Griselda Tarrago Escobar, a 49-year-old woman residing in El Llano, San Andrés, Holguín, expressed her heartfelt gratitude for the donation of an infrared stove that will allow her to cook without exposing herself to the rain, something she had to do for days to feed her sick daughter.
The video was published on the Facebook profile of the solidarity project "My City Has a Little Prince" from Holguín, and it garnered over 75,000 views.
In her own words, Griselda described the situation she was facing: "I have been caught in the rain these days, making food for my little girl, because I couldn't let her go without eating." The woman was cooking on an improvised stove outdoors, exposed to smoke and rain, with no other option.
"I am at my stove, enjoying the last moments, or rather, here I am suffocating, because we are on the sofa, struggling to breathe, and the smoke is harming us," she said at the beginning of the clip, before relief washed over her as she announced that Joana, the project manager, had bought her an infrared stove with funds sent by compassionate individuals.
Griselda is raising Natacha Montenegro Tarrago, a six-year-old girl with chronic illnesses, whose biological mother, at 23, suffers from severe ataxia with brain damage that leaves her unable to care for her. "All the children who face difficulties like my girl and are sick with chronic illnesses, it's very sad," the woman expressed, asking for help to also reach other families in similar situations.
The project "My City Has a Little Prince" published on Facebook the detailed list of items acquired with the donations received for the lady and her granddaughter: a bed (35,000 pesos), a refrigerator (120,000 pesos), a multifunctional pot (25,500 pesos), a rice cooker (14,500 pesos), an infrared stove (17,500 pesos), a pressure cooker (12,500 pesos), and a fan (9,000 pesos), totaling 234,000 pesos.
"With the money raised so far, we are starting the purchase for Griselda and Natacha's new home," specifies the author of the post.
That figure amounts to more than 33 average monthly salaries in Cuba, where the average salary is just 6,930 pesos, roughly 13 dollars at the unofficial exchange rate, according to data from the National Office of Statistics and Information. Purchasing basic appliances is entirely out of reach for the vast majority of Cubans.
The case starkly illustrates the abandonment of the Cuban state towards its most vulnerable citizens. Holguín is one of the provinces hardest hit by power outages, which can last up to 24 hours a day, with 10 of the 16 thermoelectric plants in the country out of service.
In that context, cooking with electricity is an intermittent luxury, and doing so in the rain, with an improvised stove, is the everyday reality for thousands of families.
The housing crisis exacerbates the situation: the official deficit exceeds 900,000 homes, 35% of the housing stock is in fair or poor condition, and the government has only constructed 22% of the homes planned for 2025. Broken roofs and leaks are not exceptions but the norm for many Cuban families.
In response to that abandonment, solidarity projects like "My City Has a Little Prince" have emerged as informal networks of social assistance that provide what the regime promised to guarantee but fails to deliver.
"Thank you for all those lovely donations you have sent me and for that stove she bought for me. Thanks to your donations, I am very happy, very content," said Griselda, before concluding with a small but genuine hope: "We are going to make our lives a little more bearable, a little happier."
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