Havana’s Airport Dogs, A Sad Sequel to a Nation That Flees and Leaves Them Behind – Translating Cuba

“She was dumped here, some people who came to pick up their family left her,” recall the workers at the airport. 

14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 1 August 2024 — Lying next to the entrance to Havana’s José Martí International Airport, a dog waits for the owners who left with the mass exodus. “He’s been here for a while, ever since he arrived in a car with his family, they went in, traveled and left him,” says a cleaning employee at Terminal 3, from where most of the flights depart to Nicaragua, the gateway to Central America for many Cuban migrants.

Some workers bring him food and have given the dog a name. “Come here, Canelo,” says one who brings him leftovers from her lunch. “Pinto, have some water,” a taxi driver from the nearby taxi stand hands him a disposable cup. They all know something that the animal doesn’t: that his owners won’t return and if they do, it’s unlikely that they’ll go looking for him at that door where he waits day and night. Some protectors have tried to get him out of the place and find him a home, but the mixed breed, perhaps four or five years old, doesn’t intend to move from that entrance. Time is starting to take its toll on him and his skin is already deteriorating on various parts of his body.

Everyone knows something that the animal doesn’t: that his owners won’t come back and if they do, it’s unlikely that they’ll go looking for him at that door where he waits day and night.

A few yards away, on the dysfunctional boulevard that was built as an outdoor service and food sales area, a pack of four other dogs prowl around in search of food. The area, where travelers, taxi drivers looking for customers, and some relatives waiting for a relative arriving from abroad gather, is anything but comfortable. Without air conditioning, the outdoor
cafés are unbearable in these summer months and the prices of the products add degrees to the annoyance. A 500 ml can of Spanish Mahou beer costs 1,200 pesos and a half-litre bottle of water reaches 1,000.

Attentive to every person who comes and goes, four dogs, apparently a family: mother, father and two younger ones less than a year old, roam around the place.

Speaking of the dog huddled by the door, an employee says, “That one was dumped here, some people who came to pick up their family left her and later said that the dog no longer fit in the car because the girl had brought too many suitcases.” Since then, the animal has had to adapt to the harsh conditions of the environment: vehicles that come and go all the time picking up or unloading passengers, little food available, hardly any water other than what some generous souls give them and the intense heat.

In a country where so many are packing their bags, the dogs at the airport are just one more example of a nation fleeing, leaving behind its homes, family photos and even its pets. “The last one to leave turn off El Morro” as the saying goes, referring to Havana’s famous historic lighthouse. It may end up not being done with the fingers of a human hand but with the strength of a canine paw.
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