Fernando Dámaso, Translator: lapizcero
In the section Acuse de Recibo ("Acknowledgement of Receipt") of the
daily Juventud Rebelde ("Rebel Youth") for 9/25/11 there is an article
titled El Potín, y mucho más ("The Potín and Much More"), where a
citizen and the journalist show the deplorable state of this formerly
elegant commercial establishment, with regards to the paltry services it
provides and its anti-hygienic facilities. The article by itself is
sufficiently explicit and I will not repeat it, rather use it as the
foundation to delve and expand on the problems of the so-called State
Gastronomy.
If this Potín in El Vedado (at the intersection of Línea and Paseo) is
in crisis, its sibling in Old Havana (O'Reilly Street) is a sad reminder
of the past: the only remains are its name embossed on the granite floor
and the deteriorated facade, the once elegant place turned into a
primitive and dark warehouse. Something similar has happened with the
majority of the gastronomic establishments that existed in the decade of
the fifties, that were the pride and points of reference of our city:
either they have ceased to exist, most converted to ruins, or they are
true slums.
The same fate overtook the so-called Beach Clubs, belonging in their
time to different workers' or employees' federations (telephone,
hardware, retailers, bank, pharmaceutical, etc.) that were handed over
later to the unions, and today (and for many years) in death-throes and
in a total state of abandonment. Why were they nationalized? Maybe to
let them be destroyed?
Such measures, demonstrating their absurdity with the passing of years,
can only be explained in the minds of people ambitious for power, who
desired to be absolute rulers of everything, without taking into account
their shortcomings, nor thinking about the social consequences of their
adventurous decisions. Nowadays, when there is so much talk of updating
the Model, even if the lost is irretrievable, it would be good that the
eternally failed State Gastronomy should be laid on the table, along
with other problems, and that real steps be taken for handing them (with
their dilapidated facilities and inadequate equipment) to entrepreneurs
who, in the short time of running their businesses, have demonstrated
initiative, responsibility, organizational capacity, efficiency and
quality, things that state entities have never accomplished (and much
less maintained).
If we must learn from mistakes, as the never tiring refrain of mass
media goes, at least we can begin to move forward learning from this,
giving it a solution, so we can end, once and for all, all the
discredited and inoperative gastronomic slums, called cafeterias and
restaurants, that constitute an offense to our cities and towns.
Translated by: lapizcero
October 1 2011
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