A fried egg. That was all. And yet, the Cuban poet and improviser Sindy Manuel Torres felt he had to confess to the whole world. He did so in the way he knows best: in décima espinela, with ten verses that portray the Cuba of August 2026 better than any economic report in just 28 seconds.
The reel that Torres posted on Facebook, titled "Culinary Décima in Times of Inflation," started like this, without any preamble: "I know it's ostentation, that it's a sin, that it's serious, and my soul knows it too, that I have no salvation. I won't ask for forgiveness, neither verbally nor in writing. I know very well that it's a crime, whether you're Christian or atheist, but today I just had a craving for a fried egg."
The piece required no further explanation. Internet users understood it immediately, as they too know how difficult it is— in every sense— to fry an egg in Cuba these days.
The comments on the reel served as a Greek chorus that amplified the irony. "And you have electricity!!! Hahaha and oil!!! And eggs!!!! You are blessed!" wrote a follower, listing the culinary holy trinity that has become as elusive as a miracle on the island. Another noted: "Electricity, oil, and eggs. The tenth is going craaaaaazy." A third surrendered to the sensory detail: "That little sound of the egg frying!!!" And there was no shortage of someone pointing out the sore spot with elegant simplicity: "What a tremendous luxury, hahaha, even if it seems like a joke." Another internet user concluded with some practical philosophy: "Enjoy the crime whenever you can haha."
The joke, of course, is not a joke. The cost of an egg in Cuba recently reached 135 pesos per unit in Las Tunas and over 200 pesos in other localities, according to online comments. A carton of 30 units can thus amount to thousands of pesos and exceed the minimum monthly pension of 4,000 pesos, which is equivalent to less than seven dollars at the informal exchange rate. Independent estimates calculate that a family needs around 96,000 pesos a month to cover its basic needs.
Oil, another essential ingredient for frying an egg rather than boiling it, is also not helping. Following the removal of price caps set by Resolution 150/2026 from the Ministry of Finance and Prices, the price of a liter of oil soared to several thousand pesos, according to August data. A Cuban mother even posted on social media that she cooked an egg in boiling water because she had no oil, adding the comment: "I have never done this in my life... how long, for God’s sake. [...] The sad reality."
And then there is electricity, the third element of this trinity that Torres' followers celebrated as if it were a marvel. The scarcity of electricity in Cuba turns the simple act of turning on a stove into a gamble.
Torres is no ordinary improviser. A native of Consolación del Sur, Pinar del Río, he won the National Improvisation Contest Justo Vega in the Jornada Cucalambeana 2026 held in Las Tunas this July, marking the sixth time in his career that he has claimed this honor. The décima espinela he employs—ten octosyllabic verses with an abbaaccddc rhyme scheme, attributed to the Spanish poet Vicente Espinel in the 16th century—serves as the quintessential vehicle for Cuban and Ibero-American improvisation, a form that has historically been used to sing of love, homeland, and to critique various social issues. Torres now uses it to sing about fried eggs. And in that, too, there is a tradition.
The Food Monitor Program reported that more than 90% of Cubans lack adequate access to nutritious food. In this context, Torres's "ostentation" is not poetic hyperbole: it is rhymed journalism.
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