There is everything, but it is expensive and unhygienic.

HOLGUÍN, Cuba. – “I came to have lunch but my salary of 4,500 pesos a month does not allow me to pay the prices here in La Candonga,” he says to CubaNet Juan Carlos Rodríguez López, a worker at a state-owned company, believes that in this type of non-state market, prices are above the average salary in Cuba (4,000 pesos per month).

Located in the parking lot of the Calixto García Íñiguez Stadium in Holguín, and with more than 30 private stalls selling food and drinks, La Candonga, as it is popularly known, is much more than a simple market: it is a melting pot of contrasts and realities that reflect the complexities of today’s Cuban society.

High prices, product shortages, lack of government competition and the daily struggle of vendors to sustain their businesses are just some of the facets of this situation.

Considered one of the largest food and drink outlets in the country, La Candonga is a reference point for the rampant inflation and unstoppable social inequality that is increasingly affecting Cuba.

A plate of food consisting of meat, congrí, salad and root vegetables costs 1,000 pesos, a bite of roast pork 300, and a pound of roast pork 1,500: these are just three examples of the prices that are unattainable for most people.

According to Teresa García Fernández, La Candonga is an example of the government’s double standards. “The rulers criticize capitalism for supposedly having class differences, but in Cuba, where the government claims to be communist, it is the same or worse. Here the majority cannot buy La Candonga’s food because of high prices that only a minority of the population can afford.”

The word “candonga” was imported to the island by Cubans who worked or participated in the Angolan war in the 1970s and 1980s. This was the name given to the busy informal sales places in the Portuguese-speaking African country.

The word gained currency during the “Special Period,” a euphemism coined by Fidel Castro to name the Cuban economic crisis of the 1990s, following the collapse of the socialist bloc in Europe.

In La Candonga, there are also people, including children, begging for food and eating leftovers, another indicator of social inequality, the current acute crisis, the increase in poverty and the government’s neglect of the most needy. “It is painful to see men and women begging for food, but even crueler is the increase in children in this situation,” says Adolfo López Martínez, a client of La Candonga interviewed by CubaNet.

The relationship between price, quantity and quality is also criticized. “The offers are expensive and even poorly prepared. In the worst cases, you realize that it is a meal that is left over from the day before and they sell it to you as if it were from today,” says Antonio Torres Rodríguez, who visits La Candonga because his son is admitted to the Pediatric Hospital “Octavio de la Concepción y de la Pedraja”, very close to the place.

The lack of hygiene, visible to everyone, suggests that in La Candonga the silence of the Public Health inspectors has been bought. “I have no proof that the vendors pay the inspectors to turn a blind eye, but logic says that is the case because otherwise there would not be such a lack of hygiene in this place,” says Valentina Toledo García, a resident of the area.

Many see the root of the problem in the lack of government competition. This is the opinion of Alejandro García Pérez, a taxi driver. “Government restaurants and cafes are terrible and offer no competition, that is why the vendors in La Candonga set high prices and do whatever they want; they know that customers will not find more offers and will come out of necessity.”

But not all opinions are negative. There are people who consider La Candonga necessary. “The positive thing about La Candonga is that there is food, because there are no offers in the government restaurants,” says Juan Gómez Pérez from Holguín.

Despite the high prices and other irregularities, all the stalls at La Candonga are open for business. “There is business here, food and drinks are sold; if it weren’t like that, this place would already be closed. It’s true that the customers are a minority who have money,” says Laura López Fernández.

Despite the obstacles, the vendors of La Candonga continue to offer their products and services, adapting to the circumstances and looking for ways to sustain their businesses. To justify the high prices, they claim that they are in line with the economic reality of the country where, in the absence of a wholesale market, the value of the products they buy to prepare food is high. “To make a profit, we have to adjust the prices based on the cost of what we buy to cook,” said one of the vendors on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

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