Cándido Fabré, the Santiago native known for his astonishing improvisational skills in Cuban dance music, set the rhythm for the oil crisis with a new song titled “El Aceite,” the lyrics of which he published on Friday on his Facebook profile, where he also announced: “On Sunday, we're taking it to the streets with sound and image.”
Signed with his unmistakable seal—"Author I, Cándido, the son of Sixta and Papá Neto"—and accompanied by a message of gratitude to the people, the piece transforms into a key of sound the desperation of millions of Cubans who have gone months without seeing a drop of oil in the store or at a kiosk for a price that isn't an insult.
The chorus leaves no room for doubt about the demand: "Lower the oil / because I want to eat with fat." And the lyrics, with that economy of words that defines Cuban improvisational poetry, portray reality without frills: "The oil has disappeared / they took it from the kiosk / before your eyes it vanishes / it's enough to drive you mad." Fabré doesn't stop there and describes the black market circuit with surgical precision: "It’s taken out by the pusher / it rises like the sitrogal / under the counter / the oil has to come down."
The song also highlights the widespread scarcity of fats: "This butter is too expensive / the okra doesn't slip / we have to eat dried cassava / the oil is lost." It concludes with an image that any Cuban would immediately recognize: "In the nearby store / there's nothing on the ration book / it rains on the wet / the rope doesn't loosen, it tightens."
The backdrop is significant. The Resolution 150/2026 from the Ministry of Finance and Prices, published in June, lifted the price caps on imported cooking oils —which were previously set at 990 pesos per liter— and the product rose from about 1,500 pesos in April to between 4,000 and 7,000 pesos in various provinces in August. The Minister of Food Industry, Alberto López Díaz, acknowledged in June that the regulated basket had not distributed oil, chicken, or yogurt at any point during the year.
Fabré is not the first creative voice to process this scarcity with humor and wit. The poet Sindy Manuel Torres went viral in August with a décima in which frying an egg became "ostentation," "sin," and "a crime." And at the beginning of this month, a Cuban described her experience in buying three liters of sunflower oil in Marianao as "a labor, with triplets." Internet users, true to their tradition, celebrated Fabré's song with comments ranging from laughter to lament, and more than one recalled that "only Cubans can find humor in misfortune."
This is not the first time that the musician from Santiago —a regular defender of the regime on the island— has turned a national crisis into a song. In March 2024, he composed "Between Blackout and Light" about the electrical debacle, with the chorus "They take it away, they bring it back. They bring it back, they take it away." And in November 2025 he lashed out on Facebook against private businesses that were raising prices "every minute."
While the Food Monitor Program reports that more than 90% of Cubans lack adequate access to nutritious food and independent estimates calculate that a family needs around 96,000 pesos a month to cover its basic needs, Fabré announces that this Sunday he will take to the streets with sound and imagery about the oil that is missing. Because in Cuba, when reality surpasses any fiction, there is always music left.
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