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I recently shared with readers my top five reasons for the frayed Cuban psyche circa February 1, 2010. To recap, this psychic static is being caused by (in no particular order):
– the embargo
– bureaucracy
– economic hardship
– housing
– exhaustion
The domestic economy and crushing bureaucracy is a double whammy that’s hitting home, every Cuban home, including mine, and I’m worried.
The problem? Apparently, distribution of cigars for domestic consumption is in some kind of trouble. What kind of trouble, I can’t be sure, but that’s what the last bodeguero I talked to posited. How deep that trouble is, I can only guess and gossip (the technique used 24/7/365 by 11 million Cubans trying to figure out everything from when/if the ration book will be cut to the whereabouts of a beloved film star). But whatever the reason, it doesn’t look good for your cigar smoking Havana correspondent: after hoofing between five bodegas and eight cafeterias (see note 1) to procure the five cent cheroots I’ve been smoking for the past eight years – nada.
I’m getting a little desperate.
One of my last hopes is the funeral parlor. Every Cuban funeral parlor has a cafeteria attached where, heretofore without fail, I’ve been able to buy cigars from the upbeat (surprisingly) and underpaid (not surprisingly) staff. Getting my fix from the folks babysitting stiffs and their loved ones is only a little morbid when measured against my cigar-less disposition. Death is one thing, murder quite another.
If the funeral parlor doesn’t bear fruit, I’m afraid I’ll have to resort to my back channels (see note 2). Thankfully, since arriving those many years ago, I’ve opened several such channels. But these things take time – it’s not like picking up the phone and ordering a pizza/burrito/pad thai like where you are – and my stores are running dangerously low. True, my family and friends are always looking out for me, flipping me quite good cigars de vez en cuando, but I can’t count on ‘every once in a while’ when my stores are running dangerously low. Have I mentioned my stores, those that currently run dangerously low?
Of course, I could, in theory, resolve my stogie problems in hard currency – the dreaded CUC which circulates alongside the weak-like-an-ugly-man’s-chin Cuban peso. Unfortunately, our family economy won’t support another hard currency habit, I’m afraid (see note 3). Besides, I find the five cent cigars just as smokeable as their brand name counterparts, plus I appreciate the low level commitment of these ‘dirt sticks’ – 25 minutes and out. To be honest, I don’t like Cohibas much (see note 4). I mean, when they come my way, I’m grateful and enjoy their long, spicy smoke, but it’s not my famous cigar of choice (see note 5). In short, the time and money commitment required by really good Cuban cigars – what most people think of when someone says ‘Cuban cigars’ – isn’t practical for the modern Habanera like myself.
My bodeguero tells me he doesn’t know what’s up with February’s cigar delivery. Like so much here in Havana, it’s making me sweat.
Notes
1. The bodega is where all Cuban families (at the time of writing!) receive their monthly food and staples rations. It is also where you (yes you!) can buy 100% black tobacco Cuban cigarettes and tasty, smokeable Cuban cigars for $1 per 20, plus rot gut rum sold by the liter (bring your own empty for this service). Whatever gets you through the night and all that!
2. If I or you ever think, ‘she’s not THAT cubanizada,’ dig the subtext here (which is pretty much the Cuban economy in a nutshell): ‘state drops the ball on X good/service forcing otherwise upstanding citizen to resort to the black market’ (or as we sometimes say here: the ‘informal economy’ which is a wonderful euphemism).
3. My husband has a $2.50 cigarette habit. There’s no way I could tack on another $5 or so dollars a day.
4. The Robusto hoarded away in my drawer-cum-humidor that my father-in-law recently gifted me notwithstanding.
5. For those wondering how to make my day, do it with a Romeo y Julieta Churchill (or Monte Cristo #2).
To the person who reached this blog by searching on peso cigar Selectos: hats off!! These are my favorite bodega brand (no: not all cuban machine-made cigars are created equally)
Something totally peculiar that has been happening lately (and I haven’t ever had this happen before) is the bodegas and cafeterias are selling “masos” of Selectos, but when you open the wrapper they are actually Creditos or (worse!) Caciques. Readers of this blog will know this is known here in Cuba as “pasando gato para liebre” (passing off cat as hare). It has my knickers in a twist because selectos are the fattest, tastiest, and best burning of the bodega stogies.
Fascinating! Can I mail you some hard currency? Have you gotten ANY of the letters I’ve sent Yet? I smoke Nat Sherman’s and at 12.99 per pack (In New Orleans) it’s an expensive habit, but I won’t be quitting anytime soon. Why should I? My grandmother is 102 and she smokes unfiltered Pall Mall’s to this day, and has since she was EIGHT YEARS OLD. (Just hoping I was awarded those genes!)
Hola Jems. NADA from you yet, but I return faithfully to the PO Box each week hoping for something! Check here for updates: https://hereishavana.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/diy-us-cuba-collaboration/
Love that granny!! may you and she live a long, tobacco-filled life. Huzzah!
“Caciques” cigars is that the same spelling as the beer brand introduced last year? The pack of 20 at the bodega for how much CUP?
Cacique – meaning chief – same spelling. “maso” of 25 cigars costs 25 CUP (a peso a piece); a hair over a dollar for 25 very smoke-able stogies.
When there’s a cigar blight in Cuba, something is terribly, terribly, wrong with this world.
now the shortage is here in haiti….backpack mever made it from airport to where I am! could be worse. I think of the haitians in the tent next door. besos
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