe a lot in the Word of God. God for me is powerful,” he says, loaded with bracelets and necklaces that give him some air of rocker that completes with a Rastafari hat, in the style of Bob Marley. The man knows well the world of garbage dumps and the profits that the “business” brings. “There are people who live from garbage, because they are poor. They see something that catches their attention and they take it to sell it, to be able to live, to be able to defend themselves. There are others who are poor, and have no family,” he explains.

Lorenzo, however, has work and house, which makes his life a little better, but does not relieve his material needs. For his “necessity”, he says, the dive It is a kind of complementary work. “I dedicate myself to work in a port,” he says, but with the garbage he looks for “food.” As most of his brothers ex officio, Lorenzo has a method. “Take out what the loss is, that it does not work. That is Boto. Sometimes I have to take the garbage and put it aside, because I cannot throw it for the middle of the street, because the vehicles pass around here,” he says.

At the end of an exhaustive record, it stays with what can be sold: cans and cards for the raw material recovery company, in addition to any cheap or piece of clothing that can dispatch for some pesos. The rest, “because we know how we are with the blackouts,” he says repeating a spent slogan of the revolution, is “resisting.”

The parks and portals of the city have become the ideal places to expose the “merchandise” in view of all. On a sheet or improvised table, many sell from used bulbs to washers, toys and dishes, all rescued from landfills.

Passersby normally pass by, although it is not lacking who finds the screw that has been looking for months in the hardware stores or the ball box that needs for a certain domestic invention. Others buy pity, or offer money without taking anything, although they are the least in a country where poverty affects a large part of the population.

“At the moment I consider myself a fighter person in this country,” explains a passerby to this newspaper. Their situation, however, is not the same as those who have suffered a collapse and “the house up” or other people in a situation of “high vulnerability” falls.

“Unfortunately, the country does not give the main support to be able to build the house,” he admits, and those affected “have to go forward” as they can. “The person, however, cannot live subject to the country that [dice que] He will help it and will give them the best options. Simply, people have to grow up, look for a job on the left, since, for example, Social Security does not support the person to give work. Unfortunately, they say they take away the checkbook [si están jubilados y buscan trabajo]. I think the laws can change. Let the checkbook stay and people can also have a good job. ”

Also, the Havana believes that the procedures “could be” expedited to serve vulnerable, affected or victims of an accident. “They can be given a good house or a small house so that they can depend on their work honestly,” he says.

But beyond the hope that life improves, Cubans know who has the last word: “What I would ask the president at this time is that, if one day he sees this report, he of a Likeand so it will be on a good path. ”