Regina Cano
While working, Cuban bus drivers engage in what’s called the “appropriation of space,” which is normal and achieves a certain comfort level for them. In this space they display to the public what defines them: their superstitious and religious fetishes and tastes.
And why not, since these can sometimes be interpreted as their hopes and aspirations, or perhaps warnings of who they are and how far they’ll take things.
In those work spaces you can find banners full of tassels and fringes, mementos of their loved ones (including baby shoes and dolls of their children, scrunchies and hairclips), Christmas ornaments, pictures of saints to protect them on their journeys, flowers, dice, stickers and even children’s decorations filling their micro-worlds stick-ons of Lightning McQueen, Spiderman, Winnie the Pooh, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse and others.
This appropriation of space becomes overwhelming for some commuters when it’s combined with music, with which most drivers take way too many liberties.
But to be fair, I should add that many of the passengers enjoy the music, because different generations take the bus at the same time. So when a driver who puts on music from the early 60’s — or boleros, salsa and even some reggaeton — you’ll always discover someone tapping their fingers or moving their shoulders – even those who are ready to start dancing among the crowd.
(Plus there are those passengers who carry their own music on MP3 players, iPods and cellphones, sharing those scratchy tunes with others, being the good fellow-travellers they are.)
So people! This is how bus drivers — while trying to make more bearable their task of transporting us daily — fill up their work spaces and uncaringly share them with us.
Fortunately we sometimes only have to travel with them for short stretches, though other times we have to endure (or enjoy) their work settings on trips that take 45 or 50 minutes or even more.
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