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NEWS
Divorce Is Easy in Cuba, but a Housing Shortage Makes Breaking Up Hard
to Do
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 31, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com
HAVANA (AP) — After 21 years of marriage, Pedro Llera and his wife,
Maura, decided to call it quits. Their divorce took 20 minutes, but Mr.
Llera compares what came next to “more than a year of open war in the
house.”
Sleeping in the same bed and sharing a single room with their
14-year-old daughter, they battled in Cuba’s courts over who should stay
in their second-floor, two-bedroom apartment in the Vedado district
here.
Estranged Cuban couples sometimes remain under the same roof for years
or even lifetimes, learning that while divorce on the island is easy,
housing is not. The phenomenon is a testament not only to the
Communist-run island’s severe housing shortage, but also to Cubans’
ability to stay friendly — or at least civil — under the most awkward
circumstances.
“In a developed country, you get divorced and someone goes to a hotel
and then to a new house,” said Mr. Llera, 60, a mechanic. “Here we had
to keep living like a couple.”
By law, Cubans cannot sell their homes, and because the state controls
almost all property, moves must be approved. Housing is so scarce,
however, that often there is nowhere to go.
The government has long estimated an islandwide shortage of half a
million homes. In 2006, officials reported construction of 110,000
houses, one of the largest single-year totals since the 1959 revolution
led by Fidel Castro. But similar home-building initiatives this year
were slowed by the rising costs of materials and severe flooding of
eastern Cuba.
Another Havana resident, 45-year-old Mirta, decided to divorce her
husband of 18 years in 1997. The couple hired a lawyer and signed papers
amicably.
But neither one could move out. A decade later, they still share the
same two-bedroom apartment with their sons, now 18 and 20.
“He’s had other women but he always comes home to the same house,” said
Mirta, who asked that her full name and profession not be published
because she did not want to be identified publicly as complaining about
Cuba’s housing shortage.
The shortage is exacerbated by failed marriages. In 2006, the latest
figures available, Cuba reported 56,377 marriages and 35,837 divorces.
That is a yearly divorce rate of nearly 64 percent, but it does not
account for those married and divorced multiple times. Breakups are so
common that Cubans joke that anyone whose parents stay together needs a
lifetime of therapy.
Divorces cost about the same as getting married, $1.05. By law, there is
no alimony unless either husband or wife is unemployed, and the
Communist system usually lends itself to austere living devoid of
expensive possessions to fight over.
Cuba was for decades officially atheist, and divorce does not carry the
stigma it does in some countries. Many women who divorce return to their
parents’ homes.
Some divorced couples keep living together but put up extra walls of
plywood: One side is his, the other hers, and only the children move
back and forth freely.
Given ownership restrictions, a thriving black market exists for
home-swapping. Every day, men and women gather along a Havana boulevard,
offering trades. Some bring cardboard signs reading “1 x 2,” meaning
they want to swap one large apartment for two smaller ones — often
because of divorce.
“Marriages end like everything else,” said a man named Luis, who was
hoping to trade his small apartment for a larger one. “But the house
where you live, that stays with you.”
Mr. Llera, the mechanic, claimed his home belonged to his 83-year-old
father, who occupied the second bedroom. But his former wife said she
had lived there long enough to stay put.
A court ruled in Mr. Llera’s favor, but the decision was overturned on
appeal. As the legal battle dragged on, Mr. Llera demanded that his
ex-wife sleep on the couch, and even called the police to make her
comply. A higher court eventually sided with him, and his ex-wife moved
in with relatives, leaving most of her clothes behind in protest.
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