May 15, 1997

FROM CUBA
THE CULTURE OF THE BAGS

HAVANA, May.- The world has known the most incredible sights come to us, hand in hand, by that which marks out lives and which we all know as fashion.

Cuba, a civilized country, at the margin of the modern world, hasn't escaped these influences of the snob, and we adopt many of those trends brought about by the market rat race, as part of the culture and even the very nature of its inhabitants.

The bag is just one example. This item which is algo called a purse, of ease of maneuverability, is not lacking in the life of a modern Cuban, turning into an inseparable companion, as much of men as of women.

The appearance at the stores of plastic bags with which to pack the items that are bought with hard currency, is an act of providence, and perhaps ought to be studied in depth by sociologists and social investigators. The nylon bags, are they are commonly known in the Island, are irreplaceable in Cubans' epic struggle for subsistence.

Those bags can show up at any time and in any place. From the cashier's countertop at the exquisite stores which sell in dollars, to the doors at the farm markets, where they are sold by private vendors, without a clue as to their origin, turning into the salvation of a family at the beginning of each month, when the corner store clerk tells you that he doesn't have any paper bags in which to sell you the rice or beans ration which are allotted to you by the ration card.

A plastic bag from Cubalse or Caracol's chain of stores turns into the daily companion of each member of the family. The wife takes with her three or four of such bags so that she can carry everything which she can find along the way. The child will carry his notebooks in a plastic bag, as if trying to remember that, at one time, there were school book-bags. The father, perhaps a little more discreet, will fold his bag many times, and will tuck it into one of his pant pockets, because anything can "stick" to him at work.

But if the plastic bag turns out to be from the exclusive boutique La Maison, then everything changes. It will be carefully saved for special occasions, when we drag our best clothes out of the closet and wear the good imitation jewelry which we carefully save. A pretty bag will be perfectly useful to pick up the food scraps left on the restaurant table or the pastries which we discreetly hoard when we are invited to a reception.

In the end, the bag is part of our culture, even part of our idiosyncrasy. To walk the streets of Havana, or of any town in this very tropical Caribbean island without a bag in our pocket attracts as much attention as walking naked in midday through Paris.

We must ask ourselves about this insistence that today's Cubans have to find something, even insignificant, to carry in the bag and help him fill the mouths at home. Because we have no doubt that with an empty bag ( I meant to say the stomach ) you cannot live.

Translated for CubaNet by Lourdes Arriete