“It seems that the chicken is not going to come in today either,” says Miguel, resigned, after taking another look at his watch. It’s 5:10 p.m., so it’s less than an hour before the store closes. Even so, a dozen people, including the man, remain around, waiting for the miracle.
In the shop portal, the note taker and the sales assistants let the time go by languidly, chatting about anything and checking their mobile phones. From time to time, someone comes up to them hoping, only to hear the same thing: “It is not known when the truck will arrive. Maybe in a while, or tomorrow.”
“Hopefully tomorrow. But it wouldn’t be our turn anymore”, Miguel tells me, looking at his watch again, as if that way he could make the long-awaited truck appear on the corner. “Tomorrow another winery starts, so we would be staying for the recovery, weekend. Let’s see if the mincemeat arrives, it’s lost, ”she laments herself.
“They say that the Mariel mincemeat factory was stopped, but that It already started. And that a chicken boat is also coming in; so let’s cross our fingers”, adds Hilda, who, like me, had just arrived outside the store to “see how the room is”. And she, like me, she had verified that “the little room is just the same: bare.”
I ask Hilda about the chicken boat and she tells me that her son told her about it, that he “read it on the Internet”. I wonder where my neighbor’s son read that; If not, it will be one of the many rumors —better or worse intentioned— that swarm on social networks, and, if true, where the damned ship could come from.
I am about to tell you that I read comments by the economist Pedro Monreal on Twitter, in which he confirmed a drop in chicken imports in February from the United States —the largest supplier of this meat to Cuba, which must pay it to money by the embargo/blockade regulations—and an increase in the price of the kilogram, but I don’t want to sound like a killjoy.
2/6 The value of monthly chicken exports from the US to Cuba in February 2023 fell 13.7% compared to January, with a relative loss of purchasing power that was expressed in a greater drop in terms of tons, to the increase in February the value per kilogram pic.twitter.com/fwoR9MQ4XC
— Pedro Monreal (@pmmonreal) April 7, 2023
In addition to these data, I reserve the fact that, according to Monreal, although Brazilian chicken exports increased in February, in March they “reduced notably”, which, by all accounts, is not exactly good news.
5/6 It is known that Brazilian chicken exports to Cuba fell significantly in March 2023, with just 1,137 tons (1.44 million USD), indicating Cuba’s limitations to replace the supply of the main imported food with Latin American countries
— Pedro Monreal (@pmmonreal) April 7, 2023
In the morning he had met Miguel, Hilda and other neighbors in the store. After standing in line for a while, he had managed to buy detergent, cooking oil and sausages, three of the five “prioritized” products that have been sold rationed in Havana stores for a few months, through a system that organizes purchases based on of the wineries of each community.
In my neighborhood store, in El Cerro, for example, they buy eight bodegas, an average of two a week, depending on the availability of products. Each family nucleus corresponds to a day of that week —that is, in practice, one day a month— and if the five “prioritized” products are not available on that day, as has happened in recent times, it is necessary to “recover” the missing purchase over the weekend. Hopefully.
Other items, such as cigarettes or pasta, are not “prioritized”, so being able to buy them in the store depends on how much fortune smiles on us: if there is a day when it is our turn to buy, we can buy them if we pay their prices not subsidized —although always less than those on the black market—; If not, you have to wait until the next time. Until the next adventure, as Elpidio Valdés would say.
But now, neither Hilda, nor Miguel nor the others who throw their sighs in the direction of the store, seem concerned about anything other than the chicken. The monthly package that they sell per household is a lifeline that no one wants to give up, even if to buy it—or to watch for its possible arrival—you have to miss work. Or, even though, as I hear what happened to those who bought it the week before, the package is 4.5 kilograms, half less than that established in this system.
“In other stores, they have even given two 2-kilogram packages, so the ‘tumbe’ has been greater,” says my neighbor. She wisely adds that this “depends on what comes in.” “Let’s see what packages the ship is bringing now. Hopefully they will be big, ”she comments, and I wonder again in what turbulent oceans of the Internet the news of the supposed ship is sailing.
