Isidoro is a Cuban-born economist and computer scientist who was in 100 and Aldabó. This name is a pseudonym to protect the identity of the interviewee against possible retaliation by the Cuban State Security.
I still have in mind an unforgettable experience. It was when I saw my old man cry for the first time. My dad looks like vitiligo. And it has very fine skin. When the special period getting soap was difficult. And I remember that we bought some that passed by selling on the street. Old man started with a rash all over his skin and there was no way to calm him down. That gave pity
And in the end, how did you resolve that problem? One day I remember that I drop out university and knelt down in front of my dad and promised him that he would never run out of soap. Chamomile sirup had to be used. And a neighbor gave us a zinc and calamine lotion knob. That relieved him a lot. But he spent more than 15 days bathing only with compresses of hot water because nothing could irritate his skin
How did you do with the food problem? My dad was always a very honest man, without malice and a friend of whom he was the director’s driver was a bolita banker. He lived in a small room in Santo Suárez full of cash, but with a lot of cash. He gave my dad the money to buy pigs and food. We raised them and gave him a leg or a paddle. This is how we buy chickens. We had about 200 chickens in one room in the house. We condemn the room and to make the skirt. I worked in a warehouse and stole the bread flour to mix the feed and stretch it for the pigs.
Where did you rise the pigs? In the a little backyard.
What did you do with the poop of all those animals? It had to be taken out in cans and put on the sidewalks so that when the horse cart passed, they would take it with the household garbage. There the streets of Cuba began to smell like shit and pig urine.
Weren’t the animals stolen from the backyard? In which municipality did this story take place? This story was about Alquizar. No, no animals were ever stolen.
Well, at least you guys had food. You can’t complain about that part. That is truth. Rather, our problems were the bicycle pedal that had to be delivered to Havana.
When you left the university, what were you studying? I left a bachelor degree in economics, second years.
Do you regret leaving school? I will resume it later. It was a challenge for me. I wanted my kids to have my example. And I studied it while working. Then I did another bachelor degree in computer science.
Have you ever worked as an economist or computer scientist? No. I worked in warehouses. I had to guarantee my basic needs.
How did you do it? Stealing
Keep going. I hear you. I sold to the drivers of the provinces what I bought from the suppliers plus what they took from themselves. You had to fight there. Esa es la luchita.
How much was the warehouse salary? About $ 198 pesos a month.
And how much did you get stealing? Depends on the season. I had 2000 dollar months. Others month passed in blank. And so, you know how things are. I bought a car (almendron) and I gave it to a guy to handle it and give me $ 400 pesos a day. The rest was for him. And I bought another car one and did the same.
And in that warehouse they made me the head of the sales department and I started doing business with the grocers
It wasn’t bad then. Not until I did wrong
What happened? One day one of the storekeepers diverted a container of merchandise and involved me. I was 25 days in 100 and Aldabó
How is it to be within 100 and Aldabó? De pinga. It was hell.
I remember where they interview me. It look like the buildings of a pre-university. And from there they take you to change your clothes and peel off.
Peel you? Is it required? They peeled me because I had a bow tie. They did it as if to demoralize me.
Then they put me in a cell with a black man who gave me tremendous kicking. Later I saw him dressed as a guard that black man who kicked my ass. And I confess without shame. I didn’t speak because I didn’t know anything. ‘That’s the truth
The guy was a confident/guard? Yes he was a guard
And what was a guard doing in the same cell with you? My reception was that kicking for me to speak. They took me out on the 25th because in a confrontation with which I had been involved they realized that I didn’t know anything and they wanted to screw me.
How were the conditions inside? Terrible. You live between shit and piss.
How was the food? Imagine that in 25 days I started using 34 and I went out that 28 danced to me
Didn’t you have windows in your cell? No. You don’t know if it’s day or night. When you are in the interrogation stage, your schedules change. They inject you with things that alter you
They injected you? When are you asleep? Not because it comes and they weigh you down, they tell you that you are losing a lot of weight. They tell you that they are going to give you vitamins
You say that with the injections you felt more violent? I was nervous. Anxious. I couldn’t be 25 seconds in the same place
Could you refuse to be injected with the “vitamins”? I didn’t do it. I can’t tell you. I was to scared. I can not lie to you.
Were the other detainees also injected? How often were you injected? I saw no one but a guard. They gave me only two injections.
Did they wake you up at night? I do not know. I just had no idea when it was day and when it was night. Suddenly they took you to interrogations. While you’re in interrogation they decide everything. At any time they told you to shave and get dressed, because my family comes to see me. And it was a lie. I saw my family once. I have to clarify that I never went to prison. I was only in 100 and Aldabó
What is the difference between 100 and Aldabó and a prison? At 100 and Aldabóno you have not been condemned. You are under instruction. You still can’t name a lawyer.
In the cell did you sleep alone? Describe it. I was alone. It was a room about 2 by 2.5. There was the latrine and a stinking bed
Could you speak to other detainees? No. And every so often I talked to the instructor. The instructor was a brown that I will never forget her face. Marita called herself. She was a lieutenant according to her rank. She said she was a lawyer.
The instructor, did you hate her? Worse than that. She liked to humiliate me.
How did she humiliate you? With my children and wife. She told me lots of things about my wife. She was already looking for how to take me to jail.
Did they let you out on the patio for fresh air? No. They kept me between the cell and the interrogation room.
Were you allowed to at least read a book? No. Inside the cell there was only me and my madness.
When did you go out, what happened? At trial I was acquitted for lack of evidence. They sent me home and to report to work next day. And in the morning at the job they said that I had come out to await trial. The director was my friend. A guajiro who was a man to all. And he said he was going to continue but he had to remove my signature
So when you joined work did you go back to the fight (la luchita)? No, no.
And what did you live on then? I had money stuck. The cars were still making money.
And what did you do with that money? Get me out of Cuba
Did you keep the money in the bank? No never. My bank was my mom
How did you get out? Employment contract with a Cuban friend who has a company here in Peru, although he lives in Chile. And it resolved me and I have been here since 2008.
Did you leave your wife and children in Cuba? Yes. And at 2 years and 3 months I brought my children and wife
Happy ending, then? Not that much
Why not? Life outside Cuba after you have been remote-controlled all your life is difficult. You don’t know how to walk with your feet.
Explain yourself better. This is not USA, where there is an acquaintance anywhere. Here I had no one.
Would you like to have a Cuban community there in Peru like the one in Miami? Yes and no
How is that? I would like to have someone at Christmas. Someone to visit. If I have a situation, is good to know that I can count on someone. Here I am alone with my people, nobody else.
And not because I don’t like the latest that has arrived in Miami
Do you have plans to leave Peru? Where would you like to go? In fact I want to go to the USA or Europe. This however is still the 3rd world
Is there any advice you want to give to Cubans who plan to leave Cuba? Let them learn what capitalism is. What to learn to manage your credit and to save. You have to create a productive mindset
Have you returned to Cuba on vacation after you left? Once to see my wife and children and my parents and tell them that everything was ready. After that I have not been more. And I tell you that I miss my parents a lot
Would you come back one day if there is a change? I am talking about a free and democratic Cuba. Yes, if I could have a company, I would put my business there and take care of it from here a few years until the country stabilizes. A change in Cuba is difficult since most of the people have no fucking idea of what responsibility is.
Alexander Gonzalez Leon 