2024-03-17 13:21:57
Getting food in Cuba, a challenge. On TikTok, humor has become the x-ray of the reality that prevails on the island.
Recently, and for the first time since the blockade imposed on the Caribbean country, the Cuban dictatorship requested food from the United Nations, revealing the need, now undeniable on the part of the regime, regarding a food crisis.
Whether through diplomacy or humor on social networks, Cubans with the Internet in their territory can reach a good part of the world to tell through parodies what they experience every day, in a country where being a single mother or a young woman , without ignoring men and elderly people, it is extremely difficult 365 days a year.
This is the case of the young man who developed several characters to exemplify what is experienced in his country, in the face of the scarcity of food and other supplies to get ahead in various facets of life.
“Magaly” juggles to get food in Cuba
Ezequiel Pérez is a Cuban who created two characters, mother and daughter, to portray what happens on the island when you are a single, Cuban mother and you have to get food or make it work from a single can of tuna or sardine, for example. example.
One of those characters is “Magaly”, a mother who, like millions, goes through precarious situations in order to provide support for her daughter “Rachel”, also played by @zeque_perezz, as listed on her TikTok username, with millions of likes. like in your account.
One of the most clarifying moments, shown with a bit of humor, was Magaly making a recipe step by step in Cuba, practically with leftover products.
“Normally there is never anything to make a paste”begins by telling the character, who little by little describes what the daily life of a family that cooks with the minimum of ingredients on the island can be like.
These are a series of examples of lack and the ingenuity to be able to prepare a dish for one or two meals a day or even to save it for a month.
“In this case, they gave me a latica (can) of sardine. We chop whatever seasoning we have. In this case I have onion, nothing more. Garlic powder, pepper… An important point in this recipe is that you have to have flour, because normally the pasta has egg, it has oil, and it seems to use a lot of oil, there is no egg.”.
The video also shows how a little food can mean weeks of snacks for children, if kept in jars in the refrigerator. In the comments, some people did not hesitate to regret a situation that they consider real in Cuba.
Rachel: the character who portrays the shortcomings of students in Cuba, and more
Another of the most viewed moments is the way in which, with effort, Magaly gets Rachel a small bag of shampoo after an afternoon of shopping.
However, with the return to school approaching, the woman could not get material to cover the teenager’s notebooks, but she could get newspaper, something that evidently embarrasses her daughter.
The humorous yet realistic video is complemented by a third character: Rachel’s grandmother, who makes a kind of paste in the absence of glue for the notebooks.
On the other hand, another of the videos tells how young people sometimes have to study at their classmates’ homes, as is customary in Chile, where they are offered an “eleven” in the meantime.
In Cuba it is very different and the difficulty has to do with the scarcity of food, again, since some families hope that others can provide even a little food to their children. However, what there is is barely enough for the family, if at all.
Rachel experiences this when Magaly tells her that she cannot invite Jessica, her classmate who is studying at home, to lunch.
“You’re going to eat now because María lent me a can of rice, because there’s no balls here.”, the upset woman tells him. Apparently, people live, according to the video, on what other neighbors lend them to feed themselves.
Getting food in Cuba, even at Christmas: “It costs an eye and half of the other”
And when the time of year is supposed to come to share spirituality, presents and dishes, the last two are not an option, from the voice of the TikToker who shows, with humor or with sincere stories, how difficult it is to get food in Cuba.
Local tradition leads them to play music, play dominoes, drink local drinks such as rum, among other customs. They invite people and those who arrive by surprise are also attended to, even though there is a possibility that food may become scarce from one moment to the next.
However, according to @zequi_perezz, last Christmas marked a high point of deprivation in the average Cuban home.
“It’s not what we can eat right now, because a piece of pork really costs you an eye and half of the other. That thing that is used outside, that everyone gives each other the 25th, that doesn’t exist here. Those houses decorated on the outside, with lights, pretty, with big trees, those are not used here either”.
The Christmas spirit, according to this Cuban, is absent or scarce, like the food in homes. Hence his humor and, as in this case, his reflection, try to highlight the reality of a country with inhabitants who continue to suffer from a lack of food.
The food shortage is assumed by Díaz-Canel
Information released by Granma maintains that foods such as chicken and coffee are among the most scarce on the island. The first, for 5 months and the processed grain, 4 months.
Other products such as powdered milk, soy yogurt and beef are also among the list of those missing from homes.
It should be noted that on TikTok, content creators like @zequi_perezz have been talking about the situation, very much in their own style, for the past year or more, which reflects the disconnection of local authorities with society. That is, until recent weeks, when international help was requested for the first time to alleviate the crisis.
In a meeting with his ministers, the Cuban dictator, Miguel Díaz-Canel, acknowledged that in Cuban households “more than 70%” of their income is used to buy food.
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