Transportation is a challenge in Cuba's Las Tunas

As Oriente province disappears, Las Tunas province is born

LAS TUNAS, Cuba – At the eastern part of the island of Cuba, the provincial political delineations changed, but the way people get around them hasn't.

The Castro regime split up Oriente, the most mountainous region in Cuba, into five provinces July 3, 1976.  Las Tunas is one of them. It is still recovering from the severe economic recession of 1990, after the Soviet's subsidies withdrawal.

Outside of the city of Las Tunas, Marubia Aviles tells a Cuban Tiempo21 reporter, she struggles to keep up with production at the Fabrica de Ron de Bartle where she works. There is a lack of reliable transportation. 

"Despite that, she stressed that there is a drive and a collective desire to overcome the dilemmas to make a difference and have, although the year has yet to end, accomplished the foreseen production plans," Tiempo21's Esther de la Cruz said in her report.

Cubans in the province of Las Tunas count on horses, bicycles, hitchhiking and the behemoth modified cargo truck. Drivers are known as "boteros" and are government licensed, as freelance workers.

The people of the city of Las Tunas are known to be resilient. The city was founded in 1796 when the Oriente province used to be colonial Spain. During the war of independence against Spain, the city was destroyed in a fire in August 1897.

Despite the fire, the city of Las Tunas has some historic buildings. The provincial library of Jose Marti, the house of culture of Tomasa Varona, the provincial museum of Vicente Garcia, the factory of tobacco Enrique Casals and the commercial center of Casa Azul. They were built between 1910 and 1925.

This  month, the Periodico 26 reported that Las Tunas was struggling with housing.  Authorities are dealing with 886 homes that were built illegally or were just unsafe. According to the report, there are plans to demolish 857 this year, but only 260 families had been relocated.

Most of the residents of the province live in suburban and agricultural areas, where no one seems to be in a hurry to get anywhere.

Near the tiny town of El Yunque, Demendo sells handwoven hats. He has a large display that is visible to drivers on the highway heading east, toward Guantanamo Bay. 

 "This is knit and then sewed," he said.

The 35-year-old, who did not want his last name to be disclosed, said his father and grandfather also made the same hats. He said it takes him about a half an hour to make each of the hats. 

"I make barely enough to survive," he said.