Tomorrow has come, but not in the way that Marxist theorists projected it, nor did the Cuban officials who lived in the time when the Soviet Union promoted the idea of a future full of socialist achievements. In a cafeteria in Marianao, in Havana, the owner has condensed the unfulfilled promises and perennial jokes into the name of his gastronomic business, Futuro Luminoso.
Breads, pizzas and sandwiches are the main offer of the place where passers-by arrive exhausted. It is a small oasis of offers in the middle of the path made by those who arrive from the Plaza, Centro Habana or Old Havana municipalities. But the relief comes at a cost: Almost every product is priced in a triple-digit figure that makes customers take a step back. There is always someone who buys but it has nothing to do with egalitarianism or justice.
“I came to try to have something to drink, but the soft drink is no less than a hundred pesos and the beer is not to mention, it already seems like a drink for aristocrats”
The March sun seems not to be the sun on this Island immersed in the heat wave, but it stings tremendously on the skin. A man with a threadbare backpack and baggy pants approaches: “I came to try to have a drink, but the soft drink is no less than a hundred pesos and the beer is not to mention, it already seems like a drink for aristocrats, like the French champagne in the movies.”
However, the prices of Futuro Luminoso are low when compared to others in state centers, paladares, or home delivery services. “This man came to communism before the others,” jokes another buyer, alluding to the owner of the store, and leaves as soon as she reads the price list.
The lights of the future are within the reach of few, very few.
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