{"id":255201,"date":"2022-07-11T18:43:04","date_gmt":"2022-07-11T22:43:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=255201"},"modified":"2022-07-11T18:43:04","modified_gmt":"2022-07-11T22:43:04","slug":"this-hot-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/this-hot-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThis hot summer\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis summer is hot, hot,\u201d Sergio tells me, emphasizing the repeated adjective. You don\u2019t have to be an expert in semantics to know that my interlocutor is not exactly talking about <\/span>meteorology<\/b><\/a>, or, at least, not only about it, but given my acquiescent, confirming silence, the man prefers to explain himself. Or needs to.<\/span><\/p>\n

I only just met him, but as many people \u2014 and, very particularly, Cubans \u2014 tend to do in the face of daily tribulations and difficulties, Sergio does not require more approval to share his concerns with me than our coincidence in time and space, specifically in the seat of the electric motorcycle that he drives and on which I am traveling this morning as a passenger on my way to <\/span>Old Havana<\/b><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if the motorcycle \u2014 a standard model on which, to be honest, we\u2019re pretty tight on space \u2014 is his or rented. That\u2019s not the point. I only know that he is the driver assigned to me through a private motorcycle taxi service that has been working in the Cuban capital for some time and is contacted through WhatsApp. And also that, as soon as I adjusted my helmet and got comfortable in the back, the man, whom I estimate to be in his 40s, quickly started the motorcycle while welcoming me with his prescient \u2014 and polysemic \u2014 phrase about the torrid condition of summer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A man bathes in the middle of the street to cool off from the heat, in Havana. Photo: Otmaro Rodr\u00edguez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know about you, but when the <\/span>dollar<\/b><\/a> started to go down I thought that things were going to improve somewhat, even if it wasn\u2019t much,\u201d he tells me before turning onto Ayestar\u00e1n Street to continue in a straight line towards Carlos III Avenue, \u201cI don\u2019t know, that prices stopped going up a bit, but look now: everything continues going up and up, and it doesn\u2019t seem like that\u2019s going to change, at least not for the better.\u201d \u201cUh-huh,\u201d I reply, partly so as not to appear impolite and, at the same time, already interested in the obvious course of the conversation. Or, better said, of the monologue of which he could be the exclusive listener for the same price of the ticket.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe dollar thing was a strange thing, don\u2019t you think?\u201d he asks me rhetorically, and I don\u2019t even have to articulate a monosyllable for him to follow the course of his question. \u201cFor the time being it started to go down when the American government announced the remittances and the flights; it got to 90 pesos and there were even those who sold it for less because it seemed that it was going to continue going down. And, all of a sudden, it started to go up again and is already more than 110. And with the euro and the freely convertible currency, the same thing; again they are at more than 120,\u201d he explains to me as if instead of living in Havana I had just arrived from Finland or Mars. \u201cI took advantage of those days and bought something,\u201d he continues talking while driving, \u201cbut I didn\u2019t buy more lest they started selling them cheaper in the banks, as was said in the street, but nothing of the sort: I lost the chance. And now, with the rise of foreign exchange and the freely convertible currency, prices are out of control. Anything costs you an arm and a leg and more if you don\u2019t watch out. It\u2019s madness.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Central Bank of Cuba issues new banknotes<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n