Desde Dentro de Cuba.

Distribuido por Cuba Free Press, Inc. - http://www.cubafreepress.org

02 de Marzo del 2000

A CUBAN HOUSEWIFE’S INNER MONOLOGUE. By Carlos Garcia Lopez, taken from the magazine Christian Life by Ebenezer Ramirez, for Cuba Free Press.

“I don’t know what to do. It’s been exactly one month ago today since there was anything at the butcher shop and the grocer who won’t stop selling me Cerelac formula at an increased price.

I have to mend the little girl’s jacket again. How bad the bread is today. I feel like giving an axe blow to this brightly lit kitchen. And the Valium no longer has any effect on me. What will I get that priest who has to be brought something for the Easter holiday.

How crooked that little hick is from the farmers market. I won’t buy any more sweet potatos from him. The last time, he gave them to me all broken into pieces. And the girl with that trouble about the school desk they gave her with no back. I should go talk with the principal.

Last night the last of the soap was used up. Oh dear! the coffee maker’s stopped up. I don’t know why they put so much peas in the coffee. Where am I going to get a rag to mop this house? If only that dream last night was true where I was swimming in that pool of cooking oil. There must be oil and all kinds of tomato sauce in paradise.

And now this three-year-old boy keeps asking me what’s an Atari. And the girl doesn’t have shampoo and won’t go to the party with the same shoes as always. The pressure cooker won’t blow again. The spring onions are almost used up. Don’t let me forget to get water; today’s our turn.

Now I don’t remember if today’s the day for milk or not. And I have to go this instant. How bad I feel for Luis; he spends his life telling the kids he’s a vegetarian and then he even gives up the soybean hash for them. If I could only get a little flour to make them a sponge-cake Sunday.

Thank you Lord for seeing to it that the eggs came.”

Carlos Garcia Lopez, taken from the magazine Christian Life by Ebenezer Ramirez, for Cuba Free Press.