A Month of Work to Buy a Pair of Jeans

A Month of Work to Buy a Pair of Jeans / Leonel Alberto P. Belette
Posted on October 2, 2013

Havana, Cuba. September 27, 2013 . José Antonio does not have family to
send him dollars, so he had to work more than a month in a private
restaurant to be able to buy a pair of jeans.

Taking his wages and tips, he had a little over $40 and went to store
offering Fariani, the military-owned state chain Caracol SA, located in
the Comodoro Hotel in Havana, to choose some jeans.

He didn't buy the jeans that he wanted, but the ones that he found
there. But he no more than hit the streets in his "new" jeans than the
seams split. They were rotten.

José Antonio's odyssey is common in Cuba. This reporter has suffered the
same. He could not recover the money invested, as it is not customary
among men to save the receipt. And besides, he was afraid of inviting
ridicule by appearing at the store with such plunder.

Caracol, at 1st and 20th in the Miramar neighborhood, stocks its chain
of stores with goods from the Panamanian supplier Ariela SA, directed by
Miguel Alonso. Fariani is one brand offered.

Basically they offer out-dated clothes, aged and deteriorated, bargain
lots acquired by the Cuban military, who for their bad taste are
nicknamed "Bananas spots" by their subordinates.

Brands like United Colors of Benetton, Rifle, Paul and Shark, are sold
to Cubans at the prices of European boutiques. But be careful ! They are
out-dated clothes, having been in the stores for years. Garments that
have remained unsold in the international market.

Shirts with enormous lettering, huge pants about to split at any seam.
The Adidas brand is, perhaps, an exception because it requires that its
foreign buyers to be the same sellers who show their faces to the public.

Cuba is a captive market. Cubans have no other option than to buy in the
shops of the generals.

The customs authorities imposed a penalty of $10 for each additional
pound of imported clothing. Now the Ministry of Labour just passed a
resolution that, from the first day of next month, they will no longer
allowed self-employed people who operate little businesses under tailors
or dressmakers licenses to sell current and cheap clothing acquired by
people traveling outside, who leave without luggage and return loaded
like mules.

Shortages in the State markets are nothing new like the authorities want
us to believe. Since the coming to power of the current regime in 1959,
it's not even possible to keep using one brand of toilet paper so people
usually use the official organ of the Communist Party, the newspaper
Granma, as a common replacement.

The absurd Cuban system is loaded with prohibitions — despite certain
changes — where some professionals such as veterinarians are forced to
open business facades as dog groomers, because they are not allowed a
license to practice privately.

By Leonel Alberto P. Belette

From Cubanet

30 September 2013

Source: "A Month of Work to Buy a Pair of Jeans / Leonel Alberto P.
Belette | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/a-month-of-work-to-buy-a-pair-of-jeans-leonel-alberto-p-belette/