A Hope to Be Able to Drink Ron Santiago

June 11, 2024

By Lien Estrada

HAVANA TIMES – I was taking my bartending course immediately after the confinement period due to Covid. The instructor recommended that we buy a bottle of Ron Santiago that had just hit the market.

Indeed, the drink was there, behind the glass and shelves, with its glorious label in the corner store. It cost 500 Cuban pesos. I didn’t have the money at that moment, but I wasn’t discouraged. I’ll buy it later, I told myself. And when I received my first 500 pesos, I didn’t forget the instructor’s recommendation. I ran to the store. It was no longer there. I wasn’t discouraged this time either. I told myself: it’s not yet time to taste Ron Santiago; I’ll have the opportunity.

Not much time has passed since these events. From a psychological standpoint, I could dare to say that it has been centuries; from another psychological perspective, it feels like the other day. The truth is that now I find the same bottle of Ron Santiago on a little table on the sidewalk, and I ask about its price. They respond: “5500 pesos, and that’s because I have many; around the corner, they cost 8000.” The seller and I agree that if we go to the city center, we might find it even more expensive. We part ways amiably.

With what I earn as a bookseller at the moment, I don’t think I can afford Ron Santiago. And I doubt very much that a worker, laborer, or newly graduated professional with a salary of 5000 pesos a month could acquire it, especially in this country where food is so expensive. In my case, I’ll have to settle for the few beers I allow myself. However, I won’t be discouraged this time either. I tell myself the same: “It’s not yet time to taste Ron Santiago; I’ll have the opportunity.”

I continued on my way, thinking about what a friend once shared with me, something his grandfather had told him: “Not all times are good, not all times are bad.” I want to keep the faith that in Cuba, not all times will be precisely the worst. That’s my hope about all.