An elderly Cuban veteran of the wars in Angola and Ethiopia survives by eating leftovers he finds on the streets of the Holguín province, in the current context of inflation and general crisis on the island.
The man, identified as Julián Hidalgo Expósito, told the independent portal Cubanet that sometimes he goes up to three days without eating, and when hunger is so strong he eats what he finds: “I know that if I eat from the floor I’ll get sick, but it’s worse to die of hunger,” he says.
In a moving account, he explained that “it was close to 3:00 in the afternoon and I hadn’t eaten anything. I had just sat down right here. I saw eight or ten little pieces of fungo and little pieces of lettuce on the sidewalk. I thought: ‘If they are I eat them clean.’ I picked them up, checked them and ate them.”
He says that he does not usually eat what is on the curb, because that is where “urine, excrement and other dirt” is. “I take and eat what is closer to here,” said the old man, who is currently 78 years old.
He claims that a few days ago a man and a woman threw two pieces of pizza very close to him. “I picked them up, saw that they were clean, said my prayers and ate them,” he stressed.
He comments that despite his age, he has been looking for work because his checkbook of 1,528 pesos a month is not enough for him, and that sometimes he cleans a yard in exchange for money or food.
“These times are bad, bad. I haven’t had lunch and I don’t have money. The prices are very high. The vendors don’t think about the family. A glass of coffee with milk costs 130 pesos, a pizza 90 and a plate of food 500 pesos “he points out.
The old man denounced that he is also sick with his eyes and one ear, and his feet often hurt; but he has not been able to buy medicine from him for lack of money.
According to Cubanetthe man was one of the Cuban fighters who participated in the wars in Angola and Ethiopia.
“In 1977 I was in Huambo, a province of Angola. In 1982 I fought in Ethiopia. I came from there with malaria and since then I have suffered from epileptic seizures. Now there are no pills to treat my disease. The other day I felt bad. It clouded over me the view. I realized that I was going to have a fit.” He makes a sudden gesture with his body and simulates a fall. “I didn’t have time and I landed,” said the old man.
He comments that although he is a war veteran, he has not requested help from the Cuban regime, and that he prefers to go to a church where they sometimes give out food or ask people directly: “The way things are going, don’t expect anything good from this country,” he said. .
