How thousands of Russian women live in Cuba
'18.04.2018'
Source: Argumeny and Facts
The ways of Cuba and Russia diverged long ago, but many of our compatriots, still in Soviet times who moved to Liberty Island, remained to live there. Why?
Victoria Terentyeva (last name changed - auth) settled in Havana 37 years ago. “I got acquainted in the eightieth with a student at the dance, a young matter: after six months she got married. Love was - wow! As I came here, at first everything was so romantic: palm trees, the sun, the sea ... And as soon as the children were gone - soured. Foods are only for coupons, milk is not available, diapers, and those for blat - there was also a shortage in the Soviet Union, but there was even no beans available on the open market.
Until now, sad that there is no tea. One coffee is around, Cubans are drinking it directly in liters, and my mother’s kettle is boiling at night and dreaming. My husband tried, went to the sea at night to poach, risked, caught lobsters, I fried them with garlic, ate constantly. Dear delicacy, speak? I can’t look at them anymore. Well, and fought with animals, of course. Spiders crawled home with a saucer-sized - beat damned stool ... but on kukarachu, a huge local cockroach, do not pay attention, got used to. He does not bite if you don’t touch your finger. ”
In 1998, Victoria divorced her Cuban husband, but did not return home, because there was nowhere to go: her parents died, the privatized apartment under the will went to her brother. “The local climate is gentle, the sun, and I am a Siberian, we do not buy into the sea in December. I work as a guide for our tourists, I earn additionally, in general. Even money is not so important to me, it is not to forget my native language. Salaries are small here, twenty euros per month. But my neighbors come to try me when I cook borscht. He is red, Cubans call him "soup of revolution". "
Potatoes in flowers
Now in Cuba, according to various estimates, about 6 000 citizens of the Russian Federation live. These are mostly women who, in Soviet times, married Cubans, and their children. Most settled in Havana, but in general there are small Russian “communities” in 10 from 16 of the Cuban provinces. This is all that remains of the 20-thousandth community. Many representatives of the Cuban intelligentsia received education in the Soviet Union and often took Russian wives with them. However, in the nineties, at the toughest time, when the USSR stopped providing economic assistance to the Island of Freedom, three-quarters of the “new Cubans” returned home (sometimes with their husbands).
“There was rice in the ninety-third year 250 grams per person,” explains 60-year-old Natalia, a resident of the city of Santa Clara. - So spin around as you like. We brought pigs in the yard, and planted potatoes and onions in a flower bed. I still haven’t got accustomed to the weather, you are walking down the street in November, wet from sweat. I thought of returning to Russia, but my children are mulatto, they speak Russian poorly: it’s not known how their relatives will react to them. ” All the women with whom I spoke, admitted: at first they were good in marriage, and then not so much. “Mother-in-law, she is a terrible beast in our family, and in Cuba, all the more,” laughs the former teacher Lyudmila from Saratov. - Here, as my husband's mother said, so be it. Otherwise, the horror that rises, pans fly around the house. My relations with my mother-in-law are good, she loves everything Soviet, she’s already 90 years old, but I come to her for an evening rum to drink.
With earnings it became bad: I used to teach Russian to students in Havana, but my position was reduced, switched to English. Ten people of my girlfriends have lost their jobs: now the engine of the economy is tourism, everyone is trying to get a job as a guide, but after the crisis there are few tourists from Russia. ”
Russian Tyrannosaurus
Many Russian Cubans feel sorry for not teaching their children their native language. “Now they would find work in Russia, they would live better,” sighs 64-year-old Alla Kudaevaiz from Vladikavkaz, who lives in Matanzas. “But then there was simply no time for that.” Yes, life here is fun and carefree, but for hours you stand in queues to buy cards. After the private activity was allowed, I began to pickle cucumbers with chili pepper. And what do you think? My cucumbers even order restaurants in Havana, an expensive Russian delicacy, Americans snatch. Earlier, I was invited to primary school to read folk tales: on the move I translate into Spanish, the children listen, they are amazed. One boy recently asked: Is the Serpent Gorynych a Russian Tyrannosaurus Rex? ”
Black bean passion
Our women speak reluctantly about the reasons for divorces with Cubans: they said they went their separate ways. Although, of course, sometimes breaks. “Cuban men would only dance,” reports Lyudmila Vasilievna from the city of Santiago de Cuba. - And drink rum, but they do not like to work. Fidel thought in vain to build socialism here: they adore revolution, but you can't force anyone to plow. My husband and I spent years without money on one rice with black beans. Tired, divorced: oh, at one time the passion was, even though the Latin American TV series take off. It’s not easy, but I adore Cuba, so I didn’t leave. And our Russians stand for each other with a mountain, I have such friends who were not in the Soviet Union. It’s a pity, of course, that I can’t fly home: the cheapest ticket costs 700 dollars, and this is my salary for three years. I dream of a real Christmas tree for the New Year: I haven’t seen any living in Cuba in 25 for years, always only plastic. ”
For most of our women in Cuba, the way of life remains the same as in the USSR 30-40 years ago: coupons, Soviet “Muscovites” on the roads and refrigerators “Saratov” at home. But this is not what keeps them on the island. Universal positive, eternal good mood and hot weather (except for the typhoon season) are the key to happiness in tropical socialism. “I might have left,” Alla Kudayeva admits. - But I will hear the music on the street, I will go right after the Cuban habit of dancing ... they will consider a fool. And here it’s just the norm. ”
