Soon we'll be communicating with smoke signals
En las esquinas de Centro Habana, un aparato de metal cóncavo apuntado al sol resume, con elocuencia involuntaria, el estado de una sociedad que ha agotado sus alternativas convencionales. Los vendedores privados ofrecen cocinas solares parabólicas de fabricación china por 135 dólares, prometiendo que el astro rey puede sustituir al gas, la electricidad y el carbón en una isla donde los tres escasean. La tecnología no es nueva ni fraudulenta en sí misma, pero su aparición como solución doméstica cotidiana en Cuba en 2026 dice menos sobre innovación que sobre la profundidad de un colapso energético que obliga a los ciudadanos a negociar con el cielo para poder comer.
- Cuba atraviesa una crisis energética severa: apagones prolongados, racionamiento eléctrico y escasez de combustible han convertido el simple acto de cocinar en un problema sin solución evidente.
- Un vendedor privado en Galiano 310 promociona en Facebook una cocina parabólica solar friendo dos salchichas en lo que afirma son dos minutos, pero los comentarios de miles de cubanos desmontan la promesa con datos técnicos y humor amargo.
- Los riesgos reales son físicos: la reflexión solar concentrada puede causar daño ocular permanente y quemaduras en la piel antes de que el alimento termine de cocinarse, a temperaturas que alcanzan los 220 grados Celsius.
- Los tiempos de cocción reales —hasta tres horas para la carne, hora y media para el arroz— y la dependencia del sol despejado al mediodía convierten al aparato en una solución parcial que no funciona de noche ni en días nublados.
- El debate en redes no es solo técnico: varios comentaristas ven en la cocina solar no un avance sino una regresión civilizatoria, un símbolo de que la sociedad está abandonando conquistas que alguna vez consideró permanentes.
En una esquina de Centro Habana, una tienda privada vende cocinas solares parabólicas a 135 dólares. Los artefactos —enormes platos cóncavos de fabricación china que brillan como flores abiertas al cielo— prometen resolver un problema urgente: cómo cocinar cuando el gas se acabó, la electricidad está racionada y el carbón escasea. Un video en Facebook muestra a una vendedora friendo dos salchichas y afirmando que el proceso toma dos minutos. La publicación recorrió la isla, aunque no con el efecto que esperaba la vendedora.
El negocio pertenece a Rafael Pavón, ex funcionario de aduanas que fundó Doble J Comercial en 2023. Antes vendía bicicletas eléctricas y lámparas; ahora apuesta a que cubanos lo suficientemente desesperados abracen el sol como fuente principal de calor. La lógica tiene cierta coherencia en un país donde la luz solar abunda mientras todo lo demás falta.
Pero los comentarios en Facebook revelan una población poco convencida. Los usuarios señalan que las especificaciones técnicas reales indican tiempos de cocción de 45 a 90 minutos para vegetales, 90 a 150 para arroz o frijoles, y dos a tres horas para la carne. Alguien pregunta, con ironía, cuántos meses tomaría cocinar un potaje. Otros advierten sobre los peligros físicos: la reflexión concentrada puede dañar los ojos de forma permanente y quemar la piel del cocinero antes de que el alimento esté listo.
Debajo del escepticismo técnico corre una corriente más oscura. Varios comentaristas no ven en la cocina solar una innovación sino una señal de retroceso: la imagen de una sociedad que abandona las tecnologías que alguna vez dio por sentadas. Pavón defiende sus productos, pero admite el límite fundamental: funcionan solo cuando el sol es fuerte. En La Habana, donde las nubes llegan con regularidad y la noche cae cada día, ese límite lo dice todo.
On a street corner in Centro Habana, a private shop is selling parabolic solar cookers for 135 dollars. The devices—enormous concave dishes roughly five feet across, made in China and gleaming like flowers opened to the sky—promise to solve a problem that has become urgent: how to cook food when gas has run out, electricity is rationed, and charcoal is scarce. A video posted to Facebook shows a vendor demonstrating the cooker at 1:16 in the afternoon, frying two sausages cut in half. She claims the whole operation takes two minutes. The post has drawn attention across the island, though not quite the kind the seller hoped for.
Cuba's energy crisis has deepened over months. Blackouts stretch for hours. Fuel shortages have made generators unreliable. The government has rationed electricity. In this context, the solar cooker appears as a kind of last resort—a technology that requires nothing but sunlight, which Cuba has in abundance. The shop, located at Galiano 310 between Neptuno and San Miguel, belongs to Rafael Pavón, a former customs official who founded his small business, Doble J Comercial, in 2023. Before the solar cookers, he sold electric bicycles and lamps from the same storefront. Now he is betting that Cubans desperate enough will embrace the sun as their primary heat source.
But the Facebook comments reveal a population skeptical of the promise. Users point out that the sausages in the demonstration cook far faster than any legitimate solar cooker should. According to technical specifications, chopped vegetables take 45 to 90 minutes in these devices. Rice or beans require 90 to 150 minutes. Bread needs an hour and a half to two hours. Meat takes two to three hours. One commenter notes, with bitter humor, that even a simple stove can fry sausages quickly—this is not a revelation. Another asks how many months it would take to cook a pot of beans.
The safety concerns are more pointed. The concentrated solar reflection is intense enough to cause eye damage. One user writes that you would need a welding mask to protect yourself from blindness. Another observes that the cook's skin would burn before the food finishes cooking. The devices can reach temperatures between 90 and 220 degrees Celsius—equivalent to a conventional oven—but the heat is focused and unforgiving. A few commenters defend solar cookers as legitimate technology used by campers in other countries during summer vacations. The response is swift: this is not a vacation. This is daily life, and it should not require people to choose between cooking and safety.
There is a deeper current running through the skepticism. One commenter suggests that relying on solar cookers represents not progress but regression—a step backward in human capability. "Soon we'll be communicating with smoke signals," the comment reads. The solar cooker, in this view, is not an innovation but a symptom of collapse, a visible marker of a society forced to abandon the technologies it once took for granted. Pavón, standing in his shop, insists the cookers are real and functional, with one caveat: they work only when the sun is strong. In Havana, where clouds roll in regularly and night falls every evening, that caveat is substantial. The cooker solves the energy crisis only on clear days at midday—which is to say, it does not solve the crisis at all.
Citações Notáveis
They are real and functional, as long as there is good sun— Rafael Pavón, shop owner
You need a welding mask or you'll go blind— Facebook commenter on safety risks
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why would anyone buy this if it takes two hours to cook beans?
Because they have no other choice. When there's no gas, no reliable electricity, and charcoal is gone, the sun is free. For someone who hasn't cooked a hot meal in days, two hours starts to look reasonable.
But the comments suggest people don't actually believe it works as advertised.
They don't. The vendor's video shows sausages cooking in two minutes, which is physically impossible. People recognize the gap between the claim and reality. It makes them distrust the whole thing.
Is the safety risk real, or are people exaggerating?
It's real. The device focuses sunlight intensely enough to damage your eyes and burn your skin. The vendor doesn't mention that. People are right to worry.
So this is just a scam?
Not exactly. Solar cookers do work—in the right conditions, on clear days. But they're being sold as a solution to a crisis they can't actually solve. They work only sometimes, in daylight, when it's sunny. That's not a solution for people who need to eat every day.
What does it say about Cuba that this is even being marketed?
It says the crisis is real and people are desperate. When you're selling solar cookers for 135 dollars in the middle of a city, it means conventional cooking has become unreliable enough that even an impractical alternative seems worth considering.