The building has an elegant past, but in recent days Maria has been cooking with sticks she found on the street.
"You know, we Cubans manage the best we can," she said. She lives in the shelter because her home collapsed, a regular occurrence in the poorest, oldest parts of the beautiful city.
Cuba's government has spent the last days attempting to get the national grid functioning after repeated islandwide blackouts. Without power, sleep becomes difficult in the heat, food spoils and water supply fails.
Parts of Cuba's communist system still function: the municipality sent Maria food. "We are three families here," she said. "I live alone, the lady who lives next to me [does] also, and there are two children, the children's mother, her aunt and an elderly man."
A week after the blackout, the island had returned to the regular power cuts of up to 20 hours a day. But the crisis has left a deep, melancholy dread about the future.
"Cubans have a cheerful idiosyncrasy," said Julio César Rodríguez, 52. "Even when things are bad we laugh. But this is really bad."
This story is from the November 01, 2024 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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This story is from the November 01, 2024 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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