Used Clothing Disappears in Havana

Used Clothing Disappears in Havana

May 27, 2014

Daisy Valera



HAVANA TIMES— Flowery spandex pants and blouses with open backs are

invading the streets of Havana. The striped-shirt craze seems to be

blowing over. Cubans seem to go insane over clothing and fashion, and

the whole city seems to be one huge masquerade at times.



Clothing is a serious thing in Cuba. The authorities, who supervised the

birth of hundreds of privately-operated boutiques and saw to their

sudden death within the span of a year, attest to this. Now, to my

dismay, they are stealthily doing away with thrift clothing stores.



The year 2014 could well go down in history as the "Year of the War

against the Textile Industry."



As I recall, I was able to throw together an outfit for myself for the

first time thanks to so-called "rag-stores." Back in 2000, my mother

bought me a green tank-top and a pair of checkered shorts (rather

unusual and unforgettable pieces of clothing). As an adult, nearly all

of the clothing I've been able to afford on my salary has been the used

clothing sold at these stores.



There, with a bit of patience, one can find new pairs of pants (with the

price tag still attached) and jackets that would cost as much as 20 CUC

($22 USD) at a State hard currency store, hidden among 80s sports

jackets and gigantic out-of-style dresses.



In 2011, the State announced it was considering discontinuing the sale

of these products because it could no longer afford to pay the suppliers

(without mentioning who these were), but no store was dismantled then.



A little over a week ago, I walked down Havana's San Rafael boulevard

and saw that all of the used clothing sections in the hardware and craft

markets there had vanished. I saw a man pushing a cart with a large

bundle of clothing on it and asked him where he was taking it. "To some

warehouse," replied the confused laborer.



For a number of days, I thought it could be an "aesthetic" decision. San

Rafael is quite close to the city's tourist circuit and the sight of

Cubans crouching down in front of piles of tattered clothes, hoping to

find something decent and cheap to wear, isn't exactly good publicity

for a socialism set on "updating" itself.



It wasn't until I saw that this was also happening at neighborhood

stores such as the one located at the intersection of Neptuno and

Aramburu streets or on the Calzada de Infanta, in front of the Parque de

los Martires, that I began to worry.



Used clothing, with prices oscillating between 70 and 35 Cuban pesos

(3.5 and 1.75 USD) for a pair of pants and a blouse, respectively, while

certainly not cheap when set against an average Cuban salary, was at

least an option for people.



Its disappearance – definitive, by the looks of it – leaves low-income

people at the mercy of the black market and the extremely poor-quality

clothing imported by the State and sold at hard-currency stores. The

official press seems to be ignoring a situation that could well affect

broad sectors of the population.



Source: "Used Clothing Disappears in Havana - Havana Times.org" -

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=103907