Floating Fishermen catching fish off the Malecòn in Havana
Floating Fishermen Video on Youtube
I am a constant watcher of Youtube videos. Most of the time, it’s for food recipes. I spend too much time watching food videos but, I like to learn something new.
I was thinking about this Properties for Sale Cuba blog and searching for interesting content. Well, today, I found gold.
Did I see the headline ‘floating Fishermen of Havana’ or had I read it wrong? (it happens). No! that was the video title, so, I thought I would give it a bit of my time. After all; there might be a great recipe for a fish dish.
The Coracle re-invented
The video starts with a group of friends planning their next fishing trip and, with money shortages, they are making a makeshift anchor. Looking at it, some foam and a plastic crate, you think “they are not going to anchor much with that!” Was I in for a surprise? It wasn’t a boat they needed it for but a large rubber tyre liner with string for seating and flippers for propulsion.
The first thing that leapt to mind was the old stone age coracle boats.
The coracle was designed to be used in the quickly flowing streams of Wales and parts of the rest of Britain and Ireland. Coracles are very old, Julius Caesar saw them in Britain in the 1st century BC. The tyre innertube that Gabriel was about to use made stone age man’s skin and wicker coracle look state of art technology.
Surely; they were not going out to sea at night on rubber tubes to catch fish? They did and, off The Malecón.
The Malecón is a broad esplanade, roadway, and seawall that stretches for 8 km along the coast in Havana, Cuba, from the mouth of Havana Harbor in Old Havana, along the north side of the Centro Habana neighbourhood and the Vedado neighbourhood, ending at the mouth of the Almendares River. Wikipedia
The Fishermen story
Gabriel is a regular plumber in the Cuban capital. But like many others, he is confronted with low salaries. To make it through, he has to create his own solutions. It’s called, “la Lucha”, the struggle, the art of daily survival… Along with Omar and Eduardo, he goes fishing 2 or 3 times a week off the coast of Havana, when the sea permits, on very rudimentary boats… which give them the nicknames of floating fishermen! Documentary: “Floating fishermen of Havana”
Direction: Olivier Roussin
Production: ZED
This is an excellent video and, for many reasons. It shows Cuba as it is. Also, the video shows what lengths Cubans will go to and the ingenious ideas they can come up with to make money. It also shows what courage these people have. I hope you spare the time to watch; it is well worth it.