Here's the Skinny

(blog by Stan)

Traditionally, today (December 31) is a big day for Cuban cuisine. The fin de año family meal generally consists of roast pork, yucca with mojo, arroz congri, and a tomato/cucumber salad (nothing like having fresh tomatoes in December!). Wash it down with generous rounds of Bucanero or Cristal, depending on your taste. Top it off with a flan and a tasita of strong, sweet café, and you're ready to raise a toast to the new year (with a shot of Havana Club Añejo Especial, sin hielo). 

Like most of the world, the traditions are not quite what they used to be this year in Cuba. It has been a time of growing food insecurity, with long lines and empty shelves defining the daily búsqueda for the proteina. The meal options have narrowed more and more, as common ingredients in the Cuban kitchen became more and more scarce. For the last couple of months we were in Cuba, lots of folks were worrying about us, that we were losing weight, looking too thin. I heard it from a friend on FB, too, that our photos showed us looking a bit too rawboned. It's not that we ever went hungry; we never missed a meal. But we discovered that you're not likely to gain weight if you don't have daily access to many of the things we take for granted in our pantries. Personally, I trimmed down three notches on my belt loop. 

Imagine preparing your holiday meal without any of these items readily available: 

chicken/turkey/pork/beef, fish

cheese, 

bread/flour/cornmeal, 

canned or frozen vegetables/fruits, 

macaroni/pasta, 

eggs, 

milk, 

beer, 

mayonnaise, 

coffee, 

ice cream

The list could go on and on. What's left? Beans and rice, picadillo (ground pork or turkey) or hot dogs or croquetas (with more breading than meat), winter squash or boniatos (sweet potatoes). And for whatever reason, high quality (but cheap) rum is never in short supply. All this scenario is not the case for every Cuban family; there are some who have more resources and are able to scour the underground market for the necessities. But even the underground market has suffered from the scarcities, and the prices have skyrocketed. For a short while, there was more availability at the new "MLC" stores (moneda libremente convertible), where you have to pay with a debit card that has some kind of "real" global currency on it (like US dollars). But after a few short weeks of fully stocked shelves, these, too, started emptying out. No more beer, no more cooking oil, no more mayo, etc etc. 

What I am describing is the challenge that the vast majority of Cuban homes are facing. Most do not have surplus cash for shopping on the street (tomatoes at $1 a pound is out of range for most) or on the underground, and most do not have the MLC debit card. The growing uncertainties and anxieties have provoked social unrest, too, with some heretofore unheard of public demonstrations and protests rising up, primarily with groups of artists and intellectuals. 

Add to this major changes in the economic system that are due to take effect tomorrow, January 1, with prices for basic goods set to quadruple (with accompanying salary hikes for government employees only), and you can see that it is a recipe not for roast pork and congri, but for who knows what. We are sad that we are not there to accompany our Cuban family into the New Year, and we are struggling with the daily reminders of the great divide between empire and not-empire, as our kitchen is stocked with pretty much everything on that list above. Not to diminish the anxieties people are facing in the US with the economic downturn here, but the truth is, it is not the same. Poverty within the confines of the empire is not the same as poverty in a country the empire has under siege. I have already added a notch on my belt loop, and I have only been back a few days. My worried Cuban friends will be glad to see the weight gain, even if it comes with a measure of shame.