{"id":335367,"date":"2026-02-23T04:47:43","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T09:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=335367"},"modified":"2026-02-23T04:47:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T09:47:43","slug":"the-island-the-icebergs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/the-island-the-icebergs\/","title":{"rendered":"The island, the icebergs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nostalgia\u00a0for the\u00a0camellos<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Faustino\u00a0is feeling\u00a0nostalgic. He looks from the doorway of his house, topped with a 1924 skylight, at the empty bus stop at San L\u00e1zaro and \u00c1guila\u00a0streets, and it seems unbelievable.\u00a0\u201cDuring the Special Period,\u00a0<\/span>camellos<\/span><\/i>\u00a0(buses)\u00a0used to go by. Now, not even\u00a0<\/span>chivos<\/span><\/i>\u201d\u00a0(bicycles),\u201d\u00a0he says, exaggerating the zoological reference.\u00a0\u201cLook at this. I never thought\u00a0we\u2019d\u00a0get to this point.\u2026\u00a0Nothing at all,\u201d\u00a0he blurts out, very irritated, alluding to the collapse of public transportation in Havana this week, while clapping his hands together.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The
The bus stop at San L\u00e1zaro and \u00c1guila streets, usually teeming with passengers, remains empty due to the collapse of Havana\u2019s bus enterprise. Photo: AMD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Faustino will try to get to his job tonight,\u00a0\u201ctaking whatever\u00a0I\u00a0can,\u201d\u00a0but it might be his last chance to finish the week.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0a security guard at a private fast-food restaurant that closes at ten and is\u00a0located\u00a0just past the bridge over the Almendares River.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0about seven or eight kilometers\u00a0away, a\u00a0distance\u00a0his health and age no longer allow him to cover on foot.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A former smoker, a heavy one,\u00a0\u201cwho used to smoke a pack and a half or even\u00a0two\u00a0a day,\u201d\u00a0he\u00a0suffers from peripheral artery disease. He also\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0afford to\u00a0\u201cburn\u201d\u00a0some 400 pesos of his budget for a round-trip fare three or four times a week on one of the shared taxis that crisscross the city.\u00a0\u201cIt doesn\u2019t add up,\u201d\u00a0he complains.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll\u00a0lose my job. What can you do?\u201d\u00a0he\u00a0laments.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ll find another one nearby,\u201d\u00a0he says with forced optimism, while his wife, Mirta, a\u00a0\u201cseamstress and university-educated\u00a0hustler,\u201d\u00a0stares at him blankly and exhales a soft puff of smoke.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEven she\u2019ll have to give up the habit,\u201d\u00a0he predicts, as\u00a0a pack of the worst black cigarettes,\u00a0Criollos,\u00a0costs 250 pesos.\u00a0\u201cYou wish.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0the only\u00a0pleasure\u00a0I allow myself.\u00a0No way,\u201d\u00a0she replies furiously, defending her smoky tyranny, and rocks back and forth more forcefully in her aluminum and rubber-strapped\u00a0rocking\u00a0chair. The atmosphere grows heated, and a thick silence settles in, like a truce.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Boarding
Boarding a private tricycle on San L\u00e1zaro Avenue. Photo: AMD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s barely 9 a.m. and on the avenue itself, in front of the brutalist behemoth of the\u00a0Ameijeiras\u00a0Hospital, groups of anxious people crowd together, waiting to catch the first thing that stops, just to escape the gridlock and the cold wind that keeps the choppy sea and their hands in their pockets.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo buses are\u00a0going by, only tricycles (both private and state-run), but\u00a0almost all\u00a0of them are already\u00a0full from\u00a0Havana.\u00a0They\u2019re\u00a0very small,\u201d\u00a0says a woman wearing sunglasses, a wide-brimmed hat and carrying a transparent bag from El Corte Ingl\u00e9s department store overflowing with red tomatoes. She lives\u00a0\u201cnear La Palma,\u201d\u00a0in the southwest of the city, and works in Vedado as an assistant in a dental clinic.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The
