Cuban Children’s Letters to the Three Wise Men

A mission impossible for their parents

In Cienfuegos, families avoid walking with their children along the boulevard, where toys are sold at unattainable prices

By Julio Cesar Contreras (14ymedio)

HAVANA TIMES – “Dear Three Wise Men, we want a stuffed panda bear and a soccer ball,” is how the letter from Susana’s seven-year-old twins begins. The paper, folded and placed inside a shoe near the window, has sparked a constant calculation in the family to determine whether they will be able to fulfill these wishes. Unlike other years: “there are products, what there is not is money,” says the worried mother.

On the boulevard of the city of Cienfuegos, stuffed animals, dolls and all kinds of children’s entertainment have been gaining ground in recent days. Private merchants, who display their wares on tables, small kiosks or rented state premises, know that the tradition of Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar remains deeply rooted in Cuba despite official attempts to eliminate it.

Susana, 39, grew up in a time when Christmas and the Three Wise Men were considered “petty bourgeois weaknesses” by the government. “That’s why I take it very seriously that my children can live this illusion that I didn’t have,” she tells 14ymedio. But the Cienfuegos native’s efforts are not enough to satisfy the wishes of both children. “It’s very hard to tell them that I can’t spend so much.”

Susana earns about 7,000 pesos a month from her job as a university professor. “I’ve seen the stuffed panda bear on the boulevard and it costs 20,000 pesos, the ball costs about 3,000, that’s more than three months’ salary without spending a centavo on anything else,” she estimates. In other years, however, the problem has been the lack of products on the market and the limited variety of toys for children.

“Now there is everything, I have seen dolls that cry, cars operated by remote control and every toy one can imagine.” The parents of many Cienfuegos children have chosen not to walk with them along the boulevard. “If by any chance they pass by there with their children or grandchildren, they take them away quickly to avoid a bad time,” she explains. But it is difficult to hide the plastic cars, the stuffed dinosaur or the Superman that jumps out at you on one of the tables on the central street.

At another point of sale, the shopkeeper has dressed up as a clown to attract child customers unaware of the tightness of their parents’ wallets. “I want a Mickey Mouse,” dictated a little girl to her grandmother who was helping her write her letter to the Three Wise Men earlier this year. “I also want a kitchen set with some pink pots,” the little girl added. In the old lady’s mind, each new order was adding up numbers, zeros and costs.

Other, older children know that magic also has its limits. “You have always been good to me, but my mom told me that things are bad,” wrote a fourth-grade student who wants a water pistol and a new school backpack with a picture of Spiderman. The total of his requests is around 15,000 pesos in the stores on the boulevard.

“When I was a child, my parents had it easier because nobody received anything from the Three Wise Men,” Susana reflects. In those years, the mid-80s and early 90s, all the toys sold in the country came through the rationed market for industrial products. “There weren’t, like now, all these very attractive imported products.”

Previously, through a complex sales mechanism, Cuban families had the opportunity to purchase gifts for their children during the month of July. These toys were divided into three groups, according to the complexity and quality of each one: basic, non-basic and targeted. After long lines and after presenting the ration book, parents could buy dolls, board games and other children’s entertainment.

“Most of the time you got something you didn’t like,” Susana recalls. “Now there are many options and also many contrasts. In my block there are several children whose parents live abroad and they send them good toys or money so that their grandparents can buy them here. You can’t compete with that,” she stresses. The woman has tried to warn her twins that it is likely that the Three Wise Men will not be able to fulfill all their requests.

Susana feels that she needs to write her own letter to Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar. As an adult who grew up without following traditions, her letter will begin by asking for a salary that will allow her not to have to choose between feeding her children or buying them toys.

Translated by Translating Cuba.

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