‘There is no problem without a solution’, Lázara told me, as she helped me to unclog my toilet. ‘So, you don’t need to rush. Eventually, you’ll find a solution to anything’. In my spoiled and privileged Western mind, used to getting everything quite easily, to having all means, practical and technological, to solve problems — these words resonated and made me reflect, especially after this first week spent in Cuba.
I also recognise this attitude — of being solutions-oriented in a world full of barriers — as something characteristic of Cuban people. Life isn’t easy for most of the population on the island — resources are limited, goods are inaccessible, basic services don’t work as they should —, but Cubans try, and often succeed, to find solutions, or to invent ones when there is no straightforward path out of a problem. There’s a lot to be learned from them.
Lázara, the manager of the house I live in, is a tenacious and grounded Cuban woman, with a serene and gentle appearance. She has been my angel throughout this first week of living in Cuba. She’s the kind of person that knows how to help, in any situation, and, beyond that, she gives you that one extra thing — a kind sentence, a reassuring smile, a gesture of support — that never goes unappreciated. She’s been the one explaining me, with endless patience, how many things work — or sometimes do not work — around here, helping me find safe water and food, pointing to the specific market where I could get what I was looking for, sending me information on the fluctuating bank exchange rates any day I needed it, making me notice and understand things I would have otherwise missed.
A couple of days ago, I witnessed my first power blackout. I was home and would not have noticed, if Lázara hadn’t told me. I am privileged to live in a house where there is a generator, which saves us from ending up without electrical power. When Lázara informed me about the blackout, I looked outside the window, and I couldn’t see a thing — no house lights, no street lights — complete darkness in the middle of a densely populated city neighbourhood. ‘When there is a blackout, I try to turn on as few lights as possible’ Lázara told me, ‘as I feel bad for the neighbours that do not have the same possibilities as we do’. So I tried, too, to go unnoticed, closing my window shutters and keeping the lightning to a minimum. But I couldn’t stop thinking that I was still able to read, to use Wi-Fi, to do practically anything in the house, while a lot of people around me couldn’t. As the blackout ended, I did notice — I heard people clapping and cheering from the other houses, grateful for power to be back.
A good example of Cubans’ inclination towards solutions and creativity is clearly visible out in the streets. Most of the cars driving around are (very) old ones — Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge — being repaired and renewed again and again. Yainier, the driver of one of the many ‘informal taxis’ I’ve taken, told me that his Chevrolet car was from 1948 — yet, only the car frame came from that time. The rest had been replaced and reassembled throughout the years. Similarly, there are plenty of charming vintage markets and shops around La Habana, where inimitable old objects — such as cameras, watches, typewriters — are sold after having been fixed and made to use again.
As a foreign person getting into Cuba for the first time, I had a first-hand experience of Cubans’ ability to get around problems. Before getting here, I had not realised that many websites and digital tools are unavailable in the country. My computer was blocked while trying to open many webpages, including some Google workspaces and ChatGPT (which Cubans access, somehow, through Telegram). I had similar issues through my iPhone, including the inability to use some of the apps that I would normally use, like my credit card app. This was something I needed to solve. I tried to download a VPN app for my iPhone, only to discover that even the Apple Store is not operational in Cuba. Eventually, I found out that there is a shop in La Habana, called ‘Adictos al iPhone’, on which Cubans rely to make a pretty normal use of iPhones in the country. I showed up there, and for the technician it was an easy fix. In a matter of minutes, he connected my iPhone to a laptop, made the VPN app somehow appear, and explained to me all the tricks to use it. No cost included, besides 500 pesos (little more than 1 euro) for the assistance to install it.
Cubans can also find solutions to problems that, I believe, nobody on this earth should have. Wendy, my violin teacher at the Havana Music School, told me that when her mother was hospitalised because of a stroke, the hospital had no medication to give her. Wendy had to buy all the needed medications through informal trading on social media, and bring them to the hospital so that doctors and nurses could administer them. A lot of the trading for imported goods goes through platforms such as Telegram and Facebook, but only limited items and quantities can be found, all of these are more expensive than they should for people living here, and can only be paid in foreign currencies. So Cubans do get around the lack of goods, to a certain extent, but the price to be paid — not only the economic one — is far too high.
As much as I admire Cubans for being able to get a lot done while having little, I do realise, and I feel sad, that many issues occurring in Cuba are unfair and unacceptable. The right to health and to be treated properly should not be mediated by the limits imposed by economic trading. The right to a healthy and safe environment, where electricity works reliably and garbage is cleared from the streets (another widespread issue in the country), should not be constrained by scarcity. The right to wellbeing and opportunities should not be compromised by the political and economic circumstances of one’s place of birth.
Cubans are aware that the country needs a change — many people believe that the government should work towards a long-term solution to renew its political and economic organisation, to change the mindset and the functioning of the whole society. But considering the current circumstances — in a beautiful country that is, sadly, falling apart due to the current economic crisis and the international geopolitical scene, in addition to long-standing internal and external constraints — such a solution does not seem to be around the corner.
I hope that Cuba, that all Cubans — through repairs and renewals — will eventually get there.
Gracias a la vida 
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