Puro, Buy My Stimulus

"Puro, Buy My Stimulus" / Reinaldo Escobar
Posted on September 12, 2014

Reinaldo Escobar, Havana, 12 September 2014 — Passing near the Chinese
cemetery on 26th Avenue, a young man leading his bike by the hand, said
to me, "Puro, buy my stimulus." I confess that it took me a few seconds
to decipher the code. Clearly the "puro" was a reference to my youth,
but what was difficult to understand was the "stimulus." How can you buy
such a thing?

As he explained to me, it was a plastic bag that contained a quart of
vegetable oil for cooking, two bath soaps, and some ounces of detergent
that he'd been given at work as a "stimulus" for having stood out in
socialist emulation.

I didn't believe a single word and committed the journalistic folly of
rejecting his offer. If I had said yes, now I'd have a photo here of the
products, laid out on the wall of the cemetery with the graves in the
background.

When I told the story to my friend Regina Coyula, author of the blog Bad
Handwriting, she told me this is the latest scam. The allusion to having
been chosen as the vanguard, a standout, or special prize winner, makes
you think that the potential seller is a "true believer" who has no
recourse but to sacrifice the material honors his political-social
conduct has earned him, to alleviate his urgent needs.

To buy the "stimulus" is almost a sado-political vengeance, but selling
fake merchandise, that is oil that isn't good for cooking, soap that
doesn't produce lather, and lime instead of detergent, is already a
mockery… the old scam in new clothes.

Source: "Puro, Buy My Stimulus" / Reinaldo Escobar | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/puro-buy-my-stimulus-reinaldo-escobar/