Apretaste! A Craigslist for the Island of the Disconnected

Apretaste! A Craigslist for the Island of the Disconnected / Yoani Sanchez

Posted on April 7, 2014



Tatania wants to sell a stroller, Humberto is interested in some

sneakers, and the retired woman on the corner is offering a mahogany

desk. Individual barter and buying-selling alleviates the shortages in

state markets. So it's become common to see walls plastered with ads

offering houses for sale or the services of someone who repairs

furniture. The classified sites on the Internet also trade in anything

you can imagine, from an illegal satellite dish to birdseed.



Despite the poor connectivity, Craigslist-style sites are very popular

on the Island. Some of them have developed strategies to reach Cuban

readers, such as the distribution of classifieds via email. This is the

case with Apretaste! which offers the service of sending and receiving

information via email for users on our "Island of the Disconnected."

Winner of a hackathon held in Miami this February, the site has great

potential and boasts a simple design that loads quickly.



Visiting Apretaste!, I remember a phrase I always repeat when I

encounter something hard. "Creativity is the capacity to open a window

when the door is closed," I tell myself, like a mantra in complex

situations. And this classified portal is a diminutive and promising

window that has opened in the iron wall of disconnection. A breath of

air flows through it.



I hope that one day Tatiana, Humberto, and the retired lady on the

corner can not only use the powers of Apretaste! through email, but also

enter it on the web, click, enter a phrase into its simple search engine

and find, in this way, whatever they need.



7 April 2014



Source: Apretaste! A Craigslist for the Island of the Disconnected /

Yoani Sanchez | Translating Cuba -

http://translatingcuba.com/apretaste-a-craigslist-for-the-island-of-the-disconnected-yoani-sanchez/