Husbands for sale in Cuba
By Stephen Gibbs. BBC
News. UK, August 6, 2005.
HAVANA - A wedding is a big occasion in
any society, but in Cuba it can also be
big business. Many Cuban women see a foreign
husband as a ticket out of the country -
a passport, possibly, to new prosperity.
The other day I bumped into a Cuban friend
of mine in a shoe shop in Havana. She was
buying a pair of white slippers.
"They're for my wedding," she
told me. I was surprised. I had no idea
that she had any wedding plans.
"Who are you getting married to?"
I asked.
"A Mexican," she replied.
"When did you meet him?" I wondered.
"I haven't yet," she said.
It turned out my friend was taking part
in what is a small, but booming market in
Cuba - the purchase of foreign husbands.
Usually arranged through intermediaries,
many Cuban women consider it by far the
best way to leave this country.
But it is not cheap. My friend paid $5,000
for her Mexican groom. That, I am told,
is also the going rate for American, Canadian,
and European husbands.
A Costa Rican man can apparently be persuaded
to tie the knot for around $2,000. Peruvian
men, for some reason, are currently particularly
good value. Just $800 will secure one.
New purchase
A few days after meeting my friend, I went
to her wedding. Often the line between what
is real and what is not is somewhat blurred
in Cuba, but this really was an extreme
example.
The bride's family had showed up in force.
And none seemed happier than her mother,
decked out in an extravagant 1960s flowery
outfit. Some children, from a previous marriage,
were also there, along with aunts and uncles
from all over Havana. All seemed delighted
with their new purchase.
Pepe, the husband, whom they had only met
a few hours before, was a jolly, retired
engineer in his late fifties, who seemed
quite prepared to go along with this theatre
as far, and probably beyond, as was required.
A few bottles of Spanish cider were cracked
open. A cake was cut and, some cigars lit
up.
Before long the bride, her mother, the
children, and Pepe were all dancing together.
Everyone seemed to have forgotten that this
was a sham.
And if you had not known, you would never
have guessed. Maybe there were a few more
giggles than there normally are when the
groom had to kiss the bride.
I also noticed that the ring was only a
very temporary loan from the bride's sister.
But that aside, all was completely convincing.
Someone had brought along an old video
camera. Another was taking endless photographs
of the happy couple.
And that really was what this was all about.
Recording on camera the wedding so that
the evidence is there if ever officials
at the Mexican embassy ask any difficult
questions as to whether this marriage is
genuine.
Many layers
Many Cubans do not have to go to these
lengths, or expense, in order to leave this
island on the arm of a lonely foreigner.
Cuba, after all, was once likened by Graham
Greene to a factory producing human beauty.
Outside the grand neoclassical villas which
house many of the embassies here, you will
see queues of young, often beautiful, Cuban
women, waiting to convince embassy staff
that their acquaintances with tourists they
recently met look set to be long term. The
queue beside the Italian Embassy is usually
the longest.
Plenty of these relationships do continue
happily outside Cuba. But plenty do not.
In the British Consulate, there is an area
where diplomats have pinned up e-mails from
distraught British spouses as a warning
to those that are about to take the plunge.
There is the story of a woman who married
a Cuban man, thinking it was for ever, only
to find that forever did not last much beyond
Heathrow airport.
Another reports that her apparently adoring
husband left one night with only her credit
card for company.
These tales of love and betrayal are the
stuff of expat dinner parties in Havana.
One favourite is the story about the American
who had a yacht in the marina and fell in
love with a Cuban girl 40 years younger
than him.
After a divorce from his first wife which
cost him $10m he discovered that his relationship
with the Cuban was not, shall we say, exclusive
The best raconteur of all these tales used
to be a gay French hotelier, who lived in
Cuba for 10 years, and claimed that he had
seen it all and knew all the tricks.
But even he did not.
I once went to a dinner he hosted. Sitting
next to him was a Cuban man with whom he
had lived for the last two years. On the
other side of the table was a Cuban woman.
Our host never knew that his boyfriend and
the Cuban woman were in fact husband and
wife.
People often say that Cuba has many layers.
They are right.
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