Walking Cuba: El Camino del Cimarron

I Drank the Water

Day 10: Cruces — Lajas

Electricity came first to Santa Clara. Right into the city. The philanthropist Marta Abreu brought it. It didn’t come to the Ariosa until…well, I don’t remember, but it was after the Caracas mill. Caracas brought in electric light in that area of Lajas. In the biggest mill in Cuba. The owners were millionaires, and that was why they bought the electricity. Their name was Terry. I don’t know where I was, up in a tree or on top of a roof. But I saw the lights of the Caracas mill, which were a marvel.

— Esteban Montejo

The night in Cruces as the toughest. It must have been the water. I boil with internal heat even before I toss my mattress on the floor hoping to find the coolest spot in the big room. My efforts are to no avail. The fever sucks up the feeble breeze of the fan like a black hole sucks up light.

And then there were the shits.

I stagger in a half-dream stupor to the bathroom five or six times, wobbling between the theatre seats each time, and each time leaving behind more body weight than the time before. This continues until there is nothing left inside.

After the third or fourth visit to the bathroom, I stop cursing the darkness and am glad that I can’t see what I leave behind. I perform the laborious flushing duties the first couple of times, filling the bucket from the faucet in the other room, cascade it into the…