Receiving a Pension Also Means Waiting for Power to Return
Photo feature by Idania Cardenas
HAVANA TIMES – Retired Cubans depend not only on getting their place in line at the bank to receive their pensions, but also on having electricity so bank branches can operate.
Every month, after the tenth day, Cuba’s bank branches shift into a different routine. For several days, priority is given to retirees who come to collect their pensions in cash.
Many arrive before the bank opens its doors. Some carry a cane, others use a walker. They are not waiting in line only to receive their pensions. They are also waiting for the condition that must exist before the bank can begin operating: electricity.
Meanwhile, bank employees arrive at their usual time and settle in at the entrance to the branch. Sitting with handheld fans in their hands, they wait just like the people standing in line. Without electricity, the computers do not work, the banking system remains at a standstill, and the workday is suspended before it even begins.
“I arrived today before 8:00 a.m. because if I can’t collect my pension today, I’ll have to come back tomorrow,” one woman waiting in line told me.
“Many people reserve their place in line at the Vedado banks the day before and then sell it for 500 or 700 pesos. I can’t afford to pay that,” several retirees commented.
For many older people, cash remains essential for buying food, medicines, or paying for services at businesses where digital payment options are limited or nonexistent. Every day they are unable to collect their pension means rearranging their expenses and starting the waiting process all over again.
The photographs in this feature were taken during one of those days in Havana, on Calzada de Diez de Octubre. They do not document an isolated event. They capture a routine that repeats itself every month: lines forming at dawn, bank employees waiting for the branch to become operational, and retirees whose access to their pensions depends not only on their place in line, but also on the return of electricity.
During these hours of waiting, exhaustion, patience, and uncertainty converge. The line becomes more than just a line. It becomes the place where hundreds of people wait for the chance to exercise a basic right: to receive the money that is rightfully theirs.
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