By Vanessa Bauzá
The Sun Sentinel
HAVANA · Buffeted by hurricanes, droughts, a tougher
U.S. embargo and high oil prices, Cuba's economy has limped through yet
another year of chronic shortages, leaving many Cubans with little cause to
celebrate and fewer savings with which to ring in the new year.
In Havana, store windows decorated with multicolored lights, artificial
Christmas trees and shimmering garlands beckon to customers, displaying
luxury items like refrigerators and television sets that cost 10 times the
annual salary of an average worker.
"Everything for a dollar" shops are a favorite among the lucky few with
money to spend on gifts. But prices for many products are up by at least 15
percent compared to last year while paltry salaries have remained stagnant.
Holiday spending is simply unaffordable for most.
"It's been a long time since I celebrated Christmas," said Maira Pérez, a
former statistician who peddles used clothing in central Havana, surviving
on the meager profits of her black market business. "I don't put up a tree
anymore. The decorations cost 60 or 80 pesos. I could eat for a week on
that."
The Bush administration predicts tough new economic sanctions enacted this
summer will cost President Fidel Castro's government about $500 million
within the next year. But average Cubans say they are the ones feeling the
economic crunch.
"They don't squeeze Fidel, they squeeze us. Fidel will keep on living the
way he does," said Rosa Sosa, 36, who works as a maid at a private bed and
breakfast catering to tourists. She was out of work for two months this year
due in part to a drop in American travelers. Now she has no savings with
which to celebrate the holidays.
"We are not doing anything for Christmas, no wine, nothing," Sosa said. "If
we have an end of the year party, we won't have anything to eat in January."
Some Cubans with relatives in the United States said they felt doubly
punished this year, first by the Bush administration's tightened embargo
restrictions and then by the countermeasures imposed by the Cuban
government.
"The problems don't come from one side, but from both," said retired
carpenter Ricardo Pérez, 77, who supplements his miniscule state pension
with $300 cash transfers he receives from his daughter in Miami every three
months. The Cuban government now takes 10 percent of Pérez's greenbacks.
To make matters worse, Pérez's daughter is barred from visiting him for the
holidays, as she had planned, as a result of changes in U.S. travel
restrictions that now limit Cuban Americans to visiting their homeland once
every three years.
Cuba's Tourism Ministry expects trips by Americans and Cuban Americans to
drop by 30 percent this year due to the U.S. travel limits. In Miami, the
Marazul travel agency, which books charter flights to Cuba, has seen holiday
travel plummet from an average 3,500 Cuban American passengers in past
Decembers to 250 this month, said vice president Armando García.
The tough U.S. sanctions have been compounded by other factors: Cuba's
western provinces were pounded by two hurricanes that destroyed homes and
agriculture, and in the eastern provinces a wrenching drought shriveled
sugar cane fields, shuttering 23 mills in this year's harvest.
Among the few rays of light, Cuban tourism officials reported an average 9
percent increase in tourism between January and September. Also, China,
Cuba's third most important trade partner, announced last month it would
invest $500 million in Cuba's nickel industry, a top export.
According to the Cuban government, last year the island's economy grew by
2.6 percent. This year, officials predicted a slight increase.
Retired tobacco roller, Maria Luisa Santos recalled with nostalgia the
Christmas Eve or "Noche Buena" feasts of her youth. Now all her $6 monthly
pension buys is a few household staples, supplemented by remittances from
her daughter in Sarasota.
"The family would gather around a long table with lots of food and everyone
was invited," Santos, 64, recalled of past Christmases. "The youth today
don't have a feeling for what Christmas is like."
Indeed, the holiday was officially ignored for almost 30 years before being
reinstated in 1997 as a concession to Pope John Paul II's historic trip to
Cuba. For 24-year-old Jesus Llamas, the holidays are a source of stress he'd
rather do without.
"There is a lot of pressure about how to spend the end of the year," said
Llamas, who had to close his sidewalk snack stand for lack of business. "I'd
like to have a dinner at home, celebrate, have drinks and music, but that
requires money, money, money."
