Aracelia González Díaz, a Cuban mother, lives with the fear of losing her family if the house where they live in the Cerro municipality, in Havana, completely collapses.
In an interview with the site CubaNet, González denounced - and showed on camera - the poor conditions of his home, located on Churruca Street, between Daoiz and Velarde, which has suffered two partial collapses and could come down at any moment.
"I am afraid of leaving for work one day and that this collapses with my mother inside," the woman confessed, who has turned to government authorities multiple times in search of help to try to solve or remedy the problem, and has encountered the apathy, disinterest, and inaction of the authorities.
Along with González, his nearly 90-year-old mother, who suffers from blindness, diabetes, and hypertension, resides in the precarious building; and his two-year-old grandson, who stays with them most of the time there, due to the fact that his mother's house is also at risk of collapse.
According to González's testimony, when the government handed the house over to his grandmother, it was already uninhabitable. “Then they told us they would provide us with shelter, but they didn't. So it seems that we have to build through our own efforts, and I don't have money to build,” he expressed.
The woman, who works as a kitchen assistant and earns a salary of 2,500 pesos, explained that she has requested the authorities to grant her a subsidy to prevent the house from collapsing completely, but it has been in vain. “They told us no because the property is still in my grandmother's name,” she stated.
González told CubaNet that first the ceiling of her room collapsed, despite her having alerted the Municipal Housing Office of Cerro. "The ceiling was already damaged, I went to Housing so they would come and take it down, and they never came until it fell. As if that weren't enough, I had to go and file a report for them to come and take down the piece that was left; they came, took it down, and left," she detailed.
The second collapse occurred at the beginning of this year: the roof of the second room of the house fell due to the intense rains that struck Havana.
However, he reported that, to date, the authorities have not been concerned about what happened. Despite the growing danger to their lives, "someone from Housing came, looked, wrote on a piece of paper, and that was it," he revealed.
The woman reiterated one of the problems faced by a large part of the population in the Cuban capital, affected by the precariousness of housing: the lack of action and negligence of the authorities.
“They start going around in circles, fool; there are never materials or anything for those in need; however, you go to the Rastro and there are mounds of stone, sand, and rebar. Then you see how they resell everything outside,” he denounced.
"My greatest fear is losing my family if a landslide occurs. I have no one to help me, neither on that side nor this side nor from anywhere. It’s just me alone and everything is expensive, even to eat," González stated.
"I would like to improve my life, I would like everything because I have family, I have children, I have grandchildren, but I can't, I don't have the means...", lamented the Cuban mother. "Where am I going to get thousands to put up a plate, to live like other people? I can't afford that, it doesn't come to me."
The anxiety of Aracelia González Díaz is similar to that of hundreds of thousands of Cubans living in homes at risk of collapse, which, if it were to happen, could cost them their lives, as has occurred countless times.
Recently, the collapse of the facade of a house in Guanabacoa caused the death of a man.
Since last June, numerous collapses have been reported in Havana and other provinces, resulting in deaths and injuries, in addition to the people who were left homeless after losing their homes and belongings.
What do you think?
COMMENTFiled under: