IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 7 ENGLISH | Page 36

Tribulations in Cuba: My
Market and the Hospital
Rudicel Batista
Independent journalist
Manzanillo, Granma Province, Cuba

Sad reality in this society lost in time, navigating aimlessly in reverse
I

I

will not go to a supermarket or other luxury business full of first-class
products where foreigners who visit
my country do their shopping. Instead,
I’ll go the market in Las Novillas, a little
town just a few kilometers from Manzanillo, where ordinary Cubans buy those
products the government kindly subsidizes: 5 pounds of rice, 10 ounces of
beans, 4 pounds of sugar, ½ pound of
oil, and other things that make up the
basic food basket, or as Cubans say: “los
mandados” [the groceries]. The establishment—designed for the sale of provisions and hardware—is called El
Jardín. It has been packed for over 50
years and never been financially compensated. No one has ever offered solutions for the problems of a center so important, for the benefit of the whole
town, which has a right to a good store
in which to shop for what little it sells.
Everything is incredibly rundown. The
coolers have been broken for more than
5 years; the counters, also quite deteriorated, filled with scales and glassware in

the same state. Never mind the ceiling: it
rains more indoors than outdoors.

Small grocery store

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