Lien Estrada
Havana Times – He was my colleague at the botanical garden. He had just graduated in biology from the Universidad de Oriente in Santiago de Cuba. He told me that during his last vacation as a student, he had gone to the Valley, a recreational area that includes a botanical garden. While waiting at the bus stop to go home, he noticed a small, well-tended field full of plants behind a fence. With a bit of boredom, he thought: “Oh, it would be boring to work there.”
He then told me how when he went to collect his assignment at the work center where he would be told where to begin his community service, he was surprised to find that the place he had just visited and found so boring was called “Botanical Gardens.”
Now I spot him on a street near downtown, behind a fruit and vegetable cart, we greet each other warmly, and we realize we’re both working in a place far from the kind of hospitable, boring place we’ve come to love.
But my young biologist friend is not an isolated or unique case of the fate of new professionals in Cuban society. He is an example of a remarkable social phenomenon, one that seems to be growing rather than disappearing due to the extreme crisis the country is currently facing.
My cousin studied Economics in Holguin. She worked in a bank for a few years, then decided to sell products from her home. Her husband has a degree in Telecommunications Engineering in Camagüey and started a small business after finishing his community service with the electricity company. Many of his colleagues now repair mobile phones, computers and scooters in their own workshops.
My youngest cousin also graduated in Santiago de Cuba with a degree in telecommunications but is now devoted to serving the Eastern Conference of the Baptist Church, and similarly, the neighbor I visit occasionally to buy my movies is also very young and has a degree in nursing, as movies are her family business in addition to selling water, sweets and bread.
My other cousin has a degree in mechanical engineering and his son is also a university graduate, but the two of them run a bakery, making pizza dough and delivering it by scooter to various cafes in Holguin for orders.
It is true that many of the people who join schools every year are people who have already retired, the so-called “re-employed” because there are no more young teachers. In case they cannot go abroad, the graduates find ways to make a living through “money-making” activities, mainly selling clothes, food and daily necessities.
There is a widespread feeling that the generation that sacrificed everything for a glorious socialist future is no longer present on the island. They seem to be dying, if not physically, then spiritually. And, although the official discourse tries to hide this at all costs, economic concerns trump ideological concerns.
This reality is not surprising. Decades of struggle with high prices for everything and wages that do not cover even the most basic needs change your perception of the ideal. And of course, in a country with a long-term economic collapse, working with what you have learned is not an option for everyone, regardless of whether your studies took four, six or more years. Except for those who love their job and whose families are financially well off because their parents are abroad.
This crisis situation is affecting not just one aspect of life, but in fact almost all of them, and one of them, perhaps less mentioned, is professional fulfillment. This significantly weakens society, not only because it deprives us of the right people to perform certain tasks, or because of the economic losses invested in this profession, but also because it affects personal satisfaction, which is so necessary for the healthy and fulfilling life to which every human being aspires, and which is very difficult to achieve without personal satisfaction.
Individual and collective dignity is more than just an individual effort. It is a responsibility shared by all: nations and peoples, individuals and communities. The call must be made. This must be a concern. This is not a topic for another discussion.
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