Havana/It’s been more than two months and the workers at the Dolores Concert Hall in Santiago de Cuba have not received the payments corresponding to the months of May and June. “Week after week we have received excuses,” the director denounced on Facebook Yorisel Andino.
The poet and researcher detailed in the publication at 5:32 a.m. this Thursday that since the processing dates of the reports for the aforementioned months, “week after week we have received excuses,” among which are: “they are going to be paid for that month in cash” and “they are going to be put on a card for both months.”
None has complied with what was offered and does not offer a “solution to what is a problem in the homes of each of those affected,” he explained. He regretted that the weeks “continue with empty pockets” of the workers.
“We are in this more than painful and distressing situation for those who expect a salary, no matter how modest it may be to support themselves and their family,” said the essayist.
In the last meeting with the provincial director of Culture, in which representatives of the management of the Music Center and several directors were also present, the arguments for the non-payments were explained to them and they were told that “the solution is in process,” according to a second post on their social networks at 2:27 in the afternoon.
“We are in this more than painful and distressing situation for those who expect a salary, no matter how modest it may be, to support themselves and their family,” he said.
Andino affirmed that the publication was made in accordance with his principles. “I am not in any situation under pressure or demands of any kind because I am clear that I was born without chairs.”
The board regretted in its first message that with the division of the Music Company and the re-emergence of the Music Center, the Hall was among the subsidized institutions of the second with economic dependence on the Budgeted Unit of Support for Cultural Activity (Upac). “Hence, the corresponding salary treatment fell into limbo,” he said.
According to him, until recently the “workers of the Center itself and musical units were also in a similar situation.” However, he did not delve into the case because he “did not know the details of that matter.”
Last February, Yunior García Aguilera in your column Cuba and the night highlighted culture as one of the first victims of Cuba’s collapse. “National tours have been almost impossible for years due to lack of transportation, fuel and diets,” he says. The situation is even more chaotic. “Many musicians no longer survive even playing in hotels – making “soup” – because tourism has also been in decline since long before 2026 shook the entire regional board.”
Under this context, the Havana International Book Fair 2026 It had to be rescheduled for August. The Cuban Book Institute argued that the event initially scheduled for February had to be postponed due to “the extraordinary situation that the country is experiencing.”
The book event, the largest literary and publishing event in Cuba, brings together national and foreign writers, editors and readers every year, and on this occasion Russia will be the guest country.
