Cuban artists are again this month without the subsidy agreed with state companies to replace their salaries during the pandemic. For many of them, at the end of the year, when they were waiting for the money to celebrate December 31 with dignity, it is especially serious that the material support promised by the authorities has not yet reached their hands.
According to several singers and dancers, the resolution that the authorities had to issue to renew the payment of the aid from November was not signed until this Wednesday, and the banks are no longer working for the December festivities. Thus, laments one artist, “we can’t get paid until the holidays are over.”
To authorize payments, in May 2020 the authorities implemented several resolutions of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, and some specific ones dictated by the Ministry of Culture. However, with the passing of months and the prolongation of the pandemic, these regulations had to be reactivated periodically.
According to several testimonies compiled by 14ymedio, the current delay in payments has been due to the delay in renewing the resolutions that protect the mechanism. A delay that this end of the year has encountered with the closings of bank branches and the traditional slowness that characterizes bureaucratic procedures in the second half of December.
“Why did you wait until the end of the year to issue the resolution?”, Denounces the young musician, who prefers anonymity and who recalls that the delays in the payments of this monthly payment have been a constant
“Why did you wait until the end of the year to issue the resolution?”, Denounces the young musician, who prefers anonymity and recalls that the delays in the payments of this monthly payment have been a constant. This and the long lines to collect once the money arrives have marked an aid that has been widely praised in the official media.
“The delay in payments is not from now, it is from a long time ago,” explains singer Liliam Ojeda to this newspaper. “Historically, companies (all state-owned) have breached the contracts that oblige them to pay within 90 days after carrying out the activity,” he complains, and with this help due to the pandemic, the same thing has happened.
The artist’s husband, Frank Delgado, is among those affected by the delay in a payment that they had to make around the 23rd of this month, but that the administrators of the cultural companies warn that it could be postponed until after the holidays.
It should be remembered that this aid is the only thing that artists have been receiving for more than a year and a half when theaters, clubs and houses of culture closed. Although before covid-19, most of the economic income of many artists came from informal roads, this monthly support has been vital during the months of restrictions and border closures.
At the beginning, a soloist or a musician received 1,500 pesos under this concept, a figure that rose to 4,800 after the implementation of the Ordering Task, on January 1. However, in these months inflation and the prices of basic products, including food, have risen at a wild rate.
Some artists have had to dedicate themselves to tasks outside their profession, such as home delivery of products, the preparation of food to sell to gastronomic businesses or transport
Some artists have had to dedicate themselves to tasks outside their profession, such as home delivery of products, the preparation of food to sell to gastronomic businesses or transporting passengers, according to the testimonies collected by 14ymedio.
With the reestablishment of commercial flights and the entry of visitors to the Island as of November 15, some recreational venues have opened their doors, but there are still a small number of stages, in the style of the Tropicana cabaret in Havana , which is included in the tour packages.
Outside of those venues, nightclub, club and music house shows are still suspended or at a reduced frequency, restricting the number of artists who benefit from going back to work. And even if you are among those who have managed to join a show, the outlook is bleak.
The state companies that hire many of these musicians have warned that they lack the budget until February to pay them. For their part, for those who are still unable to work, the date for the collection of the aid could take until after January 4 next, as the Government has decreed a holiday on the first Monday of the year.
“Thousands of artists and musicians are running out of end-of-year parties,” complains a singer who before the pandemic worked in various nightclubs in the Playa municipality in Havana. The artist warns that this type of delay in payment is not suffered by cultural officials. “They do have what to eat this December 31.”
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