The official singer-songwriter Raúl Torres suggested this Monday that the solution to the Cuban food crisis lies in "organizing the perspective" towards natural resources that, he claimed, already exist on the island: jicoteas, guineos, water buffalo, tilapia, claria, river crab, jutía, and deer.
In a lengthy post on his Facebook account, the troubadour— a member of the National Assembly of People's Power since 2018 and author of tribute songs to Fidel Castro such as "Cabalgando con Fidel"— presented a utopian proposal, which comes at the worst time of the Cuban food crisis in decades, when 97.65% of households report difficulties in accessing essential products, according to the Food Monitor Program.
"Cuba has a pantry in its own home that we have yet to fully open. The jicotea is not just a little lagoon creature for show; it is a fine, firm meat that, if raised well, yields more than many imports," wrote Torres, who was quick to clarify: "I’m a guajiro, but being a guajiro doesn’t mean I’m an agronomist or a statistician."
The phrase that encapsulates his diagnosis is as lyrical as it is disconnected from reality: "It's not that there's a lack of food; it's that sometimes we lack the ability to organize our perspective."
While the troubadour invites Cubans to look towards the wetlands, a pound of rice is hovering around 330 Cuban pesos in the informal market and can exceed 400. The Minister of Food Industry himself admitted recently that so far this year, oil, chicken, and yogurt have not been able to be distributed through the regulated basket.
Torres, who last week published another text admitting that “the people are there spending their last breath,” is not unaware of the contradiction. In July, herequested that the leaders “get off the air conditioning” and get closer to everyday reality, although he did not question at any moment the fundamentals of the system that generates that reality.
In his post this Monday, the singer-songwriter blames the U.S. embargo — which he refers to as the "criminal blockade" — and invokes the spirit of Fidel Castro as a spiritual guide for the solution: "When we say 'I am Fidel,' we are not just repeating a slogan for the audience; we are embracing a way of life."
The text concludes with a reference to the song "Vamos a andar" by Silvio Rodríguez and a phrase that encapsulates the tone of the message: "Let's move forward, my brother, for the pantry is full, and the people who carry Fidel in their hearts have the strength, the knowledge, and the love to open it wide."
The proposal by Torres reflects the official discourse of "food sovereignty" that the regime has been promoting for years even as the food crisis has only worsened, while Cubans search for food in the trash or pay exorbitant prices for basic products that the State can no longer guarantee.
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