In my case, I am always prepared to stand in line, because there is what there is, but it is not enough for everyone.
Anticipating a precarious old age
Paul is 81 years old. He lives in Artemisa, along with his daughter and son-in-law.
Can you describe your state of health?
Pablo suffers from diabetes and hypertension. This implies a chronic deficiency in the way you metabolize sugar and a dysregulation of blood pressure in your cardiovascular system. The combination of both conditions brings with it a considerable increase in the risk of suffering cardiovascular accidents, even meaning a risk to life. The way to deal with these conditions and alleviate their aggressive effects on health is by following a strict diet that provides enough vitamins and natural sugars, avoiding excess fats and artificial sugars. (Fruits, Vegetables, whole grains, legumes, low-fat dairy products such as milk and cheese, white meat...)
How long have you been presenting this status?
Diabetes and hypertension were detected more than 10 years ago.
Has your condition been enhanced or aggravated by eating conditions? Can you describe to us in what way or way?
At this time, Pablo eats from the menu of the “Casa de Abuelos” in Bauta, but for dinner he usually receives support from his daughter who, at least twice a week, cooks especially to take care of his state of health.
Certainly, the food provided by the "Casa de Abuelos" is not enough for her to have adequate nutrition in her state of health and the help she receives from her daughter is not enough to satisfy her needs either, but she tells us that, within the precariousness in which he lives manages to maintain minimal stability in his blood pressure and blood sugar levels. The foregoing does not imply that he has a state of health that is not even close to optimal, in fact, he generally lives at the limit of the minimum stability indicators for both conditions. Pablo tells us that he had an active life and believes that this is beneficial for him to cope with his lack of food.
Do you need any specific food for your condition? Which? Is it difficult for you to acquire the products that you consider essential for your diet?
Yes. Fruits, Vegetables, whole grains, legumes, low-fat dairy products such as milk and cheese, white meat.
Does this food represent an additional expense in your food costs? What alternative ways or channels do you use to “solve” it?
Pablo is not able to acquire the specific diet that allows him to carry his disease in a stable way and avoid complications. Fundamentally
tomato, mayonnaise, snack paste. They make you believe that you have a choice, but you don't. In the end you sacrifice yourself to minimize yourself with what there is and not with and not with what you want, that's where half of my expenses go because you buy minced beef, some cans of pressed meat, all of that with prices that are extremely expensive, I say they are punishing prices. Finally, I do not receive work incentives because I am, as I told you, a self-employed worker.
The black market before COVID-19 was the main way to acquire everything, now it is avoided to the point of hunger and need because it is extremely expensive
Due to the shortage during COVID, there are some stores that were formerly establishments in CUC, which today have become in national currency (MN), there the State assigns you some essential products that could be used if they were not restricted, I'm talking about chicken, sausages and normado mincemeat. They give it in a very controlled way using the supply book and in insufficient quantities. Now you can visit those stores to purchase them once a month. They started weekly, they continued fortnightly and now it is once a month, the sacrifice to access the products due to the queues is sub-real, but with the purchases in those stores the majority subsists, in my case it is 15% of my expenses .
How many hours do you spend searching for and buying these foods?
The search and purchase of food is the main task of any Cuban, from those who have the least to those who have the most. In my case, I am always prepared to stand in line, because there is what there is, but it is not enough for everyone. Almost every day I do something related to the search for food, I am not always successful, when I go to the stores in national currency it is almost all day, just like those in freely convertible currency (MLC). In the agro-markets you invest less time, but you still spend a couple of hours in them.
Do you use social networks to find out about supplies and prices in your area, for example, via Facebook or Telegram or WhatsApp groups?
No, I do not use networks for this purpose.
If you had to divide your diet, how would you describe your intake of animal protein, vegetable protein, carbohydrates? For example, how many times a week do you eat fish, red meat, white meat, dairy products, eggs, vegetables?
Almost always chicken from regulated stores, you stretch it and it's like a rubber band, you eat it almost every day. I eat so little fish that I can almost say never. Red meat almost the same, last month I bought two tubes of ground beef, very good quality, in MLC, very expensive, two meals for three people per tube. That is the beef I have eaten in the last two or three months. I have access to eggs because 10 per person come to the cellar monthly. About milk, milk is not sold here, only medical diets, which have already been removed until further notice, and pregnant women and children under seven years of age have a milk allowance. I drink milk when I can buy it outside and it is very, very expensive. The vegetables, you find them in the particular agritos [small private agro-market stalls] and they are priceless. Onion, garlic and tomato are only available to big pockets. Perhaps what I buy the most is cucumber, avocado… there are no other types of vegetables.
