“You need to be happy,” says graffiti on a dilapidated building in Havana. And for almost two hours during the World Cup match between Morocco and Brazil, Cubans followed the advice and put their worries aside.
The World Cup broadcast on Cuban state television began two days late on the Caribbean island of 9.6 million inhabitants due to a problem in paying for broadcasting rights. On Saturday, Havana residents were finally able to watch the first game on TV.
In a small cafe in the populous Centro Habana neighborhood, surrounded by pastel-colored townhouses, worn-out facades and clothes hanging on the balconies, men sat on benches watching the duel between Morocco and Brazil on a small television set on the wall.
Cuba has a strong baseball tradition, and its only World Cup appearance came almost a century ago, in 1938, when it reached the quarterfinals.
But the arrival of mobile internet, around ten years ago, boosted a new passion, and football began to dominate, especially among children.
When state television announced, the day after the opening of the tournament in Mexico, that it would broadcast 16 group stage games and then all matches from the round of 16 onwards, the atmosphere improved.
Now, it’s up to electricity to do its part. With an aging electrical grid and facing an oil blockade imposed by the United States for more than four months, Cuba suffers from frequent blackouts.
Ismael Veranes, director of human resources at the National Theater of Cuba, went to the cafe to watch the match because his home, located nearby, had been without power for 20 hours.
While drinking a fruit juice — one of the few small pleasures that is still allowed amid the economic crisis —, he stated that the World Cup helps to ease his mind in a routine marked by precarious transport and power cuts.
“When you come back tired from work, there’s no electricity. At night it’s hot, there are mosquitoes, it’s terrible,” the man told AFP, divided between his fans for France and Brazil.
Nostalgia
An hour before the game, on a nearby corner, Michael, a nine-year-old fan of Lionel Messi, and his sister Meiliuvis, 10, played football with a bottle cap under the gaze of Che Guevara, depicted in a mural across the street.
If in the past Cubans grew up passionate about baseball —Fidel Castro was known for playing in front of crowds—, since the popularization of smartphones in 2018, “children are more inclined towards football”, explains Osmany, Michael’s father.
Although the crisis also affects the island’s football pitches, many of which are “in very precarious conditions”, the World Cup “allows us to distract ourselves for a while”, he says with a smile.
Many Cubans speak nostalgically of past World Cups, when state television broadcast every game and food and fuel were not so scarce, except during the early 1990s, after Soviet aid ended.
Today, only bars with cable TV and expensive beers show all the matches, leaving many fans outside, literally watching from the sidewalk.
“It’s not the same,” laments Alan, 36, standing on the street with two friends and a can of beer in his hand.
Still, in a Cuba where the crisis has deepened inequalities, some fans have more privileges than others.
In the leafy, middle-class neighborhood of El Vedado, in Havana, one-dollar beers were circulating during a party organized to accompany the game in a cultural center decorated with Brazilian flags and World Cup decorations.
Outside, a line of 4×4 vehicles highlighted the existence of a small elite benefiting from dollar salaries from the growing private sector, while other Cubans look for food in garbage containers.
But even there the crisis is present: the television signal periodically freezes, provoking protests from fans.
For 24-year-old biologist Víctor Díaz, being able to watch the World Cup is a reason for celebration.
“Having something that alleviates all the burdens we face on a daily basis is incredible,” he said.
