A few weeks ago she got married in a short white dress, with flowers and lots of photos. But for Kirenia, 22, this party was only a formality to be able to reside in Madrid with her husband, a young Cuban naturalized Spanish. She will leave behind her medical studies, which she was about to finish, because she feared that her future career would disrupt her departure.
“It was the most difficult decision of my life, because I love my studies”, recognizes Kirenia, an excellent student throughout her course at the Faculty of Medicine in Ciego de Ávila, in the center of the country. “I have a lot of college friends who do the same thing,” she specifies.
Kirenia does not know if one day she will be able to obtain the medical degree in Spain, but she is determined not to do so in Cuba:
“My grandfather and my grandmother are retired doctors, and they have a hard time making ends meet, because their pensions don’t allow them to live. By washing dishes in a cafe in Madrid, you can probably earn more than them.”
Work twelve hours a day
Kirenia today no longer has “head for books and studies” : she only thinks about when her plane will take off and she will be able to watch the lights of the island go away through the window.
She has already announced to the faculty her decision to give up her studies, but she attributed her departure to a pregnancy and the need to spend more time with her husband and with the future baby. But the truth is that she does not imagine “to work more than twelve hours a day in a hospital where there are no medicines [alors que l’embargo américain fait une exception pour les produits pharmaceutiques]and all this for just over 4,000 pesos very quickly spent” – 4,000 pesos represents 160 euros at the official price, but 137 on the black market, the only really accessible one.
With other comrades, she created a WhatsApp group where you can learn about all the scholarship opportunities to leave Cuba:
“We are