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Husbands For Sale
Monday, August 08, 2005   By: Juan Paxety

In Cuba, of course

Husbands, that's foreign husbands, for sale in Cuba according to a BBC story. Many Cuban women see a foreign husband as a way out of the country.

The other day I bumped into a Cuban friend of mine in a shoe shop in Havana. She was buying a pair of white slippers.

"They're for my wedding," she told me. I was surprised. I had no idea that she had any wedding plans.

"Who are you getting married to?" I asked.

"A Mexican," she replied.

"When did you meet him?" I wondered.

"I haven't yet," she said.

A couple of weeks later, the reporter attended his friend's wedding.  She had paid $5,000 for her Mexican groom.

The bride's family had showed up in force. And none seemed happier than her mother, decked out in an extravagant 1960s flowery outfit. Some children, from a previous marriage, were also there, along with aunts and uncles from all over Havana. All seemed delighted with their new purchase.

Pepe, the husband, whom they had only met a few hours before, was a jolly, retired engineer in his late fifties, who seemed quite prepared to go along with this theatre as far, and probably beyond, as was required.

The wedding was videotaped in case the Mexican authorities later wanted to know if it was real.

The article says there are long lines of young, beautiful Cuban women lined up at embassies trying to convince the staff that their recent acquaintances will be long term marriages. The line outside the Italian Embassy is often the longest.

Read the whole thing.

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