IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 9 ENGLISH | Page 13

There are currently 2.4 million olderthan-sixty Cubans in the Isle. More than
a half might be descendants of African
slaves. It is easy to make a naked-eye
calculation, but it’s impossible to know
the exact figure. Official statistics do
not reflect it; in the same way, they do
not
collect
almost
any
other
demographics like the numerical
incidence or status and distribution of
blacks and mestizos.
Few studies by specialists from
government institutions have been done
in recent years, with a suspicious hurry,
after more than half a century of delay.
Even so, the findings are not available
to independent research. For instance,
the book The Cuban Population by Skin
Color (National Bureau of Statistics and
Information, 2012) can be found in the
National Library José Martí, but only
for consultation in the reading room.
Anyway, it is unlikely that even those
with privileged access to the fruits of
such researches come to know what
portion of those 2.4 million old Cubans
ranks in the category of unprotected
poor, having the street as their only
housing and the sky or the portals as
unique roof. Much less these studies
could reveal the exact number of blacks
and mestizos among the elderly.
Although such data could have been

computed —a possibility that I
personally rule out— the number of
blacks and mestizos living below the
extreme poverty line would not be
known for sure. According to the
renowned Cuban economist Carmelo
Mesa-Lagos, there are 1.8 million
elderly pensioners on the Isle, who
receive the equivalent of $10 a month
on average. The simple rough idea of
what you can buy with that money is
enough to understand that they cannot
eat even once a day for half of every
month. No wonder they are seen, by
hundreds of thousands, wandering or
lying on the floor of the busiest public
locations waiting for whatever falls.
Many of them are homeless and others
are full time beggars with a job that
nobody has offered to them. Under the
imperative of survival, they pretend to
have a job as street vendors whether of
cigarettes or places in any queue,
newspapers or plastic bags outside the
agricultural markets. Or as resellers of
their own rationed quotas of coffee or
rice, soap or toothpaste. Or as divers
into the garbage bins searching for
wasted food for pigs or soda and beer
cans to be sold as raw material. Or as
auctioneers of old clothes, plumbing
parts and whatever items rescued from
the landfills.

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