Jorge Enrique Rodriguez reports from Havana via Diario de Cuba:
‘If you’re young in Cuba you can’t work, you have to scrap’
DIARIO DE CUBA spoke with several young people about their job prospects and wages in Cuba today.
“In Cuba, if you’re young, to enjoy your youth you can’t work for the State, you have to scrap,” said Aaron Machado, a 25-year-old Havana man we met at one of the most exclusive bars in the historic center of Old Havana, where he was eating with his partner and some friends.
After completing his studies in Accounting, he tried to support his family with state jobs. Both his parents are retired, and his younger brother is in school.
“It was impossible with my salary and my parents’ payments, especially after the ‘rearrangement’ and the inflation that ensued. Our whole family is from the countryside, with two cousins who migrated abroad, but who are not committed to helping us financially, so I decided to go out and ‘scrap’ in the street, and stop working for the State, or our house would?ve ended falling on us, and I’d have squandered my youth,” Machado explained.
From working without a contract at small private businesses, or on accounting books, to selling everything from wheat flour, to jewelry, to drugs, Machado delved into any and every illegal business that appeared on the streets of Havana. He is currently busy supplying the city’s large private businesses with all kinds of things.
“I can only tell you that all the merchandise comes out of major operations, and that everyone is bribable in this country. I don’t have a fortune, but my house is repaired, in decent condition, and my parents have their medicines, my little brother has everything, and I can enjoy my youth on an island where you can’t do that a state salary,” he said.
Despite the Cuban regime’s insistence that young people on the island can live by working for the State, with guarantees of economic sufficiency, the reality is quite different. None of the young people interviewed could confirm that their respective state salaries were enough for anything but mere survival, their lives marred by rationing, eternal lines, and a yearning to emigrate.
“Those of us who cannot escape the country, because we have nothing to sell, are obliged to fake it … to survive by ‘inventing,’ because in Cuba we’re all forced to ‘invent’ to make ends meet,” said the young Idalmis Marichal, the mother of a minor.
“I’m currently one of the so-called pasmaos … having to complement my monthly salary, currently not even enough to buy a pair of shoes. I survive by reselling absolutely anything, because not even prostitution is a good business, and there are no foreigners like before to live off that. A woman who dreams of being supported by a Cuban is doomed, because men are facing the same circumstances to survive, and the prisons are full of those who tried to get ahead, but weren’t careful enough,” added Marichal.
In addition to the severe economic crisis that afflicts the country, there is an atmosphere of increasing social violence and an increase in government repression against any signs of public protests or complaints against the current government’s management. The fear of expressing oneself freely increased after the regime’s reprisals on July 11, 2021, when hundreds of thousands of Cubans took to the streets in an unprecedented event in Cuba’s history.
The story of the young Amelia shows that even the listed maximum salary in Cuba of about 9,800 pesos per month does not allow a young woman to feel secure living on the island. A graduate in Veterinary Medicine and with a job at the “Scientific Pole,” Amelia earned a monthly salary that was sometimes close to 10,500 pesos.
“To anyone who doesn’t understand the Cuban reality that may seem like a lot, but when a pair of shoes costs between 6,000 and 10,000 pesos, or enjoying a weekend on the beach, or going to a bar or restaurant, costs an entire month’s salary, it’s a problem. Most importantly, you don’t feel safe living in Cuba. The street violence is worse every day; every week a woman is killed or you learn of a dismemberment. Cases of missing young people, including children, are on the rise. Government harassment for what you post on your social networks or say at the workplace is now an everyday occurrence. After 11-J I was bullied at my workplace for refusing to participate in the process to be a member of the UJC,” says Amelia, who, thanks to friends of her parents living abroad, came up with the money to reach the US border, and is waiting for an interview to enter US territory.
Osmani Espinosa bemoans his fear of the sea, which prevented him from daring to cross the Strait of La Florida in a ramshackle boat. Four of his friends arrived safely a year ago in the United States, fleeing the miserable lives that a salary as a state employee condemns one to in Cuba.
“I work in a factory by day and, at night, every three days, as a guard at a state parking lot. Even so, I?m forced to pick up cans from the trash to sell and, thanks to my skills as a cobbler, I earn a little more by mending the shoes of poor people in my neighborhood in Los Pinos,” explained Espinosa, who lives with his mother and a younger brother. His father died five years ago, he says, “practically, due to a lack of medicine.”
“Even with two jobs you can’t live as a young person in Cuba. Personally, I don’t get into any illicit business, because, if they lock me up, who’s going to take care of my mother and my brother? And here, if you don’t have an illegal racket, you can’t really live. You can barely survive. I don’t even think about looking for a woman to raise a family, because, how could I support her?” Espinosa asked. Another worry robs that haunts him is the dilapidated state of his home.
“With a worker’s salary in Cuba, I can’t fix my house, not in a million years. I curse my fear of the sea. Now I could be in America, working in anything, but providing for my family, with dignity. What good was studying? What good are two salaries? I still have to dig through the trash just for me and family to survive,” Espinosa concluded.
I have a cousin who came to the US in the 90’s. He told me that even back then working a side job “a la izquierda” or illegally was a common practice in Cuba in order to be able to survive economically. He also reported that brides to government officials was a common practice. Seems to me the only thing that has changed is that people are now willing to admit it openly. Somebody finally said the emperor has no clothes. The government has also become more honest since now they openly rule with an iron fist and abuse the population for the slightest reason – like the bribe was too low. Fidel killed people but he made it look like an accident. He tortured with leaving any signs. The current band of criminals has no finesse in these things. They are actually much more honest.