The author of the text describes her impressions after returning to Cuba after two years abroad.
Claudia González Marrero
The ability to choose which foods you want to try, eat, incorporate, or remove from your everyday diet is a sign of food identity that expresses an individual’s and society’s ethical and cultural preferences. However, it’s very hard to talk about eating choices in Cuba for different reasons.
After two economic crises in Cuba, conditions for Cubans’ right to food have been disrupted especially in everyday food-related activities.
In a system where the collective memory is marked by State policies, and the legacy of the workers is only formally recognized by the official entities, a food basket reward like the one given our “glories of national sports”, or granted to a historic cultural generation, of which Gina Cabrera forms part, is pitiful.