Long Live USB Drives in Cuba

Warhol P

HAVANA TIMES — We’re off to get this week’s TV show package! “Oh, the joy,” many of my neighbors exclaim. I include myself among them, to be completely honest. USB drives have proven immensely useful from the time we’ve been able to afford them, as a means of storing or exchanging information, documents and videos of every sort.

Packages include new releases, soap operas (Mexican and Brazilian ones, which are very popular), documentaries, TV series, recent music videos produced in Cuba or abroad, software, anti-virus updates and fashion and showbiz magazines.

Without the need of an Internet connection, one can access an up-to-date list of classifieds published by Revolico, useful for anyone who wishes to purchase something or simply see where the prices of different appliances are at.

In today’s Cuba, a person who doesn’t own a DVD player and a USB drive is lost – even though Cuban television has now more channels and has begun tests to set digital television in motion, it is still a long way from satisfying the population (which, by the looks of it, will never be entirely pleased with the menu at home).

Our soap operas compete with one another in terms of badness. When one ends, another one just as bad starts.

Many people prefer to choose what they watch at home, on a computer or on television.

Package prices continue to be fairly reasonable: 50 Cuban Pesos (around US $ 2) for 80 to 500 gigabytes of materials, 10 Cuban Pesos for 8 – 16 gigabytes (a USB drive’s worth of materials).

Those in the business of selling these materials also offer a home delivery service. Some consumers go to the home of the suppliers and put together a package in accordance with their preferences; other suppliers rent out hard drives for three to four days. This last service can cost a little over 4.00 Cuban Convertible Pesos (CUC).

For the time being, this is just perfect: I am happy to be able to go to the home of a supplier near my home, and filling up my USB drive with these materials fills me with joy.

I only hope this business continues to boom and something similar to what happened to 3D home theaters doesn’t happen here. Those home theaters had many of us hooked and, after they were shut down, we were left like kids who go to a party and want to continue eating sweets afterwards.