IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 6 ENGLISH | Page 55

A Life with No Insurance
Natividad Soto Kessel
Chemical engineer and ceramicist
Havana, Cuba

I left home early in the morning, to buy
my ration book bread, a round loaf that
fits in the palm of my hand, is
sometimes undercooked, other times
sour, containing a small stone. It is
always short on shortening or lard, and is
often blackened on one side, or tastes
like tin. Despite all this, I go buy it, toast
it a bit in a pan, and eat it, when the bite
of hunger awakens me in the middle of
the night. If not, then it becomes my
breakfast, which was why I went out to
buy it in the first place.
Upon
awakening, my thoughts traveled to the

past. I remembered the worried look on
the faces of the folks who waited outside
the bakery. There was uncertainty in that
look; they were losing hope. Hours
earlier, they had been assured that the
bread would be ready by 6PM, but it
wasn’t. Intent on calming us, the shop
employee told them ѡ