Do you consider that your family has enough intake of healthy food for its normal development?
No, not at all, we are eating what we can, when we can, carbohydrates and sugar are what keep us going.
Do you consider that in your family there are diseases related to the lack of nutrients or an unhealthy diet?
We are a very strong race, even bread with rubble nourishes us, so if we are sick with a shortage of nutrients, which is almost total, we don't even notice it.
Do you consider that, when shopping, you must decide between one basic food or another? Do you think you are buying food at a fair price?
The problem is not that you decide between one and the other, the problem is that you buy the one that exists. I have never been in that dilemma because there is no variety. It depends on what is meant by justice, I would say that food is far above purchasing power, that could be said to be unfair
Have your food preferences changed in the last two years? How?
I love to eat, it's the greatest of pleasures from my point of view, a pork escalope, a kidney, roast pork and chicken in sauce with potatoes, tuna, a good steak, mixed salads, that I must not have forgotten to make… the ice cream, the malt soda, the sweets. But I am a man who has adapted since I was a child, I remember when I was on scholarship that I made a drink with water and some candies inside the container. Now I am not telling you not to drink an imported beer, a Kermato [non-alcoholic drink based on tomato juice, clams and spices], a carbonated soft drink, not to eat a delicious barbecue one day, but it is sacrificed [he pronounces it high and lengthening the syllables]. I love sugar water, which sucks, but it helps to stave off hunger sometimes. Sometimes I eat chicken mince, which I don't like, sometimes I eat a little more bread, which isn't bad for sustaining, which I don't like, but I have no other choice.
What commodities do you find only or most often through the black market?
special a week But the current economic and food crisis in Cuba has resulted in many of the special diets being affected to the point of being suspended in some cases. In the case of Bauta, diabetics have not received milk since October of last year and the chicken arrives only every other month. In this way, the products regulated by the Supply Book do not represent any type of special coverage in Pablo's diet.
But, the current economic and food crisis in Cuba has resulted in many of the special diets being affected to the point of being suspended in some cases.
Do you consider that you have access to what is necessary to cover a balanced diet according to the needs of your condition? Failing that, what products do you consider essential for your diet and are difficult for you to acquire?
Pablo does not recognize himself in a critical state, since his health indicators continue to mark the range of stability, even with minimal indicators, but on the other hand, he recognizes that keeping this low-level lifestyle to the minimum necessary has harmed him and he feels that he needs improve your diet. The latter is impossible for him in his economic conditions, so he is unable to purchase any of the products he needs to stabilize his diet.
Do you suffer from anxiety or concern about the food supply necessary for your health?
These conditions of shortages and rising prices of the black market affect Pablo in a significant way, since he sees his life at constant risk. He has been suffering from insomnia for a year and is needing to treat his hypertension in a special way through pharmacological pathways.
Have you limited the quality or quantity of food for the benefit of another family member, in your opinion, more vulnerable?
Nope.
Pablo is a very talkative man, he speaks fast and fluently, it seems that he cannot stop. We found him leaving the Grandparents' House and when we proposed the interview, he returned and invited me to the patio of the same. Here we were able to ask about how the institution works. He is active and dynamic and although he tends to normalize everything, as a way of avoiding very critical issues, he entered into the dynamics of the interview and managed to give us a critical view of his situation.
She suffers from a classic picture within the ailments of the elderly in Cuba and although she receives food support from her daughter, she does not achieve alimentary stability, much less achieve a diet according to her state of health. Throughout the conversation, Pablo unstructured his discourse about his reality until he reached a critical point in which he recognized, and with some shyness told me, his dissatisfaction with the conditions of the Casa de Abuelos and his lack of food. Pablo looks healthy, he was an athlete and led a healthy life while he could, "foreseeing a precarious old age."
In this place (whose payment occupies 80% of his retirement) they seek to provide grandparents with a balanced food service that is certainly comprehensive to my surprise. The grandparents consume milk three times a day, beef at least twice a month, and chicken and eggs at least once a week. Here they have breakfast, snacks, lunch, snacks and take home cooked food for dinner. Despite the above, the portions are not enough to positively influence the health of the elderly who depend on these places for their nutrition.
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