By Takis Politis
August 13, 2026
He was standing outside the small shop in the main square of Santa Clara, from where I was leaving with a sandwich in my hand. Our eyes met. As I passed him, he didn’t speak to me, on the contrary, he lowered his gaze. I only moved 4-5 steps away and stopped. I turned towards him and observed him better. He was a straight, thin man in his 60s. I approached him and asked him if he was hungry. He nodded in the affirmative. I extended my hand holding the sandwich towards him. His eyes sparkled, he took the sandwich, thanked me, called me brother, and walked away. I followed him discreetly with my gaze. At the corner of the square, I saw him cut the sandwich in half and offer half to another of our fellow citizens.
Sometime before noon, walking on Maceo Street, I happened to pass by a well-known private restaurant in the city. From afar, I had already seen a long line of people on the sidewalk where the restaurant’s entrance is located. When I got close enough, I stopped to see what was happening. My question was answered very quickly. Two employees came out of the restaurant and began distributing small bags of food to people. I asked a grandmother, one of those waiting on the sidewalk. For some time now – she told me – the private restaurant has established a practice of offering cooked rice with beans to our fellow citizens who need it, before the time it starts accepting customers.
Corner of Bruno Zayas and José Martí, it is raining. Vehicles on Martí Street have priority. A luxury private car is coming from Martí. From Zayas, from the side of the square, a bicycle loaded with two large baskets comes down at full speed. Braking with the foot on the front wheel of the bicycle was ineffective. The bicycle violated the priority and went out onto Martí, the SUV braked, but it was not enough. The road was filled with beans and rice. The cyclist looked in despair at the food spilled on the road, and at the obviously worn-out tire of his bicycle. The driver of the car gets out, asks him if he needs medical help. He also asks him about the value of the merchandise spilled on the road. He takes money out of his pocket and gives the cyclist money. 3-4 young men have already come out of the gym opposite and are repairing the bike with whatever tools are available.
The news spread quickly throughout the neighborhood. Medicines arrived at the pharmacy! There was a long line, the sun was hot, and elderly people huddled under the scant shade on the sidewalk across the street.
Also in line is Lydia, my neighbor, a retired doctor who has participated in Cuban medical missions abroad. She calls out to me, I approach her, she asks me – as she always does – if I have food and after I assure her and reassure her, she starts talking to me about how much better things were when Fidel was alive. It’s her turn, she enters the pharmacy. After a while she comes out holding two boxes of medicine in her hand and I hear her calling out if anyone in the queue is still waiting to get such and such medicine. An old woman answers in the affirmative, Lydia approaches her and gives her one of the boxes. As she explained to me later, they were the last two boxes of that particular medicine that the pharmacy had.
This deeply rooted collective consciousness of Cuban society is what largely explains the resilience of this people over the decades. The criminal American sanctions plunge the entire island into darkness for many hours every day, creating enormous problems at all levels of activity and daily life, making the lives of all of us here increasingly difficult.
And yet, Cuba endures! The plans being developed by American think tanks cannot evaluate, nor certainly extinguish, this flame of social solidarity that permeates the entire Cuban people, regardless of any different perspectives they may have on the country’s issues.
This small people with their immense humanity, with their numerous medical missions to the darkest corners of the world, has developed an enormous sense of both internationalism and social solidarity. And of course, this collective consciousness constitutes a social imprint of the socialist path and culture of the country. A country that for decades was led by a unique man who was born exactly 100 years ago today, on August 13, 1926, Fidel Castro.
Source: info-war.gr
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