How Prison Language Has Crept Into the Lives of Cubans
‘Cleanliness as arrived’
A ration of personal hygiene supplies that are reduced to soap, toothpaste and perhaps a little detergent to wash clothes.
HAVANA TIMES – I approach the building where I live and see a Line outside the grocery store. Most of those waiting on Tuesday are elderly and have that long, almost expressionless face of someone who has not smiled for a long time or hoped for improvements in their life. I ask about the reason for the crowd and a retired woman answers categorically: “Cleaning supplies arrived.” Three words that are more eloquent for their meaning than for the number of products they contain.
Coming from the language of prisons and military barracks, the concept of “el aseo” (cleaning supplies) in Cuba defines a module with personal hygiene supplies that are reduced to soap, toothpaste and perhaps a little detergent to wash clothes. It is something that must fit in a small bag and is given to the prisoner or soldier so that at least the cell or shelter does not stink too much.
The family of the detainees in the police stations must bring “el aseo” to the arrested person and to the pre-university student in the countryside, where I studied; my parents did everything possible to provide me with “el aseo”. Now, as prisoners in a larger prison, this is also the name given to the meager quota that arrives through the rationed market.
“At least we’ll be able to bathe,” the same neighbor told me sarcastically. The phrase was quickly answered by a pensioner who was sitting in the shade: “That is, if they turn on the water.” Problems with the pumping equipment, power cuts and broken pipes have meant that in recent months our neighborhood has had more days with dry pipes than days with some water coming out of the taps. People go through weeks in which they can barely wash, in which their homes lack the necessary cleaning, and hygiene is a possibility that only exists in the announcements on official television.
As in penitentiary centers throughout the island, today we receive “el aseo.” But also, as in Cuban prisons, a piece of soap and a tube of toothpaste barely alleviate the rigors of life behind bars.
Translated by Translating Cuba.
The prisons in Cuba are very bad worse than the Russia prisons or anything I have seen in the US or Mexico. Too many people are in prison for protesting in my opinion. The people in the US and elsewhere need to make a condition of investing or aid better treatment of prisoners and maybe allow some of the protests to get a chance to leave Cuba and trade labor with Russia or Japan for oil and certain items that are needed by the Cuban people.