The University of Oriente, located in Santiago de Cuba, celebrated the inauguration of a wood-fired kitchen on its campus this past weekend with a ceremonial event that included a ribbon-cutting, speeches, and the presence of authorities, all in the context of its 79th anniversary of founding.
The institution's official publication on Facebook introduced the initiative as a demonstration of "creativity, ingenuity, and commitment" in the face of the embargo, describing it as an "innovative solution." "This alternative is a call to be creative, to work together, and to show that intelligence and collective effort are our best weapons," read the official text.
The images from the event show students wearing shirts commemorating the centenary of Fidel Castro with the inscription "WITH FIDEL / 100," alongside a structure of cooking pits with three circular openings, all during an outdoor evening ceremony.
The reaction on social media was one of widespread rejection. Santiago Pedreira Bazan summarized the feelings of many with a blunt statement: "An event to celebrate regression."
Day Castellanos asked with irony: "Is cooking with firewood now considered ingenuity and innovation?" while Roger Rivero questioned whether the university's website was a parody: "Is this for real? Or is this the parody page of the UO?"
The most extensive criticism came from Pedro Rodriguez: "This borders on the absurd: holding a ceremony to celebrate the creation of an 'alternative to gas cooking,' when it's simply a matter of placing three stones and lighting firewood, without all the propaganda and commotion. One would expect reasoning and science from an academic institution, not for them to turn scarcity and backwardness into an 'achievement' worthy of a report."
Marino Paumier was more succinct: "How sad to see how they celebrate this."
Since January 10, 2026, the state-owned CUPET has indefinitely suspended the distribution of liquefied gas in Santiago de Cuba and the eastern provinces due to a lack of supply, leaving hundreds of thousands of families without fuel.
In April 2026, more than 834,000 of the 1.7 million registered clients in Cuba were unable to access state gas at any distribution point. In the informal market, a gas cylinder reached a cost of up to 50,000 pesos in eastern cities.
The national electricity deficit exceeded 2,000 megawatts against a demand of around 3,000 MW, with daily blackouts lasting between 22 and 36 hours in several provinces throughout 2026.
The president Miguel Díaz-Canel himself acknowledged the regression in March 2026 when he called for ensuring materials for cooking "from charcoal to firewood" during National Defense Day. This call came in the same context where wooden stoves appeared on balconies of buildings in Santiago de Cuba and bakeries in Holguín were baking bread with wood due to shortages of electricity and fuel.
What sets the case of the University of Oriente apart is that a higher education institution chose to turn this setback into a public celebration, complete with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, while its over 13,000 students are facing a crisis that in May 2026 forced changes to the evaluations of nearly 177,000 students across the entire Cuban university system.
"One would expect reasoning and science from an academic institution," wrote Pedro Rodriguez. "Please, a little respect for common sense."
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