In my case, I am always prepared to stand in line, because there is what there is, but it is not enough for everyone.
Es muy difícil cocinar en un apagón
Cintia, La Habana (San Miguel del Padrón), 2 personas en el núcleo, mi hermano y yo.
¿En qué proporción (de “muy importante” hasta “nada importante”) utiliza los siguientes recursos energéticos para la cocción y la potabilización del agua en el hogar: gas licuado (balita), el gas manufacturado (de la calle), electricidad, carbón?
Yo utilizo gas licuado todo el tiempo, pero me acompaño de la electricidad, sobre todo para hacer el arroz cada día con la arrocera, para las salsas y potajes la olla reina y el café y algún que otro jugo también con la cafetera eléctrica y la batidora. Yo diría que es una proporción de 50 y 50. Porque no sé, ni tengo estructura para cocinar con carbón.
Antes cocinaba todo con gas, en casa teníamos un balón grande. Cuando repartieron los menajes eléctricos hasta estuve un tiempo sin usarlos porque desconfiaba de cómo saldría la comida, eso fue por los 2000 cuando la revolución energética. Pero después que aprendí no puedo vivir sin la arrocera.
¿Considera el gasto destinado a la energía eléctrica en su hogar asequible y estable?
Mi hermano y yo tenemos buenos salarios que nos alcanzan para el consumo eléctrico, ya para la compra de comida y otras necesidades es otra cosa. Además, nosotros no tenemos ni siquiera 220 instalada. No tenemos aire acondicionado y esas cosas que sí que gastan mucho.
¿Se ha visto afectada la eficiencia de la cocción en su hogar por el uso mayoritario de gas o corriente eléctrica en horarios picos? ¿Cómo?
No. El gas de balita es bastante estable.
¿Cómo ha afectado el paso del huracán Ian y la caía del sistema eléctrico nacional su capacidad para conservar los alimentos perecederos?
Fue mucho, pero mucho estrés y angustia. En estos casos normalmente una compraría galletas, mayonesa, cosas así, pero primero el desabastecimiento es tan grande que ya no se logra encontrar ni las simples cosas y si lo logras son a precios altísimos. Además, yo soy diabética y no puedo comer alimentos muy ligeros como última comida como panes o pastas porque entonces me dan hipoglicemias en la madrugada, y un bajón de azúcar en un apagón es muy peligroso, así que sí o sí me toca reforzar la comida.
Me tocó seguir cocinando como siempre, pero esta vez con olla de presión, que yo ya he perdido un poco la habilidad y el arroz siempre me sale medio quemado, pero es lo que hay. La cosa era cocinar cuando había un poco de luz natural porque mi cocina está poco ventilada y no es muy luminosa y así es muy difícil cocinar en apagón.
Estuvimos tres días sin corriente eléctrica con todo lo que eso conlleva a la hora de dormir y demás. Nos preocupamos mucho por la comida porque recién me habían vendido un paquete de pollo por el trabajo y mi hija había mandado un combo de una compra afuera. Yo metí todo en el congelador del frio de mi hermano y no lo abrimos más, no sé cómo, pero resistió. Pusieron la luz cuando yo ya estaba preparada para empezar a repartir entre vecinos, mejor que se aproveche a esperar a que se pierda.
¿Se ha visto afectada su capacidad para recoger y almacenar agua potable ante esta situación? ¿Cómo?
La entrada de agua nuestra es por los tanques donde almacenamos la que viene unas horas día sí y día no. Sin electricidad aunque el agua entre a la cisterna no podemos bombear a los tanques y entonces no corre por las cañerías. Agua potable sí tenemos porque yo la recojo directamente cuando entra y la comienzo a hervir y a filtrar. Pero agua para la cocción, para fregar y tal, es esperar que venga la luz para bombear.
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?
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