Other Sources
The libreta is not the only means of acquiring goods available to a Cuban citizen, as many of these and other products are freely available on the mercado libre (free market) and mercado paralelo (parallel market), and in the numerous supermarkets and stores that sell goods in convertible pesos or euros. (Such stores were originally set up taking United States Dollars and were referred to as "dollar stores". They began catering for foreigners but many are used mainly by Cubans). In addition, Cuba has an active black market (mercado negro, often described as por la izquierda - by the left hand) in many goods. Black market goods may be simply items sold by unlicensed vendors (for example, fish caught and sold directly, or home-made items), or may be stolen goods.
Many Cubans rely upon connections and barter, or "sociolismo", to obtain the items they need.
Read more about this topic: Rationing In Cuba
Famous quotes containing the word sources:
“Even healthy families need outside sources of moral guidance to keep those tensions from imploding—and this means, among other things, a public philosophy of gender equality and concern for child welfare. When instead the larger culture aggrandizes wife beaters, degrades women or nods approvingly at child slappers, the family gets a little more dangerous for everyone, and so, inevitably, does the larger world.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (20th century)
“I count him a great man who inhabits a higher sphere of thought, into which other men rise with labor and difficulty; he has but to open his eyes to see things in a true light, and in large relations; whilst they must make painful corrections, and keep a vigilant eye on many sources of error.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)