The Cuban comedian Mario Sardiñas, known for his character Chequera in Vivir del Cuento, published a new reel on his Instagram account in which he satirizes the price crisis in Cuba through a barter sketch: his character exchanges an 18-karat gold chain for two avocados.
In the video, Chequera weighs the chain —"it weighed 80 grams, 18 carats, it worked, take what's yours, pepillo"— and hands it over without hesitation along with an avocado. Immediately after, the young man complains that the day before the chain was worth two avocados, but according to Chequera, that has changed, and now for the two avocados, he also has to give him a ring and a bracelet, both in gold.
The phrase that sums up the sketch is an image as absurd as it is accurate regarding Cuban inflation: "Today I'm in bicarbonate mode, lemon, pour some water on me and the prices go up."
The auction takes satire to the extreme: someone calls to ask if they can trade a Tesla for ten avocados. "The kid who wants to swap the Tesla for 10 avocados? Dude, move, move, this is getting good," replies Chequera.
Before closing the video, the young man asks, "Check, where are we going to end up?"
"Pipo, don't ask me that; ask Marco Antonio Solís," Chequera replies with his usual humor.
In an Instagram story, the character also shared another catchy phrase about the price of tomatoes: "Not even the mother of all tomatoes can afford to buy them because of how expensive they are."
This video is the latest installment of a saga of viral sketches about the economic crisis that Sardiñas has published throughout 2026. In August, he parodied the price of oil by comparing it to 18-karat gold, platinum, and silver. In September, he satirized the rise in the price of a chicken pack, which increased from between 2,000 and 2,600 pesos to over 7,000 pesos in some areas. In October, he showcased a Halloween pumpkin priced at 1,700 pesos, a cost that exceeds half of the monthly minimum wage, and just a few days ago, he published a sketch about power outages and the "quitaypón virus" from the Electric Company.
Although its content is humorous, Mario Sardiñas exposes the reality that Cubans face in the midst of a crisis that affects all aspects of daily life.
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