The state-run tricycles operate for 10 pesos, a popular price, but their passenger capacity is very limited given the high demand. Photo: AMD.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She\u00a0says that the fares from\u00a0her\u00a0house to La Rampa have jumped from 250 pesos to 300 pesos, and that today\u00a0she wants to see\u00a0her\u00a0sick uncle, whom\u00a0she loves like a father, who lives near the Obelisk in\u00a0Marianao. The monument was inaugurated in 1944 by then-President Batista in honor of his first coup d\u2019\u00e9tat, on September 4, 1933, when he was a low-class sergeant and stenographer from Banes.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sale
Sale of books, photos and antiques in Havana, including a photo presumably of dictator Fulgencio Batista. Photo: AMD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Same\u00a0shovels, different landscapes<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u201cIn Canada, my son\u00a0has to\u00a0shovel snow to get the car out of the garage. I\u00a0have to\u00a0shovel too, but shit.\u201d\u00a0The phrase came from the mouth, with resigned displeasure, of Augusto, a 70-year-old intensive care physician who has served on medical missions around the world. He now faces the encroaching garbage dump on his street, encroaching on the access to his carport, a sort of palisade that he himself calls a\u00a0\u201cchicken coop hacked out with machetes\u201d\u00a0through recycling and other opportunities.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Garbage
Garbage dumps are resurfacing in the streets of Havana due to the collapse of public garbage collection services caused by fuel shortages. Photo: AMD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The doctor\u2019s house is a few steps from the corner.\u00a0<\/span>Suchel\u00a0Corner<\/span><\/i>, or the\u00a0<\/span>Palace of Flies<\/span><\/i>, as some enlightened neighbors like to call it. Others are less cynical and more passionate\u00a0in\u00a0their descriptions. You know the type. Unique.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For years, several plastic tanks, each one not dismantled by predatory tradition, overflow in a couple of days, or at most three, and then the waste fills the\u00a0parterre\u00a0and advances unstoppably toward the street, almost becoming natural barricades. The road has nearly been strangled by the waste, which ends up being removed by the bulldozer\u2019s blades, that iron horse of Attila that erodes the sidewalk, uproots the sparse grass from the\u00a0parterres\u00a0and breaks with its jaws the occasional section of\u00a0sidewalk\u00a0that gets in its way.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The result of such an undertaking is something like a post-battle landscape, borrowing the title from Wajda\u2019s 1970 film\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a post-war existential drama in which there seems to be no way out for the Poles as they transition from Nazi occupation to the Stalinist regime.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A
A garbage dump stands before a bulldozer, whose driver waits comfortably for his work companions. Photo: AMD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSoon I\u2019ll have to put wings on the truck so I can fly away from here,\u201d\u00a0he says, as he briefly warms up the\u00a0engine\u00a0and the swarm of flies stirs at the sound of combustion.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For those familiar with art in Cuba, Dr. Augusto\u2019s fantasy\u00a0brings to mind\u00a0\u201c<\/span>Hybrid of a Chrysler<\/span><\/b><\/a>,\u201d\u00a0a sculptural piece created in 2003 by the Cuban artist\u00a0Esterio\u00a0Segura.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But while magic was still unfolding in Augusto\u2019s life, he used his shovel to do what needed to be done: push back the boundaries of the garbage dump, which these days has resurfaced with a fungal-like force across almost all of Havana, multiplying the signs of the oil shortage and its resulting collapse of public services.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A
A replica of Esterio Segura\u2019s flying Chrysler is on display at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana. Photo: AMD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The doctor has about ten liters of gasoline left in the tank of his beloved\u00a0\u201cTico,\u201d\u00a0a 1990s Daewoo Tico, which he cherishes like the apple of his eye because\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a marvel: it\u00a0uses up\u00a0a\u00a0liter of gasoline\u00a0per\u00a020\u00a0kilometer.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And it certainly is, at a time when the government has just decreed zero fuel for the market in pesos (Augusto was left stranded in the virtual queue with a\u00a0<\/span>ticket<\/span><\/b><\/a>\u202fthat puts him\u00a0intergalacticly\u00a0far from the pump) and rationed the supply in dollars, allowing only 20 liters per vehicle at designated gas stations, where lines of cars stretch for blocks and blocks and patience is required to be longer than the wait.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"In
