Being Fashionable In Cuba

Rosa Martinez

HAVANA TIMES, Nov 29 — Being adequately dressed in Cuba is as difficult as maintaining a balanced diet, getting from one city to another or having a comfortable house.

Dressing passably has become one of those everyday problems that workers on a median salary can barely resolve, unless we have help from a family member living outside the country, works on an international mission or obtains hard currency at work, as in the tourist sector.

And I’m not talking about elegant clothing, which very few of us can dream about having, or clothing in the latest styles.  I refer exclusively to the attire that we need to go to our places of work or study. In this particular case I am referring to what a child needs to attend the daycare center every day.

Previously the daycare centers offered uniforms for all the children, especially important for those who, being very young, didn’t yet make their toileting needs known.  This was a huge help for low income parents who now have to make great sacrifices to make sure that their ones go to daycare well dressed.

The clothing that the children use in their daycare centers has to be in accordance with the season of the year, be it the short winter or the eternal Cuban summer, and should be easy for young children to manipulate, to make it easy for them to learn at an early age to toilet and dress themselves.

Now, in addition to fulfilling all of those requirements, I have a new one: the whims of my daughter who doesn’t want to wear dresses any more.  I’ve tried to convince her in every possible way.

I’ve told her that girls look prettier and more feminine in dresses and jumpers, and I’ve also told her that when she puts on her simple little dresses she looks like a little princess.  In addition, I explained that for Mama it’s easier to buy or make her dresses.

But I can’t manage to convince her: she says that no one wears dresses, that her friends say that she looks like an old woman, that she wants to wear short shorts like the ones her friend Melisa uses.

So what can you do? Being in fashion is a challenge and my little girl of three is already worried about it.