Sometimes a headline reads like something from an alternate universe. Take, for example, the recent tale from The Jonesboro Sun: Marta Elena Feitó Cabrera, Cuba’s Labor Minister, stepped down after drawing public ire for her claim that beggars in Cuba weren’t truly destitute, but rather just people “disguised” as beggars.
It’s a statement that almost seems tailor-made for debate panels or perhaps an especially ambitious improv show. Instead, it arrived as official rhetoric, and, as official rhetoric often does, it quickly ran into the brick wall of actual evidence.
Pretending There’s No One Pretending
According to The Associated Press, Feitó Cabrera’s assertion—that Cuba boasts no genuinely impoverished beggars, only individuals feigning hardship—sparked sharp online backlash. Government critics, as well as many ordinary citizens, pointed to the visible signs of deprivation scattered across Havana. Images highlighted by AP underscore this reality: a woman digging through a dumpster for anything useful, a man meticulously sorting aluminum cans from garbage for recycling cash, and vendors perched beside classic cars, selling homemade crisps and bread to make ends meet.
Scenes captured during yet another power outage show merchants bathed in the glow of rechargeable lamps, selling hardware essentials to customers more accustomed to rolling blackouts than to reliable infrastructure. As observed in the reporting, none of these vignettes suggest convincing cosplay—unless, of course, the goal of the performance was to perfectly mirror daily economic strain.
Feitó Cabrera’s resignation came quickly after the uproar. The Cuban Presidency announced via X (née Twitter), as relayed by AP, that the minister “acknowledged her errors” and decided to step down. While official Cuban statements often lean into showcasing the country’s social accomplishments—free education, comprehensive healthcare, and subsidized basic services—public frustration over the disconnect between official accounts and lived reality boiled over this time.
A Tightly Wrapped Narrative Beginning to Fray
The AP report makes clear that Feitó Cabrera maintained the party line, insisting that those experiencing homelessness were being cared for by the state and that most visible hardship stemmed from “particular situations.” It’s a tidy message—one that paints over cracks in the social safety net with broad brushstrokes of denial.
Yet, the juxtaposition is a bit stark. The photographic evidence—people foraging for food, working hours just to afford a loaf of bread, improvising lighting in the face of persistent blackouts—suggests systemic hardship, not theatrical role-playing. If everyone visibly struggling is, according to the official view, just “disguised,” one has to wonder what the minister might consider sufficient proof of need.
How far does a society go before its stated reality loses all resemblance to the lived one?
The Perils of Sticking to the Script
Governmental denial of social challenges isn’t unique to Cuba. But as AP notes, the official response here stuck so tightly to the narrative that it left little room for nuance or empathy. By casting economic hardship as something people merely pretend, Feitó Cabrera’s approach veered from self-deception toward the farcical.
What’s notable, and perhaps a bit surprising, is how quickly the reaction came—not just via posts and memes from everyday Cubans, but also from the country’s top leadership. The swiftness of her resignation, confirmed by government channels and detailed in AP’s coverage, contrasts sharply with Cuba’s reputation for maintaining a united front in the face of criticism. Maybe even the most carefully maintained storylines reach a point where the plot holes become a little too large.
Closing Scene: End of the Act, Not the Story
Did Feitó Cabrera genuinely believe her own claim that street poverty could be vanquished with the right mindset and a change of costume? Or was her statement simply the diplomatic equivalent of closing one’s eyes and hoping the problem vanishes when you open them again? We can only speculate, but this episode lays bare the odd dance between official narratives and the unmistakable evidence of daily existence.
If nothing else, the whole affair highlights one truth: efforts to smooth over economic scars with well-intentioned or not-so-well-intentioned denials tend to unravel in unexpected ways. When the distance between the script and the streets grows too wide, reality tends to make itself known—sometimes by flashlight, sometimes by protest, and almost always in ways that require more than a clever disguise.