In its emergency plan, the government closed sales in the national currency and only allows the sale of 20 liters in dollars per vehicle. Photo: AMD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Celeste,\u00a0passion for\u00a0Turkish\u00a0soap operas\u00a0and\u00a0reality<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Celeste\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0care less about politics. What matters to her, a former bank teller for almost half a century and a manicure and pedicure service provider for any neighbor, is whether the heartthrob of the\u00a0soap opera\u00a0<\/span>The Turk<\/span><\/i>\u00a0(2025), a soldier of the Ottoman Empire wounded in 17th-century Italy, will finally be able to find happiness in what seems to be an impossible romance with a young Austrian village girl.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But politics or reality\u00a0\u2014\u00a0which at times are\u00a0almost the\u00a0same thing\u00a0\u2014\u00a0is more powerful than any soap\u00a0opera\u00a0and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0already knocked on her door. The bag of bread she used to buy\u00a0\u201cearly in the morning, before dawn\u201d\u00a0has now increased in price by more than 23%. Eight well-baked\u00a0buns, about 80 grams each, now cost 370 pesos. Just a few days ago,\u00a0they\u00a0were 300 pesos.\u00a0\u201cImagine,\u201d\u00a0Celeste summarizes,\u00a0\u201cthe owner has to turn on the generator to bake the bread when there\u2019s no electricity, and that\u2019s fuel he has to buy at exorbitant prices.\u201d\u00a0This is how Celeste summarizes the explanation the aggrieved delivery man gave her.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In an apartment tucked away at the end of a hallway, where the smell of charcoal clings to the clothes, the former cashier lives with her sister, a few years older than her. Both are originally from Baracoa,\u00a0\u201cbut Havana residents by right of seniority,\u201d\u00a0and her sister is the one who does the cooking.\u00a0\u201cShe makes\u00a0delicious\u00a0stews,\u201d\u00a0she says, bringing her fingers to her mouth, as if the adjective were\u00a0emerging\u00a0from its hidden lexical existence, since\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0very rare\u00a0to hear this\u00a0among current\u00a0Cubans.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Agricultural
Agricultural products are already experiencing modest price increases in the first few hours since the national emergency program went into effect. Photo: AMD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Each ear of corn for the stew cost 80 pesos and, according to Celeste\u2019s sister, the vendor told her that these might be the last ones sold at the neighborhood farmers\u2019\u00a0market. In fact, the supply chain is the first to react to the energy blockade.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo get here from Matanzas, the truck driver had to buy 70 liters of diesel at 1,000 pesos each, and then the goods he transported to Havana totaled about 100,000 pesos.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0why the stall owner\u00a0has to\u00a0raise the price of\u00a0almost all\u00a0the produce and fruit to compensate and keep sales down. Otherwise, he warned,\u00a0he\u2019d\u00a0have to close.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And a revealing detail:\u00a0\u201cOh, and he told\u00a0her\u00a0that at the checkpoints to enter Havana\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0asking truck drivers for 50,000 pesos.\u2026\u00a0<\/span>Trun<\/span><\/i>\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0like us, but\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0even worse among ourselves,\u201d\u00a0Celeste says, sounding annoyed.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like a dystopian novel unfolding in installments, Cubans discover each day how the current restrictions are taking over their lives. Thinking about tomorrow becomes a bad joke.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3232,"featured_media":335371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13902,13904],"tags":[19256,34647,35072,35073],"ppma_author":[33956],"class_list":["post-335367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cuba","category-cuban-economy","tag-featured","tag-fuel-crisis","tag-oil-blockade","tag-transport-in-cuba"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe island, the icebergs | OnCubaNews English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Like a dystopian novel unfolding in installments, Cubans discover each day how the current restrictions are taking over their lives.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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