Donde tu robas?

Where do you rob. That's the way most Cubans on the island ask where you work. Theft is apparently rampant among government employees on the island. It is not, however, really theft. It's resolver.

Here's an excerpt from an article titled "Cubans 'resolve' to make ends meet" the Dallas Morning News:

"Almost everyone steals something, anything, to survive," a former cafeteria worker said. "But we don't call it stealing or robbing. Those words are too strong."

Cubans use a kinder term, resolver, meaning to resolve. So if a man makes off with a chicken, he can proudly tell his wife, "I resolved a chicken."

Or, "This chicken stuck to me as I was leaving work."

<...>

Say you receive a 40-pound shipment of chicken. An inspector could arrive at any moment, so you act fast. You take three or four pounds of poultry from the box and add exactly the same weight in rocks, stuffing them inside the remaining birds.

You've suddenly got enough for dinner – and it didn't cost a cent.

Resolver.

Posted by Val Prieto at September 27, 2004 07:50 AM

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