“And I hope that this week – Miguel brings me out of my musings, finally convinced that the miracle will not happen this afternoon -, let’s see if I take advantage of the fact that the potatoes arrived at the little market and I’ll kill the desire to eat chicken fricassee with potatoes . Look, until now I have never been lucky enough to have both things arrive at the same time. And how do I keep some potatoes in my house to make a fricassee later?
***
The line of cars crosses the street and continues for several blocks near a popular service center in Vedado. This has been the case for days around the gas stations in Havana, due to fuel shortages.
Drivers like Osmany and David have been dialing since early morning, hoping that they will “be enabled” at dawn. Or, even, they spend several days in line, and they even sleep in their cars, and play chess and dominoes, waiting for a tanker truck that will allow them to roll through the streets of Havana again. And earn “the beans.”
At the beginning of the month, the Government of Havana announced “resets” in the assignment and sale of fuel, both to “vital” sectors and to private drivers. The measure sought to address “a situation created by the lack of diesel supply”, especially for private carriers, and that limits would be established on the number of liters sold according to the type of vehicle.
Since then, queues around gas stations have been part of the urban landscape, as they have been several times in recent years. In addition, as then, the queues at the bus stops have grown and the waiting time and discomfort of those who aspire to move around the city in the always vilified but rescued buses have multiplied.
As on those occasions, there are many who now entrust their luck to the arrival of one or more crude or fuel ships. Among them, Osmany reasons that “the government must be looking for oil anywhere, because no country can live without transportation.” But, meanwhile, the vast majority suffers from the wait and its consequences, and “you have to tighten your belt,” replied David.
According to what they tell me, they both met in line at another gas station, and later they met at this one, at the Tángana gas station, near the boardwalk. They have built a closeness in the midst of misfortune. Both are dedicated to “throwing tickets”, both on their own and through private businesses that manage car rentals through applications and WhatsApp groups. Although they acknowledge that they are not doing badly, they assure that “every day the game is more difficult.”
“People complain about the prices of the races, but who do I complain to about the prices of everything else? Who do I complain to for what the pork is costing, or the rice, or the dollar, or what they sell in the stores in MLC? And, to be honest, I don’t think that because they start again to receive dollars in banks things are going to change. And what I have is a car, not a ticket making machine”, Osmany shoots at me.
“Right now, with this lack of fuel, drivers are losing time and money. And on the left, the price of oil and gasoline is through the roof, and will continue to rise —David points out— What do the people and the government itself think will happen then with the price of private transportation? What is going to stay the same? Whoever thinks that is because he knows nothing about economics and less about life ”.
Both assure that they will continue in the queue until they can solve and David adds that, “after all, one ends up getting the hang of it, he meets people and even crazy things happen”. “The other day, at 17 and L, a driver who was with us was told right off the bat that he had arrived. the parole -he tells me-. Imagine how she got herself. She called a friend to stay in line with the car and went to celebrate. One less than him will have to wait again for an oil ship ”.
“…or for other things”, Osmany seconded, and the two made a hint of a smile that ended up turning into silence. I take the opportunity to say goodbye and start the way back. I leave the long line of cars behind, go up looking for the Ramp and continue along Infanta to Carlos III, to then continue through Ayestarán, on my usual route on foot to the vicinity of the Hill. I pass by crowded bus stops, by shops with their inevitable queues, by crowded banks and ATMs…
At the entrance of my building I meet Miguel, who is also arriving. “They told me that he brought chicken into the store, but not hash”, he tells me by greeting. “Has the ship arrived?” I ask him. “Go figure. For me, as if they brought it in a balloon,” he replies. What matters is that he keeps coming, so we can catch him on the weekend. Just in case, I already separated the fricassee potatoes, because if not, they won’t make it to Saturday. And if the chicken does not enter, then I eat them as ‘widows’. Total, it will not be the first time… ”.
