Ninjas on their own
A reporter’s notebook
By Manuel Alberto Ramy
Ninjas aspire to become a cooperative, but they will look for legal assessment. They are moderately hopeful with ongoing changes
They are not Japanese warriors capable of facing and defeating dozens of enemies. Nor is it an action film trailer or full day voyeurs.
They are nothing but high-risk workers, very common in big cities of the world, though seldom visible in the repairing going on in the capital and other Cuban cities.
Pablo Collazo, Yuri de La Torre y Ricardo Pedroso are barely in their thirties. They work in a specialized high-proficiency team which belongs to Constructora Puerto Carenas, an Enterprise responding to the Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad.
The three of them had to go through “a six months course in regular climbing”, says Pablo.
The training makes them capable not only to deal with “mountaineering but also with rescuing people ” in situations of risk, and “we chose to work in high buildings”, he explains.
Several reasons impelled them to take such decision; beside the sportive aspect which is congenial to them, “we also thought that the kind of job and special conditions would ensure that we´d make better money”.
Things have not been all in all ungenerous to them, but their expectations remain to be achieved.
“With these very same accessories, we worked in the repairing of the FOCSA, which, with its 110 metros, is the tallest building in Cuba”, but the economic outcome does not always agree with the task or the risks…that depends on the contractor”, Ricardo comments on it while adding : “We don´t count on an insurance and that´s tricky”.
Works keep coming in through any one of the contractors related to Puerto Carenas: “we settle a price for whichever kind of job, but it´s not always cool with the final results”, Yuri intervenes.
Nevertheless, they also work on their own. “We can settle a bargain with any private owner and carry out whatever repairing they may need”, which is exactly what they are doing in this building in the Vedado area.
They offer their techniques and hoisting system, “which nobody gave us, we buy from those foreigners who come to Cuba to do mountain climbing and they sell it to us when they leave”. As to materials, “paints, cement and all the rest, that´s on whoever hires us”.
“And we do have demand”, Pablo remarks, “and that because of two reasons: you need scaffoldings to do this sort of job in buildings, and there are not so many of those, so, you need this system of ours”. They also explain that scaffolds, safer though they are, are not always handy in buildings of a certain height.
“Is it dangerous? Of course it is”. And Pablo recalls how, while working on certain 50 meters high tanks, “a rope slipped away on me and I fell for about 5 meters. I thought I was gonna die on the spot…it was an unexpected free fall”.
I try to drive the conversation from free falling to freedom to organize themselves in an independent manner, on their own. They smile.
“Yes, we know that now each one of us could work on his own and even receive contracts from the state”, says Ricardo admitting that they´ re thinking about it, “because we´re kind of enthusiastic, but we still have to see.”
See…to believe, I ask them, as in St Thomas´s famous dictum?
Pablo observes that “things are not quite clear to them”. Lack of clarity results from their motivation to go on working together, and then: “should we ask for individual licenses as masons and painters, which is what we are, or shall they allow us to create a cooperative with the three of us?”
Yuri thinks that “before taking any step, we have to see which one is the most beneficial to us, as a cooperative or as individuals”.
It´s all about how much, according to their choice, they will have to pay for the license and for taxes as well. Up to the very last cent. Their uncertainties inevitably lead to a solution that Pablo epitomizes in behalf of the small company: “we´re going to look for a lawyer or a well-informed someone, and we´ll do what he advises and may suit us.”
Do they have hopes? They look at each other, and smile. “if we didn´t have any hopes to survive, we wouldn´t have climbed 110 meters, or worked in Johnson or Sarrá drugstores (both in Old Havana), Ricardo points out.
I try to be more specific with my question by saying that I was referring to the ongoing changes in the country. New looks, but no smiles.
“We´re climbers, not politicians”, Pablo answers, “though I think that…yeah, we do, it´s a question of giving it some time. Otherwise, there will be a hell of a fall; we have to wait, it cannot go on like this.”
As many other Cubans, these three young men have been earning a living in any way possible. Some circumventing the law, looking for cracks in the system, others way out of both; nevertheless, after recent governmental decisions, the quest is starting to offer greater benefits within.
