Tania Quintero, Cuba Press
HAVANA, February - To look at her, crossing the street with her baby in abrand-new pram, you would think she is lucky, that she has family abroad whocan supply enough dollars for her to be a "pretty woman" with a "nice baby."
But you would be wrong. Because Marieta, at 24, had the baby with an oldItalian who was a grandfather when she met him, but who went gaga when thebeautiful Cuban mulato told him over the phone that she was pregnant. "I'mnot sure the boy is his, because at around that time I was also hanging
outwith a Canadian, a Spaniard and a German."
They all had fair skin, light-colored eyes and blondish hair. No matter what the kid looked like, she could debit any one of the four. But the only one that went mushy and didn't run the other way was the Italian, thirty yearsolder than she. "The old man came a month after Marcelo was born.
We baptized him. That day, he told me to get ready for a church wedding, because he wants to celebrate it along with the boy's first birthday."
After eight years working the streets, Marieta got what she wanted: to get married and to be able to leave and enter the country legally. Others haven't had to wait as long or to get stuck with a child. Daniel, for example, hooked up with a genuine American and in less than a year he was able to
go to the U.S. He is happy there, waiting until he is in his thirties to become a father.
But for most of those who went into prostitution, after it became legal to have dollars in 1993, things have become harder with increased police vigilance. They have had to look for other solutions. One of them, the most common, is to get married or to "tie down" the partner with a
child.
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