HAVANA – Running a private business in Cuba is a big fete when you lack materials and equipment, but one man's swimsuit business in the outskirts of Havana is flourishing.
The swimsuits are made in Guanabacoa, about 15 minutes away from Havana, and then are sold in the Feria San Jose, a large Havana Port side market where Cubans sell their goods.
"It's a small knitting company," Victor Rodriguez told Local 10 News reporter Hatzel Vela.
Rodriguez is the brains behind the operation for close to 15 years.
The thread he buys comes from Miami. He said it's a special kind that allows the beach wear to absorb water and cover the skin well.
Prices range between $10 and $30 bucks. He sells the swimsuits as well in Spin and in the U.S. by way of others.
Rodriguez said he personally takes the goods to the U.S. or sometimes friends who leave the country take the merchandise with them.
He said the labor is all Cuban.
A total of 40 households in the area help crochet swimsuits.
What used to be a portable fan, now works as the engine for Rodriguez that makes a used water bottle turn and keep the thread together.
It was the need to be more efficient that sparked the idea.
At a different home in Regla, a worker uses a different invention to make the swimsuits.
Mabel Perez Aleman uses her gas stove to burn off the loose ends before checking the swimsuits before they are sent to the store.
What Perez-Aleman makes and how many she produces is linked to how much cash she keeps.
She said she makes about $15 every two weeks. She said she does it to help bring in more cash for her husband.
"It helps," she said.
Perez-Aleman has been crocheting since she was a little girl. She said it's something her mother taught her.
Victor Bikini is well known in Havana, but Rodriguez said he hopes to still accomplish much more when it comes to his business. He said his life-long dream is to eventually open a store in Miami Beach.
