They Don’t Have Any Pizazz

Daisy Valera

HAVANA TIMES, Dec 17 — I ended up with nothing from my salary for these last days of the month. Actually, this has almost become the norm. The same thing happened with partner, Eddy. Therefore, we made plans to sell a pair of his pants that we didn’t think he would ever wear.

They were jeans that were faded on the thighs, so they looked old without ever having been worn, not even once. The pants even had the original label as evidence of their being new.

Clothing resellers who work a few blocks from my house seemed the most logical choice, so there I head-ed.

After proposing to sell the jeans for 10 CUCs (to me that seemed the lowest price possible, taking into consideration my need and common sense) two retailers turned their heads away. One of them said she had other similar goods arriving soon.

But I wasn’t going to stand by idly – my stomach wouldn’t let me. They had somehow perceived that this matter was a question of putting food on the table for the rest of the month.

I then decided to go to the first part of Calzada de Monte St, near Fraternity Park. Here there’s about one storefront on each block where they sell all types of clothes (ones in different colors, shiny clothes, for males or females) and belts with metal plates, shoes and “wife-beater” tee-shirts by “Ed Hardy,” or caps that appeal to young people.

I walked down the street, stopping at each clothes stand (almost all managers were women) and offering the pants for the same price. Looking in my hand at the last 20 cents of my salary for getting home, I made up my mind to persevere.

When I got to a place close to the Cuatro Caminos farmers market, a seller at a clothing stall, a kind older woman with a swarthy complexion, allowed me to understand the reason for my misfortune. Holding the garment up in her hands, she exclaimed, “The problem is they don’t have any pizazz.”

I turned around and headed back to the bus stop. I thought I should try not to write any more in Havana Times about my continuing economic problems, and that Eddy should start getting used to those pants since I proved that almost nobody else would ever put them on.