Woman in Trinidad rescues solar oven from the 90s amid new energy crisis

The prolonged blackouts and fuel shortages have forced many Cubans to revert to past solutions. In Trinidad, Yudit Vidal Faife dusted off a solar oven brought to the island in the 1990s and put it back into operation to cook amid the current energy crisis.

Through a series of videos posted on Facebook, the woman demonstrated how she used the device to soften kidney beans using only solar energy.

"Today, Sunday, after a wonderful February 14th, we return to everyday reality. We are here without electricity, but the sun of Cuba doesn't burn; it warms. Solar oven," he remarked while showing the pot covered in steam.

The images show the cooking process lasting more than an hour. "Ready to eat. One hour and 35 minutes of cooking," he explained, before announcing that he would prepare the sofrito to complete the dish.

Although he noted that the beans did not reach pressure as they would in a conventional pot, he demonstrated how they boiled thanks to the heat accumulated inside the oven.

Vidal Faife also shared the story of the team. The oven was a gift from his parents, Pedro Vidal Izquierdo and Olga Lidia Faife Gutiérrez.

According to her account, a friend of her father's brought her from Canada during the Special Period, when she was only 10 years old and the country was experiencing one of its worst economic crises following the fall of the Soviet Union.

Decades later, his parents decided to give it to him. He transported it by bus from Placetas to Trinidad and used it for the first time 36 years after its arrival in Cuba.

"It works like the first day," he declared, recalling that in the 1990s, his father used to cook panetelas, flans, puddings, mantecados, rice, and even roasted fish there.

The scene evokes survival solutions that marked an entire generation of Cubans.

Today, in light of a new phase of severe electricity restrictions and fuel shortages, the solar oven is once again becoming a domestic alternative for ensuring food without relying on an increasingly unstable energy system.

Although she acknowledges that there may be more modern models available in the market, Vidal Faife claims to feel satisfied with hers.

In a country where power outages can last for more than ten hours a day, their experience reflects how many citizens are once again turning to creativity and past resources to cope with a crisis that affects everyday life.