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From the culture of Cuba



Cubans are fighters par excellence. There is no good Cuban who has not had to invent the most dissimilar jobs to survive, even if only temporarily.


I once saw a very old man with a sign that said: "I give change". It was at a bus stop; the old man had a bag full of coins and another with paper peso bills. His job was to exchange money for people who would take the bus and did not have the exact amount to make the payment. He took a minimal commission that allowed him to earn his living, and the travelers did not lose money by paying for their trip, as the driver is not supposed to give change.


Once I came across a "mobile barber" in the middle of the street with a bench in his hand and a backpack on his shoulder with all the necessary utensils to offer a cheap haircut and even a mirror for the greatest pleasure of satisfied passers-by.


A long time ago I had a neighbor in Matanzas who was dedicated to cleaning pots, both at home and in home service too. This old man was very loved by the housewives of the neighborhood. The aluminum pots, old and black with soot, were heated and then scraped with a small knife and with such skill that when finished they were so shiny that they looked like new.


When the pot cleaner died, there was not a moment when my mother did not remember it as she watched her old kitchen utensils gradually turn black and then without a solution.


Perhaps many do not understand that a lighter can be repaired. While in other countries lighters are thrown away because of the slightest damage, in Cuba everything is fully exploited and nothing is thrown into the trash.


Lighters can be refilled with gas, the flint, or other ignition system, changed; some parts like the washer and the flame guard replaced, and even the body of the lighter reformed. There is also an innovation, which is an authentic Cuban patent: the use of a pin to perforate the lighter and introduce the gas into the tank, when the gas filling valve does not exist. A disposable lighter is no longer disposable in Cuba.


The fosforeros, the mechanics or lighter fillers, have become an indispensable commercial figure in Cuban society, which is full of habitual smokers. There is not a neighborhood in Cuba that does not have at least one fosforero, who repairs lighters, and who would incidentally sell lighters, sometimes matches or even cigarettes and cigars. Their main activity is also regulated in the new forms of non-state work.


In fact, in the country of the best tobacco in the world, where smoking cigarettes was once extremely cheap and therefore affordable, even smoking, or buying a lighter, has now become a problem.


There simply aren't any lighters, and when we find them they are so expensive that it will always be better and cheaper to repair the lighters we already have at home so that there is no lack of fire in the kitchen and we can always light a good Cuban cigar.

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