Category Archives: Cuban Ingenuity

Another Cuban Business: stove top pizza

Joseph Horton, Donna W McClain, MyCubanStore.com liked this post

Imagine for a second you live in front of the police station and making pizza as a business is illegal. Welcome to the day to day live of a Cuban business man.

Note: This story is from the time this was an illegal business now days I heard these type of business are allowed although they do have to pay hefty prices for their licenses.

I can’t tell you his name, he is a good friend and he makes pizza for living lets just call him Alberto. He creates around 200 pizza pies per day and with that he takes care of his family of three. Alberto wakes up really early to pick up an order of home made cheese for his pizzas; he comes home and starts to work on his pizza production.

Alberto does not own an oven, its too risky to have a big fixed structure for his business, instead he has a gas range with two front burners and two electric burners he uses to make his homemade pizzas. He starts by placing the dough he previously created and let rise in these pizza making molds, (they are like sauté pans without a handle). After that he spread his home made sauce and some of the cheese and places the pizza pans in the stove top at very low heat.

Today in Cuba everyone have a business legal or illegal and there is no wholesale market in place to provide those businesses with the goods they need. Businessmen like Alberto have to deal in the black market by buying a few supplies on the government stores so that way they have receive to show for and the bulk of what they need is bought in the black market. The black market is feed by the administrators and government workers so many times you will find a item in a goberment store for $5 dollars and in the black market you will buy it for less.

When the pizza is done is packed and carried around town in his bicycle where his customers are waiting to buy the pizza from him.  Alberto dreams of emigrating or like he said “go some where but here” his frustrations are a reflexion of the many necessities Cubans have to endure to make ends meet.

Cuban home electric meter

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cuban electric meter

On my last visit to Cuba I took this picture of an electric meter inside a house in Havana, the owner of the house confesed to me that due to the high energy prices the goverment charges they have to create these “inventions” to steal electricity from the goverment.

So they hire the same goverment workers who come to your house to read the electric meter and pay them hard currency to trickout the connection so the equipment wont register all the electrity they consume.

In Cuban as you may know all these mayor services are provided by the goverment and their bourocratic aparatus is unable to catch on this type of behaivor, people feel they are rob by the goverment with the miserable salires they receive and they see it fine to do the same to them. They have a saying “Ladron que roba a ladron tiene 100 años de perdon” (That one who steels from the robber is forgiven for the next 100 years)

 

 

Cuban home made Micro-hydroelectric

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On my past blog about Cuban ingenuity I talked about how my uncle Jesus creates tools to make furniture and then creates beautiful furniture with those tools. 

Today, I want to share with you his video that represents the same survival and inventive spirit you will find in the Cuban people today.

What would you do if you live in a mountain of Cuba without electricity and want to listen to the radio or watch TV?

It’s simple!  Make your own hydro-electric power with an old bicycle dynamo, an old windshield wiper motor and a transformer.  This is a very rudimentary use of basic laws of physics and electricity.

We all know the old saying “necessity is the mother of invention” but to what level? It is fair to ask the same question once again. How do they manage to do so much with so little?

I hope you enjoy it the video below.

Jesus is a carpenter in Cuba.

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Last time I visited Cuba I was impressed by the resilience of the cuban people. Everyone there has a way to make money outside of  the government boundaries.  My friend Alberto taught himself how to make pizza, Vladimir sells hand crafted goods to tourists, and  Robertico (an old communist leader) sells peanut nougats and other sweets.

The underground cuban economy runs as a capitalist society buying, selling, dealing, and trading goods  to cubans and tourist to consume.

People learn new tricks and new trades and improvise in the most creative ways.  My uncle Jesus  became a carpenter and makes wood chairs, hammocks, entertaining systems, cabinets, and any other requests his customers may have.

What is very impressive is that my uncle also builts the equipment he uses at his modest shop in a small town in Cuba called Alacranes, Matanzas.  Alacranes is located about 100 miles east of Habana, Cuba and is the town where I grew up.

I visited him last year in December and I was most impressed.  I was standing in his improvised shop with wood scraps, rudimentary tools made of old an machete, a fan, and  pieces of iron.  His shop is one of a kind.  He does what he has to do to survive in a Cuba without many resources.

I often wonder what he would do if he lived in the United States?  Probably be a millionaire, he is a problem solver and makes things happen.  I believe he did not go past the 8th grade in school but that never stopped him from learning.  He is the one that made the boat that I came to this country in 16 years ago from a photograph, can you believe it!

Jesus has always been the kind of naturally smart guy that can pretty much do anything he puts his mind to. When I visited his house I felt so proud to see his work skills and his workshop.

In a land without Home Depot or Lowes if you need a table saw you make it yourself.

My uncle had put together a funtional money producing workshop with old motors, pieces of metals, and old tools he either found laying around or bought from neighbors.  He not only does woodwork,  he also makes the tools he needs to work with.

He made me two chairs, a kid’s hammock, and two keys hangers.  I wasn’t sure if I would be able to bring them into the United States,  but I tried anyways. To my surprise I was able to get them on the plane and I brought them to Miami.

Below you can see my uncle, his workshop pictures, and pictures of the items he made for me.

Next time you visit a home improvement store think how lucky you are to find all the tools and supplies you need.  If there is ever a time you can’t find something at the store to carry on a project please remember my uncle Jesus  in his day to day strugles  to get his work done.

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