Cubana inmigrante en Brasil reponiendo mercancías
By Osmel Almaguer
HAVANA TIMES – Yesterday my wife and I began talking about our finances, our futures, and our distant possibilities of leading a somewhat more comfortable life.
The life we have isn’t bad. We live in Brazil; we have jobs; we’re reasonably healthy; and we reside in a peaceful and pleasant neighborhood. But we feel like something is squeezing us – a kind of resistance band keeping us from expanding our possibilities.
I’ve already touched on the topic of our legal status, and what it means to live in this kind of limbo – yes, you can rent; yes, you have a right to free healthcare and education; yes, you can register to work. But you can’t get a loan to buy a house, and you’re essentially a prisoner in the country, a feeling that’s all too familiar to Cubans.
I’ve also spoken of the obstacles in the process of being approved for political asylum and obtaining residency permits. The National Committee for Refugees (CONARE) is all but flattened under the enormous numbers of requests, and this makes it impossible to foresee a date for the resolution of our situation.
Then there’s the economic aspect.
Although it’s one of the most powerful economies in the region and the living standard isn’t the worst, salaries in Brazil pretty much leave you anchored to a vicious circle of killing yourself working yet having a super-limited ability to save.
Even if I were to eat only bread and butter for breakfast, and nothing but eggs every day, what I could manage to save wouldn’t be enough capital to get me out of this circle of mere subsistence.
Hence, we sat there discussing our possibilities for escaping the circle. And that kind of chatter allows you to air nearly any kind of idea, from having a baby in order to qualify for residency and later become a citizen, to emigrating to a different country with a very wacky contingency plan.
And all the plans irremediably circle back to the topic of money, and how difficult it is to accumulate a quantity large enough in an honest manner.
These days, after nearly four years away from the cameras, I’ve been seriously considering the idea of opening a YouTube channel to talk about meats, the vocation God has given me since I arrived in this country. I know I must launch the initiative with faith, although at the same time, I’m very fearful and lazy about shaking off the inertia of a salaried worker.
Being able to monetize a channel is a very difficult road, but not impossible. I think that a channel where I could offer advice to people new to this country about the different types of meat, their cuts and uses, and how to buy them, would be a big help.
The job of butcher isn’t designed for older people, and even though at 46 I’m not exactly ancient, I believe I should begin to think about the next stages of my life. I should finish organizing myself for the approaching stages, especially since I live in a country not my own, where my little family and myself are all alone.
Read more from the diary of Osmel Almaguer here on Havana Times.
