What I Saw in Havana

HAVANA — During my reporting visit a few weeks ago, I asked a simple question: Is Cuba collapsing?

A single mother of two, struggling to get treatment for her child’s asthma, responded: “Cuba ya colapsó.” Cuba has already collapsed.

That sentiment is shared by many Cubans as they face a failing health system, unemployment, inflation, power outages, and constant food shortages. The crisis — created in part by the U.S. blockade — is also fueled by what locals call “el bloqueo interno,” the internal blockade: the government’s inability to address the country’s most pressing problems.

“I tried to start a weekend business selling clothes, but people are not really interested because whatever little they have goes to food and medicine,” she added. “Everything is driving us crazy, ya no aguantamos más — from the economy, lack of food and medicines, and outbreaks of mosquito-transmitted diseases such as dengue, to Hurricane Melissa and the stress of the never-ending power outages.”

For decades, U.S. policy toward post-revolution Cuba has aimed to strangle the island’s economy and inflict enough hunger and desperation that the Cuban people would overthrow the Castro government. That strategy was laid out explicitly in a 1960 memorandum from Assistant Secretary of State Lester Mallory to President Eisenhower: the only way to undermine internal support, he argued, was through “economic dissatisfaction and hardship.”

For more than 50 years, the blockade has failed to achieve its goal. For the most part, Cubans embraced Fidel Castro and endured the hardships caused directly or indirectly by U.S. policy. The “disenchantment” Mallory predicted is happening now, but some Cubans today are blaming their own government for the dire situation they are living through.

“I live in the municipality of Cerro in Havana. We haven’t had running water in four days,” said a 46-year-old woman who earns her living cleaning room rentals. Another worker said she missed two days of work this week because the government-run guagua — the bus that takes employees from Matanzas to Varadero — didn’t have gas.

A 54-year-old man put it this way: “The U.S. blockade hasn’t let us advance for many years. But besides the blockade, there is the internal blockade — the situations here at home. Cuba is a virgin country that could open up to good things. People are ready to break that internal blockade, to find solutions. But there is a fear of change from the leadership.”

“El último cubano que salga de la Isla tiene que apagar el Morro.” The last Cuban to leave the island has to turn off the lighthouse. It’s a popular saying that captures a brutal truth: everyone wants to flee, and no one wants to be the last one left behind.

Brazil has become the new gateway for those who can afford the long journey south. An orthopedic surgeon left the island months ago. In Cuba, he had to supplement his small salary by selling whatever merchandise he could. In Brazil, he has a job — not yet as a doctor — and is working toward obtaining his medical license. His father, an accountant who used to suffer from migraines in Cuba, soon followed with his wife. He also found work. And the migraines stopped.

Once Cubans turn themselves in to Brazilian authorities, they are put on a legal path to live and work in the country. Many are settling in more areas such as Gramado, São Paulo, and Curitiba, according to relatives of those who have made the trek. “The weather can be cold, but people have jobs, food, medicine, and shelter,” said a family member. The accountant joked to his daughter, who is still in Cuba: “Maybe my migraine knows there are so many medications here. It hasn’t bothered me once.”

Regardless of which party is in power in the United States, the blockade has remained in place — except during the Obama administration, which tried to open diplomatic relations. Most countries at the United Nations have repeatedly called for the embargo to be lifted, but Washington has remained defiant and continues to keep Cuba on its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Cuba has already collapsed, they tell me. Yet every morning, people still find a way to wake up, to look for food, to care for their kids, to keep the lights on. No one knows how long that will last.

“Ya no aguantamos más.” We can’t take it anymore. That is the truth that lingers long after you leave the island.

Francisco Lozano is a freelance photojournalist and writer based in Los Angeles. He was born in El Salvador and immigrated to the U.S. in 1984 during the war.

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