The big event in Alina Perez Herrera's day comes around 10 a.m., when the sun's rays start to pound onto her head. She props up her government-paid Sunbeam grill and pushes it to the shady side of the Havana street.
Perez Herrera sells fried sweet potato and corn fritters, known as frituras. Understanding the economics of her sidewalk business requires the use of small numbers:
She charges 10 cents for each fritter. Every day she sells about 20 and gives all the money, about $40 a month, to the government, which pays her $10 a month to do this. The state also gives her the white smock she wears and the materials to make the fritters.
Perez Herrera lives in Central Havana with her mother, sister and nephew, all of whom make roughly the same wage she does. "We manage because we put all our money together," she says.
Three months ago she lost her job cleaning in a hospital kitchen. Her brother had become ill, so she took a week off to help him. But she never told her boss. To get a new job, she went to the government employment agency, which set her up with the grill and the sidewalk spot. She says she expected the government to do that for her.
Perez Herrera is 34 but looks and talks older. She normally seems tired, taking long pauses while she speaks. "I like this work," she says while fiddling with the grill. She expresses no desire to find a better job. For her, this might be as good as it gets.