Knowing that she had no money or intentions to pay the bill, Anyell Valdés saw little point in looking at the prices on the menu.
"I focused on what my children wanted to eat, not on what it cost," the Cuban mother residing in Havana, the capital of the communist island, told Telemundo News on the other end of the phone.
The menu was
a compendium of foods so absent in the depleted Cuban markets
that, for a moment, the 41-year-old woman and her two 7-year-old twin sons were seized with indecision.
She ended up ordering the lobster in sauce.
The children, the beef cooked ropa vieja style.
Three cold Cokes lubricated dinner to the stomach.
"A tasty, well-prepared meal that was a pleasure to eat," describes Valdés.
It was February 22.
Around 6:00 p.m.
The restaurant: La Xana, one of
the thousands that the Cuban state has allowed to be privatized in recent years to cut costs and keep the battered economy afloat
, turning them into places for tourists and Cubans who receive remittances, and increasingly drawing the line between poor and wealthy in a self-declared socialist country.
When it was time to pay, Anyell Valdés told the waitress: "I have a serious problem. I went in because the children wanted to eat, but I really don't have money."
Her punishment was less severe than she expected: they took a photo of her to ban her from the site and let her go.
The management of the European food restaurant, located in the historic center of Havana and part of the Federation of Asturian Associations of Cuba, did not respond to a request for comment from Noticias Telemundo, but an employee who did not want to be identified confirmed the incident by phone.
"Taking out more or less my account,
it was about 7,000 pesos (around 45 dollars)
. In Cuba you have to work two months to earn that," complains Valdés, who is a housewife, and says that she did not plan to go to the restaurant .
Anyell Valdés with her twin sons in Havana, Cuba. Courtesy of Anyell Valdés.
"When the children arrived from school, they began: 'I'm hungry, I'm hungry', and I had nothing to give them. I told them: 'Today you are going to eat with dignity, whatever the cost'. We took the bus (public transport ) and we went to the streets," he says.
Some described the actions of the mother of four as brave and others as impudent, after she herself recounted the incident in a Facebook post that has been shared hundreds of times: "My children had the pleasure of entering a place luxurious and eat and feed what they (sic) wanted and
the bill was For the place because (sic) I did not have the q (sic) to pay for it
".
A socialist Cuba moving towards privatization
It is not the first public act of protest by Anyell Valdés, who often uses her social networks to denounce the economic and human rights crisis that the island is experiencing, where medicines and basic products are scarce, and where hundreds of protesters demanding a change of system were arrested after the unprecedented protests of July 11, 2022.
The woman who lives in Arrollo Naranjo, one of Havana's most humble municipalities, was also among the protesters that day, but says she was "lucky" not to be arrested.
However, his denunciations and affiliation with the opposition San Isidro Movement —a group of artists and activists promoting democratic change in Cuba— have resulted in arrests, interrogations by the political police, and an act of repudiation in 2021 where supporters of the ruling party
vandalized her house and, according to her, her dog was poisoned.
Anyell Valdés (third from left to right) at her home in Havana, Cuba, after a vandal act by people affiliated with the Cuban state.
Photo from February 2021. Courtesy of Anyell Valdes
Noticias Telemundo requested comment from the Cuban authorities in an email sent to the International Press Center, but there was no response as of the time this story was published.
The state often refers to political opponents as "enemies of the Revolution" who are "paid" by the United States to destabilize the island.
The privatization in Cuba of entities such as restaurants is part of a broader package of controversial economic reforms promoted by Raúl Castro after the death of his brother Fidel in 2016.
Following a highly publicized monetary reorganization plan, Cuba eliminated the dual currency in 2020, suppressing the Cuban convertible peso (CUC) to leave the Cuban peso as the center of the country's financial system.
But
the devaluation of the official currency has been catastrophic and the state itself has acknowledged
that its so-called Ordinance Task has generated "unwanted results."
"A set of measures must be adopted with a view to stopping the inflationary spiral and achieving the country's macroeconomic stabilization," Prime Minister Manuel Marrero acknowledged at the end of 2021.
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The island where just over 11 million people live ended 2022 as
one of the three countries with the highest inflation (175%) in the world, second only to Zimbabwe and Venezuela
, according to an analysis by American economist Steve H. Hanke, from the University of Johns Hopkins.
Cuba is near bankrupt, has a large foreign debt and a growing budget deficit, while being almost entirely dependent on imports.
Tourism, one of the main lines of an economy that grew just 2% in 2022, has been drastically reduced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
No regrets"
Some 250,000 Cubans have fled to the United States in the past year, in the largest exodus in the island's history, where long lines to buy food and basic necessities illustrate the daily life of those who live there.
Anyell Valdés with her twin children in Havana, Cuba.
Courtesy of Anyell Valdes.
Meanwhile, the Cuban ruler, Miguel Díaz-Canel, generated ridicule and criticism for a televised message at the end of the year in which he said that the country "advances", that the situation "could be worse" and asked the people for "creativity" to 2023.
Anyell Martínez seems to have found her own creative niche, amid scarcity and difficulties raising her children.
Asked if he regretted eating for free at the restaurant, he said:
“No regret.
If tomorrow I don't have anything to feed my children, I don't go to this one, but I do go to another one”
.
More than not having paid, she says, she regrets that they didn't let her get to dessert, which was ice cream with sweets.
Apparently, at some point during her evening the restaurant staff became suspicious of her and asked her to liquidate what she had consumed so far, before she continued ordering.
The children of Anyell Valdés Cruz, 41, eat at the Asturian Association, in Havana, Cuba, on February 22, 2023. Courtesy of Anyell Valdés Cruz
The children, she says, came home from school the day after dinner and boldly asked her: “Mom, are we going to go again today?” I said: 'No, we can't today.
Every day isn't a party.'” The children, she says, came home from school the day after dinner and asked her boldly: "Mom, are we going to go again today?" I said: 'No, not today can.
Every day is not a party.'"
La restaurant
I said more and more: 'No, today we can't go. Every day is not a party'".
Stores that used to offer products in Cuban money, the amount that people receive, have been converted to stores in dollars and euros.
Critics say this has created "economic apartheid."
The ruling party said that it is necessary to maintain the revolution.
"We wanted to go into a fancy place, we wanted to eat, but I really don't have money" Anyell Valdés Cruz, 41, with raised fist in Havana, Cuba, on February 22, 2023. Courtesy of Anyell Valdes Cross